Back in November 2010 we reported about a new phone by Lenovo which uses a transparent display called the S-800. We thought it might be a transparent OLED, but we weren't sure. Today Dialog Semiconductor reveals that they supplied the driver IC to that phone, and indeed it's a transparent PMOLED. Hopefully the S-800 will actually launch soon, unlike the Samsung IceTouch MP3 player.
Dialog's driver (the DA8620) is the first one to use their SmartXtend PMOLED technology, and it's now shipping. The SmartXtend technology boosts PMOLED displays so they can achieve video quality and performance on par (almost) with AMOLEDs - at a much lower cost. The maximum resolution is QVGA. Here's more technical info on this technology.
While Dialog wouldn't name the actual PMOLED producer, it is probably TDK. They have been showing transparent PMOLEDs back in October 2010 - and these were indeed driven by a Dialog driver. Back in 2010 TDK said that they can start mass producing these displays - they are just waiting for someone to order them - and it seems that Lenovo is the first one to do so.
