February 2007

A Texan judge ruled in a summary judgment that Canon did indeed violate the terms of the technology licensing agreement with Nano-Proprietary by bringing Toshiba in as a partner in SED manufacturing. The court has yet to determine what damage this has caused, but at this point a monetary fine may not be the worst of what Canon will undergo in continuing in SED production.

Unless Canon is successful in appealing the judgment, the company will have to renegotiate a new licensing agreement for Nano-Proprietary's technology if it is going to continue with plans to produce SED displays. With Canon now on the defensive it remains to be seen how aggressively Nano-Proprietary will leverage its apparent legal advantage. Regardless, the recent ruling will likely lead Canon to pause its plans for SED manufacturing yet again.

Art.Lebedev says that the OLED keys in the Optimus keyboard will have three types (OLED, backlit and regular plastic keys). They will also be swappable. They will sell several configurations of the keyboard (for example, where only the 'F' keys are OLEDs) with different prices. You will then be able to 'upgrade' some of the keys if you want.

Read more here (Optimus blog)

In its latest Quarterly OLED Shipment and Forecast Report, DisplaySearch also disclosed the following -

• Samsung SDI and Sony began production of AMOLEDs in Q1'07.
• Teco (Taiwan), which is moving their fab from Taiwan to China, continued to use its Taiwan fab, shipping MP3 displays to iRiver.
• Univision was reported to be in financial difficulties, and while they were able to ship >3M displays in Q4'06, the volume is forecast to fall below 600K in Q1'07.
• Revenues are forecast to grow to over $142.5M in Q1'07, due in large part to the introduction of AMOLEDs for mobile phone main displays by Samsung SDI.

DisplaySearch revealed in its latest Quarterly OLED Shipment and Forecast Report that 2006 OLED shipments were 72.1M, up 29%, and revenues were $475M, down 3%, as the ASP dropped 24% Y/Y. OLED displays compete with LCDs in small/medium applications such as mobile phone main displays and sub-displays, MP3s, and automotive consoles. The top six suppliers had a market share of 92.4% as the industry continued to consolidate.

In Q4'06, OLED shipments were 22.2M and revenues hit $145.3M. OLED shipments decreased 2% Q/Q due to an 11% decrease in main displays and a 12% drop in MP3 players. PMOLEDs continue to dominate the market with a revenue share of over 93%. There are now 13 small molecule and 2 P-OLED producers with small molecule having a 99% revenue share.

In Q4'06, RiTdisplay regained the #1 position in both units and revenue with 5.4M displays and $26.5M in revenue. Pioneer was #5 in shipments and #2 in revenue, while Samsung SDI was #2 in shipments and #3 in revenue for the quarter. LGE was #3 in shipments and #4 in revenue, and Univision was #4 in units and #5 in revenue,

According to a new report from NanoMarkets the market for OLEDs used in displays and lighting applications is expected to reach $10.9 billion ($US) by 2012 and grow to $15.5 billion by the year 2014. Details about the firm’s newest report are available at the firm's website located at www.nanomarkets.net.

Key findings from the report include:

Mobility: OLED displays are particularly well suited to the needs of mobile communications and computing because of their low power consumption and ability to support mobile video. NanoMarkets expects OLED-based displays for mobile phones and other handheld devices to reach $7.2 billion in revenues by 2014.

Novaled has achieved groundbreaking results in lifetime, voltage and efficiency of top emitting RGB stacks with its PIN OLED technology. Lifetimes for blue OLEDs are up to 16,000 hours, for red and green up to 100,000 hours at an initial brightness of 500 cd/m². This latest performance means that green OLED devices are now outperforming their bottom emission reference samples by a factor of 2.5. White top emission devices achieved a lifetime of 18,000 hours at a driving voltage of 3 V and a starting luminance of 1,000 cd/m².

The lowest ever reported operating voltage has been realised for green top emission OLED stacks of 2.5 V at 1,000 cd/m². At 95 cd/A, the current efficiency is even higher than for comparable bottom emission devices. These green devices are based on standard emitter material Ir(ppy)3.

Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) has made remarkable progress in its development of organic electroluminescent (organic EL) device technology based on an innovative singlelayer organic electroluminescent devices based on phosphorescent polymer materials, achieving the world's highest external quantum efficiency of 17% for green light and 16% for blue light, respectively, with durability of 350,000 hours (initial luminance: 100 cd/m2). SDK is also developing a large surface-emission panel based on this polymer technology and will build a trial volume-production line by the middle of this year. Quantum efficiency means the rate at which energy input is finally taken out as light. Theoretically, the maximum quantum efficiency for phosphorescent organic EL device is 20%.

SDK has achieved a breakthrough by developing a new copolymer - in which phosphorescent substance and other materials are mixed - realizing highest-level emissive efficiency in the industry today.



Although low-molecular-weight-compound-based organic EL devices need to be produced at under vacuum, polymer-based organic EL devices can be produced under less expensive, normal conditions. So far, problems with emissive efficiency and durability hampered commercialization efforts. With SDK's proprietary singlelayer organic electroluminescent devices based on phosphorescent polymer materials and cleaning/interface control technology, however, it is now possible to produce high-performance and stable organic EL panels. (Since an organic EL layer of less than 100 nm in thickness is sandwiched between electrodes, the cleanliness of electrode surface and work function largely influence the device performance.) SDK will further improve the technology and aim to place the new product on the market by the end of 2008.



While organic EL devices are generally developed for high-precision display applications, including mobile phones and large-screen TVs, SDK is aiming to develop advertisement and display applications, fully utilizing the advantages of high emissive efficiency, long durability and large area-emission due to the proprietary phosphorescent copolymer. SDK is planning to achieve annual sales of 10 billion from this product in 2010.

CMO's non-operating losses increased from NT$534 million (US$16.1 million) in the third quarter of 2006 to NT$829 million in the fourth quarter, as Chi Mei Electroluminescence (CMEL), a subsidiary that specializes in OLED panels, had losses of nearly NT$300 million while Delta-CMO Optoelectronics Company, an affiliate that produces flat-panel lighting sources, had losses of NT$60-70 million, according to CMO.

CMO is still evaluating the competitiveness of CMEL and will have a final decision between the end of 2007 and mid-2008, Ho said

Read more here (DigiTimes)

Innovatrics releases Fingera, fingerprint based time attendance system for the small to medium business sector. Fingera is a fingerprint based system to collect employee time and attendance information, which represents a simple yet powerful alternative to badge and password based systems. These are, due to their portability, very often subject to fraud and can be lost, forgotten or shared within employees.

Fingera consists of two parts - The software part, entirely designed and developed by Innovatrics runs on standard Windows based PC. For full functionality, Innovatrics uses hardware developed by their partners, fingerprint scanner from DigitalPersona and Optimus Mini Three keyboard from ArtLebedev.

Optimus Mini Three is used as a complementary device for improved interactivity between users and the system without needing to use PC screen, mouse or keyboard. This allows the computer to be used for a regular work and all the interaction is done via Optimus Mini Three keyboard.

iRiver have posted some more info about their new A/V player - the Clix2. It is now official that is uses a 2.2" AMOLED screen from Samsung SDI.

There is a lot of information, mostly about the screen (which is apparently the main selling point of the Clix2). It's all in Korean, though...