Google's new patent describes a power saving technique for mobile devices with OLED displays

Google was granted a new patent (filed in July 2013) that describes a technique for saving power on mobile devices with OLED displays. Basically the idea is that the when battery is low, the system can change the display characteristics (lower the resolution, disable animation and use red and black colors only). You can see the basic schema from the chart below, which is actually quite badly written: there's no option for a normal mode, and there's just one check and no loop as there should have been. Oh well...

This patent is only useful and valid for OLED displays. I'm not sure how canceling blur and animation actually conserve power on OLEDs. Showing just red and black colors make sense, and reducing the resolution also makes sense if they mean showing a small image with black around it. In September 2012 Google were granted a patent in which they suggest to reduce the image on a screen when the device is idle - this is basically the same idea which relies on the fact that black pixels on OLED displays do not draw power.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 02,2013

OLED-Info's YouTube channel goes over 100,000 views

I launched the OLED-Info YouTube channel back in January 2011, and today I noticed we have over 100,000 video views already. The most popular video is the LG Display OLED TVs one from SID 2012 (with over 17,000 views):

Before I launched the dedicated channel I used to upload videos in my own channel, and the OLED videos there have lot's of views too (about 200,000 in fact). The most popular video ever is a short one I took of a Sony XEL-1 OLED TV from September 2009 (with over 26,000 views):

Read the full story Posted: Apr 02,2013

MBraun and nTact to offer a glove-box and slot-die coater system solution

MBraun and nTact have announced a new partnership that will allow both companies to offer a complete system solution: a glove-box (from MBraun) with a slot die coater from nTact. The companies will offer both standardized and custom combined system with nTact's nRad or nRad2 coaters, with MBraun's line of glove-boxes and custom enclosures. These can be used for both R&D and full-scale production.

In their press release, MBraun says that they hope to "serve the evolving coating needs of many industries" - particularly the OLED display and lighting and OPVs.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 02,2013

Japan Display developed a 5.2" Full-HD (423 ppi) AMOLED panel

Japan Display developed a new 5.2" Full-HD (423 ppi) OLED panel, using an WRGB structure and an LTPS backplane. It seems that JDI is advancing quickly in their OLED program, this comes just four months after JDI announced a 4.5" 1280x720 (326 ppi) panel. Back then JDI said they plan to start producing AMOLEDs by 2014.

This is quite an achievement by JDI. Just to compare, Samsung's highest resolution OLED panel, the 4.99" FHD one used in the GS4 has a ppi of 441, but it uses a Pentile matrix.


Read the full story Posted: Apr 02,2013

QD Vision raised $20 million to ramp-up production capacity

QD Vision announced that they raised $20 million that will be used to ramp up Quantum-Dots film production capacity. This latest round of financing includes support from all existing investors. QD Vision's Color-IQ product (QD film that enhances LCD's color gamut) is used in Sony's Triluminos LED-backlit LCD TVs and in some of their digital cameras LCD displays as well.

QD Vision says that their Color IQ film can enhance an LCD film color performance by up to 50%, and help it reach 100% of the NTSC standard. I interviewed QDVision's CTO and co-founder back in 2009 - and this still gives a good introduction to Quantum Dots.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 02,2013

Nanomarkets: is there a market for novel encapsulation technologies?

Nanomarkets released a new white paper in which they discuss whether there's a real market for novel encapsulation technologies (focusing on OLED and PV applications). While the total encapsulation market for these two applications is large (around $500 million in 2013, growing to $2 billion by 2019), most of it will be rigid glass.

Novel encapsulation market forecast 2013-2019

In fact in 2015 only 21.3% of the market will use novel encapsulation, and this only grow to 26.9% by 2019. In terms of revenue, the novel encapsulation market for OLED sand PVs will grow from about $50 million in 2013 to just over $500 million in 2019, and most of it will be for PV applications, OLEDs will only reach about $100 by 2019.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 02,2013