June 2018

The Fraunhofer FEP announced that it developed a new technology to produce ultra-smooth polymer films. The new technology can be used to produce low-defect density films in a roll-to-roll based process, suitable for a wide range of applications - including encapsulation films, touch layers and as OLED substrates.

This technology was developed as part of the EU-funded OptiPerm project. The Fraunhofer researchers say that this new innovative process does not require any special processing environment and could be used under standard factory conditions.

The South Korean prosecution has indicted several officials that allegedly tried to sell OLED technology secrets to China. These officials include Korean and Chinese researchers - and also a professor at a national Korean research institution.

The Korean prosecution says that the suspects sold 5,130 files containing OLED technologies owned by Samsung Display. Some of these officials worked at a local contractor of SDC. They say that the officials were offered around $180,000 from a Chinese company - in exchange for joining the company and delivering OLED technology files.

In January 2018 it was reported that LG Display is in the final stages of its discussions with Apple, and the Korean OLED maker expects to supply 15-16 million flexible OLEDs to Apple in 2018 (LGD will supply Apple with 6.5" AMOLEDs for its 2018 large iPhone OLED variant).

It was later reported by the Wall Street Journal, however, that LG Display may not be ready to produce these OLED displays in time for Apple. Today Bloomberg reports that LGD will supply OLEDs to Apple this year, but only 2-4 million panels (out of about 70 million panels) - with the rest supplied by Samsung Display of course. Bloomberg did not detail whether LGD will supply Apple with the 6.5" OLEDs or the 5.8" ones.

DSCC recently said that SDC's OLED fab utilization is starting to improve as production starts for next-gen iPhones and Galaxy phones, and UBI Research also says that the market recovery is starting. CLSA, however, says that it is too soon to talk about OLED recovery.

CLSA agrees that SDC's fab utilization will rise from about 35% to 80% in the second half of 2018, but CLSA also believes that Samsung is not even considering the A4 fab (30,000 monthly substrates) which will remain idle, which means that actual utilization will be lower than stated.

Towards the end of 2017, JOLED started commercial production of its 21.6" 4K OLED panels. But this is very low volume production (at JOLED's pilot 4.5-Gen line) as the company said it is seeking to raise $900 million to support its plan to start mass producing OLEDs in 2019.

Today JOLED announced official plans for its first mass production printed OLED fab. JOLED will establish the production site in Nomi City, Ishikawa Prefecture. The capacity of the new fab will be 20,000 monthly 5.5-Gen (1300x1500 mm) substrates and the plan is to begin mass production in 2020. JOLED will produce 10- to 32-inch OLED displays for automotive displays, high-end monitors and more.

In February 2018 it was first reported that Samsung Display is developing TV panels based on hybrid quantum-dots and OLED architecture (QD-OLED). Samsung later confirmed it is developing such technology, but with no immediate plans to commercialize it.

ETNews now reports that Samsung is now working to establish a pilot 8-Gen line for QD-OLED production. ETNews says that Samsung is collaborating with both Canon Tokki and Kateeva to develop the production equipment - apparently the OLED layers will be evaporated using Canon's machines while the QD filters will be deposited using ink-jet printing equipment made by Kateeva. Samsung aims to finalize the production line by the second half of 2019.

Emirates Airlines unveiled the first class suite on board of its newest Boeing 777-300ER aircraft - with virtual windows. These displays are connected directly to cameras outside the aircraft but can also show other images. This has several advantages - images can be tailored to help combat jet lag, the plane can be lighter, stronger, faster and more efficient. It is not entirely clear, but it is reported that the Emirates is using OLED displays.

The idea of using virtual OLED displays instead of aircraft windows has been discussed several times before. The aerospace industry has been slow to adopt OLEDs - the first application was Bombardier's nice Touch cabin management system on Lufthansa Technik's Global 7000 business aircraft, which uses a dial with a small OLED (probably PMOLED) display. The system was announced in May 2018.

The OLEDB8 is LG's entry-level OLED TV series for 2018, and it is finally shipping, starting at $2,099 for the 55" model

The OLEDB8 4K TVs support Google's Assistant for natural language control, Dolby Atmos, HDR and 4K HFR. The TV is based on a "slightly scaled down" version of its new a9 intelligent processor.

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Merck opened a new OLED technology center in Shanghai. The new center will provide local customers with tailor-made solutions to enable innovative OLED application development.

Merck says that the new center offers a range of state-of-the-art equipment and clean room facilities that enable OLED device fabrication and characterization.