OLEDWorks announces two new OLED lighting panels, the rigid Lumiblade Brite 3 panels and the BendOLED flexible ones.

The Brite 3 OLEDs are more efficient than OLEDWorks' current Brite 2 OLEDs, offering an efficiency of up to 85 lm/W. The brightness is 300 lumens (8,500 cd/m²) and the lifetime is 100,000 hours (L70, at 100 lumens). The Brite 3 OLEDs are available in two colors and offer a CRI of >90. The Brite 3 are offered in three product shapes: square, rectangle and round. These Lumiblade panels will be produced at OLEDWorks' Aachen production site.

Apple's iPhone X sales were lower than expected, which resulted in a reduction of OLED display orders from SDC (from an estimated 40 million in Q1 2018 to 20 million). Several reports also suggested that Apple may decide to only introduce one new OLED iPhone model in 2018 (the larger 6.5" one, with panels made by LGD).

One of these reports came from Taiwan's Digitimes, but a new report from Digitimes suggests that Apple does plan to upgrade its OLED iPhone X in 2018. According to Digitimes, Apple will introduce a slightly larger 5.9" OLED model. In total Apple will buy 110-130 OLED panels in 2018, for all three OLED models (the 2017 iPhone X, the 2018 5.9" iPhone XI and the larger 6.5" OLED iPhone XI plus).

Bloomberg posted an interesting article, saying that Apple is making good progress in its Micro-LED development project, and has managed to produce promising display samples. Apple is seeking to use Micro-LED displays in future wearable products - and eventually use Micro-LEDs in smartphones and maybe VR HMDs as well.

Apple display facility, Santa Clara, CA

Apple is not likely to become a MicroLED producer, but it does seek to control the production process entirely - and so become the first (and only) company to be able to adopt these displays.

Tianma demonstrated its flexible and foldable AMOLED displays at MWC 2018 earlier a couple of weeks ago, and the following video shows a nice tour of the displays at Tianma's booth.

The first display you see is a 5.5" FHD flexible AMOLED (on a Polyimide substrate). There's a long discussion there about creating a foldable Phone around that, but beyond that it is nice to see Tianma's flexible OLEDs in action.

Visionox developed a 7.2" foldable AMOLED display, and has tested its reliability. Visionox says that even after 200,000 folding cycles, the display still showed good reliability. Visionox also performed extensive surface hardness and ball/pen drop tests on this display.

Visionox will discuss the reliability and failure mode analysis of its foldable OLEDs at SID Displayweek 2018 in May - and will also hopefully demonstrate this new display. Visionox performed the tests on a display module that included the AMOLED panel, a touch layer and a thin circular polarizer layer.

Taiwan's AU Optronics (AUO) developed a 13-inch 100 PPI transparent OLED display, specifically for AR applications. This is a highly-transparent display - with 68% transmittance.

AUO 6" transparent OLED prototype (2011)

To achieve such high transparency, AUO optimized the TFT array layer stack, the OLED cathode pattern and the encapsulation. This is the first transparent OLED AUO has developed since 2011. It will discuss this new display at SID Display 2018 - and will hopefully demonstrate it as well.

In early 2017 LG introduced its Crystal Sound OLED technology, which vibrates a flexible OLED display panel and turns it into a speaker. This technology can create seamless OLED TV designs that do not require speakers.

In a very natural move, LGD announced today that it will bring the Crystal Sound technology to its OLED lighting panels as well. LGD will unveil the first OLED lighting speakers at the Light and Building tradeshow next week in Germany. You can see a couple of such lighting speaker designs above.

Researchers from Korea's ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) developed a flexible OLED panel that use a transparent graphene electrode. ETRI will detail this new graphene-based OLED panel at SID DisplayWeek 2018 in May.

A rigid graphene-based OLED prototype (ETRI 2017)

The researchers produced a "fully operational" 40x40 mm OLED panel that uses the pixelated graphene film as electrodes.

We are happy to announce the eighth edition of The OLED Handbook, the most comprehensive resource on OLED technology, industry and market - now updated for 2018. The OLED industry grows and changes very fast, and the new edition include new details on the OLED mobile display market, new production fabs in China, OLED TVs, flexible OLEDs and more.

Reading this book, you'll learn all about:

• OLED technology and materials and production processes
• How OLEDs compare to LCD displays
• OLED TVs, flexible OLEDs and transparent OLEDs
• The OLED lighting industry
• The future of OLED displays and lighting and the challenges ahead

The book also provides:

• A history of OLED development
• A guide to OLED investment
• A comprehensive list of OLED companies
• A list of existing and planned AMOLED fabs
• OLED lighting roadmaps
• An in-depth look into flexible OLEDs and OLED encapsulation

The OLED handbook has been read by hundreds of display engineers, business developers, researchers, equipment vendors, OLED material companies, private investors and others who wished to learn more about OLEDs today and in the future. I truly believe that it is the best introduction to OLED displays and lighting!

Researchers from Japan's Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL) developed a novel Host-Guest system that drastically improves the lifetime of OLED emitters. The researchers report that using this system, a deep-red phosphorescent emitter achieved 5.4 times longer the lifetime compared to the same emitter with a conventional system.

The researchers will present the new system at SID DisplayWeek 2018 in May. The new system is not only highly durable, it also satisfies the red chromaticity of the BT.2020 standard.