OLED TV: Introduction and Industry News - Page 51

A couple of months ago LG sent me an OLED for a review - a 65" OLEDB6 TV. I loved that TV - it looked great, the image quality is terrific and the smart operation system is excellent - here's my full review, posted in November.

When I posted my review, I had to return the TV to LG, and go back to my previous one - a 40" Philips LED TV. After a week or so, I gave up, and bought myself a 55" OLEDB6. Now I'm back with an OLED TV, and this one isn't going back to LG!

During the International Display Workshops that was help a few weeks ago in Fukuoka Japan, LG Display discussed its new WOLED tandem stack that it plans to introduce soon to its OLED TVs and lighting panels.

LG Display says that its new stack is a "3-stack-OLED" while its existing stack is a "2-stack-OLED". As you can see in the image above, LG apparently counts each emissive layer as a different stack in this case.

2016 will soon come to an end, and we are getting ready to summarize this exciting year in the OLED industry. One year ago we posted the top top OLED stories in 2015, and you can see the list below again.

1. Danish site publishes LG's 2015 OLED TV price list
2. LG Display demonstrates 0.97 mm thick 55" flat OLED TV panels
3. Philips aims to spin-off its OLED lighting business unit
4. LG announces six new OLED TVs, including the world's first bendable TV
5. Everdisplay demonstrates a 6" 4K (734 PPI) AMOLED display
6. Samsung reportedly plans its comeback to the OLED TV market with WRGB panels
7. LG's 55" curved 4K OLED TV, the EG9600 is now shipping for $5,499
8. Researchers claim new method can increase OLED efficiency by 3,000%
9. LG Chem's 320x320 mm OLED lighting panel now in production, company develops new integration solutions
10. LGD plans to ship 600,000 OLED TV panels in 2015 and 1.5 million in 2016

It was not a surprise to find most of the stories discuss OLED TVs - as 2015 marked the year when LG began to push OLED TVs into the market with more vigor.

According to Business Korea, LG Display recently restructured its business so it can better focus on OLED technologies. LG Display's five business units (TV, OLED, IT, mobile and AD) were merged into just three units - TV, IT and mobile.

According to Business Korea, OLED technologies will be the focus of LGD's TV unit, and also of its mobile business unit. The mobile unit now handles all plastic-OLED development, while the TV unit handles the large-area OLED panel production and developement. The new IT unit s still focused on LCD displays (for monitors and laptops). LG's OLED lighting unit is now part of LG's TV business division, and the automotive display business division is now part of the mobile unit.

IHS says that flexible display shipments (mostly OLEDs) will reach 139 million units in 2017 (or 3.8% of the total display market) - an increase of 135% compared to 2016 (59 million units). In 2023 IHS sees shipments of 560 million flexible displays.

In 2017, flexible OLEDs will comprise 20% of the total OLED display market. The growth in flexible OLED adoption will be lead by smartphones - and especially Apple's next-gen iPhone. In 2016 76% of flexible OLEDs ended up in smartphones - and the remainder were used in smartwatches (mostly in Apple's Watch, probably). Next generation flexible OLED applications, including tablets, VR devices, automotive displays and OLED TVs are not expected to be significant until 2023.

A couple of days ago we reported on an interesting story at Forbes that speculates that Sony may announce an OLED TV lineup at CES 2017, using LGD's panels. Forbes now posted a second article with more details on Sony's OLED TV plans - provided by Barry Young from the OLED Association.

Sony 56-inch OLED TV Prototype, 2014

According to Barry, Sony plans to launch two models - a 55" one and 65" one - and both will support 4K. LGD will start supplying Sony with panels in Q2 2016, and Sony will start shipping those TVs in Q3 or Q4 of 2017.

Update: It turns out that this specific $61 million deal is not for an OLED fab, but for BOE Display's upcoming Gen-10.5 LCD fab.

Israel-based inspection solutions provider Orbotech announced it signed an agreement to supply inspection and testing solutions for China's BOE Display upcoming OLED TV fab. The deal is estimated at $61 million, and is Orbotech's largest deal in China so far.

Those inspection systems will be deployed at BOE Display's upcoming 8.5-Gen pilot line in Hefei. According to earlier reports, this fab will produce WRGB OLEDs on an IGZO backplane. According to Orbotec, the facility will produce 90,000 TV panels per month in 2019, and when it reacehs full-scale production it will have a capacity of 120,000 screens. Orbotech will start delivering machines in the first half of 2017.

According to an interesting story at Forbes, Sony may announce an OLED TV lineup at CES 2017 (in a month's time). The company may have already done so at a private event in the UK, but at CES it will do so (according to the speculation, at least) in public.

Sony 56-inch 4K OLED TV prototype - 2013

Sony will be using panels produced by LGD. Sony is actually producing its own large-size AMOLED panels, but only for its professional monitor range. Sony had a consumer OLED TV program, and used to collaborate with Panasonic on that, but that JV was cancelled in 2013. Since then Sony's TV unit produced and demonstrated several high-end LCDs using innovative technology in an effort to match LG's OLED TV performance.

UBI Research predicts that OLED TVs produced using a solution-based process will start to appear in the market in 2019. Evaporation-processed WOLED TVs will still be the market leader with a 85% market share (of the total OLED TVs) in 2021.

Solution-based OLED emitters are not as efficient or long-lasting as evaporation OLEDs, but ink-jet printing will enable to reduce costs compared to evaporation, and for OLED TVs this can make business sense, especially as a WOLED (WRGB) structure is less efficient than a direct-emission RGB architecture. UBI sees solution-based OLEDs competing with WRGB OLEDs for the mid-range TV market, not the premium one.

A few days ago we reported that BOE Display started to supply OLED TV panels to Skyworth. Today we have this photo you see below, showing the new 55" UHD (4K) panels. The new panels were produced at BOE's 8.5-Gen pilot line in Hefei.

Skyworth is currently using LGD WOLED panels for its OLED TVs, and in December 2015 the company launched its latest OLED and OLED HDR TVs . Skyworth hopes to sell 200,000 OLED TVs by the end of March 2017. Skyworth said its main problem with those OLEDs is that LG Display cannot supply them with enough panels, especially the 65" ones - so now it seems Skyworth found its answer with BOE Display.