OLED-Info newsletter

DSSC: OLED production recovery in H2 2018

DSCC says that while it is too early indeed to talk about an OLED recovery from an equipment supplier point of view, the smartphone OLED market is set for substantial growth in the second half of 2018. Samsung is seeing improved OLED fab utilization, and the company still has some unused capacity at its A4 fab. As the gap between rigid OLED and LCD has fallen to around $5, OLED adoption is rising. In addition, smartphone makers are increasingly using flexible OLEDs in high end devices.

DSCC also says that average OLED panel size will increase from 5.27” in early 2017 to 5.73” by the end of 2018. One of the reasons will be Apple's adoption of a 6.46” AMOLED for its iPhone XI+.

Everdisplay moves forward with flexible OLEDs

In 2016 China-based Everdisplay (EDO) started to construct a 6-Gen flexible AMOLED fab in Shanghai. In August 2017 EDO said that it finished the building's main steel frame roof, and now EDO announced that it has finished constructing the building and the cleanrooms, and it has started to install the production equipment - a month earlier than it originally planned.

EDO's new fab will have a capacity of 30,000 monthly substrates (1500 x 1850 mm) and will be used to produce small and medium sized flexible AMOLEDs (1 to 15 inch). EDO aims to begin trial production in January 2019 and mass production in 2021.

EDO also announced its first flexible OLED panel - A 5.5" 1920x1080 (402 PPI) one, that can be curved with a bending radius of 6.5 mm. The brightness is 400 nits and the total thickness of the display including the cover glass is 1.5 mm. This panel is likely being produced at the company's 4.5-Gen production line in Shanghai.

Tianma to expand its 6-Gen flexible AMOLED fab in Wuhan

Tianma started producing rigid and flexible OLEDS in April 2017 at the company's 6-Gen fab in Wuhan, and on June 27th the company announced that it plans to construct the 2nd phase of the Wuhan AMOLED fab.

Tianma's Wuhan expansion project will cost around 14.5 billion Yuan ($2.12 billion USD) and will take about 25 months - so production at the 2nd phase is scheduled for September 2020. When the 2nd phase is complete' Tianma's flexible AMOLED capacity will be 37,500 monthly 6-Gen substrates.

In April 2018 it was reported that Tianma wants to sell its OLED business. The company later refuted the story, and today's announcement seems to disprove the report.

China approves LG Display's Guangzhou OLED TV fab

In July 2017 LG Display announced that it has decided to build a 8.5-Gen (2200x2500) OLED TV production line in Guangzhou. At the end of 2017 LGD got the approval for its new OLED TV fab from the Korean government, and now LG Display announced that the new plant and JV has been approved by the Chinese government.

LG Display is also planning a larger fab than what it planned initially - it now says that maximum capacity will be 90,000 monthly 8.5-Gen substrates (2200x2500 mm). Mass production is planned for the second half of 2019, and initial capacity will be 60,000 monthly substrates.

LG Display currently produces 70,000 monthly 8.5-Gen substrates at its Paju OLED TV fab. Together with the new fab, by the end of 2019 it will be able to ship up to 10 million 55" OLED TV panels on a yearly basis.

Building a fab in China has several advantages - China has lower wages compared to Korea, and the fab is located very close to the very large and important Chinese market. But the main advantage is the government subsidies - according to DSCC this could mean the difference between profit and loss in this fab for LGD. LGD will hold 70% of the new company, and the remaining 30 percent share will be owned by Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development District. The total investment in the new fab will total KRW 5 trillion ($4.46 billion).

Micro-LED updates

Samsung Electronics says that it plans to release its first consumer Micro-LED TV next year. The Wall Luxury will be a high-end module, but "will not be priced as high as people think". The Wall Luxury will be a consumer version of The Wall Professional - which was launched last month and is now available for pre-orders. Samsung disclosed that the Wall Luxury will be thinner than the professional version at 30 mm.

