The OLED-Info newsletter (May 17, 2022)

Yesterday we reported on LGD's SID Displayweek exhibition displays, and today the company shared a video with us that shows some of these displays in action:

First you'll see LG's latest 8.03-inch 2480x2200 foldable OLED displays, that can fold both inwards and outwards. The second display is LG's largest WOLED panel, the 97-inch OLED.EX.

ZTE's Axon 40 Pro smartphone offers a 6.67-inch 144Hz 1000 nits 1080x2400 AMOLED display, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 chipset, 8/12 GB of RAM, 256/512 GB of storage and a quad camera setup.

The Axon 40 Ultra offers an improved display - a 6.8" 144Hz 1500 nits 1116x2480 AMOLED, and better specification, including a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage and a triple camera setup with three 64Mp sensors.

The Axon 40 Pro and 40 Ultra will ship by the end of May 2022.

Nintendo disclosed that it shipped over 5.8 million Nintendo Switch OLED devices, since launching the new gaming console in October 2021.

The Nintendo Switch OLED model is an upgrade to the original Switch with a 7-inch 1280x720 OLED display (produced by Samsung Display). The Nintendo Switch OLED model is now shipping globally for $349.99.

UK-based SolOLED secured 200,000 GBP (almost $250,000 USD) in new funding from Scottish Enterprise to commercialize its novel OLED TADF emitter materials. SolOLED is launching a collaborative research project with CENSIS to commercialize the materials.

SolOLED was established in 2021 in the UK, to develop a family of novel solution-based TADF OLED emitter, based on technology that originated from the University of St. Andrews.

Sony's Xperia 1 IV smartphone offers a 6.5" 120Hz 1644x3840 (21:9) AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, 12 GB of RAM, 256/512 GB of storage and a microSDXC card slot, and a high-end quad camera setup.

The Xperia 10 IV sports a smaller 6" 1080x2520 OLED display, a Snapdragon 695 chipset, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage (with a microSDXC card slot) and a triple camera setup.

The Xperia 1 IV and 10 IV phones will ship in June 2022.

Researchers from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) suggest a new method to inspect OLED emitter materials, using terahertz wave spectroscopy.

The researchers say that this method can be used to analyze the transmission characteristics of the OLEDs, without any damage to the materials. This is unlike current fluorescence test methods that harm the OLEDs because of the ultraviolet rays which changes the characteristics.

As we reported last week, LG Display is developing OLED TV panels that utilize a microlens array to increase the light output. LGD unveiled its first prototype display at SID Displayweek 2022.

LGD is showing a 77" 8K panel that features what the company refers to as Meta-lit Lens Array, or MLA technology. The MLA layer increases light output by more than 20%, and the panel achieves a brightness of 2,000 nits. LGD says that the viewing angles is also increased using the MLA technology.

Panasonic's LZ1500 OLED TV series (77-, 65-, 55-, 48-, 42-inch) offers Panasonic's Master Evo OLED (LG's OLED.EX) Professional Edition panel (except the 42-inch and 48-inch which will offer the company's regular OLED panel). Other features include HDR10+ Adaptive technology, HDMI 2.1 and Panasonic's HCX Pro AI Processor.

The LZ1000 series offer similar specifications, but without the Master OLED Pro panels (i.e. LG's regular WOLEDs, not the OLED.EX panels).

The Google Pixel 6a smartphone offers a 6.1-inch 1080x2400 OLED display, a Google Tensor (5nm) chipset, 6 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage and a dual camera setup.

The Pixel 6a will ship in July 2022 for $450.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported its financial results for Q1 2022, with a strong quarter. Revenues were $7.4 million (up 9% from 2021), as production increased 27% compared to 2021. The company's operating loss declined to $1.2 million ($2 million in Q1 2021), and its net loss was $0.1 million ($1.3 million adjusted for changes in warrant liability).

eMagin reported strong bookings, and an open orders backlog of $13.6 million.

BOE demonstrated its latest OLED technologies and displays at SID Displayweek 2022. The most interesting display is a 95-inch 8K HDR OLED display, produced on an Oxide-TFT panel with a white-OLED CF structure. The panel was produced using an evaporation method.

This is the first time we hear of BOE's evaporation TV program, since around 2016. The company has an active inkjet printing OLED TV project, and in December 2019 it unveiled a 55" 8K (160 PPI) printed OLED TV prototype.

LG Display says that according to an original research it has conducted, OLED is the optical gaming display technology.

In this research, several gamers played different gaming genres on LCD and OLED displays, and on curved and flat displays. The study results show that a gamer’s reaction time can be improved by using OLED, while a display’s curvature provides a more immersive gaming experience.

BOE is showing a new flexible and transparent display prototype at SID Displayweek, this is something we did not see for several years.

The display on show is a 12.5" panel that offers a transmittance of up to 45%. The brightness is 700 nits, and the pixel density is 80 PPI. BOE says it developed a unique pixel scheme to enable the transparency of this display.

AHA's Neo Air is a Windows x86 handheld gaming device, that features a AMOLED display (reportedly 5.5" 1920x1080). The AYA Air can run PC games and is powered by Ryzen 5000 chipset.

The Neo Air is slated to ship by the end of May 2022.

Japan Display (JDI) announced that it has developed a new OLED deposition technology, which they refer to as eLEAP, that is cost effective and can be used to create OLEDs that are brighter, more efficient, and longer lasting compared to OLEDs produced using mask evaporation (FMM). eLEAP also enables OLED freeform deposition. JDI regards its new technology as a " historic breakthrough in display technology".

eLEAP is based on a lithographic method, and does not require any masks. The main advantage seems to be that OLED displays produced by eLEAP technology can achieve an aperture ratio of 60%, compared with FMM OLEDs which achieve a ratio of about 28%. This means that the OLED displays can be driven at lower currents - which extends the lifetime, improves the efficiency and also enables higher-peak brightness when needed.

Idemitsu Kosan announced that it has developed the world's most efficient blue fluorescence OLED emitter system. Idemitsu's new system achieves an EQE of 14% (at current density of 10 mA/cm²), a lifetime of over 400 hours (LT95 @ 50 mA/cm²) and a color point of (0.14,0.08).

The new material system uses a tandem structure of two blue OLED emitter layers. Idemitsu says that by separating the region that causes charge recombination and utilizing TTF (Triplet-Triplet Fusion) it managed to achieve the high light output.