November 2005

The OSRAM Pictiva Reference Design Kit from Anders Electronics provides a turnkey hardware platform that allows designers to quickly power up, initialise, test various modes, and display images on the on-board OLED module via a host desktop or laptop PC. A user friendly PC interface is also provided, supporting useful functions including contrast level adjustment and gamma tables.

The board includes a 128 x 64 pixels OSRAM Pictiva OLED display, 8051 microcontroller and on-board serial flash memory, enabling designers to quickly begin developing software. The kit also includes GUI reference design and graphics generation source code for firmware, plus necessary cables and comprehensive documentation. Electronic documents provided include driver data sheets, users manual and seven application notes guiding designers through OLED driver register setup, communication protocols, power, image and lifetime optimisation, plus further essential knowledge to complete an OLED design. Schematics, gerber files and bill of materials are also included, to speed up hardware development.

The 128 x 64 pixels OLED display provided on board the Pictiva development kit has 100 nits luminance, 160° viewing angle, 100:1 contrast ratio, and operating temperature range -30° to 70° C.

A wide range of similar OLED display modules are also available from Anders Electronics, in popular display formats including 80x48, 96x36, 96x64 and 128x48, as well as 128x64.

MagnaChip today announced the launch of its PMOLED QCIF+ two-chip solution, the HM16EPS7201 chip and the HM16EPC7101 chip.

These chips are designed for the main display on mobile devices and specifically the MP3 display market. They are the first chips to support QCIF+ resolution.

These chips offer one of the highest resolutions available in PMOLED technology. The HM16EPS7201 chip can support 220RGB (column line), while the HM16EPC7101 chip supports 176 (Row line). Notable MP3, mobile and panel companies are currently evaluating these unique product offerings.

These products are scheduled to go into mass production in the first half of 2006. The HM16EPS7201 chip is produced at MagnaChip's F5 located in Cheongju and the HM16EPC7101 at MagnaChip's F3 in Gumi.

Sony announced that it will jointly develop OLED materials with Japanese oil company Idemitsu Kosan. The two companies will also cross-licence OLED-related patents as part of the joint development plan, which was spelled out in a memorandum of understanding signed by the two companies in Tokyo today.

Sony and Idemitsu are expecting to sign a formal deal by the end of January. The deal will (initially) cover a 5-year development effort.

OSD Displays announced new 100k hour PMOLED displays. This new lifetime advancement will allow new applications to consider OLED technology. The advancement is limited to monochromatic products in a few limited color offerings. The lifetime is calculated for operational hours from initial to half-brightness at 25 C.

The new feature product offering this technology is the OSD312-B-CON, 256x64 monochrome OLED. This display is perfect for a full range of 1RU rack mount designs, automotive, avionics, and a full range of applications. The display can support 7-bits per pixel PWM for grayscale image depth. The display offers compatibility with parallel, I2C, and SPI interfaces via a standard ZIF-style 0.5mm pitch flex interface. The display is a relatively large OLED display offered at 3.12 @ 88.0 x 27.8 x 2.2 mm outline dimensions.

Plextronics has won a contract potentially worth $1.8 million to develop technology that could help commercialize devices used for high-definition TVs and computer monitors.

The contract was awarded by the U.S. Display Consortium, a San Jose-based public/private group established by the federal government to help strengthen the country's standing in the display manufacturing segment.

Plextronics, based outside of Pittsburgh in Harmarville, Pa., said it will use the funding to continue to develop its Plexcore product, a polymer ink that helps improve the efficiency of OLED displays, which could be used in such things as high-definition TVs.

DisplaySearch indicated in its latest Quarterly OLED Shipment and Forecast Report that OLED shipments grew to 16.7M and revenues hit $130.9M in Q3'05. OLED shipments increased 144% Y/Y due to 35% growth in MP3 player sales, and 93% growth in industrial displays. All of the growth is in PMOLEDs using small molecule material; AMOLED producers-Sanyo Kodak, AUO and Sony-shipped less than 50K displays in Q3/05. P-OLED material panel producers continued to struggle with less than a 3% share of total shipments.

Samsung SDI led in units and revenue in Q3'05 with slightly over 4.4M displays and $37.1M in revenue. RiTdisplay was #2 in both shipments and revenue. TDK experienced the strongest growth of the top five, with shipments up 138% Q/Q to 1.2M and revenue up 81% Q/Q to $7.6M.

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Using plastic instead of glass substrates enables panel manufacturers to create bendable, flexible LCDs for mobile and consumer electronics applications. Samsung claims it has created the largest flexible display to date: The 7-inch prototype achieves VGA resolution.

On the performance side, the display 640 x 480 pixel resolution (VGA) at 114 ppi, which is in line with other types of bendable displays. The aperture ratio of the device is rated at 40 percent, the brightness at 100 nits and the color saturation at 60 percent. Samsung claims that the specs are sufficient to make plastic substrates a viable alternative to glass substrates even for digital TVs.
Flexibility is considered to be the next major step for LCD technology. Used already in Japan in the advertising industry, bendable screens are typically based on OLED variants. For example, Fujitsu recently announced an OLED-based "electronic paper," that includes non-volatile image memory, which can store and display a static color image without power supply.

With funding from the Naval Research Office, Virtually Better designed "Virtual Iraq" to support exposure therapy of anxiety disorders resulting from the high-stress environment. The treatment involves exposing the patient to a virtual environment containing the feared situation rather than taking the patient into the actual environment or having the patient imagine the stimulus. The virtual environment is controlled by the therapist through a computer keyboard ensuring full control of the exposure to the programmed situations. Virtual reality exposure treatment allows the therapist to manipulate situations to best suit the individual patient during a standard therapy hour (usually 45-50 minutes) and within the confines of the therapist's office.

Virtually Better chose to include eMagin's Z800 3DVisor as the medium for delivering the VR exposure. "It delivered the level of immersion we needed for successful treatments," said Ken Graaf, chief executive officer, Virtually Better. "The combination of the OLED displays delivering 3D stereovision and the wide field of view were a natural fit for the simulations we have been developing." Besides "Virtual Iraq," Virtually Better applications currently include Virtual Airplane, Virtual Audiences, Virtual Heights, Virtual Storm, and Virtual Vietnam. Built on the eMagin's proven OLED technology base, the Z800 3DVisor provides full-color, 360-degree, 3D stereovision through its state-of-the-art head tracking and SVGA 3D OLED microdisplays. With stereo earbuds and a noise-canceling microphone, the Visor enables group training scenarios as well as individual-based training and therapy sessions.

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors today announced the latest achievements in its white OLED project, funded by a $4.65 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The 2004 DOE grant was issued to research the potential of white OLEDs to save energy in commercial and residential lighting applications. OSRAM's most recent milestone provides a breakthrough in polymer-OLED technology by achieving a record 25 lumens-per-watt (lm/W) of device efficiency.

The company also announced it has developed the first polymer-OLED, "tunable" light source, enabling color tuning and true illumination-design freedom.
"We are very excited to announce our latest DOE achievements. These milestones directly support the DOE's objectives by demonstrating polymer-OLED potential in lighting applications," said Dr. Alfred Felder, OLED Business Unit Head, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. "By exploring polymer-OLED technology for solid-state lighting applications, we have created a powerful, innovative and desirable solution with confirmed compatibility and scalability over large areas."

Toshimasa Iue (Sanyo President) also said the company may exit the organic light emitting diodes, or OLED, display business and seek an alliance for its television operations.