Nanomarkets released a new OLED lighting report (OLED lighting global market forecasts 2011). According to the new report, the OLED lighting market will grow to $4.8 billion in 2016. Mass production will start by 2014, and one of the sectors that will lead the demand will be the automotive industry.

Nanomarket predicts that in 2016 general lighting will reach $2.7 billion in revenue, architectural applications will reach $950 million and automotive applications will reach $800 million in sales.

Samsung's Infuse-4G is now shipping for AT&T's network for $149.99 with a contract or $589.99 without a contract. The Infuse 4G has a 4.5" Super AMOLED Plus, HSPA+ (it's not LTE, despite the 4G in the name), Android (v2.2), 8mp camera and a 1.2Ghz processor.

Mitsubishi Chemical and Pioneer announced that they managed to fabricate a white OLED in which the emissive layer was formed in a coating process (not sure if they mean spin-coating or printing). The OLED is efficient (52 lm/W) and the lifetime (LT50) is 20,000 hours (at 1,000cd/m² luminance). The upper layers in this OLED are made using vapor-deposition method. The companies plan to commercialize printed OLEDs at around 2014.

Mitsubishi's Velve panels (which will start shipping soon) use a coating process only for the foundation layer and not the emissive layer. In September 2009 we interviewed Verbatim's OLED team (which will market Mitsubishi's OLED panels).

eMagin reported their first quarter 2011 financial results. The company reported production issues and delays a few weeks ago, and the quarter was impacted by those issues. But the company is seeing seeing significant improvements and they are approaching last year's yield levels. eMagin's new OLED deposition machine will come on-line in 2012 which will improve things further.

Total revenue in the quarter was $5.4 million and the net loss was $282,000. Cash flow is positive and the company expects to return to profitability next quarter. The company also received $1.3 million of new contract awards for microdisplay product development and commercialization projects to be completed in 2011.

Researchers from the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology in South Korea developed a new seamless foldable touch AMOLED display, that can fold in half without showing a visible crease. Samsung says that current research is mostly geared toward flexible/bendable displays, but a display that can be folded in half is great for making a large display in a portable form.

To make the seamless display, the team used two AMOLED panels, silicone rubber, a glass cover and a modular case. Their prototype was folded 100,000 times - and still the brightness at center of the display (where the two panels meet) decreased by just 6% - which is hardly visible by a human eye.

Novaled announced that it has developed a new efficient (36 lm/W) fluorescent white OLED, which the company claims is the world's most power efficient white OLED structure. Novaled used their own proprietary organic materials and a new flat light outcoupling method of extraction and achieved an increase in light emission by more than 80%, with good color rendering. Novaled's new structure also has an improved light angular dependence.

Here's more technical info from Novaled's press release: 

Samsung Mobile Display started producing AMOLED panels in their new 5.5-Gen (1,300x1,500mm) fab in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, South Korea. This is actually two months ahead of schedule. The official celebration will take place next month.

Samsung 5.5-gen fab groundbreaking ceremony

This is just the first line in Samsung's new fab - which will produce 24,000 substrates a month. The next stage (line 2) is scheduled for the end of 2011 (and will double the capacity to 48,000 monthly substrates). The third line is planned for the first half of 2012, and this will bring monthly capacity to 100,000 substrates. Total investment for this new fab is around $2.2 billion.

Universal Display (UDC) posted their financial results for Q1 2011. Revenues were $9.6 million (126% increase over Q1 2010), operating loss was $2.74 million and net loss was $11.8 million (which included a $8.9 million non-cash loss on stock warrant limitability - due to the large increase in UDC's stock).

Investors do not seem happy, and the stock dropped around 16% in early trade.

Samsung announces that they got 3 million pre-orders globally for the Galaxy S II (as of the end of April). Samsung will release the S II to 140 carriers in 120 countries - and they expect even more pre-orders soon.

Just a few days ago Samsung said that they plan to sell 10 million Galaxy S II phones in 2011. This seems rather modest. But perhaps Samsung Mobile Display will not be able to provide so many Super AMOLED Plus displays so soon. Samsung Electronics says that "We will do our utmost best to ensure that all the global demands should be met as quickly as possible".

Samsung's Cheil Industries announced a plan to invest 100 billion won (about $92 million) and build an OLED material facility in Kumi, Korea. The company will start supplying materials in Q3 2011 and is already in talks with a customer (that will use these in small & medium displays). Cheil plans to produce ETL, HTL and EML materials.