Sony launched its first OLED TV, the XBR-A1E, in January 2017, and the company now started shipping its TV in Europe and in the US (the 65" model only). The prices (at least on Amazon.com) are $1,000 cheaper than Sony first announced - the 55" model costs $3,999 while the 65" model costs $5,499. The 77" is not shipping or priced yet.

Sony's A1E features a flat 4K OLED (LGD WRGB) panel, Android TV platform, HDR (both HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR) and a built-in speaker which is part of the stand behind the TV to create a stand-less form factor.

Skyworth has been producing OLED TVs since 2014, and the China-based TV maker has now unveiled its latest two OLED TVs, the S9E and the Wallpaper OLED TV. The Wallpaper one resembles LG's Wallpaper OLEDW7 TVs and also use a design that enables hanging the 3.6 mm screen on the wall and connecting the input box via a cable.

Skyworth's Wallpaper OLED TV will cost ¥99,999 ($14,500) for the 65" model - which is almost double than LG's OLEDW7 ($7,999)!

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin announced that the US Army will use its new high-brightness OLED microdisplays in its major helicopter helmet upgrade program. The program will retrofit high brightness, monochrome green microdisplays into the current fielded helmet. This new project also includes funding for engineering of production tooling as eMagin will be responsible for a higher-level display, taper, and lens assembly.

eMagin expects full production to commence in 2018 (following ground and flight testing) and continue for several years to complete retrofits for over 1000 airframes.

In August 2016 we reported that PMOLED-producer RiTdisplay sees growth ahead in the PMOLED market with plans to increase capacity - and today Digitimes states that RiTdisplay has indeed increased its capacity by 20% in 2016 (to 18,000 monthly substrates, up from 15,000). The company aims to increase production by a further 40% (to 25,200 monthly substrates) by the end of 2017.

Earlier reports suggested that the capacity increase will come from more efficient production ("deleting bottlenecks") - not from new equipment.

In early 2016 Dell announced the world's first OLED monitor, the 30" 4K Ultrasharp UP3017Q. This interesting and innovative monitor was supposed to be shipping in March 2016 for $4,999 - but that did not happen, and reports suggested that Dell canceled this monitor as the company was unhappy with the image quality of that OLED panel - especially the amount of color drift that it displayed when you viewed the monitor from the sides.

But Dell now started shipping the UP3017Q, and the price is set at $3,499, or $1,500 lower than the original price Dell announced in 2016. Hopefully other companies will follow suit to release OLED monitors as well.

Aixtron announced that it received a purchase order from a major Asian OLED display manufacturer for an OLED deposition system to be installed at the customer site within the second half of 2017. Aixtron does not specifically mention OVPD but as far as we know Aixtron only offers OVPD systems for OLED deposition.

Aixtron and the OLED display maker will collaborate to qualify Aixtron's technology for the production of OLED displays. Aixtron says that is OVPD deposition technology (developed originally by Universal Display, and licensed exclusively to Aixtron) offers several unique advantages over competing systems and it can enable the highest deposition rates, provide an efficient material utilization while minimizing the risk of degradation of organic material.

Researchers from the Korea-based ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) produced the largest OLED panel to date (370 x 470 mm) that use graphene electrodes.

From the photo above (and image below) it seems that this panel is actually made from 12 small OLEDs - but it seems that the graphene deposition itself was done on the whole substrate.

ETNews reports that Google aims to help LG Display to scale up its production of flexible OLED panels. Google offered to invest 1 trillion Korean Won ($872 million USD) as it seeks to adopt LG's flexible OLEDs in future Pixel phone devices.

Google first-gen Pixel use rigid AMOLED displays produced by Samsung Display, but Google reportedly could not get enough displays from Samsung Display (Google is not alone with this problem). Google wants to secure its supply of flexible OLEDs - the same as Apple does with its deal with SDC.

Dr. Andreas Haldi was appointed as CYNORA's Chief Marketing Office in 2016. CYNORA develops efficient blue TADF OLED emitters, and Dr. Haldi was kind enough to participate in this interview and help us understand CYNORA's business and technology.

Q: Thank you Andreas for helping us understand CYNORA's business and technology better. CYNORA has set up on a focused mission to develop a commercial blue TADF emitter. What will you consider to be a market-ready material, in terms of lifetime, efficiency and color point?

For the last 5 years, CYNORA has worked on developing thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) OLED emitters. End of 2015 we started to focus on efficient blue materials, which are still a key issue for OLED displays. Compared to the red and green pixels, the blue pixel is much less efficient. An increased efficiency of the blue pixel would therefore significantly reduce the power consumption of the display.

LG Display's CTO says that the company current generates about 10% of its revenues from OLED displays, but it expects OLED's share to reach 50% by 2020.

Currently almost all of LGD's OLED revenues come from OLED TV panels. LGD managed to reach production yields of 80% in two years, while this took 10 years to reach the same yields in LCD production. The price decline rate of OLEDs have been faster than that of LCDs - which makes LGD optimistic it will be able to increase production and profits going forward. OLEDs of course also have other advantages of LED LCDs, including the possibility of a flexible design.