Rollable OLEDs: introduction and market status - Page 7

Taiwan-based Innolux demonstrated several new display technologies that will enable the company to compete against OLED displays. First up we have this 55" rollable mini-LED display prototype. This is an emissive mini-LED display, it is not a mini-LED backlit LCD display.

Innolux did not disclose any specifications on this display (not even the resolution), but it did say that the display use a flexible PCB and features "high curvature, high brightness, high contrast, high saturation and high definition dynamic picture". Innolux says that rollable OLEDs face challenges of reliability and cost and this technology could prove to succeed where rollable OLEDs cannot.

Foldable OLED display have been introduced in 2019, and today we have several premium smartphones that feature such interesting new displays. Most analysts agree that the foldable OLED market will grow at a very fast rate in the future.

Rollable OLED displays, however, are yet to enter the market. Display makers have been showing rollable display prototypes for many years, but commercial products aren't here yet. LG Display will hopefully start shipping the rollable 65RX OLED TV soon, and the company also says it will ship a rollable OLED smartphone in 2021.

During SID Displayweek 2020, BOE demonstrated its 12.3" Full-HD rollable OLED prototype screen:

BOE now details that the display has a rolling radius of 5 mm, and it can roll 4 cycles. BOE says that device can survive over 100,000 bending cycles.

China-based OLED producer Visionox demonstrated some of its latest OLED technologies at SID Displayweek 2020.

In the video above you can see the company's latest foldable, wrap-around, rollable and flexible panels, in several configurations.

LG Display announced that it is aiming to strike strategic cooperations with companies from industries such as the construction, furniture, and interior design, with an aim to find new application for next-generation OLED displays.

LGD opened a new OLED showroom at LG's Science Park in Magok which allows people to experience different OLED products - including transparent and mirror displays, wallpaper displays and "variable TVs" (not sure what is meant by that, perhaps it is a reference to LG's rollable OLED technology). LGD also released the video you see above showing several "virtual" OLED display demonstrations

LG's CEO, Kwon Bong-seok, announced that LG aims to be the first company to introduce a rollable OLED smartphone - as early as the beginning of 2021.

According to reports LG has already started working on prototype devices. Interestingly, according to the report the supplier of the rollable panel is BOE, and not LG Display.

IHS Markit says that the rollable OLED market is finally starting to emerge, and will grow quickly but unit shipments will remain slow in the foreseeable future. IHS sees 100,000 rollable OLED displays shipped in 2022, growing to 1.3 million by 2026. The CAGR from 2019 to 2026 will be 167%.

Rollable OLEDs will remain a niche- the share of rollable OLEDs from all flexible OLEDs will be 0.2% in 2026. Foldable OLEDs will be a much larger market - reaching 71.3 million units in 2025.

Update: It seems we were mistaken, this prototype is not a hybrid QD-OLED, but a 'regular' OLED. This is still an impressive development - a rollable inkjet-printed OLED display.

TCL and Juhua Printing demonstrated a 31" FHD inkjet-printed rollable hybrid QD-OLED TV prototype. The display uses an IGZO (Oxide-TFT) backplane and TCL says that it has an aperture ratio of over 50%, brightness of 200 nits and a 90% DCI-P3 color gamut.

TCL's hybrid display technology (which TCL calls H-QLED) uses a blue OLED emitter coupled with red and green QD emitters. All three emitter materials are combined and printed using ink-jet printing technology.

Digital Trends published this nice video that shows LG's OLED booth at CES 2020, which shows LG's newest OLED TV technologies - including the 8K TVs, the Gallery OLED TVs and the rollable TV prototypes and products on display:

LG is demonstrating a new roll-down 65" 4K OLED TV prototype, and the BBC posted this nice video that shows this new panel, in addition to other LG OLED technologies shown at CES 2020: