Yesterday we posted that LG Display is going to host a press release on Aug 17 during which they will announce a revised business strategy - focused on OLED displays.
Today Reuters reports that LG Display says they are considering additional investment to expand their OLED TV panel production. No decision has been made yet, though.
LG Display is going to host a press release on Aug 17 in their Paju complex to celebrate the company's 20th anniversary. Officials in the company says that they during the conference LGD will announce a revised business strategy - focused on OLED displays.
According to a report on Korea Times, LG will reveal its strategy to create an OLED ecosystem with local partners and suppliers - and also an "OLED camp" with Chinese and Japanese TV makers. LG will highly its commitment to the OLED business and explain how and why OLEDs are superior to LCDs.
Professor Bjorn Lussem from Kent State University received a $180,000 grant from the Binational Science Foundation to continue his development of an OLED display that is driven by a vertical organic transistor.
Professor Lussem explains that vertical transistors use less voltage so they are more power efficient. A vertical design also means you can make higher density displays. Professor Lussem's partner in this reserach is Professor Nir tessler from Israel's Technion institute for technology.
The OLED Association says that in Q2 2015 OLED shipments reached 63.1 million units - up 7% from Q1 2015 and 28% from Q2 2014. Most of these displays went to smartphones (91%), followed by wearables (7%) and finally tablets (1%).
In Q2 2015, OLED displays reached $3.1 billion in revenues - up 15% from Q1 2015 and up 12% from Q2 2014. The OLED Association estimates that revenues will reach $12.5 billion in 2015 - or up 40% from 2014 mostly due to increased OLED TV sales by LG and the increase in smartphone displays.
The New York Stat's Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA) announced new funding for 11 firms to help increase the energy efficiency of buildings. One of these companies is OLEDWorks, that received $500,000 to work on brighter OLED lighting panels.
This is OLEDWorks third NYSERDA grant. In June 2013 the company was awarded $200,000 (in collaboration with WAC Lighting) to develop lighting for office space, combining LED indirect ambient device with an OLED "task unit", and in November 2013 OLEDWorks received $491,000 to improve the capability and control of its OLED manufacturing processes in order to manufacturing robust products at affordable cost.
Universal Display reported their financial results for Q2 2015. UDC generated $58.1 in revenues (down from $64.1 million in Q2 2014) and saw a net loss of $11.8 million (due to a $33 million green host inventory write-down).
Material sales were $24.3 million (down 32% from Q2 2014) and royalties and license fees were $33.7 million (up from $28.1 million in Q2 2014) - out of which SDC paid $30 million. Excluding the inventory write-down, operating income was $28.5 million and the company generated $28.2 million in the quarter and now has $356.2 million in cash and equivalents.
Taiwan's Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) signed an agreement with ITRI for a technology transfer for flexible AMOLED and touch panel integration (specifically ITRI's FlexUP flexible substrate technology - which is owned by FlexUp, encapsulation technology and flexible touch sensor technology).
CPT aims to use these technologies to achieve flexible OLED mass production "as soon as possible". Earlier today we posted that ITRI is set to demonstrate a 7" Full-HD foldable AMOLED prototype soon. ITRI and CPT has been cooperating on flexible OLEDs since 2012.
According to a report from Japan, JOLED is set to establish a new OLED research facility in Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture in a $161 investment. The facility will include a pilot line that will be able to produce samples by the end of 2016, and the facility will also evolve into a mass production fab that will begin production by 2018 (this will require, of course, a much larger investment).
JOLED is mainly targeting medium sized (10 to 30 inch displays) to be used in tablets, laptops and monitors. JOLED is reportedly in talks with Apple regarding a possible iPad AMOLED supply agreement. This new report from Japan actually suggests that Apple aims to team up with both LGD and JOLED for a tablet OLED supply agreement - with LG Display to start supplying tablet OLEDs at the end of 2016 and JOLED To join when the new facility is ready in 2018.
Everdisplay developed a 6" 4K AMOLED display - achieving 734 PPI. This is the first 4K 6" AMOLED prototype to be demonstrated. Everdisplay says that emerging applications such as virtual reality will demand such high-resolution displays.
Everdisplay started mass producing 5" 720p AMOLED displays towards the end of 2014. The company is also developing 5.5" and 6" panels for mobile devices, a 1.4" 400x400 circular AMOLED for the wearable market and an 8" AMOLED for the automobile market.
Taiwan's ITRI says they will demonstrate a new 7" Full-HD foldable AMOLED prototype at the upcoming Touch Taiwan 2015 event (26 August).
This panel is an improvement over the foldable AMOLED ITRI demonstrated at Touch Taiwan 2014. The 2014 prototype was a full-color foldable 6" AMOLED (we do not know the resolution of the 2014 panel).
