June 2009

Samsung has officially announced the SCH-W760, as reported/leaked in May. The phone is able to record infra-red video (Samsung calls it Infrared Video Telephony - IRVT), has a 2.8" WQVGA AMOLED, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 3Mp camera and a microSD slot.

AnalogicTech says it will start making drivers for small AMOLEDs. They claim that they have an innovative power supply
waiting in the wings. "An AMOLED needs a positive supply and a negative
supply. These need a positive boost converter and a negative boost
converter," CEO Richard Williams said. "That's two coils but we are privately sampling a
PSU that independently regulates the plus and minus rails from a single
coil with a measured efficiency comparable with dual converters."

Gamma correction - this time to compensate for the
different characteristics of red, green and blue OLED materials, is
another target. 

Metku.net has posted a comprehensive review (that is sadly no longer available) of a couple of OLED modules (including a touch one) from 4D Systems. They like the panels, think they are very easy to use, but also notes that these are not the cheapest modules, of course, being OLED.

Metku tested two modules - a 0.96" OLED (µOLED-96-G1), and a 2.4" with Touch (µOLED-32024-P1T), and provide a lot of photos, code example, videos and explanations.

4D Systems has announced a new serial graphic controller designed for their µOLED and µLCD display panel. The controller provides a simple, flexible and effective, low-cost graphics user interface solution for rapid application development and time-to-market.

Universal Display and Seiko Epson have been working on their inkjet printable, phosphorescent
OLED technology and materials for quite some time... They have now announced new advances in performace:

• A red P²OLED
  with CIE (0.67, 0.33), an efficiency of 10 candela per ampere (cd/A) and
  an operating lifetime of 20,000 hours, to 50% of initial luminance of
  1,000 nits


• A green P²OLED with CIE (0.33, 0.62), an
  efficiency of 34 cd/A and an operating lifetime of 25,000 hours.

Just a few days ago we talked to Seiko-Epson on their new inkjet OLED technology. They hope to have OLED TVs with this new tech in the market at around 2012.

Quantum Dots are getting a lot of attention lately, especially as a new SSL lighting technology. One of the companies that is working on this new tech is QD Vision. Their co-founder and CTO, Seth Coe-Sullivan has agreed to explain the technology, introduce the company, and answer a few questions.

Seth received his Ph.D in electrical engineering from MIT in 2005, writing a thesis on incorporating quantum dots in hybrid organic/inorganic LED structure. That's the technology basis of QD Vision. Seth was chosen as one of the top young entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by BusinessWeek.

QD Vision is a quantum-dot product company that delivers highly differentiated lighting solutions to major industries where color, power and design matter - these include lighting, displays, signage and defense. QD Vision’s Quantum Light™ platform enables step-change advances over other display and lighting solutions such as LCDs, plasma displays, LEDs and even organic LEDs (OLEDs). QD Vision is privately held, based in MA, US, and has several first-tier patents originating at MIT.

Q: Hello Seth, and thanks for agreeing to do this interview. Can you explain your technology? What exactly *are* quantum dots?
Quantum dots are tiny bits of semiconductor crystals with amazing optical properties that are determined not only by their material composition, but their size. QD Vision synthesizes these materials in solution, and formulates them into inks and films that we sell to our customers, enabling step-change performance and cost benefits. Our first products are Quantum Light^TM optics for solid state lighting devices, and our customers offer the most efficient, highest color quality LED lighting solutions on the market today.

MicroOLED says they will mass production their OLED microdisplay by the end of 2009. The MicroOLED microdisplays boast 25µm sub-pixel area, 25mW power consumption and good video-imaging quality, all that with 'TV resolution'.

MicroOLED are also working on HDTV resolution displays with even smaller pixel pitch.

Yankodesign is showing the ultimate stained glass mosaic concept... It features tiles made from transparent OLEDs, and a sheet of clear acrylic on top. So you can paint using standard water based acrylic.

The OLEDs can stay transparent, and then it looks like regular stained glass window pane. They can also be turned on, to create a backlit mosaic...The white tile at the bottom right in this photo is the power tile, which drives the OLEDs and contains the light dimmer.

I usually do not post about 'design concepts', but I really like this one!

LG Display says they have signed an agreement with Japan's Idemitsu Kosan for OLED materials. LG sees OLEDs growing rapidly, and they want a stable source for materials.

Idemitsu Kosan are also working with Sony and UDC on OLED display materials.

LG display plans to start making larger panels towards the end of 2009, and to sell OLED TVs in December 2009 or January 2010 in Korea. They expect the market to reach over 3B$ in 2010 (citing DisplaySearch numbers).