Stronger OLED: Samsung & Corning Team Up For Venture

Samsung and Corning have announced a joint venture where they’ll develop a super tough OLED screen.

Samsung already has a reputable image when it comes to displays, dominating OLED screens in its smartphones and new technologies in its TVs. Corning aren’t too shabby themselves with their super scratch and shatter resistant Gorilla Glass being incorporated into many smartphone and tablet devices, including some of Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs.

Together the two brands will be working on a new type of OLED screen, which has a backpane glass substrate (presumably this is where Corning’s expertise kicks in.) The new screen will be used by Samsung and, according to the press release, “the broader Korean market.”

Interesting titbit: LG is Korean. 

OLED technology is expected to generate revenue in excess of $4 billion in 2011, and should exceed more than $20 billion by 2018, making up 16% of the total display industry.

Samsung’s CEO of Mobile Displays, Soo In Cho, believes the venture will culminate in innovation and better value for customers.

“Samsung Mobile Display has led the global display industry by constantly seeking innovations and challenging current technologies’ limits. We are confident that combining our business powers with Corning’s technology leadership will deliver greater value to our clients,” Cho said.

Samsung and Corning have been working together for over 40 years, with Corning’s CEO, Wendell P. Weeks, believing their relationship will continue to bear fruits.

“The strength of our business relationship is built on Corning’s ability to develop and make high-technology glass with the key attributes that enable Samsung’s next-generation displays,” Weeks said.

“Together, we have led the evolution of displays – from the high-growth years of CRT, to our current successful business supplying world-leading substrates for today’s high-definition LCD TVs, and now to the launch of this important new venture to advance OLED technology,” he concluded.