LG Display announced that it decided to build a new 6-Gen (1500x1850 mm) flexible OLED fab in a KRW1.05 trillion ($900 million) investment. The new E5 line will be located at LGD's Gumi Plant and will have a capacity of 7,500 monthly substrates - or 1.5 million 5.5" panels. The new fab is scheduled to begin mass production in the first half of 2017.

LGD has been internally discussing a new flexible OLED fab for quite a while, and it's great to see that they finally made an official decision. The flexible OLED market is expected to grow quickly in the near future as these displays unlock new applications and are very competitive in the wearable, automotive and mobile devices markets.

LG currently produces plastic-based OLEDs in its Gen-4.5 fab, with a monthly capacity of 14,000 substrates (more than double its capacity in the beginning of 2014). LG Display's flexible AMOLEDs are used in LG's mobile phones (the G Flex 2), wearable devices (such as the Watch Urbane) and in Apple's Watch.

Interestingly, the new fab's capacity is rather low at 7,500 monthly substrates. It's likely that this is only the initial capacity and LGD will increase that later on.

The first-generation Apple Watch uses a flexible OLED display, exclusively produced by LG Display. Apple is undoubtedly working on the next-generation smartwatch, and analysts are already speculating about the display to be used in the Watch 2.

New reports say that Apple signed up Samsung Display to be the second flexible OLED supplier for the next-generation Watch. This is actually quite funny - even before the official launch of the Watch in March 2015, we heard the same report. Later on it was said that Apple decided to make LGD the exclusive flexible OLED display supplier for the Watch 2. And now we're back to the first report with SDC as a supplier.

LG announced plans to expand its flexible OLED production capacity in a $900 million investment. While the new fab will only begin production in the second half of 2017, it may be that LGD feels confident that Apple will remain a customer.

Finally, another technology that should be on our watch list is Apple's micro-LED technology. Originally developed by LuxVue (acquired by Apple in 2014), interest in this technology is increasing, no doubt because of Apple's involvement. While it's still in an early stage, and using it to create large display is very challenging, a micro-LED display is attractive as it may be more efficient than an OLED display (as LEDs are currently more efficient than OLEDs). Some speculate that Apple aims to use such displays in future Watch devices as making a smaller display is obviously easier at first.

Samsung announced two new AMOLED tablets, the Galaxy Tab S2 9.7-inch and Galaxy Tab S2 8-inch. Both tablets adopt QXGA (2048x1536) Super AMOLED displays (263 PPI on the 9.7" and 320 PPI on the 8").

Those AMOLED displays are actually of lower density than those used in the first-gen Tab S tablets (which were WQXGA, or 2560x1600 or 287/359 PPI). Samsung however says that the Tab S2 OLEDs are "newly optimized" and deliver 94% of the Adobe RGB standard for true-to-life colors. The new aspect ratio (the tablets are not as wide as the Tab S ones) is better for reading, too.

Other features of the new tablets include an octa-core CPU, 3GB of RAM, 32/64 GB of internal storage, 8MP rear camera, LTE (on some models), Android 5.0 and a 5,870/4,000 mAh battery. Samsung says that these are the thinnest (5.6 mm) and lightest (389/265 grams) metal-framed tablet on the market. Both tablets will launch in August 2015, in either Wi-Fi or LTE and Wi-Fi models. Prices aren't available yet.

IHS says that flexible displays are an "increasingly important segment of overall display market revenues", and by 2024 flexible displays (mostly OLEDs) will grab 15% of the total flat panel display market. Flexible display production will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 44% from 2014 - to reach $23 billion in 2024. The growth may actually accelerate when display makers start to produce rollable, foldable and stretchable panels and devices. A couple of months ago IHS stated that they expect flexible OLED shipments to reach about 25 million displays in 2015 - and over 100 million units in 2019.

ETNews posted what seems to be LG Display's own forecasts for UHD (4K) OLED TV production from 2014 to 2020 - in which LGD aims to produce over 12 million UHD OLED TVs in 2020. According to the OLED Association LG indeed managed to increase production yields of 4K OLEDs. The company is now conducting extensive R&D in inkjet printing of OLEDs as this seems to be a promising route towards greater material efficiency and faster production

If we're on the subject of material efficiency, n-tech Research (previously known as Nanomarkets) released a new report in which they see a the OLED materials market growing from $970 million in 2015 to over $4.4 billion in 2020 and $9.7 billion in 2022. n-tech sees positive development in OLEDs for mobile devices and wearables, but "some uncertainty" in OLED TVs and OLED lighting. n-Tech is also seeing pricing pressures that will accelerate with the expiration of key IP over the next few years, although novel value-added materials (such as better emitters, TADF materials and a deep blue PHOLED emitter) may offset this somewhat.

Visionox unveiled a new rollable flexible AMOLED panel prototype. This is a 4.6" panel with a resolution of 800x480. This display has a curvature radius of less than 3 mm and a thickness of only 20 μm.

Visionox says that they plan to mass producing such displays within two years. Looking at the video above, it's clear that there are still defects in this display, so it will take some work to achieve mass production of such a display. Visionox recently started to mass produce the company's first AMOLED panel, a 5.5" display aimed towards the mid/high smartphone market. While the company did not reveal any technical specifications, it's likely that this is a Full-HD panel. Visionox's Gen-5.5 AMOLED line can currently produce 4,000 monthly substrate, and once yields stabilize they will reach a full capacity of 15,000 monthly substrates.

A few days ago we launched OLED-Info's new design. The changes are not dramatic, but we changed some of the menu system, made the site (hopefully) cleaner and more modern. Most importantly, this design is now mobile-friendly and should prove easier to read on smartphones.

We hope this design will make the site nicer and easier to read, we'll be happy to hear your thoughts and comments!