I'm happy to announce the second edition of The OLED Handbook, the most comprehensive resource on OLEDs technology, industry and market. This new edition not only brings it up to date, it also includes several new sections and in-depth reports.

What's new in the 2012 edition?

• Updated OLED gadgets, panels, fabs and roadmaps
• Info on Samsung's and LG's upcoming OLED TVs
• New production technologies
• Extended sections on backplane, substrate, encapsulation and more
• New sections on direct emission, WOLED-CF, Oxide-TFT, SMS, Nozzle printing, OLED lighting fabrication, polyimide and more
• 30 new companies detailed
• 31 new pages
• Actually, the entire book was revised!

The OLED handbook has been read by hundreds of display engineers, business developers, researchers, equipment vendors, OLED material companies, private investors and others who wished to learn more about OLEDs today and in the future. I truly believe that it is the best introduction to OLED displays and lighting!

The OLED Handbook 2012 edition can be downloaded now for $97 USD (via Paypal or credit card). To secure your copy simply click here. Existing digital-copy customers are entitled to a 50% discount. If you did not receive your upgrade coupon, contact us to get one (you can also reply to this mail). The hardcopy printed version costs $149.99 and can be ordered through our publisher.

The Light+Building 2012 exhibition opened on April 15, and this year several companies unveiled interesting and exciting new OLED installations and panels. First up was Philips which unveiled a new OLED panel, the Lumiblade GL350. GL stands for General Lighting and philips say that this is the first panel to break the "functional lighting" barrier with its high brightness of 115 lumens. The GL350 is not very efficient though - only 16.7 lm/W. Philips also unveiled a couple of beautiful OLED installations and a new spiral lamp.

Osram unveiled a new OLED panel - the second generation Orbeos (or the SDW-058). The new panel (which is built in the new pilot production line in Regensburg) is more efficient at 40 lm/W (up from around 25 lm/W), and it's also larger (119x119 mm). Osram also unveiled a new connector system for OLED panels and a large installation with 1,000 Orbeos panels.

Novaled also unveiled some new OLED lamps, including the PAD which uses three transparent white OLED panels. Interestingly, when the panels are turned off, each will filter the ambient light to be in a different color. Tridonic also revealed six lamps that uses their OLED modules, including a new Kinetic luminaire. The Fraunhofer IPMS demonstrated several new lamps including ones that use their transparent TABOLA panels.

AUO's LED maker subsidiary Lextar unveiled new portable OLED lighting panels. The panels are powered from built-in Lithium-ion batteries and has a magnet on the pack so it can attach to metallic objects. The panels are 3.7 mm thick and include a 3-section dimmer.AUO first announced its entry into the OLED lighting market in November 2010, but we haven't heard any news since. It's good to see them getting ready to actually produce panels.

The Fraunhofer Institute first announced their Tabola OLED lighting panels back in October 2010, with plans to release them in Q1 2011. After some delays, they are finally shipping samples to customers (although they have no plans to make these into mass produced products). They are offering regular, structured and transparent panels - which makes these the first transparent OLED lighting panels on the market. Read on for our hands-on review, complete several videos and comparisons to other OLED lighting panels on the market.

There are reports that Sony decided to buy OLED TV panels to use in its own Bravia OLED TVs. There are several such reports, suggesting that Sony is in talks with Samsung, LG Display and AUO. Sony itself declined to comment, and the new CEO said earlier that they will develop their own OLED technology.

There are further reports that Sony is collaborating with AUO on OLED technology and production. These reports say that Sony will buy all of AUO's AMOLED production capacity in the near term. Sony will use AUO's 4.3" AMOLED panels in upcoming mobile phones. This contradicts earlier reports that HTC secured AUO's entire capacity.

We've got some interesting updates about Visionox's OLED lighting program. The company has started to produce new OLED lighting panels. Those panels are 73x42 mm in size (active area 30x60 mm), and are 1.8 mm thick. The lifetime is over 10,000 hours (LT70) at 1000 cd/m2, and the color temperature is 4500K-5000K. The panels are actually quite cheap at $70.

Visionox also unveiled their next generation panels, currently being produced in small quantities on a pilot line. The new panels are 80x80 mm in size (active area 64x64 mm) and feature a color temperature of 4500K, over 80 CRI and a lifetime of over 10,000 hours (LT50 at 2000 cd/m2). The new panels are quite efficient (40 lm/W) and Visionox revealed to us that they are using phosphorescent materials. Visionox also unveiled two new OLED lamp designs using the new panels.

AU Optronics started to mass produce small (4.3") AMOLED panels at its 3.5G LTPS line in Taiwan, making about 8,000 substrates a month. The company says their 4.5-Gen AMOLED Line in Singapore (at AFPD) will start AMOLED mass production before year-end 2012, which is faster than original plans (2H 2013). The new fab's capacity will be 15,000 monthly substrates. AUO also said they have set up an "experimental" 6G production line with plans to produce large (over 32") samples before the end of 2012.

Japan Display (the new small/medium display maker that merged Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba's businesses) announced that it plans to start mass producing OLED displays for smartphones. First panel samples are expected by March 2013. In order to have an edge over Samsung, JD aims to achieve over 300 ppi and develop panels that are more efficient than Samsung's OLEDs. Analysts suggest that JD will try to secure Apple as a customer for their OLED panels.

Samsung officially spun off its display subsidiary. The new company is called Samsung Display, and will soon merge with Samsung Mobile Display (SMD) and S-LCD. Samsung Display will be active in both OLEDs and LCDs, but the focus will be on the OLED unit. Here's a quote from Samsung's PR announcing the spin-off back in February, stating the importance of OLED technology:

"Currently, the display market is undergoing rapid changes with OLED panels expected to fast replace LCD panels to become the mainstream. Amid this structural change of the Display industry, adopting measures for change and innovation, including business restructuring, are essential to improve our competitiveness for our Display business".

The +Plastic Electronics magazine is now offering a special 10% off discount for new subscribers to OLED-Info readers. The magazine is published six times a year and it provides an authoritative insight into the emerging industry trends, exclusive interviews with commercial developers and integrators, analysis of market data and much more. They also sent us a sample article on flexible electronics. Read more here.

We are happy to announce that we have over 10,000 subscribers to this OLED newsletter. You're not alone in reading this... and this is a great testimonial to how fast the OLED industry and market is growing. And of course to the popularity of OLED-Info. The OLED-Info newsletter offers a great way to easily stay updated with the OLED world. It's a also a great way to promote your OLED related product or service. Wanna see your banner on top of the next issue? Read more about newsletter sponsorship here!.

I will attend the SID 2012 Display Week in Boston this year (June 3-8). My schedule is not finalized yet and I'd be happy to meet with fellow OLED professionals - please contact me here for more details, or simply reply to this mail. See ye' there!