BusinessKorea reports that according to their sources, LG Display reached 60-70% yield in their OLED TV production fab, while Samsung Display reached 40-50%. According to the report, both companies are expected to reach yields larger than 70% by the end of 2013 which means they will cross the threshold of mass production capability.

They expect prices to drop a further 15-20% by the end of the year. While this will make OLED TVs more competitive, the production capacity is still very at both companies as they are using pilot lines and can only produce a few hundred TVs each month.

Universal Display announced that the European Patent Office (EPO) issued a decision regarding the company's EU patent #1933395 (the EP '395 patent, which details the iridium L2MX composition), which was challenged by Sumitomo Chemical, Merck and BASF. The EPO affirmed the basic inventions and broad patent coverage but narrowed the scope of the original claims.

I'm not a lawyer so it is difficult for me to understand exactly what the narrowing of those claims mean. UDC says that they are pleased with the fact that the EPO recognized the novelty in the invention and confirmed their rights to broad claim coverage in this class of molecules through 2020. They are likely to appeal the ruling to reinstate a broader set of claims.

Engadget said they got hold of the following "press renders" showing LG's upcoming LG G Flex phone that will sport a flexible OLED display. Engadget also reports that they confirmed that the OLED panel will be 6" in size and the phone will be announced in November.

As you see this phone is curved from top to bottom. I think this makes more sense than Samsung's Galaxy Round which also uses a flexible OLED but is curved from left to right. Of course we'll have to wait for someone to review both phones to see which design is better. I'm guessing in coming months we'll see several new phone designs using flexible panels as makers try to figure out how best to use curved displays.

Encapsulix announced today that a "leading OLED lighting supplier in Europe" placed an order for the M500 ALD deposition system. This system will be delivered by the end of 2013, and will be used to encapsulate OLED panels for the residential, commercial, automotive and avionics markets.

Encapsulix's "infinity ALD" M500 equipment can deposit encapsulation coating on the order of 10-100 nm in thickness and can be scaled up to any substrate size. This particular system will support up to Gen-2 (400x500 mm) substrates and will be limited to rigid glass-based panels. But the company's systems can be used to deposit on flexible substrates and even be adopted for roll-to-toll production (up to one meter width).

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BASF has been working on a blue phosphorescent OLED emitter for quite some time - in fact the company says they have started developing an iridium-based blue PHOLED as early in 2003. Now Karl Hahn, a senior VP at BASF, says that the company will be ready to launch a commercial blue phosphorescent emitter by the end of 2014 aimed towards OLED lighting panels.

During the same presentation, Karl Hahn said that BASF plans to open a new OLED display focused laboratory in Korea during 2014.

AT&T is now offering Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 - starting from $289 with a plan. You can also buy it without a plan for $749.99. The Note 3 smartwatch companion, the Galaxy Gear, is now shipping from Amazon for $299.99. 

The Galaxy Note 3 features a 5.7" Full-HD Super AMOLED display (386 PPI), a 2.3 Quad-Core CPU (or a 1.9 Ghz octa-core in some markets), 3 GB of RAM, 32/64GB of storage, a 13 MP camera (will be capable of 4K videos in some markets) and Android 4.3. It is smaller and lighter than the Note 2. DisplayMate says that the Note 3 has the best AMOLED display ever - and it actually beats the best LCDs across the board.

Mitsubishi Chemical and Pioneer have been jointly developing OLED lighting technologies for a long time, including printed OLED panels. The companies are currently producing OLED lighting panels in which the bottom layer is coated and the emissive layer and the top layers are deposited by evaporation in vacuum (VTE).

Now the two companies presented a prototype panel in which both the bottom layer and the emissive layer were coated (the top layer was still deposited using VTE). The companies say this new process will reduce the cost of the panel to 10% compared to current OLEDs due to improved material utilization. They also say that the new panels will feature much longer lifetimes.

WAC Lighting's Vela OLED chandelier, introduced in July 2012, has received the "Lighting for Tomorrow 2013" Award under the OLED category. This year is the first time that OLED luminaires were eligible to enter the competition, as "Lighting for Tomorrow" has recognized OLED technology as a viable competitor for their innovative, energy saving competition.

The Vela is an aluminum made lamp that has 24 OLED lighting panels. 12 panels illuminate surfaces below and 12 additional panels shine upwards - to render a "soft ambiance that evokes a lighter sense of space and visual comfort". The light output is 2040 lumens at 58 watts (35.2 lm/W). The CRI is 80, and the color temperature is 4000K. I do not know who provides the actual OLED panels.

Sony's third-gen HMD, the HMZ-T3W is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com for $999, and Sony will ship the first units in November. The T3W includes the new wireless functionality and it features HD audio (virtualized 7.1-channel), micro-HDMI and MHL connectivity and better lens and software that improve the image quality over the previous-gen HMZ-T2. The T3W uses two Sony-made 0.7" 1280x720 OLED microdisplays.