Yesterday Apple officially announced its 2024 iPad Pro devices, Apple's first tablets with AMOLED displays. There are two devices, a 11" model (1668x2420) and a 13" model (2064x2752). Both OLEDs offer 120Hz and 1600 nits peak brightness - and a tandem architecture. Apple brands these displays as Ultra Retina Tandem OLEDs.

The new iPad Pro 2024 devices will ship next week, starting at $999 for the 11" model. Some of the models offer a matte finish (nano-texture glass coating).

Notion Systems and Scrona presented the n.jet EHD system to the public for the first time during the LOPEC 2024 exhibition. The globally unique multi nozzle EHD printing system for functional materials is capable of printing resolutions of < 1 µm or materials with viscosities of up to 10.000 cP.

Today the GEN3 EHD print head offers 8 fully digital nozzles with a pitch of 100µm which will be increased to 256 fully digital nozzles by Q1/2025, outperforming conventional inkjet printing by several orders of magnitude, paving the way for additive printing in applications dominated by photolithographic process.

The company reports a great interest in its booth and demonstration. Most visitors were not aware of the EHD technology and were very impressed by the technology and its capabilities.

SID’s Displayweek 2024 is just around the corner, and we expect it to become another excellent display industry event – where you can meet most of the industry and see the latest display innovations, prototypes and products. DisplayWeek includes a 3-day exhibition, 4-day technical symposium, short courses, seminars, three focus conferences - and the 2024 annual meeting of the MicroLED Industry Association. And of course, many networking opportunities.

The OLED Toolbox can be an excellent tool to help maximize the event for your company, in many ways:

It can be used to screen potential companies with which you’d like to meet. The toolbox contains a spreadsheet of over 250 companies. You can filter the list (for example – only material developers, or only companies out of Germany) and learn about the company’s products, background, and get contact details.

Being properly prepared for a meeting during a tradeshow can be crucial – as most meetings are short and it is important to make a good first impression. So, once you’ve compiled a list of companies to meet, check out the OLED Library - which contains over 160 items contributed by industry companies. In the OLED Library you’ll find brochures, roadmaps, presentations, datasheets, and more. 

According to reports from China, Samsung Display established a new R&D team dedicated to develop OLED products for Apple. The so-called "A Team" is part of the Giheung Research Institute in Yongin, Korea.

This is an interesting move by SDC. Apple is an extremely important customer for Samsung Display, of course, and up until recently SDC has been the leading supplier of OLED displays for Apple - winning the majority of orders for iPhone AMOLEDs. But now that Apple is starting to adopt OLEDs in IT products (starting with tablets) things are changing.

Researchers from the Universities of St Andrews, Kyoto and Kyushu have coincidentally developed state-of-the-art multi-resonant TADF (MR-TADF) OLED emitters, based on a helical boron-nitrogen-oxygen doped nanographene design.

In these multiple studies, the researchers have shown that it is possible to obtain deep blue, narrowband emission, very fast reverse intersystem crossing rates constants, and high-efficiency vacuum-deposited OLEDs.

According to Sino Research, in the first quarter of 2024, small-to-medium AMOLED production in China surpassed the production in Korea, by shipments, for the first time. China's market share was 53.9%, an increase from 44.9% in Q4 2023.

The leading producer is still Samsung Display, with a 41% market share (down from 53.3% last year). BOE has a market share of 17%, Visionox 12%, CSoT 10%, Tianma 9% and LGD 6%. The mean reason for the rise in China production and a decline in Korea's is lower shipments to Apple and an increase in the adoption of OLEDs in Chinese smartphones. 

In February 2024, Apple started to ship its VR headset, the Apple Vision Pro, with its two Sony 1.3" 4K OLED microdisplays. According to Ming-Chi Kuo, a respected Apple analyst, the market reaction to Apple's HMD was much lower than expected, and Apple decided to slash its production plan from 800,000 units in 2024 to about 400,000. 

The Vision Pro has been shipping in the US only, but it seems the company prefers to cut production rather than start to ship the headsets globally - a sign that it does not expect demand to be higher outside of the US. According to Kuo, Apple is likely to cancel its plan to release a new version in 2025.

LG Display announced that Korea's newly launched Great Train eXpress (GTX) subway service has installed the company's 55" transparent OLED displays in the cabin windows.

This is the first subway service in Korea to install transparent OLEDs (similar projects have already been deployed in China, Russia, and Japan). The idea is that the OLEDs create a "comfortable and smart on-board experience by displaying varied content". LGD initially installed 16 OLED displays on a single train with eight cars running on the inaugural GTX line between Suseo and Dongtan. Going forward, the GTX plans to install OLED panels in all of its trains.

Kopin Corporation  announced that it has received its third order for its OLED microdisplays, to be used in thermal imaging vision systems, for the Indian army. Kopin says that it will deliver over 1,200 microdisplays over a six-month time span.

Last month Kopin announced that it has a achieved two important milestones in its OLED projects. Kopin is in the process of establishing an OLED deposition partner in Europe, and the company has reported impressive performance improvements.

Read the full story Posted: May 01,2024