OLED TV: Introduction and Industry News - Page 68

DisplaySearch says that the AMOLED market growth is accelerating, and the company's latest forecasts say that the market will grow from $10.3 billion in 2014 to just over $23 billion in 2022.

Most of the growth will be from the OLED TV market - which will grow from $400 million (2014) to over $9 billion in 2022. DisplaySearch previously stated that they believe that the falling prices of LCD TVs make it very difficult for OLED TVs to penetrate the market.

Yesterday I posted that LG Display managed to increase their 4K OLED TV production yields - and I said it may lead LG to reduce the prices of their latest OLED TVs. In perfect timing, Amazon reduced $1,000 off the 55EG9600, LG's 2015-model UHD (4K) 55" curved OLED TV.

LG's EG9600 TVs were introduced at CES 2015, and the new 4K OLED TVs feature a new anti-glare filter, webOS 2.0 OS and quad-core CPUs. The 55EG9600 is now shipping for $4,499, down $1,000 from the original asking price.

LG Display is currently focused on 4K OLED TV panels, and according to ET News, the company managed to increase production yields of 65" and 77" 4K OLEDs to 65% and they expect the yields to continue and increase and reach over 85% by the end of they ear. LGD's Full-HD panel yields are now over 80%.

This is good news which will hopefully lead to lower OLED TV prices soon. We know that LGD aims to produce 600,000 OLED TVs in 2015 and 1.5 million in 2016. ETNews says that most of these panels will be 4K OLEDs: 510,000 in 2015 and 1.29 million in 2016. LGD's goal is to produce over 5 million 4K OLED TV panels in 2018.

Samsung Display unveiled new large-size mirror and transparent OLED display panels. Together with jewelry company Chow Sang Sang Samsung exhibited the two display in an exhibit that shows the promise of such displays in the commercial and retail markets.

The idea behind the virtual-fitting room exhibition is that those displays can provide a "digital viewing platform" to enhance the consumer's purchasing experience. The displays are integrated with Intel's Real Sense technology and 3D cameras to allow consumers to virtually see clothes or other items in a realistic perspective.

TCL's chairman, Tomson Li, gave an SID DisplayWeek speech, during which he predicted that the next-gen large-size displays will be printed OLEDs. Tomson said that global partners are welcome to join TCL and co-develop printed technologies, processes and materials.

During the DisplayWeek exhibition, TCL's CSOT subsidiary demonstrated three new AMOLED display prototypes, including a 5.5" PWM LTPS OLED and a 31" OLED TV panel. In May 2014 TCL announced plans to co-develop 5.5" LTPS AMOLEDs with Ignis innovation, I do not know if the new 5.5" demonstrators are based on this collaboration.

A couple of weeks ago LG Display demonstrated 0.97 mm thick 55" OLED panels that stick to the wall using magnets. Several people told me they don't think this is real, but here's a video showing this display in action:

This is currently just a prototype, but hopefully LGD will manage to commercialize this panel soon. Towards the end of the video you can see that the panel (which weighs less than 2 Kg, by the way) is connected to the wall-mount using a small cable. The video also shows the new convex OLED panel prototypes.

The Korea Times posted an interesting interview with Merck's OLED unit VP, Dr. Udo Heider. Udo is 'pretty confident' that Samsung will soon start producing OLED TVs again.

In the past few weeks we heard several conflicting reports on Samsung's OLED TV program. Some say they will abandon OLEDs completely (and go for QLED TVs instead), while other reports say that Samsung will soon re-enter the OLED TV market. Last year Merck stated that Quantum Dot based TVs, unlike OLEDs, are no game changer.

SID announced their display of the year awards toward DisplayWeek 2015, and OLEDs won both awards. The Gold award went to the flexible OLED display used in Samsung's Galaxy Note Edge device (5.59" curved WQXGA panel). The silver award went to LG Display's 65" 4K curved OLED TV panel. AUO's 1.4" circular AMOLED, now in mass production, was honored with the 'best in show' award.

LG Display's 1.3" 320x320 circular flexible plastic OLED (used in the G Watch R) won the display application of the year, silver award.

Researchers from Japan's Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL) and Advanced Film Device developed a 81-inch 8Kx4K OLED display that is built from 36 13.5" flexible OLED panels that have transparent edges on two adjacent sides.

The transparent edges enabled the researchers to connect the tiles seamlessly - to create the world's largest OLED display ever developed.

According to a report from Korea, Samsung is considering developing Quantum-Dot displays (QLEDs) for TV panels that will compete with OLED TVs. Samsung has failed to commercialize large-sized OLEDs using its direct-emission architecture, and reportedly believes it will fair better with quantum-dot displays.

Samsung is already producing LCD TVs enhanced with quantum-dots films that enhance the color gamut - but these aren't QLED TVs. A QLED is similar to an OLED - an emissive display that uses the QDs as light emitting materials.