In 2012 the EU launched the TREASORES project (Transparent Electrodes for Large Area Large Scale Production of Organic Optoelectronic Devices) that aimed to develop technologies that will lower the production costs of organic electronic devices.

The Fraunhofer FEP now reports that the project concluded successfully and one of the results was the development of several new transparent electrode and barrier materials. The project partners developed electrodes based on carbon nanotubes, metal fibres or thin silver - and these electrodes (some of which are already mass produced) enabled the creation of the OLED lighting device you can see above.

UBI estimates that the AMOLED market will reach a record $15 billion in revenues in 2016 - an increase of about 40% over 2015. Unit shipments will rise 16% to reach 270 million panels in 2016 (up from 230 million in 2015).

UBI expects the AMOLED market to grow with a CAGR of 46% between 2016 and 2020, to reach $67 billion.

Nikon announced several new digital cameras, including three ones with OLED displays. The DL18-50, DL24-85 and DL24-500 all sport a 24.8MP 1"-type sensor, 4K video at 30p, Wi-Fi, NFC and a tilting 3-inch AMOLED display. The main difference between the models is in the lenses and the size of the cameras of course.

The larger DL24-500 will also sport an XGA OLED EVF. All three models will ship in the summer of 2016.

Researchers from Kyushu University managed to drastically increase the lifetime of TADF OLED emitters - by more than eight times. This was achieved by a simple modification to the structure of the device - putting two thin (1-3 nm) layers of Liq (a lithium-containing molecule) on each side o the hold blocking layer.

The researchers started with a TADF device, in which the lifetime is only about 85 hours (LT95). This is under "extreme brightness" to accelerate testing. With the new design and some extra modifications, the device's lifetime increased to 1,300 hours - over 16 times better than the initial device. This is a great achievement - even though this is not enough for commercialization yet.

IHS says that the sale of OLED materials (emitters and other materials) increased 12% in 2015, to reach 26,000 tons and $465 million in revenue. Most of the growth came from OLED TVs, and this is set to continue in coming years, with volume reaching 100,000 tons by 2018 - or $1.8 billion in revenue.

IHS says that the market for small/medium display materials will more then double from 2015 to 2018, but OLED TV material growth will be even faster. Materials for WOLED TVs will outsell materials for RGB small/medium displays in 2017.

Market research company Yole Developpement released a new OLED lighting market report (OLED for Lighting - Technology, Industry and Market Trends) in which they predict a $1.5 billion OLED lighting market in 2021 (up from nearly $30 million in 2015).

The company sees the general lighting market driving this growth. But for this to happen, enough niche markets have to be identified and accessed to create a minimum production scale that will enable price reductions. In addition, the advantages of OLEDs has to be clearly demonstrated to customers.

The EU launched a new project, called, PI-SCALE, that aims to create a European-wide pilot line which will enable companies of all sizes to quickly and cost effectively test and scale up their flexible OLED lighting concepts and turn them into market ready products.

PI-SCALE will offer world class capability and services in the pilot production of customized flexible OLEDs and initially focuses on product streams in the areas of automotive, designer luminaires and aeronautics applications. The pilot line will be available during and after the lifetime of the project to companies on an open access basis, and the specialist infrastructure will include all the steps required to turn OLED lighting concepts into manufactured products.

Universal Display announced that it signed a collaboration and evaluation agreement with OSRAM. OSRAM will begin to sample UDC's PHOLED OLED materials for OLED lighting applications.

OSRAM is mostly focused on OLED for the automotive market, and the company recently announced a five-year strategic plan that includes a €2 billion investment in current and future lighting applications - which includes OLEDs for the automotive market. The company's CEO considers OLED important for some niches, but too expensive for general lighting.

According to a new report form Nikkei, Apple decided to adopt OLEDs sooner than expected - in the 2017 iPhone. Apple previous aim was to use OLEDs no sooner than 2018. Nikkei further says that Apple started talking to both Samsung Display and LG Display in December 2015 regarding a supply deal - that may reach $12 billion in total orders.

This is an interesting claim. The iPhone 7 will be released in 2016, so the 2017 should bring us the "iPhone 7s" - which usually means no real design changes. But it is highly likely that Apple will choose to go with a flexible OLED - maybe curved on the edges like Samsung's edge phones. Maybe this will be a new "premium" iPhone model (iPhone edge?).

According to Business Korea, Samsung Display decided to double the capacity of its A3 flexible OLED line. The company recently placed orders of 400 billion Won (around $325 million) for new equipment with 10 different vendors.

The A3 line currently produces 15,000 monthly substrates (Gen-6) and when the new equipment arrives the capacity will double to 30,000 monthly substrates. Samsung hopes the new capacity will be ready by early 2017.