In April 2016 Audi unveiled its 2016 TT RS coupe - with optional OLED taillights. This is the world's first serially-produced car to have OLED taillights, and up until now we did not know the lighting producer (it was rumored to be LGD, but that was later denied).

Today Osram revealed that it is producing those OLED lighting panels for Audi. Osram also reveals that each module contains four patterned OLED panels with a total light-emitting area of 49 cm² and a brightness of 1,000 cd/m². The module is mounted on a holder with a mirrored bezel, guaranteeing optimum visibility on the road.

Researchers from the Fraunhofer FEP announced a new development that can reduce the power consumption of OLED microdisplays. The power reduction is enabled by new chip and control electronics, that now only handles pixel changes and does not refresh the entire display all at once.

The researchers say that this development enabled a drastic reduction in power consumption - which is somewhat surprising. The new microdisplays (which are monochrome - green) use 1 to 4 mW, which they say is a fraction of the power consumed by the Fraunhofer's previous generation display - a color (WOLED+CF) bi-directional OLED (so this is not a fair comparison of course).

TADF, or Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence, represents a class of OLED emitter materials that aim to provide efficient and long-lifetime performance. TADF research started in earnest in 2012, and some believe that TADF represent an exciting new platform for next-gen OLED emitters.

As OLED display adoption grows, researchers and developers at Universities and companies are looking to develop more efficient and cost-effective OLED materials. There are currently three main drivers for these efforts - the development of an efficient and long-lasting blue color emitter, the development of alternative non-phosphorescent emitters and the development of soluble materials that can be deposited in ink-jet printing and other "wet" methods.

In September 2013, Veeco acquired Synos Technology for $185 million for the company's FAST-ALD flexible OLED encapsulation technology. Veeco did received a purchase order from SDC for a first-generation FAST-ALD prototype system, but the significant orders Veeco hopes to achieve never materialized.

In early 2015 Veeco announced that they do not see near-term revenue coming from this sector. Yesterday Veeco decided to significantly reduce future investments in its ALD technology development. Veeco says that some "competitive technologies" solved the display makers problems and it now sees ALD business pushed back two or three years.

LG's 55EG9100, launched in 2015, is a 55" curved Full-HD OLED TV - that normally ships for around $1,400. Amazon's deal of the day is the 55EG9100 for for $999. I believe this is the first time that an OLED TV is offered below $1,000.>

LG's 55EG9100 features webOS 2.0, a dual-core CPU, magic remote and passive 3D (2 glasses included). This was the entry-level OLED model for LG in 2015. The 55EG9100 is ultra-slim at 4.8 mm.

In May 2016 we reported that China-based Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund (FGC) offered to buy Aixtron for €670 million ($750 million). The German production equipment maker agreed to the offer, but now the German government did not approve this deal, citing security concerns.

Aixtron is offering OVPD deposition equipment (developed originally by Universal Display, and licensed exclusively to Aixtron) that, according to the company, offers an optimized and efficient deposition with very short cycle times compared to conventional VTE systems - which should lead to drastically reduced OLED production costs.

Italy-based DesLabs launched a new product called WiNEOLED - which is an OLED lamp dedicated for wine professionals and amateurs. The idea is that the excellent lighting properties and the uniformity of the OLED panel will unveil the wine's properties like never before.

The WiNEOLED uses an LG Display panel that offer a CCT of 4000K, an efficacy of 55 lm/W and a brightness of 75 lumens. The CRI is over 90 and the lifetime is 30,000 hours (LT70). The lamp can be powered with a USB cable, a battery or via a wireless Qi charging based.

Solomon Systech announced that it acquired mobile touch technology assets from Microchip for $23 million in cash. Solomon now has a license to sell Microchip's maXTouch based products and also has access to Microchip's design database and a portfolio of over 500 patents.

Solomon Systech says that this technology is renowned in the touch controller market, and has widespread applications in mobile phones and tablets. This technology is leading, according to Solomon System, especially in the flexible OLED touch controller market.

LG Electronics lowered the price of its entry-level 2016 OLED TVs, the flat 4K OLEDB6 the curved 4K OLEDC6. The 55" models now cost $1,997 (down from $2,599) while the 65" model cost $2,997 (down from $3,999).

The OLEDB6 is a series of flat-panel 4K smart OLED TVs that feature LG's webOS 3.0, Color Prime PRO technology and HDR. The TVs does not support 3D. The OLEDC6 is similar but with a curved panel.