LG Display development teams are working on new etching techniques destined for hybrid OLED iPad display panels, according to a report from The Elec.

These hybrid panels combine the glass substrate of a rigid substrate with thin-film encapsulation (TFE) techniques from flexible OLED panels, with the new technology etching the glass substrate and cutting it into cell units.

Replacing the top glass substrate in traditional OLED with the TFE layer can achieve thinner panels. Etching and cutting the glass in a single step reduces the possibility of the ultra-thin bottom glass layer, between 0.5 and 0.2mm in thickness, breaking during production. While this new technology is expected to be implemented in LG Display’s 8th generation OLED production line, next year’s iPads will likely ship with 6th Gen OLED using existing processes with Avatec etching.

OLED panels manufactured by Samsung Displays are already implementing the new etching technique, having started development earlier with Chemtronics handling this for their Gen 6 OLED production.

The OLED displays Apple plans to use are two stack tandem panels with low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) and thin-film transistor (TFT) emission layers. LG Display’s automobile OLED displays already use two-stack panels, but Samsung Display’s two-stack OLED panels have already been used in the iPhone.

Apple could be planning to bring OLED displays to the MacBook Air too as soon as next year, with 2024 iPad Pro also making the switch to OLED early in the year, though potentially with a price increase to match.