Flexible OLEDs: introduction and market status - Page 7

BOE has been aiming to supply OLED displays for Apple for a long time, and Apple also welcomed BOE as a supplier as it wants to reduce its dependence on Samsung and LG.

In 2020 BOE did not pass Apple's OLED quality test for the iPhone 12, but later it it did manage to enter Apple's supply chain, for aftermarket (refurbished models) 6.06" LTPS AMOLED displays.

Visionox announced plans to build a new flexible and foldable OLED module production line, in Hefei. Total investment in the new project will amount to 11 billion Yuan (around $1.6 billion USD), and Visionox will receive financial assistance from the local government.

Visionox started trial production at its M4 flexible OLED module factory in Guangzhou in late 2020. The company's 2nd OLED line is located in Hefei and is already mass producing panels.

Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) developed a white OLED device that can be deposited on thin fabrics. The researchers say that this is the world's first such device, as previous white OLEDs, made using a tandem structure, could not be bent on fibers.

For the new device, the researchers developed a single white light-emitting layer. The brightness of the device is up to 700 nits, with an efficiency of 10 candelas per ampere.

According to reports in Korean media, Samsung is developing a new process which will allow it to reduce the thickness of its QD-OLED panels.

The current QD-OLED design uses two glass substrates, one for the TFT backplen (and the OLED frontplane materials), and one for the QD conversion layer. The new plan is to remove the QD glass substrate, and inkjet print the QDs directly on the OLED TFE encapsulation layer.

BOE's chairment Chen Yanshun says that the company shipped almost 60 million AMOLED displays in 2021, and the company plans over 100 million such panels in 2022.

BOE also details that its AMOLED monthly output surpassed the 10 million unit mark for the first time in December 2021.

LG Display, together with British design magazine Dezeen announced the semifinalists in the 2nd OLED Go! Design competition. LG says that there was high interest in this year's competition, with over 300 entries from all over the world, with many innovative ideas.

Many of the designs utilized future flexible, rollable and transparent OLEDs to create new innovative future products, for both residential and commercial applications.

We are happy to announce that the OLED marketplace lists a 5.99" 1080x2160 flexible AMOLED display produced by BOE. This is a high-end smartphone type display (but of course can be used in other applications) that includes a touch layer.

Check out more information over at the OLED Marketplace, or contact us now, the panel is available to order from China, at attractive pricing.

Solid-state haptic developer Tanvas has collaboration with a "leading display maker" to produce a prototype flexible AMOLED display that incorporates the company's TanvasTouch haptic layer, which provides tactile textures and haptic effects.

Tanvas explains that its surface haptic technology uses proprietary haptic technology to enable tactile textures and effects to be felt as the fingers swipe across the surface of the display. Unlike traditional vibration-based haptics that require actuators to move mass, TanvasTouch is a solid-state solution that can provide different haptic effects simultaneously in multiple zones on the same surface.

BOE demonstrated new foldable OLED prototypes, which it calls the f-OLED N-shaped folding display. The new displays by BOE can be folded both inwardly and outwardly, which allows BOE to present a unique form factor:

BOE's new display is 12.3" in size, and when full folded (two folds) it turns into a 5.6-inch form-factor device. BOE developed a novel hinge system that allows for sliding compensation which improves the strength of the display module. BOE tested the new display for up to 200,000 inward folding cycles and 100,000 outward folding cycles.

China-based Tianma announced that it has started producing flexible AMOLED displays at its 6-Gen production line in Xiamen. This is just the first production runs, it will probably take some time for Tianma to ramp up production.

Total investment in Tianma's new fab (TM18) is estimated at $6.8 billion USD and the monthly capacity will be 48,000 6-Gen substrates. The company says that this is the largest flexible AMOLED production line in China, and it is also the largest ever investment in Xiamen's history.