The OLED-Info newsletter (January 11, 2022)

Sony announced its 2022 TV lineup, which includes three new OLED TV series, including the A95K, which is the world's first QD-OLED TV ever announced.

The Sony A95K Master XR TV will feature 55" or 65" 4K 120Hz QD-OLED panels (produced by SDC), Sony's XR cognitive processor, Acoustic Surface Audio, XR Triluminos Max and Google TV OS. It features HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision.

Towards the end of 2021 we reported that Apple plans to launch its first AR headset in Q4 2022, powered by dual 4K OLED microdisplays, produced by Sony

According to Ross Young from DSSC, Apple first headset will actually be a VR headset, that uses a foveated display system. The headset will feature three displays - two 4K microLEDs (indeed produced by Sony) and one larger AMOLED display.

Both Samsung Electronics and Dell have announced new gaming monitors that both use the same 34" curved QD-OLED panel. As we reported last year, SDC started to produce 34-inch QD-OLED panels and it is great to see the first products already launched.

Dell's Alienware AW3423DW gaming laptop sports a curved 34-inch QD-OLED panels that offers a resolution of 3440x1440, 175Hz refresh rate and a response time of 0.1 ms. The AW3423DW supports Nvidia G-SYnc and is DisplayHDR 400 True Black certified. Dell says the monitor will ship by March 2022.

Panasonic's 2022 LZ2000 OLED TV will be available in 55-, 65-, and 77-inch 4K 120Hz WOLED panels, and will all offer Panasonic's HCX Pro AI processor, 10-bit display color depth, ambient light detection, Game Control Board, HDMI 2.1, Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10 and HLG.

Panasonic will ship the LZ2000 OLED TV globally in the summer of 2022.

The Asus ROG Swift OLED gaming monitor feature either a 42-inch 4K WOLED display (PG42UQ) or a 48-inch one (PG48UQ). The monitors offer a 120Hz refresh rate, 0.1ms response time, 10-bit color, HDR10 support, four HDMI inputs (two 2.1 and two 2.0) and a displayPort input.

Asus did not yet detail the price or availability of its new OLED gaming monitors.

The Shiftall MeganeX are lightweight VR glasses that feature 1.3" 120Hz 2560x2560 OLED microdisplays and achieve an ultra-compact form and weight (250 grams). The display is likely to be made by Kopin and LakeSide Optoelectronics, and if so features Kopin's double-stack OLED architecture.

The MeganeX is based on a Snapdragon XR1 chipset and also supports SteamVR via a USB connection.

It is likely that Shiftall (a subsidiary of Panasonic that specializes at quick development and small-volume production) will not produce a large number of these. The company plans to ship the MeganeX globally for under $900 in the spring of 2022.

We are happy to announce the new edition of The OLED Handbook, the most comprehensive resource on OLED technology, industry and market - now updated for 2022. The OLED industry grows and changes very fast, and the new edition include new details on the OLED mobile display market, new production fabs in China, rollable and foldable OLEDs, OLED TVs, the Coronavirus outbreak effects and more!

Reading this book, you'll learn all about:

• OLED technology and materials and production processes
• How OLEDs compare to LCD displays
• OLED TVs, foldable, rollable and transparent OLEDs
• The OLED lighting industry
• The future of OLED displays and the challenges ahead

The book also provides:

• A history of OLED development
• A guide to OLED investment
• A comprehensive list of OLED companies
• A list of existing and planned AMOLED fabs
• An introduction to quantum dots, micro-LEDs and e-paper displays

The OLED handbook has been read by hundreds of display engineers, business developers, researchers, equipment vendors, OLED material companies, private investors and others who wished to learn more about OLEDs today and in the future.

Realme's GT2 smartphone offers A 6.62" 120Hz 1,300 nits 1080x2400 AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 888 5G chipset, 8/12 GB of RAM, 128/256 GB of storage, a triple camera setup and a graphene-based cooling system:

The GT2 Pro offers a 6.7" 120Hz 1,400-nits 1440x3216 LTPO2 AMOLED display, a snapdragon 8 Gen1 chipset, 8/12 GB of RAM, 128/256/512 GB of storage and a triple camera setup.

The Realme GT2 smartphones will start shipping by January 8th, 2022, starting at around $420.

