OLED-Info newsletter

BOE announces a $6.8 billion flexible AMOLED fab

BOE Technology announced that it signed a framework agreement with the Miangyang government in Sichaun to establish a Gen-6 (1500 × 1850 mm) flexible AMOLED fab with a monthly capacity of 48,000 substrates. Total investment in this fab is estimated at 46.5 billion yuan ($6.87 billion USD), and it is planned to start mass producing panels in 2019.

BOE Display is currently producing AMOLED displays at its 5.5-Gen LTPS OLED fab in Ordos. In BOE was struggling with low yields for a while, but these issues have been overcome and the company is now mass producing panels. A report in July 2016 stated that BOE is supplying 5.5" FHD AMOLED display to Xiaomi's Redmi Pro smartphone (the main supplier for this phone is EverDisplay and BOE is the secondary supplier).

In May 2016 BOE Display demonstrated several new AMOLED prototypes - including a 4.35" bendable and foldable OLED displays. The bendable panels offer a resolution of 1120x480 (HWVGA, 280 PPI) and a bending radius of 15 mm. The brightness is 350 nits. The color gamut is 100% NTSC. The foldable panels are the same - except the bending radius is much smaller at 5 mm. In June 2015 BOE Demonstrated larger flexible OLEDs - including a 9.55" 640x432 transparent flexible panels and a 4.8" 480x800 panel.

Apple's new MacBook Pros sport an OLED touch bar

As was pretty much confirmed by several reports and leaks, Apple introduced its new MacBook Pro 2016 models - which include an OLED Touch Bar instead of the traditional function keys.

The OLED strip is supported by most of Apple's applications and can be used to show bookmarks while you browse the internet, emojis in messaging applications, and more. Apple is accepting orders for these new computers, with some models already shipping. The 13" starts at $1,799 while the 15" starts at $2,399. There is a 13" model without the OLED Bar, starting at $1,499.

It is great to see Apple releases its second OLED device (the first is Apple's Watch) - even if it isn't the one we're really looking forward to. Want to know what will be the effect on the OLED industry? Read our analysis here.

Sharp allocates $570 million for pilot OLED production

Sharp announced that it will invest $570 million in its OLED business. The company will establish pilot lines at its plants in Osaka and in the Mie Prefecture. The pilot lines will begin OLED production in the summer of 2018. Sharp expects Apple to switch to OLED displays in future iPhones, and the Japanese company hopes to become an Apple supplier for these displays.

Following Foxconn's $3.5 billion Sharp Takeover, it was reported that Foxconn aims to invest a total of $1.8 billion in OLED technologies. In June 2016 Foxconn's president said that the company aims to start mass producing OLEDs as early as 2017, but this was way too optimistic.

$570 million is a large investment, and it's part of the $1.8 billion allocated to OLEDs by Sharp - but in order to compete with Samsung and LGD a much larger sum and dedication will be required. LGD is allocating around $10 billion for OLED production in the next three years and SDC is also investing billions in new flexible OLED production fabs. An interesting article claims that LG and Samsung are indeed not too worried about the competition from Japan.

Besides its OLED program, Sharp still continues to develop its IGZO LCD technologies. Sharp recently demonstrated a new display prototype called the Corner-R, which uses the company's Free-Form IGZO LCD panel to create a display with curved corners.

Samsung's Note 7 aftermath

Samsung Electronics halted production new Galaxy note 7 devices, and the company told all its global partners to stop selling the smartphones. Samsung issued a recall due to faulty batteries - but the recall is not enough and in several cases the new units also exploded. Samsung also asked consumers to power down their devices.

The Note 7 has a 5.7" 2560x1440 (518 ppi) flexible Super AMOLED dual-edge display - which DisplayMate says is the best performing mobile display ever tested. The excellent display is certainly not helping Samsung at this stage...

Following this massive recall, Samsung announced its financial results - with a 17% drop in profits as net income fell to $3.9 billion. The company had a terrible quarter - and it is sending conflicting messages on its OLED business earnings. Going forward, however, Samsung is forecasting significant improved earnings as it plans to expand production of high-end flexible OLEDs.

An interesting story from Business Korea says that Samsung Display is now under pressure to speed up foldable OLED development as the new innovating display technology may help consumers forget about the Note 7 recall.

LGD's Gen-5 OLED lighting fab on schedule

In March 2016 LG Display announced that it aims to construct a Gen-5 (1000x1200 mm) OLED lighting fab in Gumi, South Korea. The fab was said to start mass production in the first half of 2017, with a monthly capacity of 15,000 substrates.

In early October we reported that LG Display has indeed started to work on the new OLED lighting production line. When the company made its announcement in March, it already placed the orders for the new Gen-5 deposition development. Mass production is indeed expected in 2017 (although LGD does not wish to commit to a certain month yet as these things sometimes get longer than expected).

LG already has a Gen-2 OLED lighting fab in which the company used to produce commercial panels - both rigid and flexible ones. But LGD placed its flexible OLED production on hold (perhaps the equipment is being moved to the new line) and inventory is already depleted - so at this stage it is not possible to buy flexible OLED lighting panels from LGD. Anyone interested in flexible OLED lighting will have to wait till next year (unless some other producers, such as Konica Minolta, starts production as well).

The OLED Marketplace - upgraded filters and new AMOLED panels

OLED-Info's OLED Marketplace offers what we believe to be the world's largest OLED catalog. Today we have upgrade the marketplace software - making it easier to filter available OLED displays by resolution.

We also added several new OLED displays - including a 3.8" VR AMOLED, two new 5.5" HD smartphone-sized AMOLEDs and a custom 2.6" 240x320 AMOLED which can be used to replace CMEL's old 2.8" AMOLEDs.

State of the AMOLED industry and future fabs

Samsung is still the king of AMOLED displays, with a market share of over 95% in small/medium AMOLED panels. If we look at OLED TV production, then LG Display is the only commercial producer at this stage. But Samsung and LG are not alone - several companies in China and Taiwan already started mass producing AMOLEDs, and others have announced plans for large AMOLED fabs.

Our premium article lists all of these AMOLED producers and developers (over a dozen) - and details their current production capacity and rumored and confirmed production plans. Read more here

DisplayMate says that the image quality of LG's latest TVs is visually indistinguishable from perfect - the best performing TV ever tested

Panasonic demonstrated a new large-area transparent display - but is it really an OLED like the company's representative said?

Cynora announced that it developed a new blue-emitting material that combines high efficiency with long lifetime

OLEDWorks announced that the Brite 2 OLED panels are now available. The company's latest OLEDs offer a brightness of 300 lumens, a high CRI (>90) and an efficiency of 60 lm/W

Samsung has utterly stopped the production of the Galaxy Note 7 and asked consumers to power down their devices

According to reports Black Cattle Food actually started to construct its $4.5 billion 6-Gen AMOLED fab with its partners

The flexible OLED market will grow at a CAGR of 70% from 2016 onwards and in 2020 over a billion flexible AMOLED displays will be produced

SDC says that smartphone-based VR device shipments will grow to 66 million units in 2017, up from 4 million units in 2013

A report from Korea suggests that LGD is set to start pilot production of ink-jet printed OLED TVs in the first half of 2017.

The Pixel is the first Google branded smartphone, and it uses a 5-inch FHD AMOLED display (5.5-inch, Quad-HD on the XL)

Xiaomi's flagship phone features a dual-edge curved 5.7-inch FHD flexible AMOLED display

The Axon 7 mini is an Android smartphone with a 5.2-inch FHD AMOLED display

The Enjoy 6 is a Chinese-market smartphone with a 5-inch 720p AMOLED display and a $190 price tag