PMOLED (Passive Matrix OLED): introduction and basics - Page 6

We're happy to announce a new market report: the PMOLED Market Report. This report, brought to you by the world's leading OLED experts, is a comprehensive guide to passive matrix OLED displays (PMOLEDs). The PMOLED market is projected to grow rapidly, fueled by demand from wearables and by flexible and transparent displays, but is overlooked by most analysts focused on the (much larger) AMOLED market.

Reading this report, you'll learn all about:

• Applications of PMOLED displays
• Next generation PMOLED technologies
• