AU Optronics - Page 9

A few weeks ago we reported about Merck's new Taiwanese technology development center that is focused on OLEDs (but will also work on flexible displays, LED lighting and 3D displays). Merck held an official inauguration ceremony and they revealed some interesting details.

We already know that Merck OLED materials are "used commercially in many products on the market". But during the ceremony the company revealed that LG's 55" OLED TV, now on sale in Korea for $10,000, is using the company's materials.

Merck inaugurated their new Taiwanese Technology Development Center, which will develop new material technologies in collaboration with local companies. The main focus of this new center will be OLED materials. Other areas of research will include flexible displays, LED lighting and 3D techniques. Merck already has an OLED R&D lab in Korea.

Merck's OLED product portfolio covers transport materials as well as emitters and other functional layers. The company is focusing on soluble OLED materials, and they say that the performance gap between vapor and printable materials is closed in R&D. Merck OLED materials are "used commercially in many products on the market".

Last week Sony unveiled new 30" and 56" 4K OLED panels, slated for release in 2014, and they also updated their TRIMASTER EL professional OLED monitors with the new A Series which sport an improved OLED panel. Now I have some new information on Sony's new OLEDs.

So first of all, that 56" panel is the same panel shown at CES, made in cooperation with AU Optronics. Sony do plan to use it for their professional video division, but it's still too early for any delivery dates or price information.

A couple of week ago we reported on AUO's new 5" Full-HD AMOLED panel that features the world's highest resolution density at 443 ppi (which means it's probably a 4.97" panel). AUO is showing this panel at China's Display Expo, and we found this nice video showing the display (for about two minutes, and then showing new LCD panels: small, large and transparent ones):

We still do not know when AUO will actually start to produce these panels, hopefully this will happen in 2013. In the meantime AUO is also working on large sized panels: it is making 56" substrates for Sony and Panasonic prototype OLED panels and the company also developed the world's largest AMOLED panel to date at 65".

SID 2013, the world's most prominent display conference will take place next month (May 19, in Vancouver, Canada) - and they now published some technical papars that will be discussed during the conference. And there's some interesting stuff in there.

First up is AU Optronics paper, describing how the company developed the world's largest OLED panel: a 65" direct-emission Oxide TFT one. This panel, that was produced using an FMM process, features a long-range threshold voltage uniformity of 0.34 V, and the dam and fill encapsulation process is simple and highly stable.

AUO developed a new AMOLED panel that features the world's highest resolution at 443 ppi. The panel is Full-HD and 5" in size (or actually 4.97" if it's 443 ppi). AUO will show prototype panels at China's Display Expo in Shenzhen starting tomorrow. AUO didn't reveal any technical details besides saying that this panel was made using a fine shadow mask process.

AUO previous OLED panel was the 4.65" 1280x720 (317 ppi) shown at October 2012. AUO keeps upgrading their AMOLED densities. But of course what we really want is for AUO to actually start producing AMOLED panels. Some reports suggest that AUO's yields are still very low (around 40%) and the company won't stat mass production until 2014.

Back in January it was reported that HTC decided to use AUO's 4.65" OLED panels in their upcoming code-named M7 flagship phone. Yet other reports suggested that AUO still faces production issues and HTC decided to use Sharp-made LCD panels instead. Today HTC unveiled the HTC One phone, and sadly it is indeed using an LCD (4.7" 1080p Super LCD 3, 468 PPI).

So it appears that AUO still hasn't started to mass produce AMOLED displays. Digitimes says that it's likely that they wouldn't be able to start real mass production until 2014, which is a real shame.

According to OLEDW (quoting Japan's Sankei Shimbun), Sony and Panasonic are planning to setup an OLED TV production joint venture in 2013. There's no production schedule, but it's likely that Sony and Panasonic are aiming to start doing so in 2014 or 2015.

The two companies announced their OLED technology partnership in June 2012 - saying that the two companies will jointly develop printing based technologies for OLED TV mass production. Back then it was rumored that they may indeed choose to do the actual production together as well, but nothing has been decided till now.

CES 2013 was exciting - what with the new OLED TVs and Flexible OLED prototypes and launches. Barry Young from the OLED Association, one of the world's top OLED experts, gave us his views on the new OLED developments from Samsung, Sony, LG and Panasonic. Thanks Barry!

Sony and Panasonic both showed 4K2K 56" OLED TVs, with some parts jointly developed. How close are these two companies to actual mass production?

There are reports that BOE, who's facing serious AMOLED production issues (especially on large OLED TV panels) with very low yields has reached out to Taiwanese company for help. BOE is seeking to collaborate on AMOLED R&D, and if the reports are true they probably contacted either AU Optronics or Innolux or both.

BOE Ordos 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab

According to reprots, BOE started construction of their 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab in Ordos (Inner Mongolia) which will produce 54K substrates a month. According to some earlier reports, the fab cost is estimated at $3.44 billion. BOE's plan is apparently to first start with LTPS LCD and only in 2014 start producing AMOLED panels as well. BOE is also developing OLED ink-jet printing processes.