February 2018

SID's DisplayWeek is the world's leading display conference, and the OLED-Info team will attend this year's event, which will take place in Los Angeles in May 20-25. The trade show brings together a large part of the display industry, and we're looking forward to seeing new OLED technologies, products and demonstrators and meeting up with industry leaders.

DisplayWeek includes a 3-day exhibition, 4-day technical symposium, short courses, seminars and three focus conferences (business, investors and market-focus). We'll be happy to schedule meetings - so if you plan to come to the event, do contact us. We're really looking forward to a week full of display technologies!

China's Visionox introduced a new AMOLED display, a 6.21" 2160x1080 panel that has a notch-type design (similar to the OLED used in Apple's iPhone X).

China's smartphone maker Doogee used this display in its new flagship Doogee V smartphone. The display enabled Doogee to achieve a very high screen-to-body ratio of 94.85%. The front of this phone has no physical buttons, and Doogee implemented an under-the-OLED fingerprint sensor under this 6.21" AMOLED.

IHS Markit says that flexible AMOLED shipments more than tripled in 2017, and revenues reached $12 billion (up from $3.5 billion in 2016). Rigid OLED revenues decreased by 14%. In 2018 flexible OLED revenues will reach around $23 billion, and rigid OLEDs will also increase slightly to about $11 billion.

In 2016 most flexible OLED were used in a curved form factor (edge-type phones), but in 2017 about half of flexible OLED displays were used in a flat form factor (such as in the iPhone X).

Vivo demonstrated a new concept device called the APEX, that includes several new innovative technologies. The most impressive is the front display, which is a 5.99" 2160×1440 flexible OLED display that is almost completely covers the front of the phone - the top and side bezels measure just 1.8 mm and the bottom is 4.3 mm.

This is an impressive design - but it causes some problems - for example there is no room for a selfie camera, and Vivo solved this via a pop-out camera unit (which looks like the popping flash units in pocket cameras). The design also leaves no room for a speaker - and Vivo designed a new Screen SoundCasting technology which vibrates the whole display, similar in a way to LG's CrystalSound TVs.

Lumiotec announced that on March 31st if will stop producing its OLED lighting panel, to "plan the further performance enhancement of the product" and to plan its future business. Lumiotec will continue to offer its panels (series P06, P09, P11 and P13 panels) while stocks last.

Last month Japan's V-Technology announced it will acquire Lumiotec, which is likely what is behind Lumiotec's decision.

In early 2018 Samsung unveiled its 146" modular Wall Micro-LED TV, and LG Display was quick to announce that it is also developing similar technology. According to reports, LGD aims to unveil its first Micro-LED TV in September 2018 (at IFA perhaps?) - and it will be larger than Samsung's.

Samsung 146-inch Wall Micro-LED TV

Samsung's focus for the premium TV market is on two technologies, Quantum Dots and Micro-LEDs. It is not likely that LG Display is shifting its focus from OLEDs to Micro-LEDs, but it may be that Micro-LEDs will be used for very large area TVs and maybe for modular designs signage displays.

Universal Display reported its financial results for Q4 2017. Revenues reached a record $115.9 million, up 55% from $74.6 million in Q4 2016. Revenues from material sales were $59.8 million (up 105% from $29.2 million in Q4 2016). Net income was $57.9 million (up from $23.1 million in Q4 2016).

UDC concluded a very successful 2017. Revenues were $335.6 million (up 68% from $198.9 in 2016) and net income was $103.9 million (up from $48.1 million in 2016). Net income included a onetime charge of $11.5 million from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Net cash generated in 2017 was $133 million.

Last week we reported that ETNews claims that Samsung is developing a hybrid Quantum-Dots OLED technology for its future TVs.

Today Yonhap News reports that Samsung Visual Display Business VP, Han Jong-hee, denies this story, saying that Samsung sticks to its two-track strategy for the high-end TV market, developing both QLED (quantum-dots enhanced LED LCDs) and Micro-LED TVs. Han further says that Samsung will start selling its Wall Micro-LED TV in August 2018.

UK-based OTFT developer SmartKem announced that it has signed a landmark deal with a leading display maker in Taiwan that will enable the display maker to commercialize SmartKem's OTFT technology in flexible displays.

The agreement will see a complete technology transfer, including production line deployment and supply of materials. This agreement marks the culmination of the LOI signed in November 2017. SmartKem updates us that this agreement covers both LCD and OLED displays.

Display analyst firm DSCC posted an interested article stating that the latest range of bezel-less LCDs are very similar to the high-end flexible OLEDs in form (not in contrast or image quality), to the point that mid-smartphone makers find it hard to justify the extra cost of a flexible OLEDs. The following table graphs shows the current price gap between flexible OLEDs and LCDs:
While a flexible OLED does enable a higher display-to-body ratio (82.9% on the iPhone X, for example), a high end LCD comes pretty close - the Oppo F5 reaches 78.1%.