March 2012

Lumiotec released an interesting article that discusses the company's Multi-Photon Emission (MPE) stacked device structure and how it helps to achieve high luminance and long lifetime, their light out-coupling and encapsulation technologies and the company's mass production process. The paper also includes a discussion on the development of their next generation panel which uses phosphorescent materials provided by Universal Display Corporation to improve the efficiency.

Here's our own review of Lumiotec's Hanger and Vanity OLED lamps, and here's our review of the company's first-gen OLED lighting panel. Here are a couple of videos showing Lumiotec's panels and lamps:

Japan's Technology Research Association for Advanced Display Materials (TRADIM) said it managed to develop a flexible LCD display by using a film substrate and roll-to-roll (R2R) technologies. The display can be curved, and is thin, light-weight and unbreakable.

TRADIM unveiled a 3.5" prototype that features 114 ppi and is only 0.49mm thick. The R2R method deposits the polarizing and phase difference films, the color filters, the TFT and the backplane on the film substrate. This development marks the end of TRADIM's efforts - and now this technology will be left for commercialization by the individual companies behind the association (which include Sharp, Hitachi, NEC, Dai Nippon Printing, Toppan Printing, Sumitomo Chemical and others).

LG Display announced today that they have started to produce 6" E Ink panels on a plastic substrate. Those displays will be used in e-readers, and the first one (from a Chinese based ODM) will be released in Europe next month. The panel features XGA (1024x768) resolution and is only 0.7 mm thick and weighs just 14 grams - half the weight of a glass based E Ink panel.

If true, this will be the first time that a plastic based E Ink is in production, and this means that LGD is quite advanced in its plastic substrate program - which they also plan to use for OLED displays. LG Display is reportedly building a pilot 3.5-Gen (730 × 460 mm) flexible OLED production line. They have ordered the equipment, which will arrive by 3Q 2012, and the line will become active by the end of 2012. It was reported that it will take LG another 1-2 years to fully develop the technology, but LG Display is trying to accelerate the development.

There are two interesting reports today regarding AU Optronic's OLED TV program. According to Reuters, the company is planning to sell up to 800 million shares (or about $300 million) to finance its OLED program and to "enhance the company's operational capital position". ETNews says that Sony is collaborating with AUO on OLED TV research. Perhaps it makes sense for Sony: AUO will provide the capital and manufacturing while Sony will contribute its OLED know-how (ETNews suggests that Sony engineers have been working with AUO since 2011).

Back in February AUO announced a strategic alliance with Idemitsu Kosan on OLED materials and technology, and ETNews suggests that this will turn into a three-way alliance with Sony now. We'll have to wait for confirmation of course, the only official word from Sony was when its new CEO said they will make "major investments towards OLED TVs" back in February.

Samsung announced that they have shipped over five million Galaxy Note phones. In the beginning of March it was reported that Samsung sold two million units. So either that earlier report wasn't correct, or else the US launch was very successful. Samsung hopes to sell 10 million galaxy notes in 2012, and they also announced today that Japan's NTT DoCoMo will soon offer the LTE version.

Samsung's Galaxy Note is a large Android v2.3 phone (or mini-tablet?) with a 5.3" Super AMOLED display with an HD resolution: 1280x800. Other specs include a dual-core 1.4Ghz processor, 8mp camera, touch display with pen input (it has a stylus). The phone is 9.65mm thick and weights 178 grams.

There are reports that LG Electronics plans to launch their 55" OLED TV in May during the Cannes film festival. The TV will cost 9 million Won - or about $7,900 (this is consistant with DisplaySearch's estimates). LGE originally planned to launch it during the London Olympics in July, but the company wants to be the first out with an OLED TV and so accelerated the production schedule. The company will make a decision on further OLED investment in July, after judging the first consumer reactions.

LG's 55" 55EM9600 is using a WOLED-CF design on an Oxide-TFT backplane. The panel is only 4mm thick, and the whole TV weighs just 7.5Kg. LG Display can currently make around 48,000 monthly 55" panels in their pilot 8.5-Gen production line.

Last week we reported that Tianma is showing a 12" AMOLED prototype at FPD China 2012. It turns out that the company unveiled two panels (3.2" and 12") and they kindly sent us a couple of slides showing details about these panels.

The 12" panel features 1280x800 resolution, 400 cd/m2 brightness and a contrast that exceeds 10,000:1. It is aimed towards TV and tablet applications.

Last week we reported that Sumitomo Chemical is planning to start mass producing OLED lighting panels later in 2012 based on their PLED technology in a ¥5-6 billion ($60-70 million) investement. Now Sumitomo finally announced that they plan to unveil panels at the L+B 2012 exhibition, and also unveiled a web page with lot's of info on their PLED lighting program. It seems that the company will commercial PLED panels for "decorative lighting" in 2013, and for general lighting in 2015.

In L+B2012 Sumitomo will show new PLED panels that are about 10 centimeters square each. There will be panels in sixty different colors, which are made using printing technology (all layers except the electrodes). The booth was designed by world-renowned Japanese lighting designer Motoko Ishii, with the theme The Colors of Japan The Colors of Harmony, in an innovative attempt to replicate—by means of lighting—the elegant and refined colors of ancient Japan in a modern day setting of a Japanese traditional tearoom. Here's what the booth will look like:

Novaled wants to raise $200 million on the NASDAQ or the NYSE, and today the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released the company's filing, which reveales some interesting details. Novaled is selling its doping materials (produced by BASF), licenses OLED technology and also offers R&D services

First of all, here's a summary of the company's financial statements (all in Euro): in 2009 the company generated revenues of €6.4 million and a loss of €1.3 million, in 2010 revenues of €6.8 million and a loss of €2.3 million and in 2011 €17.4 in revenues and a profit of €1.2 million.

Dow Chemical launched a new global R&D center for electronic materials in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do, Korea. Thew facility will host over 300 researchers at full capacity - and will focus on display, semiconductor and related technology sectors. Major areas of R&D at the new center will include lithography, OLEDs, display materials, and advanced chip packaging. The site will be Dow's global hug for OLED research.