The European AEVIOM (Advanced Experimentally Validated OLED model) project, a 3-year collaboration between leading academic and industrial groups in Europe has concluded - and the researchers managed to develop a new technique that precisely calculates the color of light produced from OLED lighting panels.

This new technique could simplify and improve the OLED design process (currently manufacturers had to rely on trial and error to see the exact color produced in a new panel). The new software can also be used to optimize OLED panels and make them more efficient.

In January 2013 Blackberry announced their first AMOLED phone, the Q10, with a square 3.2" 720x720 (330 ppi)Super AMOLED display. It seems that the company is ready to launch this new phone soon. Canadian carrier Rogers will reportedly start to sell it on April 30 for $200 on a 3-year contract. UK's Phones4U has begun to take pre-orders (£36 a month on contract or £549.95 unlocked) with shipments expected by the end of April. The Q10 has also passed through the FCC and approved it for a US launch.

Other Q10 features include a hardware keyboard, LTE, 1.5Ghz dual-core CPU and 2GB of RAM. This is Blackberry's first hardware keyboard device to sport the company's new BB10 OS.

According to Trusted Reviews, an LG official in Seoul says that the company aims to launch their first curved OLED TV in the second half of 2013. In January LG has unveiled a 55" curved OLED TV, called the EA9800, and now the same official says that they are also working on larger curved OLED panels as well.

LG claims that curved TVs will offer a more cinema-like viewing experience and it could become a "major trend" among consumers. However as LG's recently launched "regular" 55" OLED TVs cost $10,000 in Korea, not many consumers will be able to afford a curved version which will cost more. I'm actually quite skeptical about this new report. It seems way too early for LG to release such a curved OLED.

Update: according to the OLED Association, Samsung in fact does plan to launch the first plastic based OLEDs in 2013, and these will be used in the Note 3 phone/tablet (will ship in Q4 2013).

Samsung officially launched their YOUM flexible OLED displays at CES 2013, and many hoped that they will be able to start producing those displays in 2013. Now it is reported that the company still hasn't managed to overcome the technical issues with their encapsulation technology - and they may have to delay their introduction of the flexible panels.

Samsung's current encapsulation technology is Vitex's multi-layer technology which is very slow (the panel has to enter the evaporation chamber 6 times). Samsung is busy upgrading this technology, and according to the new reports, they managed to shorten the encapsulation process. But apparently this is not enough for mass production yet.

LG Electronics says that they sold 200 OLED TVs in Korea. Two months ago, when they started shipping the TVs, they reported 100 pre-orders. So this means they are currently selling about 50 sets a month. This is in Korea only, LG have yet to bring their OLED TV to other markets (it will arrive in the UK in July, and the US probably in H2 2013).

But LG is optimistic, and they expect to sell "substantial numbers of OLED and 4K TVs over the next 24 months. They hope that OLED TVs will cost about the same as high-end LED LCDs in two or three years. LG also reported that they continue to develop curved OLED TVs that will bring a "cinema-like feel to the home".

Novaled and Cambrios have jointly developed a metal grid free 10x10 cm OLED lighting panel that uses Cambrios silver nanowire ClearOhm transparent electrode material. ClearOhm is used instead of the ITO that is usually used.

Cambrios says that ITO's limited conductivity (20 ohms/sq on glass and 50-100 ohms/sq on flexible plastic film) leads to considerable voltage drops over lengths larger than 2 centimeters. This means that metal grids are required on top of the ITO (you can see such lines in some OLED panels, for example on the Osram Orbeos). ClearOhm has a low resistance (5 ohms/sq with greater than 90 percent transmission) independent on the carrier substrate.

The Holst Centre's spring partner meeting took place a few days ago, and now they released some nice short videos from this event. First up is a short introduction to OLED lighting technology, with some OLED lighting panels (including the cute DinOLED presentation, made by a 13 years old with a Dinosaur):

A year ago Holst and imec announced a new program to develop high resolution flexible OLED displays. The partners are developing a mechanically flexible encapsulation film and TFT backplane, a printed high-efficiency OLED and new materials and processes. Now they are presenting their first flexible display:

A couple of week ago we reported on AUO's new 5" Full-HD AMOLED panel that features the world's highest resolution density at 443 ppi (which means it's probably a 4.97" panel). AUO is showing this panel at China's Display Expo, and we found this nice video showing the display (for about two minutes, and then showing new LCD panels: small, large and transparent ones):

We still do not know when AUO will actually start to produce these panels, hopefully this will happen in 2013. In the meantime AUO is also working on large sized panels: it is making 56" substrates for Sony and Panasonic prototype OLED panels and the company also developed the world's largest AMOLED panel to date at 65".

Update: now it seems that a different Panasonic executives claims that Plasma R&D will continue. Panasonic will continue to produce PDP and perhaps they will also update models, but perhaps what they mean is that they will not improve on the plasma panel technology itself (but rather add features such as smarter interface, etc)?

In December 2012 we heard reports that Panasonic may stop plasma R&D by March 2013, and focus on OLED TVs and other display technologies instead. While Panasonic still makes Plasma TVs, today the company confirmed that plasma development has ceased and some of the engineers were indeed shifted to work on OLED displays.

In January 2013 Panasonic unveiled a 56" 4K2K OLED TV panel prototype that was produced using an all-printing method. Panasonic is using Sumitomo's PLED materials and is collaborating with Sony on production technology. Some reports say that Panasonic aims to release their first OLED TVs in 2015.

SID 2013, the world's most prominent display conference will take place next month (May 19, in Vancouver, Canada) - and they now published some technical papars that will be discussed during the conference. And there's some interesting stuff in there.

First up is AU Optronics paper, describing how the company developed the world's largest OLED panel: a 65" direct-emission Oxide TFT one. This panel, that was produced using an FMM process, features a long-range threshold voltage uniformity of 0.34 V, and the dam and fill encapsulation process is simple and highly stable.