Last year DSCC estimated that the foldable OLED market will grow to 94 million panels by 2025. DSCC now updated its forecasts, and lowered its estimates to 75.6 million units in 2025.

DSCC sees Apple starting to adopt foldable OLEDs in 2023, which will boost the total market and will lead to other companies adopting foldable displays. DSCC expects foldable and rollable panels to grow at an 87.5% CAGR from 2020 to 2025. Smartphones will dominate with a market share of over 92% during the entire forecast period.

Korea-based OLED materials maker Solus Advanced Materials (previously Doosan Solus) announced that the company will start supplying HTL materials for LG Display, for its E3 line in Paju, used to produce OLED TVs.

According to reports from Korea, up until now Merck was LGD's sole HTL supplier (for large-area WOLED production), and Solus will now replace some of the HTL materials previously supplied by Merck. Solus hopes to expand shipments to LGD and supply HTL materials for LGD's other large-area WOLED fabs.

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TOPICS COVERED: Market Data & Forecasts • microLED/OLEDs • AI in Displays • Flexible/Rollable Displays • Printed Displays • AR/VR Glasses • Quantum Dots & Phosphors • TADF • Nanoimprint • R2R Displays • Outdoor Displays • Automotive Display • Reflective

DSCC posted an interesting blog post in which the company shares its information on Samsung's upcoming foldable smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

First up is the Galaxy Z Flip 3 (which is a bit strange as there's no Galaxy Z Flip 2). This new phone will feature an Ultra Thin Glass cover - which for the first time will not be exclusively produced by SCHOTT. This time Corning will supply some of the UTG for Samsung. According to DSCC, Corning’s UTG will be processed by Korean supplier eCONY. This is interesting - a while back it was reported that Samsung Electronics halted its UTG project with Corning.

OLED inkjet printing developer Kateeva announced that it has established a strategic partnership with high-index material maker Pixelligent Technologies. The collaboration aims to optimize the light output efficiency by inkjet-printing of planarization layers over microlens arrays.

Collaboration Aims to Optimize Light Output Efficiency in Mobile Phones with Inkjet-Printed Planarization Layer over Microlens Arrays. To increase the efficiency, the companies suggest using a patterned structure followed by an inkjet-printed high-refractive index filling and planarization layer which enables more light from the OLED layer below to reach the top surface.

UBI Research says that the market for medium to large OLED displays (10-inch and up, used in IT and TV applications) has risen 156% in Q1 2021 compared the Q1 2020. Total sales reached $1.45 billion in the quarter.

Most of the growth comes from TV and laptop displays. LG Display produced 1.6 million OLED TV panels in the quarter, while sales for laptops reached 1.1 million panels. TV panels accounted for the majority of sales (as average panel price is much higher) - 81.6% of the market.

Researchers from Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) developed a new stretchable OLED display, that features stable performance and high elongation possibility. Samsung says that this research is the first one to prove the commercialization potential of stretchable devices.

The new stretchable OLED was integrated with a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor in a single device. The PPG sensor is used to measure the user’s heart rate in real-time - which can be displayed on the OLED display.

Canada-based OTI Lumionics developed innovative OLED materials and technologies. In August 2020 the company announced that it will start shipping its 2nd-gen ConducTorr Cathode Patterning Materials (CPM) by the end of 2020 to customers, which will use these to create OLED displays with under-the-display camera and face unlock technologies.

We had a short talk with the company's founder and CEO, Dr. Michael G. Helander, during which we discussed the company's technology, status and future plans.

During SID Display Week 2021, Kyulux detailed its latest TADF material performance. The red and green materials are "close to commercialization", and the company reports "excellent progress" with its blue emitter.

Using simulations, Kyulux shows how its Hyperfluorescence system is more efficient than a comparable phosphorescence emitter. While both emitters feature pretty much the same EQE, the narrow spectrum of the HF system which results in higher light intensity and can enable more efficient displays - by around 10%, according to Kyulux.