OLED Lifetime: introduction and market status - Page 16

Update: We discussed this with Nuovoyance's VP, he explains better why PenTile displyas lasts longer...

Some people really dislike Pentile displays, but Samsung keep producing AMOLED with PenTile - even in their flagship devices such as the new Galaxy S3 (which sports a 4.8" 1280x720 HD Super AMOLED). Today we hear that Samsung says that one of the major advantages of PenTile AMOLED displays is increased lifetime.

In PenTile displays, there are twice as many green subpixels as there are blue suxpixels. Blue OLEDs feature the lowest lifetime, and so Pentile displays "tend" to last longer, according to Samsung. In any case, as the resolution gets higher, it's getting harder to actually notice the "fuzziness" caused by the Pentile Matrix...

Philips has some interesting news for us today at the opening of the L+B 2012 exhibition: a new OLED panel that is suitable for functional lighting, a couple of new OLED installations and a nice new chanelier.

First up is a new OLED panel called the GL350 (GL stands for General Lighting). This is the first OLED to hit the "functional lighting" barrier as Philips calls it with its high brightness - 115 lm. It's 12.4x12.4 cm in size (155 cm²) and very homogeneous according to Philips.

Lumiotec released an interesting article that discusses the company's Multi-Photon Emission (MPE) stacked device structure and how it helps to achieve high luminance and long lifetime, their light out-coupling and encapsulation technologies and the company's mass production process. The paper also includes a discussion on the development of their next generation panel which uses phosphorescent materials provided by Universal Display Corporation to improve the efficiency.

Here's our own review of Lumiotec's Hanger and Vanity OLED lamps, and here's our review of the company's first-gen OLED lighting panel. Here are a couple of videos showing Lumiotec's panels and lamps:

Last week we reported that Sumitomo Chemical is planning to start mass producing OLED lighting panels later in 2012 based on their PLED technology in a ¥5-6 billion ($60-70 million) investement. Now Sumitomo finally announced that they plan to unveil panels at the L+B 2012 exhibition, and also unveiled a web page with lot's of info on their PLED lighting program. It seems that the company will commercial PLED panels for "decorative lighting" in 2013, and for general lighting in 2015.

In L+B2012 Sumitomo will show new PLED panels that are about 10 centimeters square each. There will be panels in sixty different colors, which are made using printing technology (all layers except the electrodes). The booth was designed by world-renowned Japanese lighting designer Motoko Ishii, with the theme The Colors of Japan The Colors of Harmony, in an innovative attempt to replicate—by means of lighting—the elegant and refined colors of ancient Japan in a modern day setting of a Japanese traditional tearoom. Here's what the booth will look like:

Philips released a new roadmap for their OLED lighting products. The company decided to split its OLED offering into two families - one for decorative lighting and one for performance lighting. The decorative panels are normally reflective in the off state, and Philips will offer transparent ones as soon as next year. Color tunable and transparent panels will arrive in 2018. And Philips predicts that by then it'll be able to offer 1x1 meter panels! It will sure be interested to see those large, flexible, light emitting panels...

Decorative lighting roadmap

The downside of the decorative panels is the efficiency: In 2015 these panels will offer only 15 lm/W (that's only marginally better than an incandescent lamp). By 2018, those large flexible panels will offer 35 lm/W - which is still very low (Fluorescent lamps today offer 70-100 lm/W).

Universal Display and Acuity Brands presented advances in their stripes white OLED architecture project. A stripes OLED is made from thin stripes of red, green and blue OLEDs. When you put a diffuser panel on top, it appears white. The stripes architectural results in efficient panels, that are also color tunable (2500-4000K).

UDC reports that the project is proceeding well - and in fact the pixel performance exceeds the project's goal. They fabricated the first 15x15 cm panel samples already and both companies are on target to deliver the actual luminaries in 2012 (which are based on the same design as the Kindred and the Revel - the lamps that use LG Chem's OLED panels). UDC is also working to further optimize the panel's performance.

Sony's OLED program is now focused on medium (7" to 25") OLED panel used in professional monitors. With consumer OLED TV coming from Samsung and LG soon, Sony is also considering entering this market. We had the good chance of talking with Gary Mandle, the product manager of Sony's OLED products for the professional market. Gary has worked within the Sony Professional Solutions Group for more than 26 years in the development and marketing of new display products - including CRT, SXRD (LCOS), LCD, and now OLED products. His current focus is on Sony’s OLED technologies intended for video and film production & post production applications.

Q: Sony is currently offering 7.4", 16.5" and 24.5" professional OLED monitors (TriMaster EL^TM) and also OLED monitors for the medical market. Can you update on your current offerings?

A: For professional television and film production, Sony now has seven OLED models. These are offered in three series, each categorized according to performance and features sets to match different applications. Our PVM lineup includes the PVM 740 (7.4 inch), PVM 1741 (17 inch), and the PVM 2541 (25 inch). These are used in areas where you need something that is relatively cost effective and lets you see within the image. These are used in editing, dallies review, graphics generation, and special effects.

When LG Display announced their 55" OLED TVs, they said they will first gauge market reaction - before deciding whether to expand capacity (beyond their 8.5-Gen pilot line capable of 48,000 monthly units scheduled for July 2012). After the great reception at CES, it seems that LG Display already made the decision to invest in expansion, and are now considering whether to build a new line or to convert an existing LCD line to OLED.

The company says that building a new 8.5-Gen OLED fab will cost about 2.5 times the cost of a similar capacity LCD plant. Converting an existing LCD line to OLED will be cheaper, although they wouldn't say by how much. It will take LG around 18 months to fully convert an LCD line to OLED. So even if they decide on that route soon, we cannot expect increased capacity before the end of 2013.

Universal Display announced that they have been awarded a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project to demonstrate further gains the performance of large-area phosphorescent based OLED lighting panels through enhanced thermal management techniques. The DOE awarded $1 million (or $999,963, to be exact) to UDC. This is a follow up to the SBIR Phase I project awarded in June 2010.

While OLEDs generate low heat, and UDC's PHOLED technology and materials generate even less heat, using thermal management techniques can still lower operating temperature and extend the OLED's lifetime.

Novaled announced it has developed a highly power-efficient white OLED structure achieving 60 lm/W at a brightness of 1,000 cd/m² capable of reaching 100,000 hours lifetime (at an initial brightness of 1,000 cd/m²). The new OLED uses red and green phosphorescent materials and a commercially available fluorescent blue material.

Novaled says that a fluorescent blue emitter usually results in much less efficient devices, but their PIN OLED technology and proprietary materials resulted in this highly efficient device. Using this fluorescent materiel has several advantages - good device stability, higher lifetime and it is commercially available. It also enables a broad coverage of the complete visible color range.