The Asus ZenBook 17 Fold OLED is a laptop-tablet hybrid device that sports a 17.3"foldable OLED display that can fold in half to become a 12.5-inch devices. Other features include an Intel Core i7 Alder Lake chipset and 16GB of RAM.

Asus says that the ZenBook 17 Fold OLED will ship in Q2 2022.

We already know that Samsung Display is starting to produce QD-OLED panels, and the first products have already been announced: Sony's A95K QD-OLED TV and Dell's and Samsung's 34" QD-OLED monitors.

It is great to see Samsung Display officially announce its QD-OLED panel lineup at CES 2022. The company is indeed producing three kinds of panels, 55" and 65" 4K panels for TVs and wide 34" panels for monitors.

Samsung's Galaxy S21 FE 5G offers a 6.4" 120Hz HDR10+ 1080x2400 Dynamic AMOLED 2X, a Snapdragon 888 chipset, 6/8 GB of RAM, 128/256 GB of storage and a triple camera setup.

The S21 FE will ship by January 11, starting at around $850.

TCL's NXTWEAR AIR, the company's 2nd-gen wearable glasses adopt dual FHD (1080p) microLED displays (likely produced by Sony, as these were adopted in TCL's 2021 NxtWear G) that create a display experience equivalent to watching a 140" screen from 4 meters. The glasses connect via a USB-C connection for data and power.

The NxtWear Air weight 75 grams, 30% less than its previous generation glasses.

Earlier this week at CES, Samsung Display officially launched its QD-OLED display panels, and the first few products were announced, including the 34" 3440x1440 175Hz Alienware AW3423DW gaming monitor.

It will be very interesting to see how these displays compare to other OLED (and LCD) displays on the market, and we don't have any real reviews yet... but Mark Spoonauer, a writer at respected site Tom's Guide said that the new QD-OLED displays is "the best he has ever seen".

Asus' 2022 Zenbook 14 OLED UM/UX 3402 laptops offer 14" 2.8K (2880 x 1800) 90hz 550-nits AMOLED displays. Other features include an Intel’s 12th gen Alder Lake chipset (AMD’s Ryzen Barcelo on the UM 3402 laptops).

The Zenbook 14 OLED UX 3402 and UM 3402 will launch in Q2 2022, starting at around $1,150.

The series also include the Zenbook 14 OLED Space Edition, which offers similar specification with a space-ship inspired device, with an additional 3.5" AMOLED on the external side.

Researchers from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities managed to deposit flexible OLED devices using 3D printing. The whole OLED stack (including the electrodes, interconnects, insulation, and encapsulation) was printed using a table-top 3D printer (custom build, and reportedly costing like a Tesla Model S).

The researchers used the new method to create a low-cost flexible OLED display of sort, made from relatively large pixels (see video above). The whole panel is 1.5 x 1.5 inch in size, with 64 pixels. The team is now working to improve the density of the process.

Samsung Display showed new foldable and rollable OLED device prototypes at CES 2022, using the new Flex branding it launched in November 2022.

So first up with have the Flex Slidable, which is a smartphone type device that opens up to a wider display. The second display is the Flex S which is a foldable device that folds twice, once inwardly and once outwardly, in an "S" shape.

Reports suggest that Meta (Facebook) is developing two new VR headsets, with very different display technologies - one with mini-LED displays, and the other with OLED microdisplays (as we reported in August 2021).

The Oculus Quest Pro (codenamed Cambria) will be based on mini-LED displays, . Meta aims to launch the Quest Pro in the summer of 2022 and hopes to sell 3 million headsets by the end of the year.

At CES 2022, TCL unveiled a new clamshell foldable phone concept it refers to as TCL Flex V, which the company hopes to commercialize with a relatively low price tag of around $600-$700.

This seems to be an early stage project, but the current prototype shown at CES used an OLED display that looks to be around 6-inch size with a resolution of 1080x2400. There's also a small external display for when the phone is closed. The phone has a Snapdragon 765G chipset and dual cameras on the back.

Sony's PlayStation VR2 is a virtual reality headset for the PS5 that features dual 2000x2040 120Hz OLED displays, 110-degree FOV, eye tracking, head tracking and controller tracking via cameras, haptic feedback, 3D audio, and a single USB-C cable as a connection to the PS5.

