July 2021

Samsung Electronics posted its financial results for Q2 2021, with record sales of $55.2 billion and a net profit of $10.9 billion. Samsung saw higher earnings at its memory and display businesses, offset by a decline in smartphone sales.

Samsung Display says that OLED sales and profits increased because of wider adoption of OLED displays. SDC is worried that supply issues of display drivers may disrupt shipments in Q3, but demand for OLEDs in IT devices and gaming products are expected to see significant growth.

MicroLED displays are exciting to many, as the technology seems to be the front runner for the next-generation display of choice in many market segments - from AR/VR glasses through wearables to TVs and IT displays.

The MicroLED industry though, even after billions of dollars spent on R&D, is still at a very early stage. Production costs are high, processes are not reliable enough, and there are several technical challenges to overcome before production can begin (except for some niche areas such as ultra large-size premium TVs).

LG Display posted its financial results for Q2 2021, with revenues up 31% from 2020 to $6 billion and a profit of around $370 million. This was the company's best quarter in terms of revenues - as it enjoyed high OLED TV and pOLED sales, an increase in LCD panel price and good performance in displays for IT products.

LG Display says it shipped over 3.5 million OLED TV panels in the first half of 2021, and it is on track to sell 8 million panels within the year. LGD aims to increase its capacity and produce 10 million OLED TV panels in 2022 and 11 million in 2023.

In 2019 Samsung Display formally announced its decision to invest $10.85 billion in QD-OLED TV R&D and production lines. It was reported before that SDC is started to produce panel prototypes, and is on track to start mass production in Q3 2021.

In the past it was suggested that Samsung Electronics does not want to adopt QD-OLED in its TV line, but this SE finally made that decision to commit to QD-OLEDs. A new report in Korea now says that Samsung Electronics plans to release the first QD-OLED TVs in the first half of 2022.

Taiwan's National Tsing-Hua University (NTHU) Professor Jou and Dr. Wen have been developing OLED lighting technologies for many years, focusing on healthy bluelight-free OLEDs (so-called candle-light OLEDs) due to the hazards of modern lighting.

The researchers now report they have developed a new tandem-OLED device that improves the efficiency and lifetime of their candle-light OLEDs. The OLED's emission is totally blue-light free, which makes it even safer compared to NTHU's first-gen candle-light OLEDs.

Towards the end of 2020, Merck announced that it is expanding its OLED material production site in Korea. The company today announced that HTM production commenced at the site.

Merck is already supplying HTM (Hole Transport Materials) to LGD, to be used in large OLED TV production. Merck is now starting to supply HTM materials for LGD's mobile p-OLED displays as well.

LG announced its first OLED monitor, the 4K 31.5" UltraFine OLED Pro (32EP950) back in January 2021. The monitor should start shipping by the end of July 2021 for $3,999 - and now the first review is in, by BH Photo.

The reviewer says that this new display is "astonishing" and "immersive" - but admittingly there are some trade offs (compared to other top-end monitors): lower peak brightness, non-variable refresh rate, connector choices, etc. The review says that the 32EP950 is "truly made for professionals" and will be a best fit for graphic design, image and video editing, and broadcast grading. This is not a general-use monitor, especially at that price tag.

IP Portfolio holder IPValue Management acquired over 1,200 patents and applications from Mitsubishi Electric's display business unit. The IP, a result of over two decades of R&D, encompasses a wide range of LCD, OLED and other technologies.

The patents will now be owned by IPValue's subsidiary, Trivale Technologies. The financial terms of this agreement were not disclosed.

China-based OLED lighting developer Yeolight Technology published two new videos that demonstrate the company's latest OLED technologies. You can see the company's segmented triangular based modules, and also a module based on flexible red panels:

The triangular-based OLED, which the company refers to as digital OLED taillight (it reminds us of Audi's technology, produced by OLEDWorks, which goes by the same name), uses modules that use 50 segments (each a right-angled triangle with an area of 19 mm²). We do not have any information on the flexible panels.

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba in Japan have compared the effects of LED and OLED lighting on physical processes that occur during sleep. The researchers show that OLED exposure has a reduced effect on sleep architecture and energy metabolism.

OLED devices emits white light which contains less blue light compared to LED devices, and this does not lead to any effect on sleep architecture, but it does reduce energy expenditure and core body temperature. In addition, fat oxidation during sleep was significantly lower after exposure to LED compared with OLED. Thus OLED lighting has a similar effect to that of dim light.