Taiwan's AU Optronics is currently focused on VR, wearable and automotive applications for its AMOLED displays. The company recently announced it is developing 3.8" and 5.5" VR AMOLEDs, and today we learn that the 3.8" panel is now entering production.

The new panel features a resolution of 1080x1200 and a refresh rate of 90Hz. It is intended for VR HMD applications - which use two such displays, one for each eye (the Oculus Rift, for example, uses two 3.54" 1200x1080 90Hz AMOLEDs produced by SDC). More information on AUO's new panel can be found on the OLED Marketplace.

LG Display announced its entry to the flexible OLED automotive market back in July 2014, and the company LGD unveiled a 12.3" Full-HD flexible automotive OLED panel in early 2016. LGD is already collaborating with Tesla, Cadillac and Mercedes, but these panels are not in production yet.

During a tradeshow in Korea, LGD’s Automotive Sales and Marketing director Sanghyun Ahn revealed that these 12.3" FHD flexible OLED panels will only enter production in 2018. The company is also developing larger 25" curved and freeform automotive OLEDs, and these are planned for 2019.

According to the Financial Times, demand for Samsung's new Note 7 smartphone (launched just last week) is very strong - to the point that Samsung cannot supply enough phones and it had to delay the launch in some markets.

The Note 7, Samsung's flagship large smartphone (phablet), uses a 5.7" 2560x1440 (518ppi) flexible Super AMOLED dual-edge display. The FT quotes an analyst from Macquarie saying that the major production obstacle is at SDC, specifically "applying a new touch technology to plastic OLED screens".

After years of OLED R&D but no actual reports, Taiwan's Innolux is finally demonstrating its new OLED prototypes, signalling that the company is finally about to re-enter the OLED market. Innolux says that it has recently "achieved success with AMOLED technology" and now plans to continue development and ultimately mass produce AMOLED panels.

In a trade-show in Taiwan, Innolux is demonstrating several OLED prototypes. First up we have a 5.5" WQHD (2560x1440, 534 PPI) flexible AMOLED built on a plastic substrate and an LTPS backplane. The panel has a "proprietary pixel rendering methods" (perhaps PenTile like?) and uses thin-film encapsulation and is produced using an FMM mask (more on this below).

LG Display collaborated with Korea's car-customizing experts Chang's Custom to create what they say is the world's first concept VIP van with interior OLED lighting. OLED lighting is ideal as an internal automotive lighting technology as it is thin, light, company and efficient.

In the custom van, Chang's Custom used 320x110 mm OLED panels for the ceiling lighting, and 200x50 mm panels for the side lighting. The company says that the warm and soft light emitted by the OLED light panels creates a luxurious state-of-the-art atmosphere in the car interior. This will create "psychological comfort for the driver while giving a luxurious and glamorous feel for passengers.".

LG lowered the price of its high-end OLED E6 TVs. The 65" model now costs $4,999 while the 55" model now costs $3,499. The E6 is a series of flat-panel 4K smart OLED TVs introduced in 2016 that feature an ultra-slim on-glass design, a fixed soundbar, LG's webOS 3.0, Color Prime PRO technology and HDR.

Visa Lighting introduced the company's first two OLED products, the Limit and Petal. These are two pendants lighting fixtures, each using three OLED panels that deliver a combined output of 850 lumens.

The panels offer a color temperature of 2900K and a CRI of 80. I'm not sure but these seems to be OLEDWorks/Philips Brite FL300 OLEDs. Visa Lighting did not reveal the pricing of these panels, nor the availability - but it's great to see another lighting maker adopt OLEDs.

OLED Microdisplay-maker eMagin announced that it entered into an early warrant exercise transaction with certain of its warrants holders, to raise about $4.5 million.

An eMagin OLED microdisplay

Some of these funds will go towards the company's growth initiatives with consumer AR/VR - and to finance the company's two consumer products that are set to launch in Q4 2016.

Applied Materials reported its financial results for Q2 2016, with an all-time highs in new orders and backlog. Applied says that the company is in early stages of large, multi-year industry inflections which is driving its business growth.

One of the inflections is in the display industry. In early 2016 Applied said it is seeing strategic investment from OLED display customers, and this trends now continues. Applied says it has received large OLED orders - but the market is still in the "initial phase" of OLED investments and more growth is expected ahead.

Earlier this week Cadillac announced that it is set to unveil a new design concept car that uses curved flexible OLED displays and true to its word, the company launched the Escala concept car, with three flexible OLED panels "co-developed" with LG Display.

Another nice surprise was that the new concept also adopts OLED lighting panels in the rearlight, as can be seen in the image below. Even though the Escala is just a concept, Cadillac says that the new "sinister look" enabled by those OLEDs will also arrive in production cars soon (hopefully with OLED lighting, indeed).