OLED-Info newsletter

Samsung unveils new OLED flagship phones, advances OLED projects

Samsung unveiled its latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S7 with a 5.1" 2560x1440 (577 PPI) Super AMOLED and the S7 Edge that has a curved 5.5" 2560x1440 (535 PPI) flexible Super AMOLED display. According to DisplayMate, Samsung continues to improve its OLED displays, and its new Super AMOLED displays are the best ones ever tested on a mobile device, surpassing the Super AMOLED used in the Note 5.

Samsung have high hopes for the new phones, especially the S7 Edge, and According to reports from Korea, Samsung Display secured the capacity to produce 9 million flexible OLEDs per month for the S7 Edge at the A2 and A3 flexible OLED lines - which means that Samsung will pretty much use all its flexible OLED capacity for the new phones. Samsung seem to have learned from its mistake with the S6 and S6 Edge. Samsung estimated that most consumers will prefer the cheaper (by $100) regular S6, but in reality most consumers (75%) wanted to buy the prettier S6 Edge - and Samsung did not manage to supply enough phones. Samsung hurried to operate the new A3 flexible OLED line, but did not manage to do so in time.

New reports suggest that Samsung is discussing a large investment (around $3 billion US) into a new OLED TV panel fab, and Samsung Display recently confirmed that it is still developing large-sized OLED panels.

According to the reports, Samsung Electronics aims to release OLED TVs to the market by 2018. Samsung Display will start ordering equipment soon, if it wants to meet that deadline. Our article discusses SDC's possible technology choices for the new fab.

OLED updates from LG

LG Electronics announced the new G5 smartphone, and the company has big hopes for the new flagship phone. The G5 uses an LCD (5.3", 1440x2560) display, but LG's mobile division chief said that LG could start using OLED displays for its flagship phones by the second half of 2017. LG will not purchase panels from Samsung Display, but it is waiting for LG Display to start producing OLEDs for mobile phones. LG Display already produces OLED displays, in fact, but in a very limited capacity. LGD has a Gen-4.5 fab (14,000 monthly substrates) that produces flexible (plastic-based) OLEDs. LG currently mostly makes small flexible OLEDs for wearables (such as Apple's Watch and LG's own Watch Urbane 2). LG makes a single handset flexible OLED, the curved 5.5" FHD panel adopted in the company's own G Flex 2 - but this was never really a mass produced device.

LGD announced plans to build a Gen-6 (1500x1850 mm) flexible OLED fab in a $900 million investment. The new E5 line will be located at LGD's Gumi Plant and will have a capacity of 7,500 monthly substrates - or 1.5 million 5.5" panels. The new fab is scheduled to begin mass production in the first half of 2017. Cho probably considers the new Gen-6 fab when he aims to release phones later in 2017 that use these OLEDs. According to a report from Korea, LG Display acquired an OLED CVD deposition system from Korea's Sunic System. The new Gen-6 system will be deployed at LGD's upcoming flexible OLED fab.

Earlier reports suggested that LG Display indeed aims to enter the mobile phone market with its flexible OLEDs, and actually hopes to do so in 2016 - but in that case the company will have to start with lower-volume phones (reportedly LGD is in talks with Chinese phone makers Vivo and Oppo)

In October 2015, LG Chem announced that it has sold its OLED lighting business to LG Display, for $135 million USD. LG decided to consolidate all OLED production under LG Display - which will hopefully enable LG to advance OLED lighting more quickly - and at a lower cost. LG Chem has been discussing a Gen-5 OLED lighting production line since 2012, and the before the merger the company had plans to construct a new $185 million production line for OLED lighting by 2017. When LGD bought the OLED lighting unit, the plans to construct the new fab were put on hold, but according to a report from the OLED Association, LGD have now resumed the discussions, and a decision is likely to be reached by April 2016.

