A couple of weeks ago we reported that LG Display has decided to quit the OLED lighting market, as it found it difficult to ramp out production and lower its production costs. It was not clear what's the future of LGD's automotive OLED lighting business, but now we have an update from Korea.

According to ETNews, LG display has indeed found it difficult to win orders for its consumer OLED lighting products, and has decided to "reduce" its Luflex OLED lighting product line. LGD, however, is not quitting the OLED lighting market - but is stepping up its efforts to supply automotive OLED lighting solutions.

In August 2017, Japan Display announced a last-resort strategic focus on OLED displays as the Japanese display maker failed to shift to OLED displays in time. In 2017 JDI announced it is beginning to seek funds for the change in focus, and since then we have heard of several plans in place.

Reuters now details the upcoming $2.1 bailout now being prepared for JDI. According to Reuters, a group of investors from Taiwan and China, led by TPK and the Harvest Group will invest 80 billion Yen (around $720 million) in JDI. In addition, the Japanese government INCJ fund will provide 77 billion Yen in bonds and will also accept a debt-to-equity swap worth 75 billion. The total deal is worth around $2.1 billion.

TADF, or Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence, is a relatively new class of OLED emitter materials that promise efficient and long-lifetime performance without any heavy metals. TADF was discovered 10 years ago, and the 4th International TADF Workshop will mark the event.

Many device makers have been seeking 2 to 4 inch AMOLED displays for a long time, as most display makers are focusing on either smartphone-sized displays or wearable ones. We have some good news on that front - China's Everdisplay has started to produce 1.91" 240x536 AMOLED displays, and these are now available in the OLED Marketplace.

These new small AMOLED displays can be great for many applications - if you are interested in this display for your device or new project, contact us now, or check out more information over at the OLED Marketplace.

In February 2019, at the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) tradeshow, LG Electronics launched its 55" transparent touch-enabled OLED displays. The displays are not available commercially yet, but LG seems to be advancing and we now know the first such display model number - the 55EW5F.

We still do not have the specification of LG's first transparent OLED signage, but the company latest prototype shown at CES 2019 featured a transparency of 40% - so we can assume that these new commercial displays feature the same transparency. It is also likely that they are touch enabled (that's what been shown in previous trade shows).

LG started to ship its 2019 mid-range OLED TVs, the OLEDE9 series. The 65" model is now available for $4,299 while the 55" model costs $3,299.

LG's OLEDE9 offer a picture-on-glass design and are based on LG's 2nd-gen Alpha 9 intelligent processor which enables LG's ThinQ AI to offer new display algorithms and Amazon's Alexa and Google's Assistant. The OLEDE9 also features HDMI 2.1 which enables high frame rate (HFR) support, enhanced audio return channel (eARC), variable refresh rate (VRR) and automatic low latency mode (ALLM). LG's flagship OLED also feature Dolby Atmos for immersive entertainment.

According to Business Korea, the demand for OLED TVs is increasing, which is helping OLED TV vendors, mainly LG, Sony and Panasonic to increase sales in the premium TV segment.

BK says that in 2018, LG Electronics sold 62.2% of all OLED TVs, followed by Sony (18.9%) and Panasonic (7.7%). Other OLED TV vendors include AOC/Tp-Vision/Philips (5.7%) and Skyworth (2.4%).

Sharp demonstrated a new 6.18" 1440x3040 foldable AMOLED prototype. The company says that it can withstand over 300,000 bending cycles. The demonstration panel folds inwardly, but Sharp apparently says it can also bend outwardly.

In June 2018 Sharp started to produce flexible OLED displays in low volume and in October 2018 the company launched its first phone to sport its own panels - the Aquos Zero smartphone - that has a notch-type 6.2" 1440x2992 display.

Samsung Display announced today that it has started to mass produce foldable OLED displays, shipping the first such displays to Samsung Electronics.

SDC's first foldable OLEDs are the inside-folding 7.3" 1536x2152 Infinity Flex AMOLED displays that will be used in the Samsung Galaxy Fold - which will start shipping later this month (for $2,000) in Korea and Europe.

OLED driver maker MagnaChip announced a new initiative to co-develop new technologies for mobile OLED displays. MagnaChip is calling out to partners to combine their technologies (such as touch, stylus and fingerprint sensors) with the company's AMOLED driver technology.

MagnaChip's goal is to create reference designs and IP that will enable smartphone and other device makers to include new technologies that are compatible with MagnaChip's display driver ICs. MagnaChip announced its first partner - ELAN Microelectronic. This collaboration will mostly focus on stylus input technologies.