September 2021

This is a sponsored post by 3D-MicroMac

Laser cutting processes of glass materials based on filament technology have been increasingly adopted in industrial applications. Besides standard glass thicknesses ultra-thin glass offers exciting opportunities for further improvements of new devices.

The main reason for this is the perfect match of material properties like mechanical resistance and flexibility as well as optical performance. The required machining processes to perform perimeter cutting as well as structuring and via drilling are confronted with high quality requirements.

Reports from Korea suggest that Apple has decided to delay its iPad OLED launch to 2023, and the company canceled its current joint development project with Samsung Display.

SDC aimed to develop a 10.86 AMOLED display for Apple's iPad. According to earlier reports, Apple wanted SDC to developed a tandem stack structure to improve the OLED device lifetime and brightness - and also to reduce burn-in problems. Apparently SDC is not ready to start tandem OLED production next year, and Apple will not accept a single-stack OLED for tablet applications.

Our friends at DisplayMate posted an in-depth technical review of the iPhone 13 Pro Max display. The 6.7-inch 1284x2778 10Hz-120Hz 1200 nits LTPO AMOLED receives DisplayMate's highest display performance grade of A+.

DisplayMate says that the new display outperforms the display adopted by Apple in last year's iPhone 12 Pro Max. The iPhone 13 Pro display's new adaptive 120Hz refresh rate which results in a 25% boost to power efficiency. The new display is also brighter by 27% and enjoys a higher absolute color accuracy. The size of the notch was also reduced by 20%.

Kopin Corporation announced today it has received an approximately $850,000 follow-on order for its proprietary Lightning 2K silicon OLED microdisplay backplane wafers. The original order was announced in May 2020.

According to Kopin's announcement, Kopin is selling these backplanes to other OLED microdisplay providers for seamless integration into their own products. Kopin’s Lightning 2K backplane supports 120 Hz OLED microdisplays with 2048 x 2048 resolution in a 1-inch diagonal size.

As demand for larger mobile OLED displays, for laptops, tablets and monitors is on the rise, there are reports that Samsung Display is considering building a 8.5-Gen AMOLED fab dedicated for laptop and IT displays.

This new fab will be the first 8.5-Gen RGB OLED deposition fab, and Samsung is looking into new technologies to enable OLED deposition on larger substrates. It is reported today that SDC is developing, in collaboration with ULVAC, vertical deposition technology.

UBI Research estimates that sales of 10" and larger OLEDs (used in tablets, laptops, monitors - and also TVs) reached $2.95 billion in the first half of 2021, up from $1.22 billion a year before. Shipments reached 10.29 million units.

In the first half of 2021, 3.4 million OLED TV panels were shipped. The rest of the units (6.89 million) were of displays used in laptops and tablets, mostly.

Cadillac announced that the upcoming 2023 Lyriq EV will sport a wide 33-inch "advanced LED" display, and according to reports online this will actually be an OLED display.

This makes sense, as Cadillac is already using OLEDs in its premium cars. The 2021 Escalade has a 38-inch LGD P-OLED display, that comes standard in all Escalade versions.

LG Display is showcasing how OLED technology can change the shopping malls of the future. At LG's Science Park in Seoul's Magok district, the company build a show room with some nice OLED demonstrations.

First up are the glass doors to the show room, which have four 55-inch transparent OLEDs embedded in them. The next demonstration is the Smart Stall, which embed OLED electronic shelf labels and large-area OLED TV panels.

According to reports from Korea, Apple has given BOE a "conditional approval" for iPhone panel supply. BOE hasn't been able to meet 100% of Apple's requirements, but it is now given time to fix these issues, and may be able to become a supplier to Apple if all goes well.

Even if BOE manage to satisfy Apple, it will take some time and so it is likely that it won't receive large orders for the iPhone 13 series. Apple currently buys all of its iPhone AMOLED panels from Samsung Display and LG Display. BOE aims to supply the panels for the standard iPhone 13 (not the Pro series).

LG Display says that demand for large-sized OLED TVs is increasing. In 2019, sales of 77" or higher OLED TVs were just 6.3% of LG's total OLED TV panel sales. The portion of large-sized TVs jumped to 17.8% in the first half of 2021.

LG added new panel sizes to its OLED TV lineup, and consumers are buying these new displays as well. Sales of OLED TVs sized 40-50 inch was just 3.6% of LG's total OLED panel sales in 2020, and this increased to 8.3% in the first half of 2021. LG expect both these trends to continue next year as well.