The OLED-Info newsletter (May 10, 2022)

Visionox announced plans to build a new flexible and foldable OLED module production line, in Hefei. Total investment in the new project will amount to 11 billion Yuan (around $1.6 billion USD), and Visionox will receive financial assistance from the local government.

Visionox started trial production at its M4 flexible OLED module factory in Guangzhou in late 2020. The company's 2nd OLED line is located in Hefei and is already mass producing panels.

The Razer Blade 15 (240Hz OLED edition) gaming laptop will offer a 15.6" 240Hz 2560 x 1440 OLED display. Other features include Intel's 12th-Gen Core i9 chipset, NVIDIA's RTX 3070 Ti GPU, 32 GB of DDR 5 RAM and a 1 TB SSD.

Razer says it will ship the 204hz OLED Blade 15 model in Q4 2022, for $3,499.

BOE has been aiming to supply OLED displays for Apple for a long time, and Apple also welcomed BOE as a supplier as it wants to reduce its dependence on Samsung and LG.

In 2020 BOE did not pass Apple's OLED quality test for the iPhone 12, but later it it did manage to enter Apple's supply chain , for aftermarket (refurbished models) 6.06" LTPS AMOLED displays.

This article was extracted from the Perovskite for Displays market report.

Given perovskites materials' unique optical properties, these materials are being intensively researched for both photovoltaic and display applications (as well as several others). In this article we will take a look into the possible application areas in the display industry that can benefit from perovskite materials.

Perovskite QDs

Perovskite-based QDs (PerQDs) are considered a viable Cd-free alternative for display applications, with high PL quantum yields, wide wavelength tunability and ultra-narrow band emission. The main advantages of PerQDs are:

• Low cost
• High performance
• RoHS compliance (despite the lead content)

Fujitsu's premium lightweight CH-series laptops offer a 13.3" OLED or IGZO-LCD display, Intel Core i5 chipset, 16GB of RAM, 512 GB of SSD storage and a multi-purpose HDMI.

The CH-series laptops will launch soon.

This is a guest article by Sri Peruvemba

For those of us in the tech industry, inventions from the iconic Star Wars saga and Star Trek series have led to decades of inspiration - some of which we are still trying to build today. Even over the last few years, I have been thrilled to see many of my colleagues pushing the envelope on next generation digital display technologies. One segment of this industry I see opportunities for innovation is what I call “disappearing” displays - displays that don't get in the way when they aren't being viewed, so to speak. Sort of like the character Jeeves in P.G. Wodehouse’s popular novels who could appear and disappear at will.

Let me give you a little bit more context around this. Have you noticed people turning towards their Alexa/Google Assistant devices to ask a question? Or noticed people in a conference room on an audio call, staring at the phone while speaking? How about in the car where people turn to the GPS display while speaking on their hands-free phone? Why is this? Humans are visual creatures. But we also want to see displays when we need them; the rest of the time we would prefer for them to be out of the way, merged with the background, virtually disappearing until we need them again.

Universal Display reported its financial results for Q1 2022, with revenues of $150.5 million and a net income of $50 million. UDC's results were better than expected as the adoption of OLED displays increases in AR/VR, smartphones, foldables, TVs, IT and automotive markets.

UDC reiterated its estimation that it will be ready to introduce a commercial blue PHOLED material to the market in 2024.

The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro is a high-end Harmony OS smartwatch, which comes in two sizes, 46 mm (with a 1.43" AMOLED) or 43 mm (1.32" AMOLED). It offers water resistance up to 30 m, an ECG sensor, blood-oxygen monitor, thermometer and comes with 300+ golf courses pre-loaded.

The Watch GT 3 Pro is now available in China, with a price that ranges between $380 and $700.

OLED driver IC developer MagnaChip started shipping OLED display drivers in 2007, and the company announced yesterday that it has shipped over 730 million units since.

MagnaChip recently expanded its business area into new markets such as foldable smartphones, automotive displays and OLED TVs . The company expects the OLED DDIC market to grow rapidly in the next new years and quotes Omdia's estimate of 1.2 billion OLED panels shipped in 2028.

Lenovo's 2022 range of Yoga convertible laptops include several models with OLED displays. The flagship Yoga Slim 9i is a carbon-neutral certified laptop that features either a 14-inch 2.8K 2880x1800 OLED or a 14" 4K 3840x2400 OLED- there's no LCD option.

The Yoga Slim 7i Pro offers a 14" 2.8K (2880x1800) display - either an 90Hz OLED or an IPS LCD (120Hz or 90Hz). There's also an option for a 2.2K 60Hz IPS LCD.

The Yoga 7" offerss either 14" 2.8K 90Hz OLED or a 2.2K LCD.

Reports from Korea suggest that LG Display is looking into adopting a microLens array in its large OLED TV panel architecture. The microlens layer could boost brightness by up to 20%, which will also increase efficiency (if brightness is kept as before).

MicroLens array structure, University of Michigan

According to the report, the project is at an advanced stage, and panels with the microLens array could be introduced by the end of this year. LGD will apply the technology to its OLED.EX panels, so brightness could reach up to 1,200 nits. LGD considers this technology as it faces competition in large-area OLED production, from Samsung's QD-OLED panels, for the first time.

Sharp's Aquos R7 is a flagship smartphone that offers a 6.6" 240Hz VRR 2,000-nits 1260x2730 IGZO AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 8-gen 1 mobile chipset, 12GB of RAM, 256 GB of storage and a Leica-optimized 47.2-mp 1-inch sensor camera.

Sharp did not yet reveal the price and availability of the R7 phone, which will likely be available in Japan only.

Last month we updated that Royole is in financial problems, and that it needs a new injection of cash in order to continue its operation. A new update from China suggests that some employees did not get paid for over 5 months. This has changed in the past week, and Royole is now paying the salaries.

But Royole's financial woes are likely not over. According to this new report, from 2017 to 2020, the company's revenues amounted to only $77 million, while its loss reached almost $500 million. The report also detailed Royole production: 7,748 units in 2018, 314,000 units in 2019 and 48,600 in the first half of 2020. Actual shipments were much lower.

Canada-based OTI Lumionics started shipping its 2nd-gen ConducTorr Cathode Patterning Materials (CPM) by the end of 2020 to customers, which are used to create OLED displays with under-the-display camera and face unlock technologies.

OTI Lumionics now announced that it signed an agreement with EVM OLED mask maker Dai Nippon Printing. Dai Nippon will optimize its EVM masks for the deposition of OTI's CPM materials.

Asus launched several OLED laptops in 2022, under the Zenbook and Vivobook series, many of which offer OLED display options.

The Zenbook Pro 16X large workstation laptop features a 16" 16:10 60Hz 4K OLED display, the Zenbook Pro 14 Duo that has a 14.5-inch 120Hz 2.8K OLED on the top (with a 12.7" display on the bottom part). There are also models with 13.3" OLED displays, and 15.6" ones.

The complete list of 2022 Asus OLED laptops, announced in May 2022:

• Zenbook Pro 16X OLED
• Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED
• Zenbook Pro 15 Flip OLED
• Zenbook S13 Flip OLED
• Zenbook S13 OLED
• Vivibook Pro models in 14.5-, 15.6- and 16-inch models
• Vivobook S series, in 14.5-, 15- and 16-inch models

LG Display has unveiled a new foldable OLED panel, that can fold 360-degrees - both inwards and out wards. The panel is 8.03" in size with a resolution of 2480x2200, and has been tested for over 200,000 folding cycles.LGD says it developed a special folding structure to minimize creasing.

LG is also showing other technologies and panels - a 17" folding display for laptops , a 97-inch OLED.EX TV panel, a bendable 42-inch gaming display and its 55" touch-enabled transparent OLEDs.

Samsung Display unveils new OLED displays at SID Displayweek 2022. First up is the Flex G flexible display, which folds inwards twice, and the Flex S, that can fold both inwards and outwards.

Samsung is also new rollable displays - a 6.7" slidable display that can expand and a larger 12.4" slidable OLED that can expand from both ends. When close, the display is 8.1" in size.