Reports from Korea suggested that Samsung Display acquired 5 patents from US-based Orthogonal, that contains the company's mask-less OLED production process. With this purchase, SDC has a path towards developing its own maskless OLED production.

Maskless OLED production is of high interest lately, as these technology could offer higher pixel aperture ratio leading to higher efficiency, brightness and lifetime and brighter OLEDs, compared to FMM-based production processes. JDI for example claims its eLEAP technology enables an 2X increase in brightness and a 3X increase in lifetime, coupled with reduced production costs.

Omdia estimates that growth will return to the OLED materials market after two years of slow OLED TV sales. Material sales will increase to over $2 billion in 2024, for the first time, and will continue growing to reach $2.6 billion by 2028.

Omdia sees an improvement in the utilization of LG's WOLED fabs in 2024. LGD's E4 line in Paju, for example, have rebounded to over 60% in Q1 2024, up from only 33% at the end of 2023. The company's WOLED line in Guangzhou also increased its utilization to over 50%. 

Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) announced that it has started mass producing fine metal masks (FMM) at its new production line at Kurosaki Plant, in Fukuoka, Japan. DNP invested $140 million to expand the production line.

8-Gen and 6-Gen FMM samples (DNP)

The new production line is producing masks suitable for 8-Gen substrates. As the OLED industry is moving to expand its IT AMOLED display production for laptops, monitors and tablets, companies are building larger (8.7-Gen mostly) production lines that require these larger masks. While the company is already producing at the new fab, it will also announced that it may gradually expand production further at the new line, depending on market demand.

Canada-based OLED material developer OTI Lumionics announced a strategic partnership with Nord Quantique,  a quantum computing company. The two companies will work on electronic structure calculations, vibronic spectra and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) using quantum simulations. The objective of this testing is to identify improved efficiencies for the development of advanced materials.

OTI and Nord Quantique will look at several applications - including semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals - and also displays. Specially for the OLED industry, the methods developed during the project will be used to simulate optical and some thermal thin film properties, with an initial focus on emitters and OLED stack materials.

Reports from Korea suggest that Apple approved LG Display as a supplier for its upcoming iPhone 16 Pro Max, the most advanced iPhone model to be released this year. Interestingly, LGD apparently got the approval before Samsung Display, Apple's main OLED supplier.

If true, this is the first time that Apple approves LGD first. This does not necessarily mean anything, but it does mean that the technology gap between Samsung and LGD is low, if present at all. Samsung has much higher production capacity compared to LGD, note. The two companies will likely produce panels for all four iPhone 16 models, and it is reported that BOE will supply some panels for the two standard iPhone 16 models.

Lumicore showcased its groundbreaking 1.32-inch OLED microdisplay at SID Displayweek in San Jose, a digital-driven silicon microdisplay that represents a substantial advancement in the field of micro-OLED displays. This innovation promises improvements in display quality, power consumption, and production yield, making it highly suitable for AR and VR/MR applications.

Lumicore's expertise lies in its digital driving technology, which precisely controls pixel brightness in Micro-OLEDs through Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). This approach maintains a constant voltage across the OLED, preventing substantial fluctuations in current and brightness due to minor voltage changes.Compared to traditional analog driving, digital driving effectively mitigates noise interference, offering higher grayscale modulation accuracy, faster screen refresh rates, lower circuit power consumption, and reduced manufacturing costs, thereby revolutionizing the conventional technology.

Integrating MOFs and Organometallic complexes with OLEDs offers improved efficiency, stability, and performance, providing opportunities for novel applications of OLEDs in market areas such as sensing, energy storage, and optoelectronic devices.

What is a MOF?

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are a class of materials that consist of metal ions or clusters coordinated to organic ligands to form one-, two-, or three-dimensional structures. Incorporating various metal ions into MOFs can significantly influence their electronic, optical, and structural properties, making them suitable for applications such as Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs).

Using MOFs with OLEDs - Breakthrough Value-Add and New OLED Markets via Improved Efficiency, Stability and Performance:

Enhanced Electron Transport: MOFs can serve as electron transport materials in OLEDs, facilitating the movement of electrons within the device. By improving electron transport, MOFs can enhance the efficiency of OLEDs, leading to brighter and more energy-efficient displays or lighting panels.

Omdia says that it expects the global smartwatch display market to reach 359 million units in 2024 (up from 259 million units in 2022). OLEDs hold a 37% market share (132 million units).

Omdia says that the leading smartwatch OLED producers, in the first half of 2024, are LG Display (Apple's main supplier), Everdisplay and Tianma - which together hold a 53% market share. China-based wearable OLED production accounts to 64% of the total market.

DSCC says that foldable OLED shipments increased 46% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to last year, to reach almost 4 million units. 

BOE was leading the market in Q1 2024, with a market share of 48% (up from 43% in Q1 2023). The two leading foldable smartphone models were Huawei's Mate X5 and Pocket 2, using panels supplied by BOE. In fact Huawei had a market share of 55% in the foldable smartphone market.