Since Samsung unveiled their 4.99" Full-HD AMOLED panels at CES 2013, we assumed that the Galaxy S4 will use those panels. Some supply-chain analysts from Korea confirmed this. But then, towards the end of February, SamMobile posted that the S4 will in fact not use an OLED at all, but rather a 4.99" Full-HD SoLux LCD display.

Today the same blog posted a new post saying that they received new information about the S4 - and indeed it will use a new kind of AMOLED display - one with green PHOLEDs (instead of the fluorescent green currently used by Samsung) - which will make it 25% more efficient. This isn't really news - it was expected and we reported this back in early February. But it's good to see this new post by SamMobile anyway.

Toshiba unveiled two new OLED lighting panels at Japan's Lighting Fair 2013. The first one is a wirelessly-powered OLED (using an electromagnetic induction-type wireless power transmission technology). They showed an installation that uses these, and the idea is that the user can freely move the panels around without any cables:

The second panels are transparent and Toshiba says that they implemented a unique device structure that emits most of the light (over 95%) in only one direction - which saves light and power in some installations.

Verbatim announced their 3rd-Gen Velve color-tunable OLED lighting panels, and the company managed to increase the efficacy to 51.6 lm/W. The brightness is the same as in their 2nd-gen panels (2,000 cd/m²). The panels weigh 193 grams and the active area is 123x123 mm. In fact it seems to be exactly the same as their previous panels.

Verbatim did not reveal when the expect to release those panels and at what price. We don't have any technical details either, but it's likely that these are phosphorescent panels. The OLED is manufactured by Mitsubishui Chemical (Verbatim's parent company) in partnership with Pioneer. Back in June 2012 we posted a hands-on review of the first-gen Verbatim panels, here's a short video from that review:

GLOLED unveiled their first product, the Vuucu OLED lighting device. The Vuucu (designed by Keiji Akiba) is an atmospheric lamp that uses a single OLED lighting panel and a folding transparent acrylic board. As you can see in the video ad below, Vuucu can be setup in several methods, including a bedside light or a "penlight" in a hotel reception or bar:

The OLED panel is made by Lumiotec. This is their P05 module which is an all-phosphorescent panel that features 40 lm/W and 3,000cd/m².

Hitachi Research Laboratory (HRL) unveiled a new prototype OLED lighting panel that was made using a single-stage coating process. Hitachi developed a new self-organized "spontaneous multilayer light-emitting layer formation material" which is a mix of RGB small-molecule emitter materials. The process simply coats the panel once with this material and then the three different layers (red, green, blue) are automatically formed in the correct order.

The three emitter dopants use the same host material. HRL still managed to create a very efficient OLED (up to 70 lm/W, with a light extraction layer). Eliminating two steps from the deposition process using this new coating technique and materials will theoretically enable cheaper panel production.

NEC Lighting announced that they developed a new OLED lighting device that has an efficiency of 156 lm/W - that's the world's most efficient OLED to date. This device was co-developed with Yamagata University's research group led by Junji Kido. You can see Professor Kido's work in the video below (from 2011):

The device is 2x2 mm in size and the brightness is 1,000 cd/m2. NEC said that the emitter materials were developed in the Kido Lab of Yamagata University. Unfortunately NEC did not reveal the structure and technologies used to fabricate this OLED.

LG's 55EM9700 55" OLED TV is now shipping in Korea (for $10,000) and soon in the US (for $12,000) and today LG Electronics announced that it will start offering the TV in the UK in July 2013 for £9,999 (a little over $15,000). In the UK the model will be 55EM970V. You can pre-order it today at Harrods, Knightsbridge.

The 55EM970V is a 55" Full-HD OLED TV featuring FPR passive 3D, 100,000,000:1 contrast ratio and fast response time (1,000 times faster than LCD according to LG). The panel is only 4mm thick and weighs just 3.5Kg. The TV is based on LG Display's Oxide-TFT white-OLED with color filters (RGBW) OLED panel. LG are calling it the "Ultimate Display". The 55EM9700 is now on sale in South Korea for $10,000, and will soon be available in Europe and in the US.

Samsung launched the Note II phone/tablet in November 2012, and already rumors are starting to circulate about a successor. According to the Korea Times, the Note 3 will sport a 5.9" AMOLED display - larger than the 5.5" one used on in the Note 2 (HD Super AMOLED 1280x720, non-Pentile).

The Note II display uses an RGB matrix in a unique arrangement with a pixel density of 267 PPI. It's highly likely that the Note 3 display will offer Full-HD resolution.

Update: the deal is now official, new insights below

Samsung has bought a 3% stake in Sharp in a $112 million investment. Sharp is already providing LCD panels (small, medium and large-size ones) to Samsung and this will "further strengthen the alliance" between the two companies. According to some reports Samsung is interested in Sharp's IGZO technology and the two companies may also collaborate on AMOLED and Full-HD LCD technologies.

Other reports and analysts say that this may sign that Samsung intends to divert more energy and finance into OLED TV production and that they seek to outsource more LCD panels from Sharp during the market transition from LCD to OLED. LCD aren't making money anymore and a deal with Sharp may be a good idea for Samsung.

Plastic Logic developed a new OTFT-based flexible 42" e-paper (E Ink) display, made from 16 10.7" flexible panels tiled together. This display is thin (less then 3 mm) and very light. Plastic Logic will collaborate with Toppan printing to bring these new displays to the market.

The two companies will find new applications in the signage market. This display can be hung like a poster, has very low power consumption (it's non-volatile and only requires power to change the image) and is readable outdoors. Apparently the first application will be used as information signs that can provide disaster-related information in an emergency situation where battery-operation is required.