The massive earthquake and tsunami that struck the northeast coast of Japan have not had significant impact on OLED material supply, but may affect entry-level OLED panel applications, according to Jesse Lin of  Digitimes Research.

Japan-based players have been developing OLED materials for a long time with Sumitomo Chemical and Showa Denko in the polymer materials segment, Idemitsu Kosan and Mitsui Chemicals in the small molecule segment and TDK Micro Device in the passive matrix OLED (PMOLED) panel segment.

TDK Micro Devices facilities located in Ibaraki Prefecture saw partial equipment damage due to the tremor. But the impact on the PMOLED market may be minimal, as Taiwan-based RiTdisplay is the leading PMOLED supplier worldwide.

Although the quake has had limited impact on the supply of polymer materials from Sumitomo, the companys R&D schedule is expected to be affected. Sumitomo has a total of nine plants in Japan, of which the Misawa and Chiba plants are closer to the disaster areas. Although no damage to building and equipment has been reported, production is expected to be affected by the rolling black-outs.

Sumitomo mainly produces OLED polymer materials at its Osaka plant, which is away from the disaster areas, and supply of OLED materials will be little affected.

Fellow polymer material supplier Showa has been hit more by the quake, and shipments to its clients may be affected.

Idemitsu is seeing more impacts from the transportation and power supply issues, while Mitsui has not been significantly affected by the earthquake. Although more players are adopting small molecule in the current OLED industry, the earthquake will only have limited effects on the supply, as there are other suppliers, such as US-based Universal Display Corporation (UDC).