DisplaySearch says that strong demand for Low Temperature Polysilicon (LTPS) based displays (LCDs and AMOLEDs) will drive rapid expansion of LTPS capacity. Spending on LTPS-equipment is expected to reach $2.4 billion in 2011 (and will decrease in 2012 and 2013).

DisplaySearch says that making AMOLEDs and high-end LCDs like the ones used in Apple's iPhone 4 is only currently possible with LTPS. In 2011, supply of both AMOLEDs and LTPS LCDs are forecast to be extremely tight. Leading panel makers are for the first time ever scaling LTPS technology to Gen-5.5 and larger substrates.

MarketsandMarkets released a new report (OLED Market Analysis by Display and Lighting Applications, 2010-2015) in which they say that the worldwide OLED market (for both display and lighting) is expected to be worth US $3,051.2 million (just over $3 billion) by 2015. The global
market is expected to record a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.8% from 2010 to 2015.

Universal Display has signed a technology & licensing agreement with Moser Baer for OLED Lighting panels. Universal Display will provide Moser Baer with OLED materials and technology assistance. This follows the two companies joint project to design and build a white OLED lighting manufacturing facility in the US. This project was awarded $8.3 million from the US DOE (total cost will be around $20 million) - and the first pilot line is scheduled to be online during 2011.

Nokia starts shipping the E7 in several markets (they didn't say which ones), and Ukko Lappalainen, a senior official at Nokia, said that "The E7 is by far the most important model for us this year when looking at sales expectations". The E7 is a QWERTY slider running Symbian^3 and has a 4" Clear-Black AMOLED (640x360) display.

The E7 was supposed to start shipping on December 2010, but it was later delayed and only now starts shipping.

Last week we reported that Sony will unveil two professional OLED monitors at the Hollywood Post Alliance Tech Retreat (14-18 February in Palm Springs, California). Today someone sent us the conference's Demo-Room presentation, and indeed it includes an OLED Demo by Sony - showing a new BVM-E250 - which is a 25" (if Sony will keep its naming convention) professional OLED monitor. Here's the slide:

That's all the info we have currently. It'll probably be a very expensive monitor. The BVM-L231, which is a 23" LCD monitor (and will be shown together with the E250) costs $21,500.

OSD Displays announces two new PMOLED modules with 256x64 resolution and 16-level gray scale. There's a blue (OSD25664P0908-10) module and a yellow one (OSD25664P0913-10). These modules support 7-bits per pixel PWM and offer compatibility with parallel, I2C, and SPI interfaces via a standard ZIF-style 0.5mm pitch flex interface. The display size is 84.0 x 25.8 x 2.0 mm outline dimensions.

Pricing for the new modules start at around $18 (for 1k orders).

Two days ago we published a story saying that Chimei Innolux seems to be producing AMOLEDs again. We got just word (from a trusted source) that the company actually plans to scrap all OLED plans, and shift all LTPS capacity back to LCD.

This is strange as it seems the company is still recruiting AMOLED engineers and researchers. Perhaps they will shift the current Gen-3.5 OLED plant to LCD, but they still have plans to make AMOLEDs in the future (in the Gen-5.5 plant in Tainan, as stated in the company's presentation).

Samsung announced a new phone - the Galaxy SL. It's very similar to the Galaxy S in fact the only differences are an LCD display instead of the Super AMOLED and a TI OMAP 3630 processor instead of Samsung's own Hummingbird (both 1Ghz processors).

We're not really worried here - we know that Samsung still has AMOLED supply issues (even the Nexus S is shipping with LCD in some countries) - and we know that the new flagship phone (the Galaxy S2?) will have a Super AMOLED Plus displays...

Update: The D3 Plenue 32GB version is now shipping!

Cowon's D3 Plenue has a price now: $369 for the 32GB version. You can pre-order it over at Amazon.com. The D3 Plenue is an Android (v2.1) PMP with a 3.7" AMOLED display, Full-HD (1080p) support, Wi-Fi, HDMI out, Bluetooth and a T-DMB TV tuner.

Back in December 2009, Chimei bought both TPO and CMO (and its CMEL OLED subsidiary). It wasn't clear what will happen to TPO and CMEL's OLED programs. CMEL had an active AMOLED program and even offered 7.6" panels, but production halted after the merger. TPO was said to develop small (3" and 4") AMOLEDs but had technical difficulties. Now we found out that Chimei Innolux is back into AMOLED production. In their 3Q 2010 financial results presentation they list their Fab status:

There are two OLED plants. The first is a Gen-3.5 (620x750mm) LTPS/OLED Plant in Jhunan, Taiwan targeting small/medium displays. There's also a Gen-5.5 (1,300x1,500) plant in Tainan (also in Taiwan). The Gen-5.5 line will produce OLEDs for monitors or TVs. The new OLEDs in the Gen-5.5 line will use an IGZO (InGaZnOx) TFT - a transparent amorphous oxide semiconductor.