OLED-Info newsletter

Apple announces the OLED iPhone X

Apple announced its new iPhone lineup which includes the flagship iPhone X that, as expected, features a 5.8" 1125x2436 (458 PPI) flexible Super AMOLED display that covers almost the entire front of the phone. Apple's first OLED iPhone will ship in November starting at $999. Some reports suggest that SDC is only able to supply a limited number of displays to Apple which will severely limit iPhone X shipments.

KGI Securities' analyst Ming-Chi Kuo estimates that SDC charges Apple $120 to $130 for each flexible OLED display Ming-Chi says that the 5.5" LCD used in the iPhone 7+ costs $45-$55.

In addition to the OLED iPhone, Apple also introduced its 3rd-generation smartwatch, which adds cellular (LTE) connectivity. The display seems to be exactly the same as in the Watch 2 - 38 mm 272x340 or 42 mm 312x390 flexible AMOLED, most likely still supplied by LG Display.

Mercedes unveils its first cars with OLED taillights

In August Mercedes-Benz announced it will unveil its 2018 S-Class Coupe and Cabriolet cars, and both will sport OLED Taillights. The company has now officially unveiled its "dream-car" models with beautiful OLED modules

We do not know who produces these OLEDs... but it is likely to be OSRAM (who provides the OLED panels to Audi and BMW). It could also be LGD who is reportedly also entering this market. It's not clear yet whether these OLEDs are optional (as was the case in the Audi TT 2016). Each module uses 33 individually controlled red OLED panels.

LG Display OLED updates

Reports from Korea suggest that the four largest smartphone makers in China (Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi) have all confirmed plans to adopt LGD's flexible OLEDs starting in 2018. A later report says that Huawei and LGD are set to sign a strategic long-term OLED supply agreement.

Huawei is the largest customer for mobile OLED displays in China, and the company wants to sign a long-term supply contract with LGD. The agreement will call for a relatively small (tens of thousands, it seems) supply of OLEDs in 2018, so most of Huawei's OLEDs orders in 2018 will remain with Samsung Display as is the situation today. Huawei's upcoming Mate 10 flagship phone will adopt SDC's glass-based AMOLEDs.

LGD is reportedly still struggling with yield and quality issues at its new E5 flexible OLED line - and the company even had to cancel a 3-million flexible OLED supply deal to Xiaomi.

LGD adopted its own panels in its upcoming V30 smartphone. While Android Authority reviewed the display and said that it is highly competitive with Samsung's latest Super AMOLED displays, Ars Technica posted its own review with very different conclusions. While the display sounds great on paper, Ars Technica says (and it's got photos to prove) that in a dark room the display suffers from a grainy image and horizontal banding. The light level is also woefully uneven, with hotspots blazing out of the left and right corners. This was a pre-production unit, so hopefully LGD will fix these issues with the real production panels. For more from Ars Technica's review, click here.

In July 2017 LG Display announced that it has decided to build a 8.5-Gen (2200x2500) OLED line in Guangzhou, China, to make OLED TV panels. This is the first time a Korean company plans to produce OLEDs outside of Korea, and the Korean government is not happy with this plan as it sees OLED as a strategic technology Korea' economy. According to reports from Korea, The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy of South Korea organized a special committee to discuss whether to allow LGD to built its Guangzhou fab. This is the first time that a special committee was formed in Korea for such a matter.

BOE to ship its first flexible AMOLED at the end of October 2017

Back in May it was reported that BOE started producing flexible OLEDs at the company's new 6-Gen (the B7) fab in Chengdu. This was apparently a bit optimistic, but a new report from Japan now says that BOE aims to ship its first flexible OLED out of the Chengdu fab at the end of next month (October 2017).

BOE's new fab has a capacity of 45,000 monthly substrates - enough to make around 90 million smartphone sized AMOLEDs annually. It is likely though that initial yields will be low and production quite limited.

In addition to this fab in Chengdu, in October 2016 BOE announced another 6-Gen OLED fab, in Mianyang. The Miangyang fab will also have a similar capacity of 45,000 sheets per month and will enter production in 2019. Total investment in the Miangyang fab is estimated at 46.5 billion yuan ($6.87 billion USD).

Cynora raises €25 million, updates on latest materials

Cynora announced that it finalized its Series-B funding round. Both Samsung (via Samsung Ventures) and LG Display participated in this round which totaled €25 million. Both LGD and samsung will also establish separate joint development efforts to assist in advancing Cynora's R&D.< Cynora did not disclose how much did each company invest, although earlier reports suggested that LG invested €15 million while Samsung invested €10 million.

In September 2017, Cynora hosted the 2017 International TADF Symposium in Frankfurt, Germany. Cynora updated on its latest blue emitter - the company now has material that features a CIEy of 0.18 (target - 0.1), EQE of 14% (target 15%) and a lifetime of 10 hours LT97 at 700 nits (target is over 100 hours). Cynora says that development is progressing well and it is confident it will reach its target material performance by the end of the year.

