I'm happy to announce the third edition of The OLED Handbook, the most comprehensive resource on OLED technology, industry and market - now updated for 2013. This industry changes very fast, and this new edition includes in-depth information on LG's OLED TVs, the upcoming flexible OLED panels, updated OLED fabs, displays and roadmaps and details on over 20 new companies.

Reading this book, you'll learn all about:

• OLED technology and materials and production processes
• How OLEDs compare to LCD and Plasma displays
• Samsung's newest Super AMOLED panels, LG's OLED TV and other displays on the market
• The OLED lighting technology, what's available today and what's in store for the future
• The future of OLED displays and lighting and the challenges ahead

Researchers from the Fraunhofer COMEDD Institute in collaboration with Von Ardenne Anlagentechnik are developing new direct-emission OLED microdisplays. These new displays will be more efficient and cheaper than Fraunhofer's current microdisplays which use color filters.

Fraunhofer uses Von Ardenne's flash-mask-transfer-lithography (FMTL) technology. The FMTL-technology works with special transfer masks. Organic layers are locally deposited through the masks via thermal heat input and transferred to the microdisplay. This process needed a complete redesign to suit OLED deposition.

Plextronics has been awarded a $175,000 US DoE Phase 1 (Release 2) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award for the design and development of low-cost processes of OLED lighting printed electrodes. Plextronics will partner with Electroninks (a startup that was spun-off from the University of Illinois to develop printable metal inks).

The new process will integrate Plextronics' conductive polymer inks (Plexcode HIL materials) with Electroninks printable metal inks. The printed metal lines will ensure high power efficiency and good light uniformity for large size OLED panels.

On May 1st, LG Electronics launched the 55EM9700 OLED TV in Israel. I was invited to this press event which unveiled LG's upcoming 2013 lineup of LCD and Plasma TVs, and of course the OLED one. Throughout the presentation, LG said that OLED provide the best image and that this technology is the next-gen display tech.

The 55EM9700 isn't available in Israel yet, but LG says they aim to launch in in July 2013. The price? 55,000 NIS, which is about $15,500. This is only a bit higher than the UK price. LG's salesperson said that LG are planning to launch more OLED TV models soon, all in the range of 50 to 60 inches (which is not really news).

LG officials say that LG Display aims to enter the small-sized OLED market with their new flexible OLED panels. The company reiterated their plans to start producing those in the second half of 2013. Some reports suggest that LG Electronics aims to ship the first flexible OLED equipped phone in Q4 2013.

LG/UDC flexible OLED panel prototype

LG also confirmed that the first flexible OLEDs will not really be flexible or bendable. They call this "unbreakable displays" as this will be the main benefit (these panels will also be lighter and thinner compared to regular OLEDs). But this is just the "first phase" towards real flexible displays.

Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO) is currently used in OLED panels for the transparent cathode (or anode in top-emission OLEDs). ITO is useful because it is conductive and transparent, but its supply is limited (even though companies are now harvesting ITO from recycled electronics devices) and it's also brittle (so it's not suitable for flexible panels) and so companies are looking for alternatives.

Some products that use Cambrios Ag-Wires

One possible alternative are silver wires (or ag-wire). This technology is pioneered by Cambrios - a company established in 2002 with an aim to commercialize Ag-Wire based products. Cambrios ClearOhm is a Ag-Wire coating material used to create transparent conductive layers. ClearOhm can be deposited on thin films using a roll-to-roll (R2R) process, and is compatible with plastic substrates. It's also possible to use a sheet process on glass or plastic. Cambrios has filed over 175 patents for this technology and they claim they hold basic ag-wire patents. My friend Sri Peruvemba recently joined the company to become its chief marketing officer and he was kind enough to discuss their technology with me and help me with this article.

eMagin announced a new OLED microdisplay with a digital interface, the SVGA150 OLED-XL. This is an update to the company's SVGA+ OLED microdisplay. The new display has as 15-micro pixel-pitch, is built on a single crystal silicon backplane and measures 18 x 16 mm (5.01 mm high).

eMagin says that this new display is twice as efficient as eMagin's older generation display. This new display joins eMagin's family of digital interface OLED-XL microdisplays, which also includes VGA and WUXGA displays. eMagin plans to announce additional products in the family in 2013.

We just got word that OSD Displays is set to release three new AMOLED panels by Q1 2014. Since CMEL stopped their AMOLED production in 2009, it's been very difficult to buy AMOLED displays for low-volume products. The only AMOLED suppliers (Samsung, Sony and LGD) do not offer their panels for these kinds of projects (they only target in-house products and mass-volume ones such as mobile phones or digital cameras).

An Old OSD AMOLED panel

We do not have any information on OSD's upcoming AMOLEDs yet - not the technical details and not who produces those panels (possible candidates include Innolux, Visionox, AU Optronics and RiTDisplay). Hopefully we'll know more soon.