December 2017

A few days ago we posted on Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED (KMPO) and its demonstration of simple flexible OLED lighting panels integrated into packaging. My friend Takatoshi Tsujimura, CTO at KMPO, sent me this nice Christmas greeting card, which arrived yesterday, with an integrated small red OLED. The OLED has a mirror finish when off.

This was exciting to get, and the whole card is very well done and feels great. It's a very nice surprise to see something light up in such a thin paper card. KMPO calls this concept "thin paper products with functionality".

In June 2017 CSoT launched the construction of its new Wuhan 6-Gen AMOLED fab (the T4 fab). This $5 billion fab is expected to begin production in Q2 2019, with full mass production achieved by 2020. The fab's capacity will be 45,000 substrates per month, and it will be used to make small and medium-sized flexible and foldable OLEDs.

Yesterday CSoT held a ceremony to mark the building main concrete structure complete - 13 days ahead of schedule and 153 days since the beginning of construction. The next steps will be the construction of the clean rooms and moving in the equipment.

The Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) reports that sales of OLED TVs in Japan were over 10,000 for the first time in November 2017. This is a 50% increase from the sales in October.

Total TV sales in Japan reached 332,000 in November (down from 427,000 in November 2016). That means that the market share of OLED TVs is just 3%. OLED TV prices dropped 18.3% from July to October in Japan.

2017 is soon over - and this has been a great year for the OLED industry. Apple finally released an OLED iPhone, AMOLED sales are increasing, several companies (including BOE and LGD) started producing flexible mobile OLED displays with more expected to join soon, OLED TVs are gaining in popularity and LGD started production at its 5-Gen OLED lighting fab.

Here are the top 10 stories posted on OLED-Info in 2017, ranked by popularity (i.e. how many people read the story):

1. LG aims to adopt a blue TADF emitter in its 2018 OLED TV stack (Jul 6)
2. Updates on LG's 2017 OLED TV lineup release dates and prices (Feb 24)
3. Dell brings back its UP3017Q 30" 4K OLED monitor and slashes the price by $1,500 (Apr 13)
4. Samsung rumored to acquire Micro-LED developer PlayNitride (Apr 30)
5. LG officially unveils its 2017 OLED TV lineup, including the OLEDW7 Wallpaper Signature TV (Jan 5)
6. Amazon reveals the price of some of LG's 2017 OLED TVs (Feb 17)
7. Digitimes: Chinese OLED makers to more than double their OLED capacity each year between 2016-2020 (Feb 5)
8. LG's wallpaper OLEDs also coming to its commercial OLED signage range (Jan 1)
9. LGD still struggles with very low yields at its E5 flexible OLED line, will not start mass production for at least 6 months (Aug 30)
10. You can pre-order LG's 65" OLEDW7 Wallpaper OLED TV for $7,999 at BestBuy.com (Jan 8)

Conferences are a great place to learn about new development in the OLED industry and meet with fellow display professionals. There are many excellent OLED events coming up in 2018 in the USA, Europe and in Asia.

The following article will detail the most prominent OLED events. If you plan on attending other events (or if you are organizing an OLED event unlisted in our event directory) be sure to comment below.

SID DisplayWeek (May 20-25, Los Angeles, USA)

The Society for Information Displays (SID) holds its annual DisplayWeek in May, and if you can only make it to one OLED conference, DisplayWeek is a top choice. The week-long activities include symposiums, seminars, courses and a 4 day exhibition. DisplayWeek 2018 is a great way to check out many OLED demonstrations and new display innovations.

Following JOLED's announcement that it started commercial shipments of its 21.6" 4K OLED panels for use in medical monitors in its low-volume 4.5-Gen ink-jet printing production line, it was reported that the Japanese display maker is seeking to raise $900 million to support its plan to start mass producing OLEDs in 2019.

Reuters reports today that Denso Corp (an automobile parts producers) is considering a $440 million investment in JOLED. Earlier reports from Japan claimed the JOLED received funding commitments from Sony and Panasonic, with both Sumitomo Chemical (who supplies its P-OLED materials to JOLED) and Screen Holdings (who supplies its equipment to JOLED) are likely to take part in the financing round as well. Each of these four companies will invest between $45 to $90 million.

In July 2017 LG Display announced that it has decided to build a 8.5-Gen (2200x2500) OLED line in Guangzhou, China, to make OLED TV panels. The Korean government hesitated whether to approve this plan, as it sees OLED as a strategic technology Korea' economy and this is the first time a Korean company plans to build an OLED fab outside of Korea.

Reuters reports today that LGD's plan was officially approved today. The Korean government did LGD committed to increase its use of Korean materials and equipment, invest more in Korea and strengthen security checks at its production fabs.

In June 2017 Konica Minolta and Pioneer established a new OLED Joint Venture called Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED, which will combine the OLED business and product divisions of both companies, with a focus on automotive applications.

KMPO released a new video today showing a different possible application of its OLED lighting - integration into paper for packaging or greeting cards. KMPO calls this concept "thin paper products with functionality".

Display analyst firm DSCC released a new market report on the OLED market, in which they have some very interesting estimates on the OLED market. OLED revenues reached over $5 billion for the first time in Q3 2017, and DSCC sees a huge 88% jump in the final quarter of 2017 (to $10 billion) as Samsung starts to supply flexible OLEDs to Apple.

Flexible OLED revenues are the main driver of the growth in OLED smartphone shipments, with revenues rising 37% in Q3 2017 and are expected to grow 140% (Q/Q) in Q4 2017. Flexible OLED unit share out of the entire OLED smartphone market reached 33% in Q3 and will reach 49% in Q4. In terms of revenues, the market share will grow from 66% in Q3 to 80% in Q4.

According to Business Korea, Samsung Display will ship 50 million flexible AMOLED displays to Apple in 2017. Next year that amount is set to quadruple to 180-200 million panels, as Apple aims to adopt OLED displays in more iPhone models.

Samsung will produce all of these OLEDs bound for Apple at its A3 fab. Initially SDC aimed to construct a new fab for Apple (the A5 fab) but earlier reports suggested that these plans have been delayed. Samsung managed to increase the yields at its A3 line from 60% in early 2017 to around 90% today.