According to new reports, both Samsung and LG won't be able to start producing OLED TVs in 2012 - as both company are facing technical issues and very low yields. Samsung and LG intended to launch the OLED TVs in time for the Olympic games in London (August 2012) - but obviously they failed to do so. Last month Digitimes reported that LG won't be able to launch in 2012, and now we hear that Samsung won't start producing either. DisplaySearch still expects the companies to start producing TVs in 2012 - but only a handful. 500 units, in fact - that's hardly mass production...

On a more positive note, we hear that LG Display actually decided to start building an OLED TV mass production line (called M2) - which will become fully operational in Q1 2014 with a capacity of 32,000 substrates monthly - or about 180,000 55" OLED TV panels in a month (assuming 100% yield, so obviously the real number will be lower). This is a major decision for LGD, but the company apparently has made the decision to become the leader in OLED TVs.

LGD is expected to start placing equipment orders during the next quarter - and in fact the company already sent letters of intent (LOI) to some companies. The company will officially announce this investment plan "any day now". The M2 line will be able to process the evaporation and encapsulation on a full substrate (in the M1 pilot line the substrate is cut in half before those steps).

Besides the report above that Samsung is delaying their OLED TV launch to 2013, ETNews says that Samsung decided to postpone its flexible OLED production to 2013, and will use those pilot lines to produce regular glass-based OLEDs. Samsung has to delay flexible OLEDs because of technical issues (low uniformity and slow encapsulation) - but they decided to do so also because they need more OLED capacity (due to high demand for larger AMOLED displays).

Samsung Display can currently produce 56,000 5.5-Gen (1300x1500 mmm) glass substrates a month. The pilot lines used for flexible OLED development can produce 8,000 more substrates monthly, bringing the total to 64,000. Samsung may also go ahead and re-fit their planned A2 lines from plastic OLEDs to glass ones, which will increase the capacity by a further 32,000 monthly substrates, but will push back plastic-based OLED production. If they'll do so, their glass-based OLED capacity will grow to 96,000 monthly substrates. Samsung will then start working on a new factory (A3) which will be used for flexible OLEDs.

Korean site MK news reports that Samsung have plans to produce Full-HD AMOLED panels in the first half of 2012. These panels will feature a pixel density of 400 ppi or even more. Just to compare, the highest PPI AMOLED ever made is the one used in Samsung's own Galaxy Nexus (316 ppi: 4.65", 1280x720, with PenTile technology). The S3 has 306 ppi( 4.8" 1280x720, PenTile) and the Note II has only 267 ppi,  5.5" 1280x720 - but without PenTile .

Finally, Samsung reported good financial results for Q3 2012 - $5.97 billion net income over $47.5 billion in revenues. Samsung saw good growth in smartphones sales and consumer electronics. Samsung reports continued strong growth in the OLED segment - led by sales increase of OLED panels to high-end smartphones due to new product launches.

AUO's vice president Dagang Wu said that AUO is still facing technical issues and will have to delay mass production to 2013. Hopefully this means early 2013. AUO is optimistic that AMOLED will start replacing LCDs in mobile phones starting in 2013 (or 2014).AUO also unveiled a new 4.65" AMOLED that features 317 ppi (so the resolution is probably around 1280x720). This is quite an improvement over AUO's current 4.3" qHD (257 ppi) panels.

In the past month, several research firms released their forecasts for the OLED market. Regarding OLED TVs, DisplaySearch reduced OLED TV shipments to just 500 units in 2012 and 50,000 in 2013. They predict that OLED TV growth will pickup soon afterwards to reach 9 million units in 2016.

Two companies released reports on flexible OLEDs. UBI sees fast growth: from 20 million units in 2012 to 150 million units in 2013, and $6.3 billion in flexible OLED revenues in 2017. 150 million units in 2013 sounds rather optimistic as there doesn't seem to be any manufacturer that will have the capacity. Markets&Markets says that the global flexible display market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 45% over the next five years to reach over $3.2 billion by 2017. They say that flexible OLEDs are the most advanced kind of displays and are considered to be the future mainstream display for a number of consumer products.

Nanomarkets released two new reports. In the first, they forecast that the OLED lighting materials market will surpass $1.3 billion in revenues in 2018. In their second report, focused on OLED encapsulation materials, they forecast that the sales of OLED encapsulation materials for OLED TVs and lighting will grow from virtually zero in 2012 to $625 million in 2019.

Finally, IHS DisplayBank say that AMOLED shipments grew 8% in the second quarter of 2012, after decreasing slightly (2.5%) in the first quarter. Total shipments in Q2 were a little over 35 million units. Average size and price increased by about 1% of Q1.

AUO is suing two former executives that allegedly stole technologies (including AMOLED related ones) from the company and supplied it China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT, a subsidiary of TCL). AUO says that the executives were compensated with annual salaries of over $1 million in exchange for the technology.

In recent months we've seen several OLED technology leaks and espionage cases. In September 2012 Samsung Display filed a lawsuit against LG over OLED technology tech leak. Samsung claims that LG Display stole 18 confidential technologies relating to OLED displays, and also gave some of the information to a third party. LG Display retorted with a counter-suit of their own, claiming Samsung is infringing on seven of their OLED patents. Samsung also reported that two of its OLED TVs were 'lost' during the shipment to the IFA exhibition, and this may be another case of industry espionage.

In July we reported that 11 former and current Samsung employees were charged of giving LG Display confidential OLED technology. Back in May 2012 the Korean police started to investigate another case of OLED technology leakage - this time by Israeli company Orbotech's local Korean branch . Orbotech employees are suspected of leaking AMOLED technology from both LG Display and Samsung to several Chinese and Taiwanese companies.

Back in September 2010 Astron Fiamm created a really cool car concept called Car.Bones that uses OLED lighting: headlights, inside-lighting, turn indicators, and more. Now the company company unveiled the second generation concept (Car.Bones 2012, with improved light output and design) at the the automotive salon in Paris. The company is in "advanced discussions" with several automotive manufacturers and suppliers to commercialize those technologies.

The Printed Electronics USA 2012 conference, organized by IDTechEx will take place on December 5-6, in Santa Clara, USA. The event includes world class speakers, several masterclasses and an investment summit, and is also co-located with the graphene-live and photovoltaics USA 2012 conferences. IDTechEx now offers 35% discount for OLED-Info readers. Simple use the PEU-OLED when you register.