Lenovo recently demonstrated two new foldable device prototypes that use flexible OLED displays. First up is the CPlus, a smartphone that turns into a smartwatch or actually a smart "band" that is worn on the wrist.
The CPlus sports a 4.26" display, and is based on Android. Lenovo aims to make two version of this device, when it reaches the market - a small one and a large one.
Kopin announced that it is going to enter the OLED microdisplay market for mobile VR and AR applications. The company's first OLED microdisplays will be demonstrated at CES 2017 next month.
Kopin says it has developed a novel silicon backplane structure that will enable high-speed OLED-on-silicon microdisplays. The displays will feature an ultra-high resolution, low power and small form factor.
UK's SmartKem, a developer of high-performance organic backplanes for flexible displays, announced a 3 million Euro financing round from its existing investors, including BASF Venture Capital, Octopus Ventures and Entrepreneurs Fund.
This new round follows a recent 1.8 million Euro EU grant awarded to SmartKem to support the commercialisation of the company’s technology platform, specifically with display makers in Asia.
Korean manufacturing equipment maker SFA Engineering announced that it secured a $93.5 million order from China's Visionox. SFA will deliver the equipment by August 2017.
Visionox has started mass producing AMOLED panels in June 2015, but the company's production capacity is still limited. Visionox's Gen-5.5 AMOLED line in Kunshan can currently produce around 4,000 monthly substrate, and once yields stabilize they will reach a full capacity of 15,000 monthly substrates. The company is mulling a $673 million investment to expand the capacity of this fab.
Last week we posted that Japan Display is set to raise its stake in JOLED for $100 million, following a $650 million USD cash injection from INCJ to grow its LCD and OLED business. JDI today confirmed this plan. The company received 45 billion yen ($382 million US) from INCJ in the form of unsecured subordinated convertible bonds and these funds will be used for R&D expenses on printing OLED technologies (and will probably include the $100 million for JOLED).
JDI also received 30 billion yen (about $255 million US) from INCJ in the form of subordinated loan, and this money will go towards OLED R&D in the field of evaporation OLED technologies.
In 2016, TADF (Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence) emitters have received much attention in the OLED industry as the most promising method to improve OLED displays. CYNORA is one of the most active companies with several years of experience in this field and the company is now getting ready to bring a first blue TADF material to the OLED market.
In a little more than one year, CYNORA has set itself up to become a major OLED material supplier. First, an experienced CEO in this field, Gildas Sorin, the former CEO of Novaled GmbH, was brought in. Since then, CYNORA has shown significant improvement in material performance starting with the announcement of two milestones.
2016 will soon come to an end, and we are getting ready to summarize this exciting year in the OLED industry. One year ago we posted the top top OLED stories in 2015, and you can see the list below again.
It was not a surprise to find most of the stories discuss OLED TVs - as 2015 marked the year when LG began to push OLED TVs into the market with more vigor.
Korean news site ETNews says that LG Display is partnering with Apple, Google and Microsoft to develop a foldable OLED display for smartphones. The plan is for LGD to start producing such displays in 2018. LG Electronics is also part of this project, but apparently the first customers for these displays will be the three US-based companies.
ETNews calls these displays "out-foldable" displays, which probably means that the target devices are a smartphone-sized devices that open-up to have a tablet-like display. According to ETNews LGD recently developed an impressive prototype of those displays. LGD news is carrying out most of the development of this display.
A few days ago IHS said that they see the flexible display market reaching 139 million units in 2017 - an increase of 135% compared to 2016. IHS now reveals that in Q3 2016 SDC flexible AMOLED revenue reached over $1 billion for the first time ever.
According to IHS, SDC has a market share of 31.8% from the total display market, followed by Japan Display (15.4%) and LGD (13.1%). SDC's good performance was mostly accredit to its OLED business, and specifically its flexible OLED business.
According to Business Korea, LG Display recently restructured its business so it can better focus on OLED technologies. LG Display's five business units (TV, OLED, IT, mobile and AD) were merged into just three units - TV, IT and mobile.
According to Business Korea, OLED technologies will be the focus of LGD's TV unit, and also of its mobile business unit. The mobile unit now handles all plastic-OLED development, while the TV unit handles the large-area OLED panel production and developement. The new IT unit s still focused on LCD displays (for monitors and laptops). LG's OLED lighting unit is now part of LG's TV business division, and the automotive display business division is now part of the mobile unit.
