It is reported that the iPhone 15 series will upgrade the OLED driver chip process to 28nm, which is expected to improve battery life

According to supply chain sources, the Apple iPhone 15 series will upgrade the OLED driver chip process from 40nm HV to 28nm HV. This change will help further reduce power consumption and improve battery life.

Currently, Apple’s core suppliers of OLED driver chips are LX Semicon and Samsung System LSI. Among them, Samsung System LSI driver chips are mainly manufactured by Samsung Electronics and UMC, and LX Semicon driver chips are mainly manufactured by TSMC, UMC and GlobalFoundries. After Apple’s OLED driver chip process is upgraded, these driver chip designers and wafer foundries are likely to benefit from it. At the same time, it has recently been reported that Novatek may enter Apple’s OLED driver chip supply chain in 2024.

There may be two reasons for Apple’s OLED driver chip process upgrade. First, the 28nm HV process can further reduce the power consumption of the OLED driver chip and improve the battery life of the iPhone 15 series models. Second, the wafer foundry cooperated by LX Semicon and Samsung System LSI is migrating the OLED driver chip process from 40nm HV to 28nm HV, and shifting the 40nm process to other types of chips such as eFlash flash memory. They are not willing to take orders for 40nm OLED DDI.

Although the foundry in Taiwan, China has reduced the foundry capacity of 40nm HV OLED driver chips, as flexible OLED shipments continue to grow, the demand for 40nm OLED driver chip foundry capacity has increased instead, which may lead to There is a shortage of 40nm HV OLED driver chip foundry capacity. At the same time, the process of Apple’s OLED driver chip migration to 28nm HV may also cause a shortage of 28nm production capacity, which has led chip design manufacturers to compete for available 40nm and 28nm wafer foundry production capacity.

There are currently no rumors that the display of the next-generation iPhone will be upgraded, but it is expected that the entire series will adopt the Smart Island design, and the borders of the iPhone 15 Pro series models are also expected to become narrower.