AU Optronics announced their financial results for 4Q 2011, with a record loss of $21 NT billion (almost $700 million USD). AUO is hoping to return to profitability - mostly because of growth in demand for LCD TVs in emerging markets such as India, Indonesia and Brazil. Regarding AUO's OLED program, the company re-iterated plans to mass produce AMOLED panels for mobile phone in this quarter (a little sooner then expected, actually), and more interestingly they said they plan to unveil OLED TV panel samples by the end of 2012.

AUO already unveiled a 32" OLED TV prototype back in November 2011, but they probably want to unveil larger panels towards the end of the year - and ones that are closer to mass production. The 32" prototype AUO shows had a Oxide-TFT (IGZO) backplane and was fabricated using vapor deposition using a metal mask. The panel featured Full-HD (1920x1080) resolution, 100,000:1 contrast ration, 0.01ms response time and brightness of 200cd/m².

Engadget posted a review of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7.7. They say that it's the best 7" tablet - with a stunning display, a long lasting battery, good performance and thin size. The only problem? it's quite expensive. And they sure love the 1200x800 Super AMOLED Plus display - "We could tell you it's vibrant, stunning and breathtaking, but even that wouldn't quite do it justice. The contrast here is so deep, and the viewing angles so wide, that other tablets' screens look washed-out in comparison". Amazon.com is now offering an unlocked model for $749.

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).

In a filing to the Korean Stock Exchange, Samsung Electronics announced it is considering taking over Samsung Mobile Display. Currently Samsung Electronics holds 64.4% in SMD (the rest is held by Samsung SDI). SMD is Samsung's OLED unit, and they produce over 90% of the world's AMOLED displays.

Samsung Electronics says that this move will improve the synergy within the group. But this can be bad news for other companies who rely on SMD's AMOLED panels, as perhaps the will not want to keep the best displays for their own devices.

Lux Research posted an interesting grid that shows how different display developers rate on technical value and business execution. It includes mature technologies (such as OLED and e-paper) and emerging technologies such as electrochromic and electrofluidic displays.

Lux says that OLED materials and equipment developers have a clear head start over other technologies, with notable players such as UDC, CDT, Novaled and Kateeva. The company that stands out in both technical value and business execution is E Ink - with high score in technology and IP and strong partnerships and management team. E Ink is the only company that scores a "strong positive" - with their nearly 100% market share of the electrophoretic market - which is used in products such as Amazon's Kindle and B&N Nook e-readers.

eMagin has been awarded a $1.12 million SBIR seven month project from the US's Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) to optimize emagin's WUXGA (1920x1200) full color OLED microdisplay for mass production. There's also a six-month option to extend the project further for $435,000.

An eMagin OLED microdisplay

The microdisplay is already available as an engineering sample, and this project will enable eMagin to mass produce it at an affordable price. It was originally funded by the US Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), and features over 10,000:1 contrast ratio and consumes less than 350 mW.

Back in April 2011 Corning produced a nice video called A Day Made of Glass, showing future designs made with durable, transparent and even flexible glass displays. Now Corning is back with a sequel, showing the same family but with some new ideas in the home, car, classroom, outdoor and work environments:

A lot of these displays can be achieved with OLEDs, although OLEDs aren't specifically mentioned in those video. Just a few days ago Corning announced an OLED glass joint-venture with Samsung. Corning also released an unpacked version of this video- that includes explanations about the technology shown in the video:

Nokia's ClearBlack Display technology has been announced in September 2010, and Nokia is using it in several phones (including the Lumia 900, Lumia 800 and older Symbian models such as the X7 and E7). We know that it includes polarizing filters to block incoming light. Today however Nokia finally revealed how it actually works:

A CBD filter includes both a linear polariser and retardation layers between the surface of your phone and the display. When light hits your screen, this is what happens:

Tokyo Electron (TEL) performed a re-organization, and as part of that they established a new OLED department (called the "organic EL division"), to be managed by Takeshi Okubo. This is good news and probably means that the company is putting a greater emphasis on OLED manufacturing equipment development.

TEL is developing OLED TV printing equipment together with Seiko Epson. In September 2011 it was reported that the two companies will launch an inkjet-printed OLED TV production plant in 2012 or 2013.

Cambrios announces a new CEO and a $5 million investment from Samsung Ventures. Cambrios reveals that they were in close discussions with Samsung for collaboration on "important and valuable" projects over the past several years. Cambrios' first product, ClearOhm is a coating material for plastic or glass that produces a transparent, conductive film by wet processing. Cambrios says that ClearOhm offers significantly higher optical and electrical performance than currently used materials (such as ITO).

ClearOhm can be used in OLED panels, LCDs, e-paper displays and solar panels. Perhaps Samsung wants to use this new material in upcoming OLED panel designs. Cambrios is also collaborating with Plextronics on OLED lighting electrodes.

Recom group has released the world's first video mic flag - which uses 3 to 4 (depends on configuration) OLED displays. The company reports that the new mic flag is already being used at by CBS, CNET, NBC, ABC, FOX, ESPN, CNN, and Bloomberg and was also used by several broadcasters at the superbowl and the NBA. This mic flag was also used by many broadcasters at CES, and CNN's Katie Linendoll called it one of her top five picks of the show.

The mic flag shows advertisements - from companies such as Ford, Toyota, Subway, Gillette and Pepsi. This brings extra revenue for the broadcasters. Recom says that the flag uses 3 to 4 OLED displays (probably the same ones as on Recom's video name tag - 2.8" 320x240 AMOLED panels) and it lasts 8-10 on a single battery charge. It provides a premium advertising space because it's part of the broadcast. Here's a video of the mic flag in action, from the superbowl: