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OLED fab updates from LG, Visionox and Tianma

LG Display announced that it started producing OLED TV panels at its 8.5-Gen OLED fab in Guangzhou, China. LG's new fab will have a monthly capacity of 60,000 substrates, which will be expanded to 90,000 by 2021. IHS expects LG to ship 5.5 million OLED TVs in 2020, 7.1 million in 2021 and over 10 million in 2022. In 2019 LG expects to ship 3.8 million units.

LG's Goungzhou fab was announced in 2017, but the company found it challenging to get approval from both the Chinese and Korean government - which it finally got in July 2018. The total investment in the new fab was about $4.2 billion. The new fab was established in a joint venture established between LG Display and Guangzhou Development District (GDD). LG Display holds a 70 percent stake in the JV.

LGD hopes that the new Chinese fab will enable it to cut production costs due to lower wages and government subsidies. DSCC estimates that the subsidies will reduce LGD's depreciation costs by 65%. An unexpected bonus may be that this fab could enable LGD to circumvent Japan's recent export ban on Korea.

China-based Tianma announced that it plans to construct a 6-Gen flexible AMOLED production line in Xiamen. The company will setup a joint-venture with the local government that will help finance the new fab, which will cost an estimated 48 billion Yuan ($6.8 billion USD). Tianma estimates that it will take 30 months to construct the fab, which means that initial production is estimated to start in February 2022. The new fab, when in full capacity, will product 48,000 6-Gen substrates each month.

In 2017, Tianma started producing rigid and flexible OLEDS at the company's 6-Gen fab in Wuhan. In 2018 the company started constructing 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 (production at the 2nd phase is scheduled for September 2020). When the 2nd phase at Wuhan is complete Tianma's flexible AMOLED capacity will be 37,500 monthly 6-Gen substrates.

Visionox announced plans to establish a flexible and foldable OLED module factory in Guangzhou, China. Together with the local government, Visionox plans to invest 11.2 billion Yuan (around $1.6 billion USD) in this new factory.

OLED lighting 2019: out with the old, in with the new

The high price of production is a challenge that no one has managed to overcome and OLED lighting remains a small niche industry as of 2019. Click here for our article that discusses the current state of the industry.

Samsung announces the Galaxy Note 10

Samsung's Galaxy Note 10 is the company's 2019 flagship large smartphone device, featuring a 6.3" 2280x1080, 401 PPI, Dynamic Infinity-O AMOLED display. The Note 10+ uses a 6.8" 3040x1440, 498 PPI display. Both phones use an under-the-display fingerprint sensor.

The Galaxy Note 10 is now shipping starting at $949. The Galaxy Note 10+ starts at $1,099. Samsung announced that pre-orders passed 1.3 million in Korea, double the pre-orders of last year's Galaxy Note 9.

DisplayMate tested Samsung's latest OLED phone and (as expected) says that this is the world's best smartphone display. DisplayMate says that the Note 10+ sets 13 new display performance records - including the world's highest absolute color accuracy and highest peak brightness (at 1,308 nits). Other records set by the Note 10+ Dynamic AMOLED include the best image contrast accuracy, the smallest shift in color accuracy with image content, the largest native color gamut (113% DCI-P3 and 142% sRGB / Rec.709) and the lowest screen reflectance.

OLED market update

Here are the latest OLED market updates released in August 2019:

• DSCC sees LCD investments drying up in 2023, as the display industry shifts to OLED production
• DSCC lowers its foldable OLED market forecasts - now sees 68 million panels shipped in 2023
• IHS: strong demand for OLED TVs helped LG become the leading premium TV vendor in Europe
• IHS expects LG to ship 5.5 million OLED TVs in 2020, 7.1 million in 2021 and over 10 million in 2022
• BOE shipped 9.1 million AMOLED displays in H1 2019, warns of weak flexible OLED demand

SDC's CEO confirms the company's QD-OLED TV plans

Samsung has been developing its QD-OLED TV technology for a long time, but the company did not yet commit to actual production. Now Samsung Display's CEO officially announced that the company is "making good efforts" to launch QD-OLED panels in the "near future".

SDC has decided to shut down on of its 8.5-Gen LCD lines in Asan Korea, which will be converted to QD-OLED production in the future. It is not clear how close Samsung is to actual mass production. Samsung originally hoped to start mass production of QD-OLEDs by the end of 2020. Some reports suggest that Samsung still faces some technology challenges and actual mass production may be delayed until 2023.

QD-OLEDs will offer several advantages compared to LG's current WRGB (four subpixels + color filters) system. Samsung will be able to use three sub pixels and only two emitting layers (LGD uses four), and so its stack will include 13 layers compared to 22 layers in LGD's TVs - which means fewer deposition stages, improved yields and lower material costs.

