LG Display announced that it has developed a new OLED patterning method that skips the conventional fine metal mask (FMM) process. The company’s FMM-less approach aims to make mass production more flexible and deliver OLEDs with brighter panels with longer lifespan and lower power use.
The company will unveil FLiPP (FMM-Less innovative Pixel Patterning) for the first time at the International Meeting on Information Display (IMID) 2026 in Busan, where LG Display will host a dedicated exhibition hall for three days from Aug. 19.
Compared with panels made using FMMs, FLiPP can boost brightness by 1.6 times, extend lifespan by 2.4 times, and cut power use by 13%. This comes from FLiPP’s ability to improve the aperture ratio, or the share of the display area taken up by RGB pixels, by about 55%.
The FMM method increases manufacturing costs because it requires new FMMs whenever panel size or resolution changes. Large metal masks can also sag in the center, leading to misalignment and color-mixing defects.
FLiPP OLEDs
FLiPP avoids the problems tied to metal plates in the FMM process, which has been standard in OLED manufacturing for years. The FMM process also forces manufacturers to cut large mother glass substrates, such as 8.6th-generation or other 8th-generation (2,200 × 2,500 mm), in half because FMM sticks are limited in size.
After a year of R&D, LG Display developed FLiPP as a new way to make OLED panels. The FMM method works like a stencil, evaporating RGB organic materials through small holes in metal plates. FLiPP instead coats RGB pixels in sequence, locks them in place, and uses UV photolithography to remove unwanted areas during pixel patterning.
By using its existing Tandem WOLED production setup, LG Display can now make FMM-less OLEDs from 8.5th-generation mother glass in a single piece. For OLED laptop panels of the same size, FLiPP can improve mother glass utilization by up to 64% compared to FMM or other FMM-less methods that need divided substrates. This means less material waste, higher productivity, and lower manufacturing costs.
LG Display has filed trademark applications for FLiPP in Korea and major global markets as the only FMM-less process for 8.5th-generation OLED panels.
The company is combining RGB OLED with FLiPP to improve production flexibility and efficiency.
FLiPP is not limited by panel size or resolution. It can be used to make displays from 1 inch to 100 inches, including conventional panels as well as VR and AR displays.
LG Display plans to start with IT products like tablets and monitors, then expand FLiPP-made panels to cover everything from 1-inch wearables to large TVs, adapting to customer needs.
To learn more, visit www.lgdisplay.com.
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