Samsung Super AMOLED Plus explained When Samsung announced their Super AMOLED plus displays, they said that they offer 50% more sub-pixels and better resolution - over 300ppi. But when they showed the actually panels, we learned that a 4.3" Super AMOLED Plus features the same resolution as a 4" Super AMOLED - so the PPI is actually lower. It turns out that the major advance in the new displays is the sub-pixel matrix: Samsung no longer uses PenTile matrix, and now they use Real-Stripe which needs 50% more subpixels and results in slightly larger pixels.

So what about the promise for a better resolution and 300ppi? It seems Samsung plans to move from Fine-Metal-Mask (FMM) technology to laser-induced thermal imaging (LITI). This will enable them to achieve much higher resolutions, on par with Apple's Retina-Displays.

One final bit of good news - according to Samsung, Super AMOLED Plus displays are not only clearer but they're also thinner, brighter and use 18% less energy than the old Super AMOLED displays!

According to reports, LG Display started small AMOLED mass production in their new Gen-4.5 line. They are currently making 4,000 substrates a month, and this will grow to 12,000 by the end of 2011 - which will translate to around 1.5 million 3" displays a month. LGD says they have signed contracts with Nokia, LG Electronics and 3 other companies.

LGD's future plans are not clear. The latest we hear is that they want to skip the planned Gen-5.5 fab and go directly to a Gen-8 fab in early 2013 to make large panels for OLED TVs - which will be a lot cheaper than what they can make in their Gen-4.5 line. The total investment in 2011 will be $720 million - mostly to increase the capacity in the Gen-4.5 line and start working towards the Gen-8 fab.

There are some conflicting reports about Chimei Innolux's OLED plans. During their 3Q 2010 financial presentation, the company listed two OLED fabs. The first is a Gen-3.5 AMOLED fab in Jhunan, Taiwan targeting small/medium displays. There's also a Gen-5.5 fab in Tainan (also in Taiwan) that will produce OLEDs for monitors or TVs using an IGZO TFT. Chimei-Innolux is also looking for AMOLED engineers.

While these reports are encouraging, a trusted source told us that Chimei Innolux actually scrapped all current OLED plans, and they will shift all LTPS capacity back to LCD. According to that source, the company has no plans to produce OLEDs during 2011, although they will still continue to research the technology. Only time will tell what's really going on at Chimei Innolux...

Verbatim announced that their new color-tunable and dimmable OLED panels are now available, and branded as VELVE. They currently offer just one size (14x14cm, similar to Lumiotec's OLED panels). The panels' efficiency is 28lm/w. VELVE, by the way, was "borrowed from the English word velvet" - and "communicates the feeling that the light produces". Verbatim says that these OLED lightings produce a fine, and soft, yet deep luminance - and in fact suggest setups in which the light changes during the day to mimic the natural light you'd expect from the sun at the same time (this is not a new idea).

Later in February, Kaneka announced that they will start to accept orders for their OLED lighting panels in Japan on March 22nd. Kaneka will offer OLED square panels in five colors (warm white, red, orange, blue and green). The panels will be dimmable (in the range from 1,000cd/m2 to 5,000cd/m2). Kaneka panels will not be very efficient - around 20lm/W and will offer around 10,000 hours lifetime. But the company plans to improve this to about 60lm/W and 25,000 by 2014. Kaneka aims to achieve ¥20 billion ($240 million) in sales within five years and ¥100 billion ($1 billion) in sales within 10 years.

Polymertronics announced their new flexible OLED science kit which provide everything you need to make a working flexible OLED device and experiment with the chemistry, physical structure and the electronic parameters. Polymertronics are now offering OLED-Info readers a £20 discount (that's about $32US) off their regular price of £290 - for both the flexible and the rigid (glass) spin-coated OLED science kits (and yes, they ship worldwide). To claim the discount simply mention OLED-Info when you place your order. And hurry up, this offer expires on the 15th of March!

Dupont says that while regular OLEDs cost about twice as much as LCDs to make, printable OLEDs will be cheaper than LCD by 40%. We've got some new information on Dupont's new spray-printer based manufacturing process. The new process uses a continuous stream of ink (rather than droplets used in 'classic' inkjet design), and moves over a surface at rates of four to five meters per second while patterning a display. The spray-printer developed with Dai Nippon Screen works on Gen-4 substrates (730x920). Dupont is using a common structure for each pixel (red, green and blue) and isn't optimizing each pixel. This is less efficient, but results in faster throughput.