This July issue of the OLED Newsletter is the first one with the new design - which is in line with our new site design, launched in May 2011. We'd be happy to hear your comments about the newsletter design!

Last month we launched the OLED Handbook, and so far reactions have been very positive. Here are a few comments from our customers:

"Ron Mertens' book is definitely worth the read. It is fast paced, sharp to the point and delivers lots of insights of the OLED market and its players. A must have for everyone working in the industry."
Dietmar Thomas, Communication Specialist, Philips Lumiblade

"The book was very impressive to me because it contained a lot of news and information that is quite coincident with the real industry. It is amazing that you can access to this valuable information at an expense of only 97 USD. Thanks, Ron."
Stephen Lee Ph.D, CEO, PnL Consulting Group

"I found that this book is informative and importantly the information is very updated. This handbook can give me the concept of OLEDs and is valuable for me as a reference. In particular, I like the part about OLED companies (Appendix B) where I can purchase equipments and materials from, e.g. organics, desiccant. This book is exactly what I wanted..."
Larry Shiu-Lun Lai (PhD), Research Officer, The University of Hong Kong

You can order the Handbook now as a digital download (PDF) for $97. A hardcopy (printed) version will be available soon for an extra cost.

Mitsubishi Electric installed a new six-meter OLED sphere called the "Geo-Cosmos" at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo, Japan. The globe will replace the existing LED globe and will show scenes of clouds and visions of the earth taken from a meteorological satellite. Here's a nice video showing the world's largest OLED in action.

This is a Diamond Vision OLED, made from small PMOLED modules - 10,362 panels in fact (!) each 96x96mm in size and with 32x32 pixels. The total resolution is over 10 million pixels. This is Mitsubishi's 2nd Diamond Vision OLED installation, and the first one that uses the small 32x32 PMOLED modules (the previous model used 384x384mm, 128x128 modules).

According to a couple of ETNews articles, Samsung Mobile Display plans to start mass producing flexible AMOLEDs in 2012. This is actually consistent with what we hear from other experts - although Samsung officially said in December 2010 that the plan is to start mass production in 2013-2014. ETNews says that the recent joint-venture with Ube Kosan on Polymide production means that the development process of the new technology is complete and Samsung now focuses on production technologies.

Samsung's flexible AMOLEDs will be fabricated on a plastic (Polymide) substrate and will be able to withstand high temperature (up to 350-400 degrees). The displays can be bendable - and rolled down to a two centimeter radius, although we believe that first commercialization will not allow for bending - but will just allow placing on a curved surface. ETNews says that Samsung will use the new displays in mobile phones, tablets and also watches and glasses.

In November 2010 Samsung released some details about their flexible displays - and unveiled a 4.5" 800x480 (WVGA) panel (shown below)., which indeed can be rolled down to 2cm radius. The OLED is top-emission, and is made by vapor deposition. The brightness is 250cd/m2, and the contrast ratio is 100,000:1.

There are reports that RiTdisplay started to mass produce 3.5" 320x480 AMOLEDs on a-Si backplanes. These AMOLEDs will be cheaper and easier to produce then LTPS AMOLEDs. Canada's Ignis Innovation provided the compensation technology and driver IC (which is made by Himax). These are the same panels unveiled at SID in May. The actual backplane was developed with an undisclosed display-panel maker partner in Taiwan.

According to the reports, RiTDisplay already signed contracts with several smartphone makers to supply the displays. It'll interesting to see the quality of these displays when they arrive!

There's an interesting report that Sony and Toshiba plan to join forces in a new display unit, aiming for small/medium displays (for mobile phones and tablets). According to the report, the new unit will establish an OLED fab in Higashiura, Japan, and once they setup the new unit, Toshiba Mobile Display (TMDisplay) and Sony Mobile Display will cease to exist. The new unit will be in charge of all OLED R&D by both companies. Interestingly, the Innovation Network Corp (a Japanese government fund) will fund the new company and will own around 70%-80%.

We've got some interesting updates regarding Chimei Innolux (CMI) OLED program. CMI was born as a merger between Innolux, CMO and TPO. Both CMO (through its CMEL subsidiary) and TPO had active OLED programs, and CMEL were even producing panels up until the merger. While CMI's OLED plans are unclear, we have some new information from a trusted source.

It seems that the ex-CMEL group in Tainan indeed gave up the Gen-3.5 AMOLED production, and are working only the Gen-5.5 AMOLED fab - any even so this project is 'not very active' - so we can't expect mass production any time soon. This plant will not use LTPS but rather IGZO (InGaZnOx, an oxide semiconductor). The second CMI OLED group is the ex-TPO one in Junan. They have an G-3.5 LTPS LCD plant and are 'studying' AMOLEDs, using a WOLED+CF structure with a new encapsulation technology. But yield is still very low, and mass production is not expected any time soon from this group either.

The official news from the company is that they are cutting 2011 expenditure by 20%-30%, and the company will focus on its fundamental business - production of TFT panels. CMI says that its AMOLED development is still 'in progress'.

AUO originally planned to start producing AMOLEDs in their Taiwanese Gen-3.5 fab in Q2 2011, but a few weeks ago their CEO admitted that they still have some technical issues to solve. It appears that AUO is still struggling with the vacuum evaporation deposition of the organic layers, and will have to delay production - probably to Q3 or (more likely) to Q4 2011.

AUO is still installing equipment in their Gen-4.5 fab in Singapore (converting a production line from LTPS LCD to LTPS AMOLED). They have decided to adopt half-size Gen-4.5, because of the same deposition issues. Production in that larger plant is scheduled for Q3 2012. AUO will not give up on OLED production though, and the company actually setup two new research teams, one that is working towards Gen-6 OLED TV and the other towards Gen-5 OLED lighting.

OSRAM announced it has developed a new white OLED panel that achieves record efficiency - 87 lm/W. OSRAM says that this 'laboratory' panel is actually "highly proximate to a product" - so we should expect production of this panel soon. In fact the company says that the organic functional material employed was already tested in pilot manufacturing and enables product-relevant lifetimes. OSRAM's goal is to reach 100 lm/W.

Just to compare, OSRAM's currently-available Orbeos panels offer 25 lm/W. Philips' new Lumiblade-Plus panels offer 45 lm/W (those panels were actually developed by Konica Minolta, and are already shipping).