Back in December 2009 we reported on Cowon's J3 AMOLED A/V player, and this is now confirmed. The J3 will have a 3.3" touch AMOLED (480 x 272) with an accelerometer and has 4/8/16GB internal memory.

Cowon J3

Universal Display has announced their 4Q 2009 financial results: a net loss of $3.8 million with $4.8 in revenue. Commercial revenue (chemical sales and royalties) rose to $1.9 million from $1.4 million in 4Q 2008 (35%). This shows the fast growth of AMOLED production, mostly by Samsung, and also the fact that LG is gearing up towards a new 3.5G plant in a few month, and have bought more 'development chemicals'.

UDC also reports about AU Optronics efforts to build new production lines (they plan to start mass producing OLEDs again in 2011) - they say that AUO are using their PHOLED materials (which is not a big surprise since they used these back in 2006)

Linde Group and Shanghai University announced today that they will partner to develop new advanced packaging solutions for flexible displays (especially OLEDs) to enhance product quality and cost efficiencies. Linde has invested EUR 80,000 in the first phase of this project.

They aim to develop a new generation of thin-film encapsulation material and packaging solutions for the manufacturing of displays: single and composite structures of thin-film encapsulation materials and related gas application techniques.

FPD China starts tomorrow, and AUO plans to exhibit small and medium-sized AMOLED displays. That's all we currently know.

AUO 14-inch OLED panel prototype

They also plan to show new 3D panels and e-paper displays.

OLED-Info was upgraded today (if anyone is interested, we upgraded to Drupal 6.x from 5.8). Most of the changes are infrastructure related so you won't notice much, but hopefully the site should be faster now, more stable and more secure.

If you do find any bugs, glitches or you have any comments, please let us know!

Osram will exhibit a large room filled with Orbeos OLED Lighting panels. This installation was planned under the direction of Professor Andreas Schulz together with his team of the renowned lighting design office 'LichtKunstLicht'. The OLED panels 'float' in the room, in the walls, ceiling and floor. Visitors can enter the room and walk through this installation. 

The installation will be on show in the Light+Building exhibition in Frankfurt (April 11-16). Osram's Orbeos panels are round (88mm diameter), 2.1mm thick and weight 24g each (the efficiency is 25lm/W). The panels are available now on-line.

AU Optronics announced plans to recruit 2,500 new employees in 2010: for its LCD panel production unit, PV unit and OLED business. AUO are planning to start (or resume, really) making OLED panels in 2011.

AUO 14-inch OLED prototype

Vitex Systems announced that their equipment licensees SNU Precision and Sunic Systems have received multiple orders for Barix thin-film OLED encapsulation equipment. SNU Precision got their first Barix TFE tool order in Taiwan, and Sunic Systems' order came from China. This is their 2nd chinese customer.

Vitex say that by the middle of 2010, there will be 16 Barix TFE tools operational at customers (some customers have multiple sets of equipment).

We know that Vitex customers/partners include Samsung, UDC and LG (In December 2008 Vitex has shown a video of several products and prototypes using their encapsulation technology.

LG Group has decided on four R&D technologies to focus on: lighting, solar cells, next-gen batteries and integrated heating/ventilation/air-condition systems. The lighting technologies will include LED lighting and OLED Lighting materials, developed by LG Chem. LG Chem have already announced their plans to develop OLED lighting materials and panels, and hope to start production in 2H 2010.

Technocorp Energy (formed by ex-Kodak employees) will license Kodak's OLED Lighting technology from Global OLED Technology (LG's company that holds the 2,000 OLED patents bought from Kodak). Technocorp plan is to produce efficient OLED panels (70lm/W) at $64/m². This will take time and a lot of effort of course, and the company is looking for funding, partners and joint-ventures to achieve this goal.