Sony did not yet release any images, price information or release date.

The 2022 versions of Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon (and Yoga) laptops are offered with an optional 14" 16:10 3840x2400 OLED displays. The new laptops also offer Intel's 28W TDP P-series chipsets (up to 14 cores).

Lenovo will ship the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and the ThinkPad X1 Yoga later in 2022.

Samsung Display announced that its QD-OLED panels were certified by evaluation services provider SGS. The QD-OLED panels received three certifications for True Color Tones, Pure RGB Luminance and Ultrawide Viewing Angle.

Samsung says that these certifications support its assertion that the new panels offers clear, bright displays, at any viewing angles, and with natural color tones.

Researchers from the UK's Queen Mary University of London together with scientists from graphene develop Paragraf have successfully fabricated a flexible OLED device with a monolayer graphene anode instead of the usually-used ITO anode.

The researchers say that this is the first time such a device was demonstrated. It was shown that the graphene-OLED has identical performance to an ITO-OLED. The researchers used high-quality monolayer graphene directly deposited on a transparent substrate using a commercially available MOCVD system.

The DIZO (owned by Realme) Watch R features a 1.3" 360x360 550-nits round AMOLED display, activity tracking for 110 sports modes, 5ATM waterproofing, heart rate tracking, SpO₂ monitoring and sleep tracking.

The DIZO Watch R is now shipping for around $50.

DSCC have released their 2021 and 2022 smartphone OLED shipment estimates. In 2021, DSCC says that 644 million smartphone AMOLED displays were shipped, up 28% from 2020. Our of these 644 million panels, 42% were rigid, 55% were flexible and about 2% were foldable.

DSCC says that it has downgraded its forecast for 2022, as both Honor and Huawei will no longer adopt rigid AMOLEDs in smartphones. Total shipments will reach almost 700 million panels, and all of the growth will come from flexible and foldable panels. In fact rigid smartphone OLED shipments are expected to decline in 2022.

Vivo's V23 5G smartphone features a 6.44-inch 90Hz HDR10+ 1080x2400 AMOLED display, a MediaTek 920 chipset, 8/12 GB of RAM, 128/256 GB of storage, a triple camera setup and a dual-camera selfie setup.

The V23 Pro offers a larger 6.56" 90Hz 1080x2376 AMOLED display, and better specifications including a 108MP main camera sensor. Both the V23 and V23 Pro offer a color-changing external material that changes the color when exposed to sunlight.

The V23 and V23 Pro smartphones will launch in January 2022 starting at around $400.

The Honor Magic V is a foldable OLED smartphone that features a 7.9-inch foldable 90Hz 1984x2272 AMOLED display, and an external 6.45-inch 1080x2560 120hz AMOLED. Other features include a Snapdragon 8 Gen1 chipset, 12 GB of RAM, 256/512 GB of storage and a triple 50MP camera setup.

The Honor Magic V will ship by the end of January 2022 in China starting at around $1,600.

Researchers from japan's National Institute for Molecular Science and the University of Toyama have developed a new OLED structure that can operate at low voltages - the entire OLED runs at 1.5 Volt (compared to 4.5V commonly used in current OLED devices). The researchers say that this is the lowest operation voltage reported for an OLED devices with a luminance of 100 cd/m². In fact the researchers have demonstrated the OLED at 177 cd/m².

The researchers say that the OLED has a smaller turn-on voltage at 0.97 V than the optical energy of emitted photons at 2.04 eV (608 nm), because the OLED is based on upconversion (UC) transition associated with triplet–triplet annihilation that doubles the energy of excited states.

OLED-Info and Perovskite-Info are happy to announce the 2022 edition of The Perovskite Handbook. This book is a comprehensive guide to perovskite materials, applications and industry, and it is now updated to January 2022 and lists recent developments and new companies, initiatives and research activities.

Perovskites are an exciting class of materials that feature a myriad of exciting properties. Perovskites are now entering the display market, with applications in quantum dots, LEDs, lasers and more.

Reading this book, you'll learn all about:

• Different perovskite materials, their properties and structure
• How perovskites can be made, tuned and used
• What kinds of applications perovskites are suitable for
• Perovskites Quantum Dots
• Perovskite solar cells, their merits and challenges
• Perovskites-based LEDs
• The state of the perovskite market, potential and future