AU Optronics - Page 15

AU Optronics is showing a 14" 3D (active-shutter) AMOLED TV with a full-HD (1920x1080) resolution in 3D or 2D mode. Back in October 2009, AUO showed 14" AMOLED prototypes, it's not clear whether the same display with 3D support, or is that an altogether new panel.

AUO is also showing OLED lighting panels. AUO's panel offer 50 lumens/watt efficiency and comes with an embedded high-efficiency green power drive. Last month we reported that AUO might be developing OLED Lighting panels, so it's good to see that this is true. Back in 2006, AUO was using Universal Display's PHOLED materials for AMOLED displays, but we do not know whether they are using them now for the lighting panels.

Taiwas's ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute) has developed a new 6" flexible color AMOLED, using their FlexUPD technology. The display is just 0.01cm thick, and can continue to show images even when folded. The folding radius can reach 5cm or less, and the screen can be scrolled up to 15,000 times.

ITRI says that their FlexUPD technology is the simplest and cheapest technology for mass production paper-like displays. FlexUPD will be commercialized soon, and AUO plans to use it for flexible e-reader products "very soon".

We know that AUO is back into AMOLED production, with plans for a Gen 3.5 factory (which will go in line in 2011). AUO has a daughter company called Wellypower Optronics. Wellypower is Taiwan's number one CCFL maker (mostly used for AUO's LCD backlights) and is also a LED maker.

In a recent PR about a new fluorescent lamp, Wellypower says that they are also producing OLED lighting panels. I'm not sure if that's true, but perhaps the company does have an active OLED program.

Back in May, Samsung (the only company with a mass-production AMOLED plant) announced that they can't meet up with the demand for AMOLED displays. Soon later we heard that the HTC Incredible is suffering from AMOLED shortage, and later on HTC decided to use LCDs instead of OLEDs in that phone (and others). Samsung, meanwhile, is said to be keeping all Super-AMOLED displays for themselves.

In fact, HTC is not alone: Pantech made the same decision, and we keep hearing of new devices that were originally said to have AMOLEDs, but actually use LCDs instead. Samsung's own Galaxy-S phone is a huge success, so even Samsung probably cannot use AMOLEDs in other devices.

AU Optronics has acquired Toshiba Mobile Display's subsidiary, AFPD. AFPD had a Gen-4.5 LTPS plant. Now we hear that AUO plans to use a third of the lines in that plant for AMOLED production. This means 15,000 substrates a month in 2011. AUO's own Gen 3.5 factory (which will also go in line in 2011) will contribute 7,000 monthly substrates.

AUO 14-inch OLED prototype

AU Optronics has completed its acquisition of Toshiba Mobile Display's subsidiary, AFPD. This is part of AUO's strategic move into AMOLED production. AFPD has a Gen-4.5 LTPS plant, which can be used to produce OLED backplanes.

AUO 14-inch OLED prototype

AUO wants to quickly start making AMOLEDs, because of the enormous demand for small sized displays. AUO is also working on its own manufacturing line, which will go online in 2011.

There are some new rumors about Apple's 2nd-Gen iPad, that will use 5.6" and 7" AMOLED displays. According to the rumors, the iPad 2 will be launched at 4Q 2010. A new 9.7" version will also be released, with some "minor" changes, and will still use an IPS-LCD. The smaller iPads will mainly target the e-reader market.

While it's true that OLED costs are expected to drop, it's still unlikely that Apple will find a supplier that can make enough OLED displays. Samsung can't keep up with current demand for smaller displays (4" or less), and their new plant will not be ready by the July 2011. There are other companies working on new OLED plants (LG, AUO, TPO) but these will also not be able to meet Apple's demand.

Jennifer Colegrove, director of display technologies at DisplaySearch, is optimistic about AMOLED production capacity: "I expect in the next three years for at least 20 new AMOLED production lines to open up...  This is the future of the display technology on smartphones and you'll see a lot of companies investing money to enter".

We already know of a few production lines that are expected in the coming years: Samsung has begun working on their 5.5-Gen Plant (that'll have 3 lines, a $2.2 billion investment), LG is also investing heavily in new lines, TPO is expected to launch products soon, AUO will soon start building their AMOLED line and Visionox has a pilot line ready.

We have some more information and a nice video about AUO's 2.4" transparent touch AMOLED display. The resolution of the panel is 240x320, and it's a "dual-emission" structure. It's got 45% transparency, 200 cd/m2 brightness on the bottom, and 100 cd/m² on the top. The contrast is better than 20,000:1. The response time is less than 0.01ms. AUO hopes to have this as an actual product in 2011, and are also working on a 7" version.

AUO has developed a new 2.4" transparent AMOLED that has an in-cell touch panel - they say it's the world's first. They target it for GPS applications mainly (where users could capture their actual locations for the navigation system to recognize, and make use of the convenient touchscreen interface to find their ways easily). AUO will show this new display at Display Taiwan 2010.

It's interesting to see how AUO's in-cell touch panel compares to Samsung's Super-AMOLED (which also has a touch-panel, but is not transparent).