Financial analysts from CLSA released an interesting short report about OLED demand in China. According to IDC, OLED smartphone shipments in China was down 6% in Q4 2017 (compared to Q4 2016) to 36 million units - in line with total Chinese smartphone weakness (-8% in the same period). Total OLED smartphone shipments in 2017 reached 128 million, up 8% compared to 2016. OLED penetration was up only 1% (to 15%) in 2017.

CLSA sees lower demand in 2018 and 2019 compared to early estimates - 175 million in 2018 and 225 million in 2019. That's 11% (2018) and 20% (2019) lower than CLSA's earlier estimates. CLSA is less optimistic than before regarding the ramp-up at Tianma, Truly and CSoT.

A display supplier we are working with in China just informed us that they have received a large (8,000 units) stock of CMEL's 2008 2.4" 240x320 AMOLED displays. All these display modules include a touch layer and are of good quality according to our supplier.

CMEL stopped producing AMOLED displays at 2009, and since then we have heard from several device makers that wanted to acquire some panels for devices based on these AMOLED displays. This could be a good opportunity for such displays, contact us for more information.

V-Technology announced that it is establishing a new organic electronics subsidiary that will develop a next-generation OLED deposition technology that V-Technology refers to as fine hybrid mask (FHM). Total investment in this new company is estimated at 5 billion Yen ($46 million USD) for the next 2-3 years. The facility is scheduled to be completed in August 2018 and V-Technology will start shipping mask samples in October 2018.

V-Technology's FHM is based on an electroforming method and the masks have a non-tension structure. V-Technology says that the total mask weight will be one tenth of current regular FMM masks, which will lower bending dramatically. V-Technology's already demonstrated an FHM that achieves 738 PPI.

Update: eMagin published a statement saying that these companies (Apple, LG, Valve, Stillwater and Immerex) in fact did not participate in the offering.

On January 2018 OLED microdisplay maker eMagin announced that it plans to raise $11.5 million in an underwritten public offering, which closed on January 29. It turns out that eMagin's SEC filing specifies five investors - Apple, LG Display, Valve Corporation, Stillwater Holdings and Immerex.

eMagin has been saying that it is working with large companies ("Tier-1") on its consumer VR technologies, and it is a very encouraging sign to see this impressive list of new investors. Apple's AR and VR plans are still unknown, but it has been assumed for a long time that Apple is looking into OLED microdisplays, and it's interest in eMagin is not a surprise. LG is also interested in VR and AR displays, and is reportedly collaborating with Google, and it's great to see it investing in eMagin as well.

We have many rumors lately regarding Apple's OLED iPhones - mainly that the iPhone X sales are disappointing and Apple is considering discontinuing its 5.8" OLED iPhone range in 2018 and only releasing a larger 6.5" model this year.

Photonics-based solutions provider Coherent reported its financial results for CYQ4 2017 and as Coherent supplies laser equipment for FPD makers, it is usually a good indicator to the OLED market expansion stages. According to Coherent, there has been no real change in the timing of equipment shipments, and the company did not notice any hesitancy among display makers in china regarding the scale up of new OLED fabs. In fact the company says that the "momentum that is behind OLED seems to be quite strong and quite sustainable over a long period of time".

Universal Display announced that Visionox (GVO) signed an OLED evaluation agreement. Under this agreement, UDC will supply GVO with its phosphorescent OLED materials for display applications. UDC did not provide any more details or financial terms.

Visionox started mass producing AMOLED panels in June 2015, at the company's Gen-5.5 AMOLED line in Kunshan. Visionox is also constructing a $4.5 billion 6-Gen production line in Hebei that will have a monthly capacity of 30,000 substrates, and will be mainly used to produce flexible AMOLEDs. Production should begin in mid-2018.

In January 2017 Novaled started constructing its new fab and office buildings in Dresden, that will comprise of a renovated old mill that will be turned into a prestigious office building and a new 110-meter long R&D plant with state-of-the-art research areas, laboratories and clean rooms. Novaled announced today that it has ordered OLED deposition systems from Sunic System for about $3 million.

The new deposition system will increase Novaled's OLED production capacity by 40% and will offer more precise repeatability in processing. This is of course an R&D machine that is used to test Novaled's organic materials.

Lighting and electronics developer Hella says that it provided a comprehensive lighting package for the Audi A8, developed in collaboration with Audi - including the OLED rear lights.

The Audi A8 2018 (which is now available) uses four small vertical OLED modules on each side, each with what seems to be 6 different structured panels, a large red one and five yellow ones which form the turn indicators.

Market research company Sigmaintell estimates that China-based display makers shipped 9.8 million OLED displays in 2017, mostly for smartphone applications. Everdisplay was the largest producer in terms of units, shipping 3.8 million displays (enjoying large orders from Huawei and Hisense), while Visionox was the top vendor in terms of display area shipped (30,000 square meters, out of a total 78,000 sqm produced in China in 2017).

Looking into 2018, Sigmaintell sees a large increase in production volume in 2018. Visionox landed orders from ZTE and Xiaomi and is expanding its production capacity, and BOE is also expected to increase shipments from its flexible 6-Gen AMOLED fab that will enter full capacity in Q2 2018. Finally, Tianma is also expected to increase production having won orders from Asustek Computer.

German TADF developer Cynora recently participated in the international OLED summit in China, and the company presented its latest blue TADF material that features a CIEy of 0.18, EQE of 21% and a lifetime of 10 hours LT97 at 700 nits. This is an improvement of the material shown in September 2017 (which had the same specification but with a lower EQE of 14%).

Cynora reports that during the last 24 months, the company achieved its most important goals - high efficiency and a satisfying color point. It has made "tremendous progress" in the last year on the lifetime front and is now close to commercial lifetime specification.