Digitimes reports that CMEL has landed 7.6" AMOLD panel orders from Kodak. The panels will be used in digital photo frames.

CMEL will start shipping those in September - just in time for Kodak to sell the photo frames in the holiday season. 

CMEL has a capacity of 100,000 monthly panels, and is installing a 2nd line (will come online in early 2009)

Read more here (Digitimes) 

TMDisplay (JV between Matsushita and Toshiba) says it developed an OLED panel with the world's longest lifetime and best efficiency. The 2.2-inch OLED panel has a lifetime of 60,000 hours and power consumption of 100 mW.

TMDisplay has developed the new panel in cooperation with Idemitsu Kosan, a Japanese oil refiner active in OLED materials development. They say they aim to start commercial production of the advanced OLED panels by March 2009 for cellphones and other mobile devices. It has yet to decide the size of production. Previous reports say that TMDisplay will invest 140M$ on OLED production, and that they set their monthly output of 1.5M units a month (at 2.5").

There are some rumors across the web that Canon will release two new SLR cameras (5D Mark II and EOS-50) with 3" 'high-res' OLED displays. These might be revealed at the Photokina trade show (September).

More 'details' of the cameras here (DPReview)

The worldwide AMOLED market will grow to 185.2 million units by 2014,
rising at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 84.2%, up from 2.6
million units in 2007, according to iSuppli. Revenue is expected to
grow in concert, expanding to US$4.6 billion by 2014, up at a CAGR of
83.3% from US$67 million in 2007.

In order to accelerate the process of migrating AMOLED
technology from niche to mass market, multiple suppliers must add to
their manufacturing resources and ramp up production quickly, Jakhanwal
advised. "While mobile handsets are the obvious main target for the
technology, these phones require multiple sources of suppliers with
sufficient volumes to meet demand. It's unlikely that a single company
will be able to fulfill this demand in the short term because no
supplier presently has sufficient capacity."

Furthermore,
instead of focusing on the entire mobile handset market, suppliers
initially should target only high-end wireless phones because this will
allow them to justify producing products with superior images that
command higher Average Selling Prices (ASPs) than other displays.
High-end QVGA resolution handsets could generate high-volume demand for
AM-LCDs. However, the ASPs of AMOLEDs must decline in order to compete
with TFT-LCDs.

Finally, aggressively improving manufacturing yields and efficiency is
a must for AMOLED suppliers in order to reduce the costs of their
products. These issues have plagued the AMOLED business since its
inception. iSuppli believes AMOLED equipment, Intellectual Property
(IP), material and panel companies should collaborate to overcome these
manufacturing challenges. This will help build on each company's
strengths and avoid duplication of effort.

Read more here (digitimes)

There are reports in Japan that Matsushita will raise the number of engineers who are dedicated to OLEDs to 200, and will also hire "OLED experts" from outside.

As a reminder, Matsushita plans to make 37" OLED TVs in three years.

Read more here (NextBigFuture) 

University of Utah physicists suggest it will be more difficult than thought to make highly efficient OLED, as findings hint such LEDs would convert no more than 25% of electricity into light rather than heat, contrary to earlier estimates of up to 63%.

A 2001 Nature paper by other University of Utah physicists suggested it might be possible to make OLEDs that converted 41% to 63% of incoming electricity into light. But the new study suggests 25% efficiency may be correct at least for the organic polymer studied pure MEH-PPV and possibly for others.

The Research Institute for Organic Electronics (RIOE) from Japan focuses on developing the world-leading technology to put the Organic EL lighting into practical use. RIOE is showing us what the future will look like with OLED lighting: 

RIOE also suggest all sorts of new applications - light on your toothbrush handle, inside drawers, under the water faucet, alongside your stairs, and more.

eMagin Corporation issued financial results for its second quarter ending June 30, 2008.

Financial Summary

• Revenue for the three and six months ending June 30, 2008, of approximately $5.6 million and $8.3 million, represent increases of 33% and 6% from $4.2 million and $7.8 million for the same periods in 2007.
• Gross margins in 2008 grew to 47% of revenue or $2.6 million for the quarter and 36% or $3 million for the six-month period as compared to 30% of revenue or $1.3 million for the quarter and 23% or $1.8 million for the six-month period in 2007. These results were due to higher volume and better yield.
• Operating expenses declined 4% and 13% from $2.3 million and $4.8 million for the three and six month periods ending June 30, 2008, as compared to $2.4 million and $5.5 million in 2007.
• Operating income for the three months ending June 30, 2008 totaled $0.3 million compared to an operating loss of $1.1 million in 2007. For the six-month period, losses were $1.8 million in 2008, down 49% or $1.9 million from $3.7 million in 2007.

"I am pleased to announce that the Company has achieved positive operating income the second quarter of 2008, and we initiated a path forward that we believe will result in increased profitability with a lower cost structure and improved yields, said Andrew G. Sculley, chief executive officer and president, eMagin Corporation.

Selected Business Highlights

• At the Society for Information Display Conference, eMagin demonstrated its enhanced SVGA+ microdisplay, which the Company believes to be the most power efficient OLED solution for near-eye applications. Better power efficiency results in lighter and/or longer lasting mobile display products.
• eMagin is now shipping first samples of its new higher resolution microdisplay. Besides great contrast and a SXGA or 1280x1024 format at 0.77-inch diagonal, this display has outstanding power efficiency. The company’s measurements show that it is at least 4 times more power efficient than competitive products.

I'm happy to announce that we upgraded OLED-Info's infrastructure from Drupal 4.7.4 to Drupal 5.8. As a reader you will
not find many differences, but hopefully it will prove a more stable,
safe and quick system.

If you do find any bugs or glitches, please let us know...

Konica Minolta and Universal Display Corporation today announced the signing of an OLED Technology License Agreement. Under the agreement, Konica Minolta will be able to integrate Universal Display's proprietary OLED technologies into Konica Minolta's white OLED lighting products, thus securing Konica Minolta to accelerate commercialization and to strengthen the competitiveness of its white OLEDs.

"We have been collaborating successfully with Universal Display in the OLED development for several years, and we are very much pleased that we have entered into the OLED Technology License Agreement with Universal Display today" stated Masatoshi Matsuzaki, Chief Technology Officer of Konica Minolta Holdings.