Corning and Samsung Mobile Display are going to establish a new equity venture for the manufacture of specialty OLED glass substrates in Korea. The new venture will combine Corning's Lotus Glass substrate technology with SMD's OLED display expertise - and will provide product solutions for current and future OLED technologies.

The new venture will produce glasses for all OLED sizes: for small mobile panels to large OLED TV panels. It'll be interested to hear whether this new venture will also develop flexible glass displays, as envisioned in Corning's "Day made of glass" concept video:

A modder developed a black-themed version of Google apps (he called this Black Google Apps) that is a much more battery friendly on OLED mobile phones. The application are not just "darker", they are inverted (see the image below).

This idea isn't new of course - when Microsoft developed the WP7 operation system they assumed most phones will sport OLED displays and this effected the user interface design.

Konica Minolta announced plans to splits its LA Business division (who is in charge of OLED lighting and new functional materials) into a new subsidiary which will be called Konica Minolta Opto (KMOT). This split will be effective by April 2012.

KM says that the split will aid their ventures to accelerate OLED lighting commercialization. They hope that this move will also optimize its facilities and staff resources.

MagnaChip reported their financial results for 2011, and they say that AMOLED display driver revenue grew 700% compared to 2010, but they wouldn't reveal exact numbers.

MagnaChip is providing 800x580 AMOLED drivers for Samsung's Galaxy SII LTE phone (it has a 4.65" Super AMOLED Plus display) and multiple Microsoft Windows-based smartphones.

STMicroelectronics announced the STOD13AS - a new miniature AMOLED power supply chip. The new chip is produced using ST's innovative Silicon On Insulator (SOI) process technology, which ensures outstanding energy efficiency and results in longer battery life. The chip offers high immunity to cellphone-communication noise - and thus minimizes flicker on the display.

ST explains that the new chip is better than the predecessor (the ST0D03A) because it integrates the step-up and inverting DC/DC converters needed to generate the positive and negative supplies on the same chip. It also features increased display-driving capability as well as additional short-circuit and overload protection modes to maximize ruggedness and reliability. When the display is not used, the new chip can be completely turned off which saves more power, and it also features pulse-skipping operation that optimizes efficiency when the display is consuming minimal power.

Update: UDC's CFO gave some comments on this deal - which involves only non-emitter materials and will not effect their red and green PHOLED sales to AUO...

AU Optronics (AUO) and Idemitsu Kosan announced that they will form an OLED strategic alliance - and will collaborate to develop high-performance OLED displays and OLED-related patents. Idemitsu will supply OLED materials to AUO including device structure proposal. AUO committed to reinforce the development of OLED products - both small sized OLED displays for phones and tablets and large sized OLED panels for TVs. The two companies will also study the possibility of collaboration in other fields beside OLEDs.

AUO 32-inch OLED TV prototype

AUO is gearing up towards mass production of 4" - 5" OLED panels in Q2 2012, targeting smartphones. AUO is using LTPS substrates and vapor deposition for the direct-emission RGB OLED sub pixels. AUO will produce these panels in their 3.5-Gen line in Hsinchu, Taiwan. In the second half of 2013, AUO's 4.5-Gen AMOLED Line in Singapore (at AFPD) will start producing panels as well. Towards the end of 2011 AUO unveiled prototypes of Oxide-TFT based 32" OLED TVs, 4" flexible OLEDs and 6" transparent ones.

Canada's Ignis Innovation posted new job openings for their OLED TV development group, and in the job description they mention that the group is "currently working on two AMOLED television designs, targeted for mass production in 2012".

3.5-inch a-Si AMOLED prototype

IGNIS developed a-Si based AMOLEDs and reportedly RiTdisplay is starting to mass produce AMOLEDs based on this design - but these are 3.5" (320x480) panels - it seems unlikely that they'll be able to scale up to OLED TV size in such a short time frame. But it's also unlikely that either Samsung or LG Display are using Ignis technology in their upcoming OLED TVs (which use LTPS and Oxide-TFT, not a-Si).

There are already speculations about the Galaxy S III specifications, and now Samsung says they are indeed working on a successor to the Galaxy S2. They won't unveil it at the Mobile World Congress 2012 - but rather in a separate event during the first half of 2012, closer to the commercial availability.

It will be very interesting to see Samsung's new flagship phone, and obviously we're mostly interested in the display. Will it be a Super AMOLED HD, or will Samsung surprise us with some new technology? Maybe the S3 will be the first phone with a plastic based flexible AMOLED? We'll have to wait a few months to find out...

Sony's TX200V can now be pre-ordered for $499.99 over at Amazon. There's no official release date yet, but it should be in March. The TX200V is a waterproof and dustproof digital camera with a 18mp sensor, 5X optical zoom and a 3.3" touch AMOLED display. It has a clean glass-covered front design. The TX200V can capture Full-HD videos (and take 13mp stills while doing so) and has a built-in GPS.

There are reports that Sony is increasing its LCD panel purchases from LG Display. Sony stopped their partnership with Samsung (Samsung bought Sony's stake in the LCD joint venture). An LGD official is quoted saying that future talks will also cover OLED TV panel outsourcing.

LG 55EM9600

LG Display is currently gearing up to start producing 55" OLED TV panels. Their 8.5-Gen pilot line will produce around 48,000 monthly panels - which probably won't be enough to outsource to Sony. But LGD already decided to increase their OLED TV panel capacity (by building a new fab or perhaps converting an LCD line). This will take at least a year and half.