February 2020

OLED-Info has teamed up with Seedrs to offer OLED companies an innovative and effective way to raise capital and grow their businesses, and to offer investors a unique opportunity to invest in promising early stage OLED-related companies. Our sister site Graphene-Info launched a similar graphene crowdfunding service, and we're happy to announce that the first such campaign is now live (and it has already reached 41% of its funding goal, only one day after the campaign launched!).

planarTECH, founded in 2014, supplies CVD equipment for the production of high quality graphene sheets, as well as other 2D materials. The company was focused on research institutes, and already sold over 65 systems with a customer list that includes Manchester University, the University of Cambridge, Stanford University and the National University of Singapore. planarTECH aims to expand its business by continuing to supply more R&D systems, initiate a system support service, start offering industrial-scale system (it already has strong interest from several potential customers) and also start producing CVD graphene and other 2d materials.

Earlier this month Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Flip, its 2nd foldable smartphone - and the 6.7" 1080x2636 inward foldable HDR "Dynamic AMOLED" display uses a flexible glass cover, as opposed to SDC's previous foldable OLEDs that used a flexible polyimide cover.

Samsung now says that it is branding its ultra-thin-glass foldable OLEDs as Samsung UTG. I'm not sure what to say regarding Samsung's slogan "Tough, yet Tender" which seems to be taken out of a completely different industry.

In early February Motorola started shipping its $1,500 foldable OLED phone, the Razr 2019 - with its 6.2" 2142x876 (21:9) inside-foldable AMOLED display, produced by BOE. Initial reports suggested that the screen feels fragile - even more so than the screen of the Galaxy Fold.

Phone Radar now reports that only a week after getting the device, the plastic display is peeling off at the fold. iFixit tested the device, and scored it 1 out of 10 in terms of durability and fixability - and a simulated test suggested a failure at the hinge mechanism.

Universal Display reported its Q4 2019 financial results - revenues were $102 million, an increase of 45% compared to Q4 2018. Net income in the fourth quarter was $26.4 million.

Looking at 2019, UDC had a record year - with revenues of $405 million and a net income of $138 million. 2019 was a year of significant capacity additions, and 2020 will see less significant growth due to "capacity digestion". Looking into 2020, UDC sees revenues in the range of $430 to $70 million. UDC estimates that the coronavirus outbreak in China could lower its 2020 revenues by $40 - 50 million.

LG Display originally planned to start producing OLED TV panels at its 8.5-Gen OLED fab in Guangzhou in October 2019, but LGD faced technical issues and production was delayed to Q1 2020. Last month LGD said it finally fixed its technical issues and production will start by the end of January 2020 - but here we are at the middle of February and production hasn't started yet.

LGD's original plan was to ship over 6 million OLED TV panels in 2020 - which include the smaller 48" OLED TV panels launched at CES 2020. It seems certain now that LGD will not be able to meet its goals. IHS also reduced its 2020 OLED TV production forecast from 5 million units to 4.5 million.

CNet reports that TCL was supposed to demonstrate a novel smartphone design next week (at the cancelled MWC event) that uses an "expandable" sliding OLED display. The idea is basically the same as in the first crop of foldable OLEDs - provide a phone that can open up to a tablet-size device:

Apparently TCL was supposed to show a working demonstration. Such a design will likely require a screen that is folded in two places or some sort of rollable display - which is possible but more difficult to actually commercialize compared to a screen that folds inwardly or outwardly in a single position.

Samsung recently announced its latest flagship phone series, the Galaxy S20. Our display measurement friends from DisplayMate tested the new display - and unsurprisingly it turns out that the new Samsung Display AMOLED displays are very impressive - and they earn DisplayMate's highest ever display performance grade.

DisplayMate tested the Galaxy S20 Ultra, with its 6.9" 1440x3200 (511 PPI), 120Hz, Dynamic AMOLED display. The display has "close to text book perfect" calibration accuracy and its performance is visually indistinguishable from perfect. The new Samsung OLED display is setting or matching 12 smartphone display performance records.

US-based OLED inkjet printing developer Kateeva announced a massive layoff plan - the company will slash its staff by 144 employees, including a number of executives - its president, CMO and COO.

This is sad news - and surprising as well as Kateeva seems to be on the forefront of OLED inkjet printing. Kateeve raised over $125 million (including $88 million in 2016) and is working with Samsung, BOE, LG, Johua Printing and other companies. The company is leading with ink-jet printing of OLED encapsulation materials and was set to supply Samsung with the QD printing equipment for SDC's upcoming QD-OLED TV line.

Yesterday Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Flip, its 2nd foldable smartphone, features a 6.7" 1080x2636 inward foldable HDR "Dynamic AMOLED" display. The external display is a small 1.1" 112x300 Super AMOLED. The Galaxy Z Flip will ship on February 14th, starting at $1,380 in the US.

Besides the new form factor, the Z Flip uses an ultra-thin glass cover - unlike the Galaxy Fold which used a plastic one. At least according to The Verge, this makes for a big improvement - it feels better, can't easily be "marked-up" by a fingernail and there's no visible crease. The Z Flip also feels much more refined - with no creaking and with a solid-feeling hinge.

Yesterday Motorola started shipping its $1,500 foldable OLED phone, the Razr 2019. The Razr 2019 features a 6.2" 2142x876 (21:9) foldable AMOLED display that folds inside, produced by BOE. There's also a regular external 2.7" 600x800 AMOLED used when the phone is closed.

Initial reviews are appearing online. Android Central's Nirave Gondhia tested one such phone, and he says that the Razr's screen feels fragile, even more so than the screen of his Galaxy Fold. While he likes how the device folds, he says that as the screen shifts along the hinge, the feedback on the screen feel strange and it feels as if the screen could be damaged by the folding over the long term.