OLED-Info newsletter

Samsung Display - OLED updates

May was a busy month for Samsung Display's OLED unit. According to the Korea Herald, Samsung Display has signed an agreement with Apple to supply flexible OLEDs for Apple's iPhone 9, due out in late 2018. The Korea Herald says that Apple will launch two iPhone 9 OLED models - with display sizes of 5.28" and 6.46". Of course the final display size is subject to change as the design of the iPhone 9 is not final yet. SDC's total OLED shipments to Apple in 2018 will reach 180 million units, and Samsung will dedicate one of its upcoming flexible OLED fabs exclusively for Apple's displays.

Last month we reported on a story that claimed that Samsung has started construction of its A4 flexible OLED fab - Samsung's first 7-Gen AMOLED fab. In May the Korea Herald reported that Samsung Display denies these rumors.

Samsung's latest flexible Super-AMOLED flagship phones, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are apparently selling very well - Samsung revealed that it sold more than one million S8 in South Korea, only 37 days after the official launch - it took the Galaxy S7 74 days to achieve the same feat.

During SID DisplayWeek, SDC demonstrated a 9.1-inch stretchable AMOLED prototype that can stretch up to 12 mm when pressed, and still maintain its high resolution (which SDC did not specify). This is an exciting display - but probably quite far from commercialization.

Finally, we have a report from Korea that claims that Hyundai's premium sub-brand Genesis is in talks with SDC regarding an OLED supply agreement for future automobiles. The Korea Herald reports that Samsung is strongly pushing for a comeback into the automotive market with a range of technologies including displays, batteries and even the Tizen OS.

BOE starts initial flexible OLED production

According to reports from China, BOE Display started producing flexible OLEDs at the company's new 6-Gen fab in Chengdu. BOE's new fab has a capacity of 45,000 monthly substrates - enough to make around 90 million smartphone sized AMOLEDs annually. It's likely that BOE only started pilot production currently, as earlier estimates were that full production will only begin towards the end of 2017.

On May 25th, BOE announced a strategic alliance with Idemitsu Kosan with an aim to develop high-performance OLED materials and displays. Specifically, Idemitsu intends to develop and supply OLED materials in accordance with BOE's needs.

During SID's Display Week, BOE demonstrated two Q-LED displays, 5" (320x240) and 14" (960x540). These prototype displays use electroluminesence quantum-dots as emitting materials. According to BOE, switching to an in-organic emitter enables a display that features an excellent display quality - on part with OLED displays - while also being compatible with ink-jet printing, which will enable QLED displays to be lower-cost compared to OLEDs. This is still an early prototype, though.

On Google's next-gen 20mp OLED VR display

Google's VR vice president, Clay Bavor, revealed that Google has partnered with "one of the leading OLED makers" on a secret project to develop a high-end VR display. The OLED display will support a resolution of 20 million pixels per eye. If we assume this display is about 3.5-inch in size, it means that Google is developing a 1,800 PPI OLED.

A PPI of 1,800 is a lot - but in May 2016 Samsung already demonstrated a 5.5" 3840x2160 - which reaches 806 PPI. According to reports Samsung were able to produce a 1,200 PPI AMOLED in March 2017 - and the company's goal is to reach 1,500 PPI. In November 2016 Sunic Systems announced that it developed an plane-source evaporation-FMM based AMOLED production process that can reach very high densities. The 100 um mask announced in November can achieve a PPI of 1,500. This may be the system that Samsung is now testing. Sunic says that eventually this technology will enable even 2,250 PPI. This will certainly be enough to support Google's 20Mp target.

So a 1,500 PPI is certainly possible. A "leading OLED maker" is likely to be either Samsung Display or LG Display. Last month it was reported that Google wants to invest $872 million in LG Display in order to secure flexible OLED capacity from the Korean OLED maker. As our readers pointed out, another possible partner is eMagin who is developing high resolution and high PPI large OLED microdisplays for VR applications

AUO demonstrates new OLED technologies

AU Optronics demonstrated several new OLED technologies at SID DisplayWeek 2017. First up is a new foldable 5" 1280x720 (295 PPI) high color gamut (95% BT.2020) display. This panel si only 1 mm thick and the bending (folding) radius is 4 mm. AUO expects to start mass producing such displays within 2 years

AUO also unveiled new round AMOLED displays, which they call True-Circle displays, which have slimmer salient corners compared to AUO's current round OLED displays. This enables watch designers more flexibility with their designs. AUO is demonstrating two such displays, with a diameter of 1.2-inch and 1.4-inch. AUO aims to start mass producing these new displays in the second half of 2017.

At SID, AUO also demonstrated new 12.3" 600 cd/m² FHD AMOLED display for automotive instrument clusters - and several other LCD automotive displays. AUO also developed a conformable (but not bendable) 3.5" LCD. AUO says that this is the world's smallest bending radius flexible TFT LCDs at 20 mm. The backlight in AUO's display is attached to the bottom of this display, which demonstrates the disadvantages of a non-emissive flexible display (we've seen this problem before).

Nanoco and Kyulux to co-develop hybrid OLED / QLED display technology

Hyperfluoresence and TADF OLED emitter developer Kyulux and quantum-dot developer Nanoco announced that the two companies will co-develop a future-generation hybrid OLED / QLED display technology that combines Kyulux's hyperflfluorescence emitters and Nanoco's heavy metal free quantum dots (CDQDs).

Kyulux and Nanoco say that future displays based on this technology will have superior qualities compared to existing displays - high degree of brightness, energy efficiency, color purity and low cost.

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JOLED announced that it started to sample 21.6" 4K OLED monitors. JOLED aims to start mass producing these panels in 2019, but will also attempt to sell these to the medical market even in low-volume production out of its current 4.5-Gen pilot production line.

SFA Engineering signed a $53.5 million contract with OLED developer Royole to supply OLED manufacturing equipment

The International TADF Workshop 2017 will take place in July 20-21, 2017, at Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan. The free-to-attend workshop, organized by Kyushu University and supported by Kyulux, will share the recent advances and future direction of TADF science and technologies

UDC's revenues were $55.6 million (up 87% from Q1 2016) and the company believes that the OLED industry is poised to grow faster than earlier expectations in 2017

Cynora says that its latest material is the best overall performance of a high-efficiency blue emitter ever

According to a report from Korea, LGD will establish a 10.5-Gen LCD line at its P10 and delay OLED production there.

LG's E5 flexible OLED production line is scheduled to start mass producing flexible AMOLEDs soon, and the company will likely adopt these displays in its upcoming high-end phones

According to IHS, the OLED TV market will grow at a CAGR of 42% from 2017, but the growth will decelerate

An Art-Deco inspired 4K OLED TV (55-inch and 65-inch)

An Android smartwatch with a round 1.39-inch 400x400 AMOLED, made by either EDO or AUO.

A mid-range android smartphone with a 4.7-inch HD Super AMOLED display

A $150 OLED desk lamp with a single OLEDWorks Lumiblade Brite FL300 L panel