4K OLED: introduction and market status - Page 19

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?

LG says that they already sold 300 84LM9600 TVs in Korea - those are 84" 4K LCD TVs that cost $20,000. LG started to sell those TVs in July 2012, so it's about 300 sets in half a year. LG are quite happy with this number - those TVs are very expensive, and there's still no 4K content of any kind in Korea.

LG's 55EM9700 OLED TV

This is good news I think for the emerging OLED TV market. I think LG's 55EM9700 OLED TV will be more popular than that large LCD TV - although it's smaller at 55" it's also much cheaper ($10,000 in Korea), it's slimmer, thinner and offers a better picture, at least for FHD content. Hopefully LG will also update us on its OLED TV sales in Korea soon.

Taiwan's ITRI institute says that OLED TV shipments will outpace UHD ones by 2015. While in 2013 only 50,000 OLED TVs will be sold (compared to 500,000 UHD ones), in 2015 OLED TV shipments will rise to 3.24 million compared to 3.2 million UHD TVs. In 2017, ITRI sees over 10 million OLED TVs sold compared to only 6 million UHD TVs. It's not clear how they count UHD OLED TVs...

ITRI explains that the dramatic OLED TV market increase forecast is based on improving yield rates and more companies joining the OLED TV market. UHD on the other hand is limited because it's only useful in panels 50" or above (which is not entirely true. Panasonic for example unveiled a 4K 20" tablet display which they will start producing soon).

So, the rumors were accurate - Sony has actually developed the world's first 4K2K (3840x2160) OLED TV panel, and unveiled a prototype unit. The panel is 56" in size and uses an Oxide-TFT and Sony's own "Super Top Emission" OLED technology.

Sony wouldn't reveal any technical specification - they only said that this panel "delivers all the features expected from OLED TVs, such as high contrast, brightness, rapid video image response time and rich images produced even at wide viewing angles". But that's just as well - Sony wouldn't say anything about a release date (or expected price) of this display either. They just said that "Sony will continue to research OLED technology with the goal of commercializing its new 4K OLED televisions".

According to The Verge website, Sony is going to unveil a new 4K2K (UHD) OLED TV later this week at CES 2013 (The Verge does not say anything about the size of the TV, but it'll probably be at least 55").

Sony OLED TV prototype

We'll know soon if this is true, but this may mark Sony's return to the OLED TV market. Sony officially stopped offering the small 11" XEL-1 OLED TV back in 2011, but later in 2012 the company said they plan to start making major investments in OLED TV technologies. Sony is collaborating with Panasonic on OLED TV production technology, and in September 2012 they promised us OLED TVs by 2014.

LG announced that it is bringing its OLED TVs to CES 2013 (January 8-11)- and the company further enhanced its 55" WRGB OLED TV in technology and in design. The new model weighs just 3.5Kg (500 grams less than the older one shown at CES 2012) and is still 4mm thick. As LG says in its PR: "LG Display is truly laying the prologue for the new OLED TV era".

LG's OLED TV features FPR passive 3D, 100,000,000:1 contrast ratio and fast response time (1,000 times faster than LCD according to LG). The TV is based on LG Display's Oxide-TFT white-OLED with color filters (WRGB) OLED panel. The TV is expected to launch in 2013 for a price of around $10,000 at first. Earlier this month the TV (model 55EM9700-UA) passed through the FCC as it includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules and so needs to get approved by the FCC before it can be sold in the US.

DisplaySearch posted an interesting blog post, in which they say that both Samsung and LG Display have decided, due to technical difficulties with OLED TV production, to put more emphasis in high-definition TVs (4K2K, or UHD), and delay OLED TV production. DisplaySearch also says that most consumers will prefer a larger and cheaper LCD TV over a high-end, slim OLED TV.

Both Samsung and LGD first unveiled their stunning 55" OLED TVs in January 2012, but they haven't managed to actually launch these TVs yet. According to the post, the yield in Samsung's and LGD's AMOLED TV fabs is still in the single digits, and even after repairing panels, the yield will be less than 30%. In addition, frit encapsulation is too fragile for large area TV, and so the panel lifetime is reduced.

DisplaySearch released their 2012-2016 global TV market forecasts. They have reduced OLED TV shipments to just 500 units in 2012 and 50,000 in 2013. Meanwhile, 4K2K LCD TVs are expected to grow from 4,000 units in 2012 to 154,000 in 2013. However, DisplaySearch predicts that OLED TV growth will pickup soon afterwards to reach 9 million units in 2016:

Digitimes reports that Chimei Innolux decided to shift its focus from OLED displays to large-size 4K2K panels. While CMI is advancing its small/medium OLED program (it aims to start low-volume production in Q4 2012, see the video below), it's facing technical difficulties and low yields with large-size OLED panel production. CMI estimates that due to the high-costs involved with large OLED panels, the demand will be low in the near future.

CMI is going to produce 50" and 65" 4K2K LCD panels. It's not clear if there'll be real demand for 4K2K panels either - as there's currently a lack of content for this format.

The Korean government is funding a new program ("Future Flagship Program") that will develop transparent and flexible OLED technologies with an aim to produce ultra high-definition 60" flexible OLED displays by 2017. The project will be led by LG Display, and will also include equipment-maker Avaco.

Flexible OLED TV concept (Sony)

The Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy is spearheading the program, and they say that this technology may have a large impact on the Korean economy, creating 840,000 jobs and $56 billion in yearly exports. It will also help to widen the technological gap between Korea and China in the display sector. The Korean government chose several key technologies that will help to further develop the industry, and OLED is one of them.