PMOLED (Passive Matrix OLED): introduction and basics - Page 15

Remember NKK's Rocker OLED Switch? It's a unique snap-in switch with a programmable monochrome white PMOLED display (96x64) that is IP64 water resistance rated. User selection is based on menus visible on the display and multiple layers of menus can be achieved. The company now offers a development kit for $265 (or a kit with two switches for $315).

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.

Winstar is showing new graphic monochrome (yellow) PMOLED displays for automobiles. We do not have a lot of information yet (we're not sure if these are in production at all) besides this photo:

The company has also released 3 new monochrome yellow 128x64 PMOLED modules. Two modules are 2.4" in size (but one is with a bezel, and the other is without). The third module is 2.7" in size. All three modules have built-in SSD1305 driver IC and offer parallel (6800 or 8080), Serial SPI and I2C interfaces.

OSD Displays announced a new blue (1bit/pixel) PMOLED module. It offers 128x32 resolution and the size is 2.23" diagonal (62x24x2mm outline). The new display (OSD-12832P0906) has parallel, I2C, and SPI interfaces via a standard 24 conductor ZIF-type 0.5mm pitch flex interface.

OSD Displays announces two new PMOLED modules with 256x64 resolution and 16-level gray scale. There's a blue (OSD25664P0908-10) module and a yellow one (OSD25664P0913-10). These modules support 7-bits per pixel PWM and offer compatibility with parallel, I2C, and SPI interfaces via a standard ZIF-style 0.5mm pitch flex interface. The display size is 84.0 x 25.8 x 2.0 mm outline dimensions.

Pricing for the new modules start at around $18 (for 1k orders).

OSD Displays announced a new 1.5" PMOLED display that has a resistive 4-wire touch panel. The full-color display offer 128x128 resolution and is under 3mm thick (including the touch panel).

OSD says that the new panel is great for switches and controls - due to its small size (it can fit in a 1U rack system). The panel offers several interfaces: 3/4 wire SPI, 8/16 bit CPU in both 6800 and 8080 type designs.

Winstar has released a series of new PMOLED displays which include character displays (8x2, 12x2, 20x4) and graphic displays (50x16, 76x16, 100x32). These have the same size and pin-outs like Winstar existing LCD displays, so you can easily change from LCD to OLEDs.

Winstar provides these displays with or without polarizer (with polarizer they achieve a contrast ratio of 2000:1).

SonyEricsson's LiveView is an interesting device: a small Android communicator with a 1.3" PMOLED display. This week both Engadget and Slashgear posted reviews of this device, and they are both disappointed - mainly with the buggy software and compatibility issues.

The LiveView is now shipping for £55.99 in the UK, we don't know when/if it'll come to the US.

Update: This phone indeed uses a transparent PMOLED!

Lenovo is showing off a new phone, the S-800, which uses a transparent color display. We don't know anything about this phone beside some photos - including what kind of display it uses. It could be a transparent OLED...

Lenovo are already using AMOLED displays in two phones: The LePhone and the Music-Phone.

Mitsubishi installed the first Diamond Vision OLED screen at Merck's new Material Research Center ( Darmstadt, Germany) back in September. And we finally have an official photo:

The display measures 3.84m by 2.3m with a 1280x768 resolution, built from 60 PMOLED modules (each is 128x128), and weights a total of 480Kg.