November 2008

A new AMOLED display center is announced in Shanghai - SVEDF. This is a joint venture of SVA Electron company and Shanghai University.

The center aim is to build an AMOLED R&D and trial production line. They hope to raise about 250M$ to build a real production line, capable or making 1.8" to 7" AMOLEDs by 2010. By 2015 they plan to make even larger displays.

The center will be working with several scientific and technological projects based in China, from companies and government sources.

Cowon say that the S9 Curve will be available in the US in december. The S9 curve has a touchscreen 3.3" (480x272) AMOLED display. It also has a 500Mhz dual-core CPU, bluetooth, FM radio, TV out and a USB2 connector. In korea it has a T-DMB, but this won't work in the US.

UDC announced today that it had renewed its Commercial Supply Agreement with LG Display. The previous agreement terminated on June 30 2008, and the new one is effective till June 30 2009.

BASF and Osram Opto Semiconductors have developed a highly efficient white OLED panel. The efficiency is over 60 lm/w. This development was part of the OPAL project which launched in 2008. Other partners in this project include Aixtron, Philips and Applied Materials.

It seems this is video week here at OLED-Info, and we've got another nice video of Samsung's flexible 'flapping' OLED display. As a reminder, Samsung displayed this new flexible display a few weeks ago. It's a 4" display, 480x272, contrast 100,000:1, 200cd/m2 luminence. It is very thin - 0.05mm.

If you liked yesterday's news about Samsung's flexible oled in a mobile phone prototype, we have got a better video of the phone:

Apparently what Samsung are doing is tiling two OLED displays side by side, to create a larger display. So this is not really a flexible OLED at all - just two thin OLED put together!

MicroEmissive displays (makers of P-OLED microdisplays) is facing financial problems. They run out through most of their cash, and are now seeking UK government protection (appoints administration).

MED is hoping to sell off the company. They have been in talks for a long time with several buyers. In fact they have seen good interest in the displays - but this hasn't converted to sales.

MED could run out of money in December - we hope they'll be able to find a solution quick.

Apple has filed a patent for an iPhone display that has two backlights. The idea is to have a second low-power backlight that will be always on. So you can easily check if you have messages, or other stuff without having to turn the main display on.

I think it's time Apple thought about using an OLED - in which no backlight is required, and if you just make a small screensaver with the time and messages status - it will draw very little power.

UPDATE - this display is not a flexible display - it is simply two 'regular' OLED displays tiled together. OLEDs are very thin, so it's possible to make it look good.

At FPD 2008, Samsung showed a mobile phone prototype that has a flexible OLED display. The phone is like a clam shell, but the inside screen is full sized, and then it is folded when the phone is closed.

Jin Sung-Ho, a chemistry professor at Pusan National Univeristy in South Korea, say they have succeeded in devloping efficient true-blue OLED materials. The project was state funded, together with Seoul National University.