So LG Display is already producing flexible OLED panels, which will allow LG to produce curved phones. Now LG Chem announced that they are already mass producing stepped and curved batteries. The company is also developing bendable "cable" batteries (see image below), but it will take some years before LG Chem can produce them.

A stepped battery is a battery that is built from two battery units on top of each other in the shape of a "step". This means that LG can make a custom battery for a specific device model which will make better use of round edges, etc. The LG G2 for example uses a stepped battery (produced at LG Chem's Nanjing plant). They say this allowed them to increase battery density by 16% and add more than 3 hours to the G2 batter life. LG Chem will be able to produce designs with even 4 steps in the future.

Yesterday we reported that Samsung started mass producing plastic-based 5.7" FHD flexible OLED panels, and today the company announced the first device to use them - the Galaxy Round smartphone. This is an Android 4.3 smartphone similar to the Galaxy Note 3, with the major feature being the curved (400 mm curvature radius) flexible display (samsung simply refers to it as a flexible Super AMOLED, strangely they are not using the YOUM brand).

The Galaxy Round includes all sorts of user interface tweaks to take advantage of the curved screen, for example the so-called Roll-Effect that enables user to check information such as date, time, missed call and battery easily when home screen is off (see video below) and the "Gravity Effect" for creating visual interaction with the screen by tilting the device.

OLED Encapsulation is a very hot topic, especially for flexible OLEDs. Samsung and LG are already producing flexible OLEDs, but the search for better encapsulation technologies is still on. ALD, or Atomic Layer Deposition is one candidate for future deposition of OLED encapsulation. ALD is based on Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) that uses two vapors (gaseous) precursors which react on the substrate which creates a solid thin film. ALD works in relatively low temperatures which means it is suitable for all substrates including plastics.

One of the leaders in ALD is Finland's Beneq. Beneq developed an inorganic barrier film called nClear which is deposited using ALD. Beneq says that nClear provides "world class" barrier performance and can be deposited at temperatures well below 100 degrees Celsius. Beneq offers the TFS-600 (Gen-2.5, 500x400 mm) which is used for industrial-scale OLED encapsulation. Beneq's director of Technical sales, Mikko Soderlund, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had on the company's technology and business. Mikko is leading the application development and commercialization of ALD-based thin-film encapsulation technology for OLEDs. He has a PhD in Photonics from Helsinki University of Technology (2009).

DisplaySearch posted an interesting article regarding Apple and how they plan to once again rely on display technology for the new product innovation. DisplaySearch estimates (based on supply chain research) that Apple will revamp nearly all of the displays in its products in 2014. Specifically, DisplaySearch estimates that the iWatch will indeed adopt a flexible OLED.

Apple 2011 flexible OLED watch patent

Specially, DisplaySearch says that the iWatch will use a 320x320 flexible AMOLED and the size of the display will be either 1.3" or 1.63". We heard reports last week from Korea suggesting pretty much the same specs. Last week I reported that I can't see either LGD or Samsung being able to supply Apple with the flexible displays. But DisplaySearch estimates that the iWatch will only arrives towards the end of 2014, so it may be that LGD (or Samsung) will indeed have the capacity to supply Apple by then.

Just minutes after posting that LGD announced it will start mass producing flexible OLEDs, here comes Samsung with their own announcement. It turns our that Samsung Display is already mass producing 5.7" flexible OLEDs and supplying them to Samsung Electronics. Samsung will release the first flexible OLED phone (probably a Galaxy Note 3 Special-Edition) "within days".

Samsung's 5.7" panel offers Full-HD resolution and it is only 0.12 mm thin. It weighs 5.2 grams and has a curvature radius is 400 mm. So while LG's flexible display is larger at 6", it is much thicker (more than three times thicker at 0.44 mm).

Update: Samsung Display announced today that it too has began flexible OLED mass production. Samsung is making 5.7" Full-HD panels and they expect to release the first phone to use them within days.

LG Display announced today that it will start mass producing flexible OLEDs for smartphones. It's not clear whether they actually started panel production or whether production will start soon. LG said that they aim to take an early lead in the flexible display market and introduce new products with "enhanced performance and differentiated designs" next year.

LGD revealed some information about the first flexible OLED panel to be produced. It is a 6" panel that weighs just 7.2 grams and is only 0.44 mm thin. Last week we reported on rumors about LG's upcoming flexible OLED phone - with a 6" display indeed. It may be that those rumors actually referred to these production news as the first device is only expected in 2014 and not "within days" as the rumors suggested.

The EU launched a new project (called ENAB-SPOLED) that aims to use solution-based OLED materials to enable high performing cost competitive OLEDs for the lighting market and to develop a functional luminaire demonstrator. More specifically, the project partners will develop new materials (transport materials, emitters), new optical technologies for light guiding, and also process technologies for solution processing of small molecule and PLEDs.

This 2-year project has a budget of €4 million and is supported by Germany, Austria and the UK. The project partners are Novaled, Cambridge Display Technology, Tridonic, Zumbotel, the University of Durham and the Fraunhofer IAP. More information can be found here.

My friend Kevin Kuepper works at Aixtron, and he is a hobbyist race-car driver at KuepperRacing, a family-owned BMW racing team that's been competing since 1988. Kevin is also an OLED-Info fan, and he placed an OLED-Info sticker on his BMW, which is really cool:

Kevin's recent race (where the photos were taken) was a Nurburgring. This race is made up of two racetracks, the Nordschleife (opened in 1927) and the Grand Prix Circuit inaugurated in 1984. Those two circuits (which can be driven in combination) are about 26 km all together - this is the longest permanent racetrack in the world.

Sharp is showing new 7" MEMS-Shutter Display prototype at Ceatec 2013. MEMS-Shutter displays are similar to LCD in that they have a LED backlighting unit (BLU), color filters, and a component that blocks the light. But instead of liquid-crystals and polarizers, these displays use MEMS shutters.

A MEMS-Shutter Display is about 6 times more efficient than a regular LCD. This is mostly due to the fact that you do not need a polarizing filter like in LCDs. The displays also use a WRGB structure in which there is a white subpixel which increases brightness and efficiency. The panels on display had a resolution of 800x1,280 (220 PPI). The backplane is an IGZO. Sharp co-developed these panels with Qualcomm.

Several reports from Korea suggests that LG Electronics is getting ready to announce their first phone that uses a flexible plastic-based curved OLED panel. Both reports say the new phone will sport a large 6" panel and it will be announced soon - within days or in November at the latest.

One thing the two sources do not agree upon is the name. CNet says it will be called the G Flex while ZDnet Korea claims it will be called the LG G Z or Z1. CNet says that they obtained the sketch shown above the shows how the new phone will look like.