LG's main focus is still on its OLED TV business. Following the Superbowl ad campaign, LG announced that its flagship 2016 OLED TV, the 65" Signature OLEDG6 is now available for pre-orders in select retail stores in the US. The G6 costs $7,999 and initial shipments are planned for late March. Amazon already lists the G6, but does not specify the shipment date. LG's Signature OLED G6 is LG's top-end TV model for 2016. The G6 feature an ultra-slim on-glass design, a high-end pivoting Harman Kardon soundbar, LG's webOS 3.0, Color Prime PRO technology and HDR. The G6 models are available in 65 and 77 inches.

Philips aims to launch OLED TVs in 2016

During an event in Europe, Philips announced it plans to launch their first OLED TV in Europe later this year. The company said that the first model will probably be a flat 55" model - although this hasn't been decided yet. Philips' TV brand is now being handled by TP Vision, which actually made the demonstration in Brussels. TPV demonstrated an OLED panel prototype next to an LCD to show how the OLED image quality surpasses the LCD panel.

TPVision will use OLED panels produced by LG Display (the two companies started developing OLED TVs together back in 2012) - and TPVision said they will use LGD's newest panels - that will feature 4K resolution and HDR. The Philips/TPV OLEDs will use Philips' advanced image processing - which will give it an advantage over LG's own OLED TVs, according to Philips. The price will be either similar or higher to LG's OLED TVs.

Applied Materials sees accelerated investments in OLED production

Applied Materials' financial results for Q4 2015 were better than expected, and the company also issued a strong guidance going forward. In their display business segment, the company sees accelerated strategic investment from customers - particularly for OLED displays. In 2015, the company's OLED system bookings reached $150 million. Applied traditionally offered backplane (LTPS and IGZO) deposition systems, and the company recently entered the OLED encapsulation market as well - which is seen as a growth driver for Applied.

In the last few months we hear very positive reports from OLED equipment makers as display makers rush to construct new OLED fabs and expand production, mostly for flexible displays, it seems.

In January Coherent reported large orders for its ELA systems used in OLED LTPS production. Colnatec announced large orders for its temperature control systems for a new large OLED deposition system destined for China, and Sunic Systems sold a Gen-6 deposition system to LG Display, to be deployed at the company's upcoming Gen-6 flexible OLED fab.

BOE's 6-Gen flexible AMOLED fab confirmed

Back in 2014 we reported that BOE Display will build a Gen-6 LTPS AMOLED fab in Chengdu, China. The company started working on the new fab in May 2015, and said that the total investment will reach around $3.54 billion. Today BOE filed a statement today in which they confirm the new fab and disclose that it is going to produce flexible OLEDs. BOE announced an investment cooperation with the Chengdu Municipal Government, and discloses also that the fab will have two lines with a capacity of 24,000 monthly substrates for each line. The new fab is expected to begin mass production in 2017.

BOE Display aimed to start mass producing AMOLED displays at 5.5-Gen LTPS OLED fab in Ordos in the second half of 2015, but the company is still struggling with low yields and is not ready to mass produce AMOLEDs yet. In May 2015, BOE demonstrated several new AMOLED prototypes - including a 9.55" 640x432 flexible transparent panel, a 4.8" 480x800 flexible AMOLED and regular glass-based 5" FHD and 13.3" WQHD (2560x1600) AMOLEDs.

Besides the Ordos and Chengdu fabs, BOE is also planning a 8.5 OLED TV fab in Hefei Xinzhan, with an estimated investment of $1 billion. BOE already has a Gen-8.5 pilot line in place that was used to produce 55" 4K OLED panel prototypes demonstrated back in 2014.

OLED impressions from the Mobile World Congress

In February Barcelona hosted the Mobile World Congress trade show, and it was a very large and impressive conference - with over 100,000 visitors and thousands of exhibiting companies. While we were mostly focused on graphene meetings, it was very interesting to see the wide OLED adoption in mobile devices. I'm sure we missed many demonstration (this event is simply too large!) but it was clear that most new phones (or at least a very large number of them) adopt OLEDs. Of course there were the new GS7 and GS7 edge, but many companies unveiled new OLED phones or demonstrated existing ones - including Gionee, Acer, Microsoft, ZTE, Hisense, Archos, Konka and more. You will see some of these phones detailed towadrs the end of this newsletter.

