During Samsung Electronics Co. s first-quarter conference call with analysts on Apr. 26, UBS analyst Nicolas Gaudois asked about the South Korean chipmaker s mass production schedule for its third-generation or 1z DRAM chips. 1z DRAM refers to the 15 nanometer (nm) node, Samsung s Senior Vice President for the memory business Han Jinman said in reply to the question.
His answer, unexpectedly specific, surprised the conference call participants. It was the first time since February 2015 that the world s largest memory chipmaker gave the exact number in public about its next DRAM technology node, or the line width of a circuit through which electricity flows.
The rapid price rise of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels has sharply narrowed a gap with the price of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays that has been on a downward trend with an increased supply.
LCD panel prices have been on a steep upward slope since the first half of last year and climbed to their highest level in almost four years this month, with Chinese manufacturers keeping the LCD panel supply under control to shore up prices. By contrast, LG Display Co., the world s largest OLED TV panel maker, has been ramping up OLED production to accelerate its penetration into the TV market.