DSCC estimates that a square meter of QD-OLED production will require materials that cost around $26 - compared to almost $95 in a meter of WOLED production. This is good news for Samsung of course, but may be not so good for OLED materials makers (especially UDC, at least until Samsung adopts a phosphorescent blue emitter as the first generation displays will likely be based on an all-fluorescence OLED architecture).

Apple to buy OLEDs from LG and BOE?

The Nikkei Asian Review says that Apple is "aggressively testing" BOE's flexible AMOLED displays. The NAR claims that Apple will decide whether to add BOE as a supplier by the end of 2019. Such a deal will be a great step forward for BOE toward its goal to become a leading AMOLED supplier.

Apple is said to be testing AMOLEDs produced at BOE's B7 flexible OLED line in Chengdu, China - which started operation in 2017. In addition to the B7 fab in Chengdu, BOE is building its second 6-Gen OLED fab, in Mianyang, with a similar capacity to the B7. In March 2018, BOE announced plans for a third 6-Gen OLED fab, this one in Chongqing. In December 2018, BOE announced plans for its fourth line in Fuzhou.

BOE hopes to supply displays for new iPhone models in 2020, in which case it offers to dedicate the Miangyang fab entirely to Apple. Apple may also decide to first adopt BOE's panels for repair displays or older models (iPhone X or Xs). According to NAR's sources, BOE's AMOLEDs could be 20% cheaper compared to Samsung's AMOLEDs.

According to a different report, this one from Korea, LG Display has passed Apple's quality requirements and has started to produce AMOLED displays for Apple's next generation iPhone, to be announced in September. According to JoongAng Ilbo, Apple aims to ship around 65 million units of its new smartphones, and has contracted LGD to produce between 6 to 7 million panels, around 10% of Apple's total needs. The rest will be produced by Samsung Display. LGD will produce the displays at its E6 production line in Paju, Korea.

Business Korea reports that Sharp will withdraw from the smartphone OLED market. Sharp started producing OLEDs in low volume in August 2018, and Business Korea quotes IHS saying that Sharp understands it cannot compete with Korean and Chinese companies with both technology and price.

Revenues were $118.2 million, the operating profit reached $48.7 million and net income was $43.4 million. UDC increased its 2019 revenue guidance to be in the range of $370 million to $390 million.

The South Korean government says it will spend around $6.5 billion in the next five years to help the local materials, components and equipment sectors and lower its dependence on Japanese imports.

Researchers from Japan's Kyushu University developed new OLED devices made by integrating OLED emitters with thick layers of hybrid perovskite materials. The researchers say that such a device structure to enable lower-cost production and better viewing angles in OLED displays.

Our sister site E-Ink-Info posted an interesting review of Dasung's E Ink monitor, the Paperlike HD-FT. This is a secondary monitor that features a 13.3-inch 2200x1650 touch display with a front light.

LGD plans to double its transparent OLED production in Q4 2019 - and continue to ramp up production in years to come

Reviewers tested the Dell XPS 15 7590 OLED laptop to see how the power consumption of the display changes with the content used

Jilin will invest 600 million Yuan in the new R&D center, which according to the company will be the largest OLED material R&D center in China

Audi is set to introduce a new OLED lighting technology they call Digital OLED which uses multi-segment OLED taillight modules made from 50 red rectangular OLEDs that can show signs and information

AUO developed a 17.3-inch 120Hz 4K OLED display that was produced using an ink-jet printing process. AUO will also showcase 5.6-inch foldable OLEDs that can be folded inwards or outwards and a 12.1-inch LTPS Micro-LED prototype

Samsung's latest tablet features a 10.5-inch 2560x1600 Super AMOLED display

A Tizen-OS based smartwatch with a 1.2-inch 360x360 or 1.4-inch 360x360 Super AMOLED display

Dell's flagship gaming monitor features a 55" 4K 120Hz LG WRGB AMOLED

Xiaomi's Mi 9T Pro smartphone features a 6.39-inch 1080x2340 Super AMOLED display

A premium linux laptop with a 15.6-inch 4K AMOLED display (SDC)

A high-end gaming laptop with a 15.6-inch 4K AMOLED display (SDC)

A high-end gaming laptop with a 6.39-inch 1080x2340 AMOLED display

A health and fitness smartwatch that features a square 1000-nits AMOLED display

Fossil's 5-Gen Wear-OS smartwatch lineup (called Carlyle HR and Julianna HR) sport a round 1.28-inch 328 PPI AMOLED display

ZTE's Nubia Z20 is a high-end smartphone that features two displays: a 6.42-inch 1080x2340 AMOLED on the front and a smaller 5.1-inch 1080x2340 AMOLED on the back for selfie images

A high-end smartphone with a full-screen 6.5-inch 1080x2400 AMOLED display