September 2015

BlackBody introduced a new OLED lighting installation called the Dispertion at the London Design Festival. The Dispertion, designed by Thierry Gaugain uses 550 square OLEDs in addition to some round OLED:

The most interesting thing here is that the 100x100 mm square OLED panels were actually provided by LG Chem. Up until now Blackbody only used their own OLED panels (produced in the company's Gen-2 fab in Toulon, France).

UK's SmartKem, a developer of high-performance organic backplanes for flexible displays, has signed agreements with two "leading Asian display makers" to transfer SmartKem's OTFT tru-FLEX technology into the production lines of the display makers, once process feasibility has been established.

SmartKem will work closely with its two partners to accelerate technology transfer processes to ensure 100% compatibility and full integration.

LG's 55" flat 4K OLED TVs (the 55EF9500) are finally shipping in the US - for $3,999, the same price as LG's curved 4K OLED, the 55EG9600. The 65" flat model is also shipping for $5,999.

The EF9500, available in either 55" (55EF9500) or 65" (65EF9500) models feature a flat 4K OLED panel, HDR, a new anti-glare filter, WebOS 2.0 and quad-core CPUs. LG offers similar curved models, the EG9600 TVs at the same prices.

UBI research says that Q2 2015 was a record quarter for the AMOLED market, with 56 million AMOLEDs shipped - an increase of 35% over the previous quarter (41 million panels) and 19% over Q2 2014 (47 million panels).

In terms of revenue, those 56 million panels generated $2.8 billion in revenue. The largest producer is still Samsung of course, and the main reason for the higher volume is the shipment of AMOLEDs to Chinese mobile phone markets. LG Display's flexible AMOLED used in Apple's Watch also contributed to the record quarter.

Vestel, the Turkish-based tech giant is about to bring several new high-end TVs to the market, adopting technologies such as 4K, curved panels, HDR, Android TV, Quantum Dots - and OLEDs. The company is offering its designs to other brands as an OEM.

Vestel says they plan to introduce an OLED TV to the market in early 2017. Vestel aims to create a high-volume TV, aiming to sell a large amount of TVs at a relatively low cost. It's highly likely that Vestel is talking to LG Display to supply them with those OLED panels. LGD is already supplying OLEDs to several Chinese makers, including ;including Skyworth, Konka, Changhong, and Haier, and is also supplying the OLED for Panasonic's new OLED TV.

Finding an alternative for ITO as a transparent electrode is one of the major flexible OLED challenges. A few days ago, The Faunhofer Institute FEP demonstrated an OLED device that has a graphene electrode, developed as part of project GLADIATOR.

The Fraunhofer developed the device in collaboration with Spain-based Graphenea, which supplied the CVD-produced monolayer graphene. Graphene-Info posted an interview with the project's coordinator who further explains the technology, why graphene is promising and what are the challenges that still has to be solved before graphene transparent electrodes can be commercialized.

Audi issued a press release today, towards the eleventh International Symposium on Automotive Lighting (ISAL 2015) which will take place next week, in which they say that OLED technology is the "next step in automotive lighting" - and Audi says that they want to be the first company to introduce OLED lighting in the tail lights of production cars.

Earlier this month Audi unveiled their new luxury electric crossover concept car, the e-tron quattro - with OLEDs in all of its displays, its frontlights and its taillights. This is just a concept car, but Audi will release an all-electric sport SUV in 2018, and hopefully they will adopt the OLEDs by then.

LG Display is one of the two companies that lead the OLED industry, and the Korean display maker recently announced a major shift in focus from LCD displays to OLEDs. We conducted a short interview with an official from LGD regarding the company's OLED business goals and aims.

Q: LGD's CEO recently gave a very exciting speech regarding OLEDs, as the company shifts its focus towards OLEDs. What made you take that decision? How do you see the OLED TV market evolving in the next few years?

Market competition is getting fiercer with Chinese manufacturers rapidly catching up in terms of technology and capacity. In response, we recognize that differentiation in product and technology is essential to growth and maintaining leadership in the display industry.

Back in 2014, Microsoft launched their first smartband, simply called the Band, with an LCD display. The company is now reportedly aiming to launch the Band 2 on October 6th, and according to a leaked photo it looks like it might be using a curved display:

The Band 2 looks very similar to Samsung's Gear Fit which was launched in 2014. The Fit had a flexible OLED - a curved 1.84" (432x128) Super AMOLED.

IHS DisplaySearch says that while the global smartphone display market is contracting, AMOLED shipments are growing. The main reason for that is Samsung Electronics' use of AMOLED displays in low-cost phones, and the adoption of AMOLEDs by several Chinese phone makers.

DisplaySearch estimates that AMOLED sales reached $2.4 billion in Q2 2015, up from $2.3 billion in Q1, $1.7 billion in Q4 2014 and $1.5 billion in Q3 2014.