March 2010

Sony plans to sell an LCD plant that makes small-sized panels to Kyocera. Sony are moving away from LTPS (low-temperature polysilicon) and into a-Si (amorphous silicon) - they have just completed a deal to buy Seiko-Epson's small-size LCD operations that use the latter technology.

This is an interesting move by Sony, and might have implications on their OLED program, which shares some of the manufacturing process of LTPS LCDs.

Novaled is working with a European car maker to develop OLED Lighting - which will be used as interior lighting in cars, and also as backlight. A car that uses these new panels is likely to enter the market in the next 2 years. They are already beyond the concept phase, and are now now planning to start production.

Novaled 15x15 cm white OLED

eMagin today reported their latest financial results. The company was profitable in 2009 and had $6.7 million in revenue in the fourth quarter (profit was $1.4M). They also report good progress in their efforts to develop a high-res (over HD), under 1" display for the US Army.

Novaled is set to introduce new ultra-flat and long-life OLED lighting at the Light + Building show in April 11st. The OLEDs on display will range from warm white to clear cold white, and they will also show color OLEDs (orange, red & blue) and color-tunable OLEDs (from light-blue through white to orange), too.

Some of these panels are big - up to 225 cm². The OLEDs can be transparent or behave like a mirror depending on the substrate material (metal or glass) and device structure.

Yesterday Novaled released a new animation with some beautiful concepts. We'll have to wait for April to see which of these concepts have materialized to prototypes...

Novaled released a nice movie (or animation, really) with some nice OLED Lighting concepts. The video is no longer available, but here are some of the highlights:

Samsung announced that the Super-AMOLED packing Wave will be the first phone with certified support for DivX HD playback. The Galaxy S (with its 4" Super-AMOLED) will also be certified to play back the format.

Samsung Wave s8500

AU Optronics is on track to start mass-producing small and medium AMOLED panels in 2011, and will start installing new production equipment in 3Q 2010. The OLED line will be remodeled from the company's idle 3.5G LTPS (low-temperature polysilicon) equipment. AUO has already announced plans to recuit new employees for the OLED production plant.

AUO 14-inch OLED prototype

Samsung has officially announced their new Android phone, the Galaxy S. It has a large (4" 800x480) Super-AMOLED display, 5mp camera (that can record HD video) and access to Samsung's new content Ecosystem and Social Hub.

Samsung Galaxy S

Engadget's team has played with this phone, and just love the OLED display: "The Super AMOLED display on the Galaxy S is nothing short of
stunning. Put side by side with an iPhone under some very harsh
lighting, the difference between them is pretty astounding. Everything is bright and
crisp, text legible, and the colors are jaw-droppingly beautiful". They also posted a short video:

Samsung's NX10 is the first consumer DSLR that uses an AMOLED (3") display, and it's now shipping for $700. It's actually a "hybrid DSLR" with a 14.6 MP APS-C sensor. It can record 720p H.264 video and has only an electronic viewfinder.

Samsung NX10

Get the NX10 for $700 over at Amazon.com.

Liquavista has developed a new type of display technology that can operate in transmissive, reflective or transflective modes, has a great optical performance and is very efficient. Liquavista's display are based on the principle of Electrowetting (when a voltage is used to modify the wetting properties of a solid material).

E-Ink-Info has posted an interview with their CTO, in which he gives more information on the technology and the company. They are currently targeting the e-reader market, but in the future these displays can be used in mobile phones, laptops and even TVs. It'll be interesting to know how a EWD based TV compares to an OLED TV.