Officials from SID reported that 369 Apple employees attended Displayweek this year - a 30% increase over last year. And indeed I can say that you could see Apple's employees all over the show. It's clear that Apple is increasingly interested in next-generation display technologies - including OLED displays, Micro-LED displays and foldable technologies.

SID further says that this year 40 Google employees, 25 Amazon employees and 23 Oculus employees attended the show. The display is an extremely important part of most mobile devices today, and TIer-1 producers want more and more control on the display type, quality and performance.

LG Display showcased several of its OLED technologies at SID DisplayWeek. The most impressive display was a 77" panel that is both flexible and transparent. The large panel features a 4K (3840x2160) resolution and 40% transmittance. The bending radius of the display is 80 mm. This seems to be the same display announced in June 2017.

LGD also demonstrated, for the first time, its VR OLED display, developed in collaboration with Google. This is a 4.3" 3840x4800 (1443 PPI) glass-based display on an LTPS backplane, that supports a refresh rate of 120Hz.

Apple started adopting OLEDs in the 2017 iPhone X, and it is expected that it will introduce one or two new OLED modules in its iPhone lineup in 2018 (which will likely include a total of 3 phone models).

A new report from Korea's ETNews suggests that Apple decided to exclusively use OLED displays for all of its iPhone models in 2019. As OLEDs provide a better image quality, and are also thinner, lighter, flexible and more efficient than LCDs, it is only a matter of time until all of Apple's iPhones and mobile device make the switch to OLEDs.

TCL announced that its CSoT Subsidiary (China Star, also known as Shenzhen Huaxing Photoelectric Technology) plans to establish an LCD+OLED TV fab in Shenzhen, China. The new fab will have a monthly capacity of 90,000 substrate - and will produce 65- and 75-inch OLED TVs in addition to 65-, 75- and 75-inch 8K LCDs, all on Oxide-TFT backplanes. The line will begin operation in 2021.

The fab will apparently have two different production lines. The LCD line will be a 11-Gen line (3370x2940 mm) while the OLED Line will use smaller 8.5-Gen substrates (although this is not clear, CSoT may aim to use the 11-Gen substrates for OLED deposition too, perhaps cutting these large substrates before the OLED processing. Total investment in this new fab will be 42.6 billion Yuan (or about $6.7 billion USD).

Applied Materials reported its financial results for Q1 2018 last week - the semiconductor equipment maker's revenues increased 29% from Q1 2017 to reach an all-time record. The company's outlook, however, was weaker than expected.

Commenting on the display market, Applied believes that TV equipment orders will remain strong - but it says adoption of OLEDs in mobiles is slower than previously expected, as is the ramp-up in production. Applied expects its 2019 OLED related revenues to be lower than its 2018 ones (but still up nicely from 2018). In the longer term, Applied Materials maintains a positive outlook for its OLED business.

The world's leading display conference, SID DisplayWeek, is now over, and it was a great event. This is just a quick first impression post - you can expect many more OLED-Info articles in the next couple of weeks after we get back to the office and sort through all the materials, interviews, photos and videos we have.

While LCD is still the dominant display technology in many applications, it is clear that OLEDs are taking over as the most promising technology, and we have seen exciting presentations and demonstrations from many companies. It was interesting to see how the three Chinese OLED makers at SID, BOE, Visionox and Tianma, have large booths with many flexible and foldable OLED displays and end products, while Samsung and LG Display both have very limited show areas compared to previous years. This is an interesting evidence to China's rising dominance - but also to Samsung's and LGD's focus on more consumer trade shows such as CES.

Japan-based Meidensha Corporation announced that it has developed a new technology to deposit barrier films for bendable displays and electronics. The new process is done at very low temperatures (30 C) which can significantly lower energy costs compared to current plamsa-based processes (usually run at 100-150 C).

The new technology uses a 100% ozone environment. Together with Japan's AIST, Meidensha developed a device that continuously generates pure ozone. This technology was patented earlier this year.

This is a sponsored post by Solas OLED

Ireland-based OLED IP company Solas OLED says that its team has tripled its size since its establishment two years ago, and Solas continues to expand its electrical engineering and research team. Solar has also been granted a number of new and fundamental patents - relating to OLED design and driver circuitry.

Solas OLED will attend SID DisplayWeek 2018 (May 22-25, Los Angeles). If you're interested in contacting Solas to schedule a meeting and discuss their OLED solutions, click here.

The following is a sponsored post by Cynora

CYNORA, a leader in TADF (thermally activated delayed fluorescence) materials for OLEDs, presents its newest high-performing blue emitting materials at the SID Display Week 2018 in Los Angeles. The company is currently working with the key display makers to finish the commercialization of the industry’s first blue high-efficiency emitter.

OLED displays have become standard for premium mobile and TV displays in the last couple of years. However, those OLED displays have not yet reached their fullest potential. High-efficiency blue OLED emitters are needed to reduce power consumption and increase the display resolution further. Despite urgent requests by the OLED display panel makers for a high-efficiency blue emitter in the last few years, no material supplier has yet been able to produce such an emitter.

Lufthansa Technik announced that its upcoming Global 7000 business aircraft will adopt Bombardier's nice Touch cabin management system (CMS). The nice Touch CMS, developed together with Lufthansa, is the first aircraft device to adopt an OLED display.

The nice Touch includes a retractable side-ledge dial (seen above) that allows for rapid control of entertainment and cabin settings. The dial includes a small OLED (probably PMOLED) display. The new system will be on display at the 2018 European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Geneva.