PMOLED (Passive Matrix OLED): introduction and basics - Page 12

A couple of months ago we posted about a rumor claiming that Apple is working on a PMOLED Bluetooth smartwatch. Now the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are both posting a similar story, which actually gives this rumor some credibility. This time they say that Apple is working with their long-time manufacturing partner Hon Hai Precision Industry.

We're not sure what is meant exactly by "curved glass". We have seen devices with curved rigid glass before (for example the Nexus S). The New York Times speculates that the new iWatch will use Corning's flexible Willow glass (shown in the video below) - and so probably the whole display will be curved, maybe something similar to the prototypes Samsung unveiled at CES.

Toshiba has unveiled a (rather large and bulky) Bluetooth watch prototype called the Computer Graphics watch. It sports a 320x100 OLED panel (probably a PMOLED), an ARM processor and a Electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor. The idea is that this watch can sync to your smartphone for notifications and all sorts of applications (such as a heart-rate monitor which of course uses the ECG).

This isn't a new idea. Sony is offering a similar Android accessory called the SmartWatch (which also uses a PMOLED display, by the way, although at 1.3"). Sony's SmartWatch costs $109. The first-gen Sony LiveView, by the way, is now down to only $22.

Apple OLED rumors never die. This time these are rather different rumors. According to a Chinese tech blog, Apple and Intel are jointly developing a bluetooth smart watch. This new iWatch (or whatever they'll call it) will have a 1.5" touch PMOLED, apparently made by RitDisplay.

I'm usually quite skeptic on Apple AMOLED rumors, because there's still not enough AMOLED capacity to be used in iPhone or iPod devices. But ramping up PMOLED capacity shouldn't' be a problem for RiTDisplay (which used to have larger capacity than today, but they shut down some lines due to financial problems). Anyway, if this is true, it's great news for my friends over at RiTDisplay.

DisplaySearch says that AMOLED displays have captured 6% of the small/medium display market in 2012 (this means displays that are 9" in size and smaller). They say that in 2015 penetration will more than double to 13%.

In 2012 total OLED shipments (which include PMOLED and AMOLED panels) will reach 191 million units, or 8.4% of the total small/medium display category. Total OLED shipments almost doubled from 2010, as can be seen from the chart below:

BMW announced a new sport steering wheel (the M Performance) that aims to display data and info on the wheel itself. It includes a small white PMOLED display on the top and two LED meters on the sides. These displays can show you average fuel consumption, speed, oil and water temperature, g-force and cues for gear shifts.

The M Performance steering wheel costs $1,700.

A couple of days ago we reported about Futaba's 3.5" (256x64) flexible PMOLED prototype shown at CEATEC 2012 in Japan. It turns out that Futaba also demonstrated a smaller one at 1.3" (128x128). Bother are very thin at 0.22 mm. here's a nice video showing these prototypes and some more OLED displays from Futaba:

Futaba unveiled a new 3.5" (256x64) full-color flexible PMOLED prototype. The new prototype is thin (0.22 mm thick - thinner than Futaba's current 0.29 mm thin panels) and features 100 cd/m² brightness.

This seems to be quite similar to the old flexible OLED panel shown at CEATEC 2010 by TDK Micro (now owned by Futaba), but it's quite a bit thinner (back in 2010 the panel was 3 mm thick). The old panel was made on a resin substrate and used a white emitter with color filters. We do not know the technology used in the new panel.

A few weeks ago we reported about a new Indonesian phone with a 2.4" transparent OLED panel, reportedly made by NeoView Kolon. Today I checked NeoView's site, and indeed it seems that the company is now shipping transparent PMOLED panels - and also OLED lighting panels.

NeoView offers four different transparent PMOLEDs: 2.41" 240x342, 16M-colors panels, a 1.98" 128x160 panel (262K colors) and monochrome (blue or white) 1.3" panels. Lifetime is quoted at 10,000 @40% on (I don't think they mean LT40, but that's not very clear).

Densitron is launching new PMOLED panels that feature higher lifetime than previous models. The company now offers yellow PMOLEDs that feature 100,000 hours lifetime at 100 nits and 150,000 hours at 80 nits. They are also offering PMOLED in different colors, and they say that their OLED panels lifetime is now three times longer than it was when they were first introduced.

Mitsubishi announced they completed the installation of Japan's largest digital signage system at Narita international airport in Tokyo (announced in October 2011). The system includes a 160-degrees concave Diamond Vision OLED display called Panorama Vision. This cool display measures 9.6 x 1.9 meters and is made from 2,000 96x96mm PMOLED panels.

This is Mitsubishi's third Diamond Vision OLED installation that we know about. The first one was a 3.84x2.3 meter display installed at Merck's research center and the second was the 6-meter Geo-Cosmos sphere installed at Tokyo's Science Museum.