Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) and Nippon Shokubai developed a new OLED structure (called inverted OLED, or iOLED) that drastically improves oxygen and moisture resistances. The two companies demonstrated a prototype 5" QVGA (320x240, 80 PPI) red monochrome panel that uses the new structure.

The basic iOLED idea is to invert the structure between the electrodes of a bottom-emission OLED. So in an iOLED, on top of a transparent negative electrode (ITO), you place the EIL, ETL, emitter layer, HTL and finally the positive electrodes. According to the two companies, this structure makes the OLED more resistant. The brightness (or light emitting area) of a normal OLED will decrease by half within 100 days if it is exposed to air (due to the oxidation of the negative electrode). An iOLED will will hardly deteriorate in these conditions.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) awarded $10 million to five solid state lighting projects. Two of these projects are OLED lighting ones. The first project, worth $2.3 million, was awarded to PPG Industries. PPG will develop a cost-effective manufacturing process to help commercialize an integrated substrate (which includes the glass foundation and the other necessary layers).

PPG's project will use standard grade glass which should lower the cost (while maintaining the performance) compared to the high-end glass used in OLED today. This is PPG's second grant from the DOE. In January 2010, the DOE awarded $1.6 million to develop "Low-Cost Integrated Substrate for OLED Lighting". This program is now finished and PPG has been recognized by the DOE for significant achievements in advancing OLED lighting technology.

Sumitomo Chemical unveiled new flexible PLED lighting panels. These structured panels (they have a patterned printed on them) are produced in an ink-jet printed process. Sumitomo showed several lamp prototypes, including the one shown below:

Sumitomo plans to start volume production of such panels by March 2015 (fiscal year 2014) - using both ink-jet and roll-to-roll processes. They still need to extend the lifetime of their panels, improve the luminance performance and improve their production yield rates.

According to reports from Korea, both Samsung and LG are planning to announce new OLED TVs at the IFA 2013 exhibition (Berlin, September 6). This time the companies will focus on size. Samsung will introduce a 75" set while LG will unveil a 77" one. Both TVs will be available on the market before the end of 2013, or in the first half of 2014.

Samsung 55-inch OLED TV panels

So is this rumor likely? Samsung still hasn't managed to ship their 55" OLED TV (although the latest reports suggest the current release date is set for July). Obviously a 75" panel means even lowered yields and a much higher price tag. On the other hand, as these larger TVs are priced at a premium at any case, perhaps the price difference to OLEDs will seem less harsh than on 55" panels.

DisplaySearch says that AMOLED phone panel shipments will reach over 217 million units in 2013 (up from 134 million in 2012). This will grow AMOLED demand from 263,000 square meters in Q1 2013 to 557,000 square meters in Q1 2014. AMOLED supply/demand ratio will fall to 1% in Q4 2013 - which means that supply disruptions could lead to shortages.

According to DisplaySearch, SMD will need to run its AMOLED fabs at maximum capacity to keep up with the demand. Samsung aims to significantly extend its A2 Gen-5.5 fab capacity in 2013 and 2014, and the company may also accelerate its plans for the new A3 line.

LG Chem announced that since April 2013, all its OLED panels have a CRI of over 90. CRI determines a light source ability to reproduce colors on which the light shines, and a high CRI means a "high light source quality".

LG Chem says that generally, CRI and efficiency are trade-off factors, but LG Chem managed to maintain high panel efficiency (60 lm/W), color temperatures between 3000K and 4000K and lifetime at 20,000 hours.

Intellectual Property Exchange International (IPXI), a financial exchange for licensing and trading of IP rights, is going to help Philips license its OLED display IP portfolio (which has over 600 patent assets, including 225 issued patents worldwide).

IPXI will two public web presentations on June 5 at 10:00 CT and 20:00 CT to unveil the contract offering, present details and launch the marketing campaign.

Fraunhofer's COMEDD developed new color tunable OLED lighting panels. These new panels will be presented at the LOPE-C 2013 exhibition (June 11) for the first time. To develop these new panels, the Fraunhofer used vertical stacking of OLED emitters which can be controlled separately.

They say that by using different process technology, COMEDD was able to achieve the right stack architecture including the optimized thickness of the individual OLEDs for an appropriate efficacy.

The UK's Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) posted some updates on their OLED program. They have recently produced defect free OLED lighting samples. They managed to produce panels that has large (over 250 cm²) emissive areas (they are producing these panels on 8" substrates and so could exceed 160x160 mm panels).

The CPI developed two kinds of panels - the first uses small molecule materials and the second uses full solution-processable PLED materials. They have also produced samples that use a hybrid structure with a PEDOT layer (deposited using a slot die process) with an evaporative emissive layer (that has better efficiency and performance compared to the PLEDs). The 154x154 mm example shown above is the hybrid structure.

NHK's Science & Technology Research Laboratories (STRL) unveiled a new 8" flexible OLED prototype panel. The panel features a resolution of 640x480 (100 ppi) and is based on an amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) TFT backplane.

STRL says that the red emitter material is a new phosphorescent material that is made from a benzoquinoline derivative host doped with a platinum based complex. The encapsulation is made from a polymer material.