LG's first 4K OLED TV, the 65" 65EC9700, is now shipping in the US - for $9,999. The 77" 77EC9800 will also launch soon, and you can already pre-order it for $24,999.

LG's official price for the 65" OLED TV is indeed $10,000 - but I assumed the real price will be lower. The 55" Full-HD 55EC9300 is still listed as $6,999 while it is being offered for $3,499 or even less). There were also reports that the real price for the 65" will be around $6,250. Cleveland Plasma for example lists the TV for $8,250 - but they are not shipping it yet.

Researchers from the University of Tokyo developed a new technology to bond polyimide films to glass so it can easily be peeled off by applying heat. Polyimide is widely used today as a flexible OLED substrate, which is indeed produced on glass and then de-laminated at the end of the deposition process. This is an expensive process today (which requires a laser) with low yields.

The new bonding technology (which they call surface activated bonding) makes it easier to remove the polyimide film. In the new process an argon io beam is used to remove the oxide and adsorption films and flatten the surfaces. A 5-20 nm thick silicon layer is formed between the glass and the polyimide by ion beam sputtering. An iron adhesion layer (1 nm thick) is formed on the silicon to reinforce the bonding.

IDTechEx estimates that the barrier (encapsulation) layers for flexible electronics market will reach over $200 million by 2024. This will be driven mostly by flexible OLED displays for phones, tablets and wearables. Following is details regarding the different technologies adopted by Samsung, LG and others.

Samsung is using Vitex's multilayer thin-film encapsulation (TFE) using three layers (this is a new achievement, up until now they had to use at least 6 layers). While Samsung will still use this technology for its current and next-gen displays, Samsung is also considering other encapsulation deposition technologies, including Veeco's FAST-ALD and Universal Display's UniversalBarrier.

Flexible OLED displays are quickly becoming a reality, and it is expected that starting from 2015 we're going to start seeing foldable and eventually even stretchable OLEDs used in commercial devices. But for really flexible devices, all components must be flexible too.

While flexible batteries are already being developed, another possibility is to use a flexible supercapacitor. Researchers from MIT developed an extremely stretchable supercapacitor based on crumpled graphene paper.

IHS estimates that the wearable display market will grow very quickly in the next few years and revenues will climb from $300 million in 2014 (54 million panels) to $22.7 billion by 2023 (800 million panels).

It's likely that the majority of those wearable devices will adopt flexible OLED displays. IHS explains that wearables are best viewed as functional fashion accessories, and this market is defined by design. This means that wearable products must be adaptable to various forms which requires flexible displays. Wearable displays also require outdoor visibility and low power consumption.

In April 2013 Sony showed a prototype 30" 4K OLED panels at NAB 2013, promising to release them in 2014. Now the company officially launched this professional OLED monitor product, while shipments will begin in February 2015. Price is not determined yet, but it'll sure be expensive...

Sony's BVM-X300 is Sony's flagship professional monitor. Besides the 30" 4K (4096x2016) OLED panel (produced by Sony), it features a high dynamic range, wide viewing angles, quick response and high contrast. The BMV-X300 can display 4K, 2K, UHD and HD formats and supports wide color gamut standards.

OSRAM is one of the leaders in OLED lighting (apparently focused on the automotive market), and currently the produce all their OLEDs using an evaporation process. But according to a new job post, the company is starting to research wet-deposition of OLED materials.

OSRAM is looking for a PhD candidate that will work on a pre-development project involving wet-deposition of OLED materials. The challenge is to find the right process and material and process for each layer in the OLED lighting device. OSRAM specifically mentions screen printing, intaglio printing, flexograph and inkjet printing.

In January 2014, LG unveiled a bendable 77" 4K OLED - a TV that can change from flat to curved (using a "combination of water and motors" - whatever that means). When at full curve, the curve is eight centimeters in total. An LG official now says that LG plans to release such a bendable OLED TV in 2015.

We do not know what will be the size of their first bendable TV, but it sure is going to be expensive. But this is actually a neat idea because it means you can wall-mount the TV on the wall and keep it flat, and only curve it when you want to watch it and when it makes sense. A 2015 release is actually in line with LG's original plan in early 2014.