Automotive OLEDs: introduction and industry news - Page 37

DisplaySerach has released their latest Quarterly OLED Shipment and Forecast Report. They say that OLED revenues have reached $252 million in Q3 2009, up 31% Q/Q. OLED shipments were 21.7 million (up 19% Q/Q). Demand was driven by high-end mobile phones.

Quarterly shipments and revenue

Samsung Mobile Displays continues to be the market leader - in face they have a 73% market share (in revenues). RiTdisplay is second with a 12% share. 

PMOLED shipments did not grow from 2008 to 2009. In face, mobile-phones shipments decreased (there is a shift from clam-shell style phones with external PMOLEDs to smart-phones), but PMOLED for automotive applications is increasing, with Mercedes Benz and Lexus adopting PMOLEDs. PMOLED shipments in Q3 2009 has reached 427,000.

OLED-Info readers get a 5% discount on this report, follow this link

Hyundai have unveiled their Blue-Will plug-in hybrid concept back in April. We've got some new photos (via CarAdvice), which show the transparent touch-enabled OLED display:

Interestingly this looks just like NeoView Kolon's transparent OLED prototype, also unveiled in April, so we can assume that they provided this unit for Hyundai. Here's the photo of NeoView Kolon's OLED:

The Blue-Will promises an electric-only driving distance of up to
64km on a single charge and a fuel economy rating of up to 2.2
liters/100 km (106mpg). It seems like several car makers are now testing OLEDs for dashboard displays.

OLED is an emissive display technology - which means that it emits its own light, in contrast to a reflective display - which uses an external light source - an ePaper display for example, or an LCD which is a display that blocks light from a backlight unit.

OLEDs are bright, and provide great image quality, and as of 2021, these displays perform very well under direct sunlight.

But this was not always the case. In early AMOLED displays, sunlight readability was very poor. The 2008 Nokia N85 for example, one of the first products with AMOLED displays, behaved very poorly in direct sunlight, as can be seen in the image below:

The problem in early AMOLED displays resulted from reflectance from metal electrodes in addition to relatively low brightness. Display makers however, soon upgraded their OLED displays to increase performance. Helped by new technologies and materials, OLED displays quickly overcame the sunlight readability problem. Today OLED displays actually perform better than the best LCDs in direct sunlight.

For more information on OLED display technology click here.

Hyundai is showing its new plug-in hybrid concept car, called Blue-Will. It's just a concept, for 'testing new ideas', but it's good to hear that it includes transparent OLED displays on the steering column, which is apparently touch-enabled.

Hyundai Blue-Will plug-in hybrid concept

The futuristic car promises an electric-only driving distance of up to 64km on a single charge and a fuel economy rating of up to 2.2 liters/100 km (106mpg). The Blue-Will concept is powered by an all-aluminum 152hp Gasoline Direct Injected 1.6L which is coupled to a Continuously Variable Transmission and a 100kw electric motor which is at the heart of Hyundai's proprietary parallel hybrid drive architecture. Wheels are turned by power coming directly from the gasoline engine, or the electric motor, or both together, as conditions demand. This parallel hybrid drive architecture serves as the foundation for future Hyundai hybrids, starting with the next-generation Sonata in the U.S.

Back in January we first heard of the EDAG 'light-car' concept. The car (which they call Light-Car-Open-Source, or LC-OS) will have OLED taillights, 'body' lights and also an OLED dashboard. The idea is that everything is configurable - you can change the look of the car and your dashboard (just like you can change your desktop), and also display custom 'signs' on the rear window.

EDAG light car prototype

Today EDAG showed another prototype, in the motor show at Geneva. They don't actually plan to produce this car, but to share their technology and concept with car makers.

Lexus just launched the new 2010 RX car. The main upgrades are in efficiency, power and 'technology features'.

One of those is a white OLED with multi-function information, supplementing the main 8" Navigation display.

More information about OLEDs in cars here

Researchers at Purdue University have created the first active matrix display that uses a new class of transparent transistors and circuits. The researchers say this is a first step towards flexible color monitors and heads-up displays in car windshields.

The transistors used in the display are made of nanowires, which are tiny cylindrical structures assembled on thin glass or plastic films. The nanowires used by the researchers for the display are as small as 20 nanometers or about a thousand times thinner than the average human hair. The nanowires were used to create an OLED display that rivals current flat-panel TVs in brightness.

VW shows a cool design for a future electric car. The car is 'covered' by a transparent OLED screen (on glass) that can show information for the driver and passengers.

Don't expect this anytime soon...

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research (IAP) in Potsdam have succeeded in constructing transparent OLED displays using light-emitting polymers. Their brightness, operating life time and efficiency are so high that the first commercial applications can be envisaged. We achieved this result by using a new type of metal electrode to supply the polymer film with electric current, reports Armin Wedel of the IAP.

The clue of the transparency lies in its physical properties. Earlier metal oxide coatings were too thick to allow enough light to pass through. But making them thinner reduces their conductivity and hence the luminescence and operating life time of the display.