Samsung is looking for a new premium TV technology as its QLED TVs failed to keep up with LGD's OLED TVs, and has seen its premium TV market share fall from 57% in 2015 to 20% in 2016. LG, meanwhile, managed to increase its market share from 17.5% in 2015 to 43% in 2016, as it enjoys strong demand for its OLED TVs.

n-tech Research released a new Micro-LED market report in which they estimate that the market will grow from $2.7 billion in 2019 to over $70 billion in 2027. The markets for Micro-LED displays, according to n-Tech, will include wearables, near-eye displays, HUDs, projection displays and extra large area displays. All of these applications will benefit from the small size, low weight, high brightness and high resolution of Micro-LED displays. Extra large-area displays will benefit from the linear scalability of Micro-LED displays.

n-Tech says that Micro-LEDs, however, will find it difficult to penetrate some important display markets - such as smartphone displays, tablets and TVs. LCD and OLEDs will continue to dominate these markets. Read more about n-Tech's report and how it classifies micro-LED displays here.

Yole Developpement, meanwhile, sees the AR market finally emerging in 2022 or 2023 - as there are still several challenges to solve before AR systems that are good enough for mass adoption. Yole sees OLED microdisplays (OLED on Silicon) as the best current technology, but by 2022 it is likely that MicroLED displays will prove better than OLEDs - and so OLED shipments to the AR market will always be quite limited in volume.

Flexible PMOLEDs now available on the OLED Marketplace

Futaba launched its flexible (film-type, curvable) 1.8" 160x32 monochrome white PMOLED back in November 2015, and we have now added this interesting panel to our OLED Marketplace.

If you are interested in this display for your device or new project, contact us now (you can simply reply to this mail), or check out more information over at the OLED Marketplace.

OLED-Info's market reports updated to July 2018

In July we published new versions of our market reports - that cover the flexible, transparent, VR/AR, microdisplays, automotive and graphene OLED markets. OLED-Info provides comprehensive niche OLED market reports, and our reports cover everything you need to know about the niche market, and can be useful if you want to understand how the OLED industry works and what this technology can provide for your own industry. The reports are now updated to July 2018.

Our market reports come with one year of free upgrades. If you bought your report within the year, contact us to get your new edition. Older customers are entitled for an upgrade discount, please contact us (or simply reply to this mail) for more information.

According to ETNews, Samsung will soon be ready to start producing foldable OLEDs in a new pilot line in its A3 flexible OLED line. It seems that Samsung is in a hurry to have a product out, and is currently ready to start production with low yields and high production costs

In 2016 Canon Tokki, the world's leader in OLED evaporation equipment, doubled its production as demand for OLED equipment surged. Now Canon says that demand for its OLED production equipment is lower than previously expected.

LGD, the exclusive OLED supplier to Apple's watch, shipped 10.64 million AMOLED for smartwatches in 2018 (market share of 41.4%)

LGD reported a higher loss due to softer LCD TV panel prices. LG Display says that it will cut it 2018-2020 CAPEX by $2.7 billion as a result of these market conditions. This expenditure cut, however, will not effect its shift towards OLED technologies.

According to reports, Denso, Toyota Tsusho, Sumitomo and Screen Holdings invest $400 million in JOLED - but the company still needs to raise $500 million more as it rushes to build its first ink-jet printing mass production line

Audi introduced a new e-tron EV crossover concept car, which includes 7-inch OLED virtual side mirrors (coupled with external cameras) instead of the normal mirrors.

Audi announced a special limited (999 total) 20th anniversary edition of its TT sports coupe - which will sport OLED taillights - similar to the ones Audi adopted in its 2016 Audi TT RS.

Researchers from Japan's Kyushu University developed a new technology called singlet fission that enables near-infrared OLED materials to surpass the 100% limit for exciton production

A mid-range smartphone with a 5.6-inch 720x1480 Super AMOLED display

A fitness tracker with a 1.13-inch 300x160 AMOLED touch display