OLEDs are now being used in most flagship phones, but OLEDs are not limited for mobile phones, of course. Most VR headsets use OLED displays - including those from Oculus, HTC, Samsung and Sony. I had the good chance to test drive some of these VR headsets, and the experience was very impressive. I believe that the VR headset market will prove a very large market for OLED displays, reaching tens of millions of units in a few years. OLEDs have a clear advantage over LCDs in this market - LCDs suffer from a slow response rate and thus cannot deliver the same experience an OLED does. Espon launched a new augmented-reality system, the Moverio BT-300, and this new model adopts two OLED microdisplays. I tested Epson's new glasses and they are quite terrific - you can read more about Epson's new OLED here.

Meet the OLED-Info team at SID DisplayWeek 2016

SID's DisplayWeek is the world's leading display conference, and we have decided to attend this year's event which will take place in San Francisco in May 22-27. The trade show usually brings together a large part of the display industry, and we're looking forward to seeing new OLED technologies, products and demonstrators and meeting up with industry leaders.

We'll be happy to schedule meetings with companies and individuals - so if you plan to come to the event, do contact us. This year the special topics at Display Week will include wearables, lighting and augmented and virtual reality. It will surely be an exciting conference...

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LG aired the company's first ever Superbowl ad, promoting the company's pioneering OLED TVs

Reports from Japan say that JDI wants to acquire JOLED and integrate the OLED units of both companies

The Taiwanese display maker expects OLED demand in high-end smartphones to take off in 2017

The OLED Association discloses emitter material efficiencies, says UDC's PHOLEDs still outperform all soluble materials

Lang AG demonstrated what we believe to be the world's first touch-enabled 55-inch transparent OLED

Facebook's CEO endorses Samsung's OLED, saying that no other screen and display or company can deliver this experience

Researchers from Queen's University Human Media Lab developed a prototype flexible OLED smartphone that uses active haptic feedback - or bend input - to control the device

In 2014, flexible OLED shipments were only 2% of all AMOLED panel shipments. In 2015 57 million flexible AMOLED were produced, to grab a 20% share of the total AMOLED market (285 million panels, according to IHS)

UDC expects 2016 to be a year in which the OLED industry builds meaningful new capacity - but the effect on material sales (and panel production) will only start in 2017 and 2018

AU Optronics demonstrated several new AMOLED panels (including foldable ones) and may use some of the capacity in the Gen-6 fab to produce AMOLEDs

Samsung's 2016 flagship smartphone, the S7 has a 5.1-inch 2560x1440 (577 PPI) Super AMOLED display

A larger variant of the GS7, the S7 edge has a flexible 5.5-inch 2560x1440 Super AMOLED display curved around both edges

A large enterprise-bound Windows 10 Smartphone with a 6-inch 1440x2560 AMOLED

A large Android smartphone with a 6-inch FHD AMOLED display

A high-end smartphone with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and a 5.5-inch FHD AMOLED

A large Android smartphone that features a 6-inch FHD (367 PPI) Super AMOLED display

An oddly-named fashion smartphone that sports a 5.2- FHD Super AMOLED

An Android 6 smartphone with a 5.5-inch FHD Super AMOLED

A Windows 10 smartphone with a 5.5-inch FHD AMOLED display

An Android 5.1 smartphone with 5.2-inch FHD AMOLED display

An Android smartphone with a 5.5-inch FHD Super AMOLED display

The Lumia 650 is a low-end Windows 10 smartphone that features a 5-inch 720p AMOLED display

A VR headset that usesa 90Hz 2160x1200 AMOLED display

A fitness tracker that can also show notificatiosn on its small white touch PMOLED

An affordable ($14.5) fitness tracer that sports a small curved 96x32 white PMOLED display

The world's fastest AF mirrorless camera has an XGA OLED viewfinder