The Holst Centre and imec announced a new high-resolution flexible OLED displays research program. This new program builds on the existing research fields such Organic and Oxide Transistors and Flexible OLED lighting. The new program aims to develop an economically scalable route to flexible AMOLED mass production, facing challenges such as high resolution, low power consumption, large area, outdoor readability, flexibility and light weight.

The partners will develop a mechanically flexible encapsulation film and TFT backplane, a printed high-efficiency OLED, new materials and processes that will allow cheaper production at better quality and driver design. They will also develop a new manufacturing equipment such as fine patterning equipment for backplanes and tools for integrated roll-to-roll manufacturing. This new program follows up on the FLAME project. Above you can see a prototype Polymer-Vision made flexible OLED made together with imec and the Holst Center.

Reuters reports that Samsung Group plans to increase 2012 investment to a record $41.4 billion. The investment will go into hiring new employees (the plan is to add 26,000 in 2012), building new factories, acquisitions and R&D.

Samsung is expected to invest around 7 trillion Won ($6.1 billion) in OLED displays in 2012. This number is actually the same one reported by Reuters back in November - even though total 2012 investment was expected to be around $30 billion back then. In 2011 OLED investment reached 5 trillion Won ($4.3 billion).

Amazon.co.uk is now listing Samsung's Super AMOLED plus packing Tab 7.7 (P6800) - for £808. The page says it will ship in 1-2 months, and you can order one. This is a 3G, 16GB unlocked model. Amazon also lists the 32GB model for £926

The Galaxy Tab 7.7 is the world's first tablet with an OLED display, a 7.7" Super AMOLED Plus panel, offering 1280x800 resolution. Other specs include Android v3.2, Dual-core 1.4 Ghz processor, HSPA+ radio, 16GB to 64GB internal storage and a microSD slot, Wi-Fi, GPS and two cameras (3MP and 2MP).

Japan's Oji Paper developed a new microfabrication technology that can be used to enhance the light extraction efficiency of OLEDs. The idea is to use microparticle coating to form a regular pattern that is several-nanometer-wide on the surface of the metal part of the negative electrode in an OLED panel. The nanostructure turns the plasmon energy (that is sometimes released from an OLED) into light.

Oji paper says that this technology was used to improve a red OLED's light extraction efficiency by about 100%. They are now working to apply this to a white OLED.

Samsung issued a press release with some awards their Super-OLED TV won, and in there they mention the model number - KN55ES9000:

"Best of CES Innovations 2012" in the Video Displays category —International CES. "Samsung's KN55ES9000 is a beautiful masterpiece of accurate color reproduction and maximized performance. It provides a suite of advanced Smart TV features with a high performance dual core chipset.".

So, OLED was the most discussed tech trend on CES. But the OLED TVs also got a lot of praise from reviewers and consumers - who were amazed to see the panel's thinness, the contrast, the colors and the fast refresh rates. In short - the image on Samsung's and LG's OLED TVs is amazing!

Samsung Super OLED TV

CNET gave LG's OLED TV the "Best of CES" award: "The winning LG measures just 4mm in depth...and boasts a bezel around the screen just 1mm wide. It's basically all gorgeous picture... CES is a TV-centric show, OLED is potentially the best TV technology ever, and CNET editors agreed that 2012 would be the year of the organic diode". CNET actually says that it's hard to say which is the better OLED TV - the Samsung or the LG one, but LG seems to be more of a finished product, so they gave the award to LG.

Mashable posted an interesting article - about CES trends and brands - measured by twitter mentions. They say that on the first three days, more people discussed OLED display technology than any other tech-world trend.

It is quite obvious that Samsung's and LG's 55" OLED TVs are behind this.

Earlier today, LG said that they hope to sell 200,000-300,000 OLED TVs in 2012, and up to 2 million in 2013. Market research company iSuppli is much less optimistic - they say that global OLED TV shipments in 2012 will amount to just 34,000 units. This will grow to 2.1 million in 2015.

It's not clear from iSuppli's report, but it seems that they are only taking LG into account in their forecasts. Samsung will also offer its own 55" OLED TV in 2012, and today we heard that Panasonic are also developing their own OLED TV.

LG says that they plan to sell 200,000 to 300,000 OLED TVs in 2012, and up to 2 million in 2013. This is actually quite an aggressive target. LG's 55EM9600 55" OLED TV won't be available until May 2012 at the earliest - which means that LG will need to have a capacity of around 37,000 monthly panels - which isn't likely with their current 8.5-Gen line as LG themselves said that at 100% yield the capacity will only be 30,000 panels a month.

If LG Display actually plans to produce 2 million panels in 2013, they'll need to start working on a new mass production plant now...

Sharp's president Mikio Katayama said that his company does not have plans to join the OLED market. He estimates that OLEDs won't create a new market, it will just be a replacement for existing technologies. Currently OLEDs will be too expensive - and he does not think customers will pay the premium.

Three years ago, Sharp made basically the same comments about OLEDs. It's quite a big bet by the Japanese company - as most leading TV makers have active OLED TV programs.