The TADF Symposium also hosted talks by Samsung Display and LG Display. Both companies stated that at this stage TADF has a better potential to achieve an efficient blue emitter compared to phosphorescence. This is not really a surprise as both companies participated in Cynora's latest financing round to enable it to accelerate its blue emitter R&D.

Clearance sale of Samsung's 4.95" 960x544 AMOLED displays

Our display supplier in China has just received a large quantity of 4.95" 960x544 (222 PPI) AMOLED displays, produced by 2011 in Samsung. These AMOLEDs are now offered at around half of their regular price.

The supplier has over 100,000 units - and this may be a great opportunity to get these panels at a low cost - contact us for more details. These 4.95" AMOLED displays 3-wire SPI and MIPI DSI interfaces, a size of 116.54 x 73.92 mm (active area 109.44 x 62.02 mm) and a thickness of 1.6 mm. You can find more information over at the OLED Marketplace.

Will Samsung finally release a foldable phone in 2018?

Samsung has been developing foldable display technologies for many years, and it seems that a foldable phone/tablet is always just around the corner. At a recent press event, Samsung Electronics' Mobile Business group President Koh Dong-Jin updated on the company's foldable smartphone plans. According to Mr. Dong-Jin, Samsung hopes to release a phone with a bendable display in 2018. However Samsung still faces some technical challenges to overcome so this is still not a hard set target.

One of the interesting questions is what kind of device will Samsung launch? In 2016 we heard that Samsung is developing two basic device types - a phone that turns into a tablet and a phone that turns into a smartwatch. The focus currently seems to be on a phone/tablet device. But will it be out-foldable or in-foldable? An out-foldable device is the more exciting one - as it will also have a display when closed. The in-foldable device will need an external display, at least a basic one. But the out-foldable device is more difficult to make. According to ETNews, after years of focusing on an out-foldable device, Samsung recently decided that its first foldable device will be in foldable. It may be that Samsung wants to release the device now as it wants to fight Apple's OLED iPhone and provide an even more desirable smartphone. Samsung's aims to have a device with a curvature radius of 3 millimeters. It still has technical challenges, but it hopes these will be solved by the time it launches its next Note series, which may indeed adopt this display at least for a high-end premium model.

As price competition between high-end LCD and rigid (glass-based) OLED displays is intensifying, both LCD and OLED display makers are struggling to win orders from low-end and mid-range smartphone makers

According to ETNews, Sunic Systems is set to become a public company via an IPO in Korea towards the end of September. The OLED deposition equipment maker aims to raise between $61 to $73 million.

Chinese TV maker Changhong demonstrated a new wallpaper-style OLED TV at IFA 2017.

UBI Research says LGD's 5-gen OLED lighting fab will initiate the growth period of the OLED lighting market

By adopting ultra-short pulse laser (USPL), AP Systems achieved a 1,000 PPI. Changing the pin-hole shapes, the company says this technology can even reach 1,170 PPI.

IHS estimates that sales of mobile flexible AMOLED displays reached about $2 billion in Q2 2017 - more than double compared to Q2 2016 ($886 million).

Toray and Idemitsu will mutually utilize the OLED materials, technology and expertise that both companies possess, and will cooperate in the development of new materials and material evaluation.

Royole raises money as it constructing a 5.5-Gen flexible OLED production facility in Shenzhen, China.

CPT says that QD-LEDs offer pure-colors, long lifetime and are more efficient and stable compared to OLED displays and it estimates that it could start mass producing QD-LED displays within two years.

PlayNitride's CEO that says that Micro-LED displays are easier to produce than people estimate. The company hopes to start mass producing such displays in the second half of 2017.

Panasonic did not reveal any commercialization plans or any technical details on this prototype

Samsung's Galaxy C8 is a mid-range smartphone that features a 5.5-inch FHD Super AMOLED display,

Garmin's latest wearable is a hybrid smartwatch with traditional moving-hands and a touch 0.43-inch 64x128 PMOLED display

Vivo's X20 is a high-end Android smartphone that features a 6-inch 1080x2160 Super AMOLED display (6.43-inch on the V20 Plus)

The Galaxy J7 Plus is a m id-range smartphone with a 5.5-inch FHD Super AMOLED display

This mixed reality headset, developed in collaboration with Microsoft, uses two 2.89-inch 1440x1440 VR AMOLED display

B&O's first OLED TV use LG's WRGB panels and are available in 55-inch and 65-inch

The Hisense A2 Pro is a dual-display smartphone that features a 5.5-inch FHD AMOLED on the front and a 5.2-inch 960x540 E Ink display on the back.

The Zenfone V is mid-range smartphone that features a 5.2" Full-HD AMOLED display

Gionee's M7 is an Android smartphone that features a 6.01-inch 2160x1080 AMOLED display