December 2023

In 2022, Japan Display (JDI) announced that it has developed a "historic breakthrough in display technology" - a new OLED deposition process which they refer to as eLEAP, that is said to be cost effective and can be used to create freeform OLEDs that are brighter, more efficient, and longer lasting compared to OLEDs produced using mask evaporation (FMM).

Japan Display announced an agreement with China-based LCD maker HKC Corp to mass produce panels by 2025 in China, based on JDI's technology, but the plan was later cancelled, and JDI said it will establish its own factory in China. The company was negotiating with the Wuhu Economic and Technological Development Zone (in Anhui Province), aiming to establish two eLEAP AMOLED production lines by 2025. JDI hoped to sign the formal agreement before the end of 2023.

JDI now announced that it is scaling back its plans. Originally JDI aimed to establish two production lines: one 6-Gen (with a capacity of 10,000 monthly substrates) and one 8.7-Gen (30,000 monthly substrates). Now JDI decided to reduce its plans, to a single 8.7-Gen fab. In addition, it estimates it will sign the final contract in March 2024. The 8.7-Gen line will start mass production in December 2026.

OLED microdisplay maker Sidtek announced that it is starting to install production equipment at its 12-inch production line in Wuhu City, Anhui Province. The company says the first production line in the project is on track to start production in 2024.

Sidtek is currently producing its OLED microdisplays on a 8-inch production line, also in Wuhu. The first phase of its 12-inch fab will have a monthly capacity of 6,000 substrates, and the company is planning an expansion to 18,000 substrate. The total investment in the 12-inch fab (including the 2nd stage) is estimated at 6 billion Yuan (around $840 million USD).

In 2022, we reported that US- and China-based Royole is in financial problems. The company did not manage to raise funds, and started laying-off many of its employees, following several months it did not pay any wages.

It turns out, that Royole's problems aren't over - even though it seems the company is no longer in business. The company did not pay past wages for many of its employees - some of whom (including guards and production line workers) have 12 months of wages due. Yesterday 50 employees held a demonstration, demanding their wages.

In 2021, LG Display started to adopt deuterated OLED compounds in its WOLED panels, to improve the lifetime, efficiency and brightness. Today, all of LG's WOLED TV panels use deuterated blue OLED emitters, in which hydrogen is replaced by its more stable isotope, deuterium. The higher stability enables longer lifetime, which in turn enables higher brightness and efficiency.

It is now reported in Korea that LG Display now aims to expand the adoption of deuterated OLED compounds to its red and green and yellow emitters, and also other layers in the OLED stack. If this report is true, it means that LGD will also use the technology in its mobile (p-OLED) panels, not just its OLED TV ones. 

China's EV car producer Nio announced its latest flagship executive electric sedan, the ET9. The car adopts several new technologies, in areas such as self-driving, sensing, first-class airline seats (it has a four-seat configuration) and more. Nio will ship the first ET9 cars in the first quarter of 2025.

According to reports, the ET9 has two AMOLED displays. The main multimedia front-seat display  is a 15.6" AMOLED display. For the passengers, there's a central 14.5" AMOLED display (between the two seats, see image above). We do not have more details on these OLED displays yet.

In 2022, OLED microdisplay developer BCDTEK announced its plans to construct a 12-inch OLED microdisplay production site in Huainan, China. The new fab, at full capacity, will have a production capacity of 20,000 monthly substrates, and a total investment of 6.5 billion Yuan ($970 million USD).

The first phase of this fab (the K2 line), is now in construction, and the company announced that the building itself is now complete. The total investment in the first phase, which will have a monthly capacity of 4,000 wafers, will cost 1.5 billion Yuan ($210 million USD). 

In 2022, Samsung Display confirmed it is developing OLED microdisplays, and the company has since stepped up its efforts to bring OLED microdisplay to the market. The company is also developing microLED microdisplays.

It is now reported in Korea that Samsung Electronics decided that from now on, Samsung Display will handle all OLED microdisplay projects, while Samsung Semiconductor (SSI, or specifically, the Compound Semiconductor Solutions team) will handle all microLED microdisplay development.

Researchers from the University of Michigan developed a new OLED emitter system, based on a blue phosphorescence emitter, based on the polariton-enhanced Purcell effect. This new emitter systems offers high stability and high efficiency. 

The basic idea is to start with a light-blue (cyan) phosphorescence emitter (which offers a longer lifetime than a deep blue emitter), and placing it between two mirrors. The distance between the mirrors is controlled so that only deep blue light waves persist and are emitter from the mirror chamber. The researchers also tuned the optical properties of the OLED stack to the adjacent metal electrode which introduced a new quantum mechanical state called a plasmon-exciton-polariton, or PEP. This new state allows the organic material to emit light very fast, thus even further increasing the lifetime by decreasing the opportunity for excited states to collide and destroy the light-emitting material.

We are happy to report that the OLED Toolbox is progressing nicely, and we are on track to release it in January 2024. This post includes more info on the toolbox, and our latest status report. We are also sharing some samples from the report - you can see the video below with some pages from our market report, company contributions, spreadsheets and insights.

The OLED Toolbox is now ready for pre-orders, with a special early-bird discount - this is a great chance to get the upcoming report in a low price, only available until December 31, 2023. The toolbox will be a must-have information platform for companies in the display industry, and will include five different parts:

• An information guide to OLED technologies, processes, the industry and the market
• Market status and industry roadmaps
• OLED technology, market and industry analysis and insights - written by Ron Mertens based on years of experience in the display industry 
• Structured data (spreadsheets) on OLED production lines, devices with OLED displays, OLED producers, supply chain companies (with contact details) and more
• In-depth articles by multiple industry experts illuminating various processes, materials, devices, analysis, insights and more
• Brochures, presentations, catalogs and other content items contributed by industry players (display makers, supply chain companies, analysts and more)

IPValue Management announced that it has acquired around 200 OLED patents from Seiko Epson. We do not know the nature of these patents, and whether IPValue bought all of Seiko Epson's OLED IP portfolio or just a part of it. IPValue says that the patents will be owned by its subsidiary Lumitek Display Technology.

Seiko Epson has been working on OLED technologies for many years - and it has been involved mostly with soluble OLED materials, ink-jet printing and OLED microdisplays. In 2013 Samsung Display bought several OLED patents from Seiko Epson.