Konica Minolta

In 2014 Konica Minolta started constructing its groundbreaking R2R flexible OLED lighting fab. The project saw many delays and entered production later than planned, and KM started producing panels at low volume at around 2020. The company recently started to ramp up production, and today we hear of one of its first customers and partners, Sentry Enterprises.

Sentry, a fintech company, launched the Radiance card illumination platform, which enables credit card (and other payment card) issuers to offer a unique experience by using an OLED lighting panel embedded in the card. The OLED panel is produced by Konica Minolta. The card works without a battery, and the OLED panel is powered by the NFC receiver upon a transaction (a technology that was demonstrated by KM back in 2020).

Last month we reported that Konica Minolta started to offer its flexible OLED lighting panels to global customers. One of the panels that KM is producing is a small red panel that can be integrated with an NFC antenna. This is an interesting concept, that is demonstrated in the video below.

The low power consumption of the OLED panel enables it to be powered by the NFC receiver and operate without a battery. It will be interesting to see what kind of applications will be developed using this technology.

In March 2014 Konica Minolta announced that it is starting to construct a R2R flexible OLED lighting fab, hoping to start production in the fall of 2014. This fab entered production later than planned, and took a long time to reach real mass production capabilities. KM has been producing panels for quite some time, but finally it is offering its panels to global customers.

Konica Minolta is currently offering four different modules - two white panels, sized 43x15 mm and 15x15 mm and a red 15x15 mm panel. The red panel can be integrated with an NFC Antenna. The panels can be flexed (40mm radius) and they all offer a brightness of 500 nits.

Merck announced that it has acquired over 700 OLED display applications patent families from Konica Minolta. The acquired IP will be used to "further enhance Merck’s position as key supplier of OLED materials".

Merck did not detail the financial terms of this deal.

In March 2017 Konica Minolta and Pioneer announced that the two companies are set to merge their OLED business unit, and on June 2017 the new 50:50 joint venture, called Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED, was officially established.

Pioneer was recently acquired by Hong Kong private equity firm Bearing Private Equity for $904 million, and the company is now trying to focus its business, and we learned that it has decided to quite the OLED lighting market. KMPO has been closed and all assets and employees were moved to Konica Minolta. This is quite sad news regarding Pioneer who's been active with OLED lighting for many years (see below).

Departures magazine (a premium magazine shipped to around 25,000 American Express Platinum Card members) included an innovative ad for Audi's A8 with flexible OLED lighting panels that are activated when first opened (and also when the reader clicks on a replica Audi key that is included with the magazine).

Personally this seems to be an overly expensive and wasteful way to advertise. We do not know what kind of OLED panels are used in the ads (which was produced by US-based Structural Graphics). In 2017 Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED (KMPO) demonstrated its simple flexible OLED lighting panels integrated into packaging technology - which could be the one adopted here (although other companies have demonstrated similar solutions as well).

OTI Lumionics launched a new technology it calls Aerelight for Print technology, which uses paper-thin flexible OLED panels to light elements in print media.

OTI says that in order to enable low-cost production of flexible OLEDs, it designed its own manufacturing technology and advanced materials. This includes the company's own proprietary FlexTorr encapsulation technology.

A few days ago we posted on Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED (KMPO) and its demonstration of simple flexible OLED lighting panels integrated into packaging. My friend Takatoshi Tsujimura, CTO at KMPO, sent me this nice Christmas greeting card, which arrived yesterday, with an integrated small red OLED. The OLED has a mirror finish when off.

This was exciting to get, and the whole card is very well done and feels great. It's a very nice surprise to see something light up in such a thin paper card. KMPO calls this concept "thin paper products with functionality".

In June 2017 Konica Minolta and Pioneer established a new OLED Joint Venture called Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED, which will combine the OLED business and product divisions of both companies, with a focus on automotive applications.

KMPO released a new video today showing a different possible application of its OLED lighting - integration into paper for packaging or greeting cards. KMPO calls this concept "thin paper products with functionality".