The OLED-Info newsletter (April 26, 2022)

Reports from Korea suggest that Samsung Display is starting to install production equipment in its new 6-Gen AMOLED fab in Asan. The A4-2 line (previously called the A4-E line) is a converted old LCD fab(L7-2) that was closed in early 2021. It is estimated that the A4-2 line will cost around $800 million USD. Samsung hopes to start production in the new production line by Q3 2022, and monthly capacity will be 12,500 substrates.

The OnePlus Ace smartphone features a 6.7-inch 120Hz 950-nits 1080x2412 OLED display, a MediaTek Dimensity 8100 Max chipset, 8/12 GB of RAM, 128/256/512 GB of storage and a triple camera setup.

The OnePlus Ace will ship by the end of April 2022, starting at around $400.

Kopin Corporation announced today it has received new orders for its OLED microdisplays and silicon backplane products. These new orders come from new customers.

Kopin says it has started to ship 720p dual-stack 0.49" OLED microdisplays to a new customers, for thermal imaging viewfinders. The company also received a new order for its 2K OLED backplane wafer.

The Realme Q5 Pro smartphone features a 6.62-inch 120Hz 1300-nits 1080x2400 AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 870 5G chipset, 6/8 GB of RAM, 128/256 GB of storage and a triple camera setup.

The Q5 Pro will ship by the end of April 2022, starting at around $360.

Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) developed a white OLED device that can be deposited on thin fabrics. The researchers say that this is the world's first such device, as previous white OLEDs, made using a tandem structure, could not be bent on fibers.

For the new device, the researchers developed a single white light-emitting layer. The brightness of the device is up to 700 nits, with an efficiency of 10 candelas per ampere.

Garmin's Vivosmart 5 is a fitness tracker that offers a 0.73-inch 88x154 monochrome PMOLED display, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking and an SpO₂ sensor.

The Vivosmart 5 is now shipping in the US for $150.

In February 2022 it was reported that BOE failed to secure enough driver ICs, and had to reduce its AMOLED production volume. According to new reports from Korea, BOE is still facing IC supply issues, and it is estimated that it AMOLED volume will remain lower than expected at least until May.

The new report suggests that beyond the IC supply constraints, BOE is also suffering from low yields at its new B12 fab in Chongqing, lower than what it hoped for in 2022.

The Asus Zenbook 13 S offers a 13.3" 550-nits 2.8K (16:10) AMOLED display, an AMD Ryzen 6000 chipset (Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7), three USB 3.2 Gen-2 Type-C ports (with DisplayPort support), up to 32GB of RAM and 1T of storage.

Asus did not yet reveal the price or release date of the Zenbook 13 S.

The Asus Zenbook Pro 15 Flip OLED is a convertible-type laptop, offering a 15.6" 16:9 120Hz 2880x1620 AMOLED display. The Pro 15 Flip OLED is powered by Intel's 12th-Gen chipsets (up to Core i7-12700H), Arc GPUs, up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.

Asus did not yet reveal the price or release date of its Zenbook Pro 15 Flip OLED.

Following the next-generation display industry and market for almost 20 years has taught us about the many challenges standing before companies that aim to adopt unique display solutions in their products.

Following discussions with display professionals, we feel there is a need for a service that assists companies with finding the right displays for them.

According to reports in China, Royole did not yet manage to obtain enough customers for its flexible OLED displays to fund its business., and the company requires a new injection of cash in order to continue its operation.

Royole has started mass producing flexible OLED displays back in 2018 at its Quasi 6-Gen fab in Shenzhen, and has since announced plans to build a new fab in Qingdao. Royole developed innovative OLED technologies and devices, and demonstrated several innovative displays, but it seemed it did not manage to find large actual customers for its displays.

Xiaomi's Civi 1S features a 6.55-inch HDR10+ 120Hz 1080x2400 AMOLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ chipset, 8/12 GB of RAM, 128/256 GB of storage and a triple camera setup.

The Civi 1S is now shipping starting at around $350.

Samsung Display announced that its OLED displays for laptop applications has received 'Halo Free' verification from the safety science leader, UL, for its glare-free and sharp picture quality.

Samsung explains that LCD displays suffer from light-blurring which occurs when the outline of a bright subject appears white on an image with sharp contrast. This is because even with local dimming, LCDs cannot adjust the backlight brightness exactly on the edge. OLEDs, with their self-lit pixels, do not suffer from this.