Industrial laser developer Coherent announced a new Monaco industrial ultraviolet (UV) femtosecond laser with 50 W of output power. The company says that the new laser, the first 50 W 400 fs UV laser with proven 24/7 industrial-grade performance, is ideal for high-speed, high-volume cutting of stacked-OLED displays. 

This laser is used to cut the OLED displays after they are fully produced, which is why Coherent uses the term stacked-OLED (it does not refer to an OLED display with a stacked - or tandem - emitter design). The laser cutting enables shapes, notches and holes. Coherent updates that it installed over 800 Monaco laser systems worldwide (not all at OLED display fabs, though, the Monaco systems are also used in other applications).

The following is a sponsored post by Cambridge Isotope Laboratories

OLED has become the display technology of choice for many commercial products such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, TVs, automotive dashboards and wearables. OLED has advantages with improved image quality (better contrast, higher brightness, fuller viewing angle, wider color range, and faster refresh rates), lower power consumption, and simpler designs (ultra-thin, flexible, foldable, and transparent displays).

Cambridge Isotope Laboratories plant in Xenia, OH, USA

OLED, however, faces several technical challenges. While OLED TVs yield better picture quality than common LCDs, they are usually less bright. Research using a compound that has at least one hydrogen replaced with its heavier isotope, deuterium, is showing promise toward achieving greater brightness. Since the bonds between carbon and deuterium are stronger than those between carbon and hydrogen, materials made with deuterated compounds tend to have a longer lifetime, which allows OLED displays to run brighter but still last as long.

Earlier this year, we reported that Samsung filed a request at the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban BOE's aftermarket AMOLED panels in the US, as they infringe on Samsung's OLED patent. Following the request, the ITC started a formal investigation.

According to a new report from China, several OED makers in China (BOE, Tianma, TCL CSoT and Visionox) have joined forces and filed a motion to invalidate one of Samsung's main OLED patents in the US. This is a response to SDC's request to halt BOE's US aftermarket AMOLED panel sales.

UK-based Excyton has won an I-Zone innovation award at SID Display Week 2023, a great testimonial to the interest in the display industry for its novel OLED and microLED pixel architectures.

Excyton concludes a very successful display week. The company's CEO, Peter Levermore, gave a presentation explaining the company's TurboLED display architecture, detailing how the technology works and the simulations the company has performed. The company also had a booth at Display Week's I-ZONE section, where it demonstrated red, green and blue TurboLED devices powered by both deep-color and light-color emitters. In fact the company says that its demonstration attracted a lot of interest from the industry, and it had many constructive meetings during the week that it is following up on to start commercial collaborations in the near future.

This is a sponsored post by Ergis Group

In 2020, Poland-based Ergis Group launched the noDiffusion film platform, a high-barrier film that offers high level of optical transmittance and low level of light scattering, and the ability to contain transparent conductive electrodes. The new technologies adopted in the production of the barrier films offer a combination of high performance and competitive pricing.

Ergis has been busy since 2020, scaling up its production capabilities, and progressing towards production in a roll-to-roll configuration (rather than the batch system it used before). Ergis is using two different technologies - ALD and sputtering to deposit the barrier and the conductive electrodes.

Apple announced its first VR headset, the Apple Vision Pro, and new details are starting to emerge on the displays adopted by Apple. According to Business Korea, the external display (used to simulate the user's eyes) are OLED displays, produced by LG Display. 
 

We do not know the exact display specifications yet. Business Korea says that these displays cost around $30 to make. They also say that the Sony 4K microdisplays cost around $350 each (which makes sense), and so together the OLED displays in Apple's headset cost over $700 - or almost half the total production cost (estimated at around $1,500).

United Airlines has ordered Panasonic Avionics' Astrova aircraft internal entertainment platform to be installed at United's new Airbus A321XLR and Boeing 787, starting in 2025. 

Panasonic's Astrova platform is based on 4K OLED displays. United did not specify which OLED sizes will be used, but we know that Panasonic offers 13-, 16- and 22-inch options for regular (economy) passenger seats (while it offers 19-, 22-, 27-, 32- and 42-inch for business-class seats, these displays were just announced a few days ago).

In 2022 Panasonic Avionics launched its Astrova aircraft internal entertainment platform that is based on 13-, 16- and 22-inch 4K OLED screens. The company is now adding larger OLED screens to the Astrova lineup.

The new OLED displays, aimed for business-class and first-class cabins, will be available in five sizes 19, 22, 27, 32, and 42 inches. Beyond the increased performance, Astova also offers significant weight savings compared to other seat-end architectures.

The display industry's top conference, SID DisplayWeek 2023 took place at the end of May in Los Angeles. The event was interesting, and fruitful - and it was exciting to be able to travel to display trade shows again after several years. Display Week made it clear that OLED is the technology of choice for almost all high-end and medium-range applications. Next-generation technologies, mostly microLEDs, were also very prominent. Here's a list of all our articles from SID:

• Samsung Display shows its latest flexible OLEDs and unveils the OLED Sensor Display 
• Samsung Display shows its latest QD-OLED displays at Display Week 2023
• LG Display shows new OLED display prototypes at Display Week 2023
• LG Display demonstrates its stretchable 12" microLED touch display prototype
• TCL CSoT shows new foldable and rollable inkjet-printed OLED prototypes
• TCL CSoT shows a tiled 18.8" microLED display prototype
• AUO shows foldable, transparent and automotive microLED displays
• PlayNitride showcases its latest microLED displays at Display Week 2023
• Tianma shows three transparent microLED display prototypes at Display Week 2023
• BOE demonstrates a 4.7" high-resolution AMQLED prototype at Display Week 2023
• BOE developed a 1.3" 4K OLED microdisplay, hopes to supply it to Apple's future VR HMDs 
• BOE demonstrates a 15" rollable OLED display
• Visionox shows its latest OLED prototypes and technologies 
• Innolux shows new microLED display prototypes at Display Week 2023 
• Seoul Semiconductor unveils new vertically-stacked WICOP microLED prototypes
• Qingyue shows new transparent PMOLED displays and OLED microdisplays
• The Fraunhofer FEP showcases its latest OLED microdisplays at Display Week 2023
• Sitan shows its latest microLED microdisplays and transparent displays
• Sinovia demonstrates its roll-to-roll printed OLEDs at Display Week 2023
• Display Week 2023 - first impressions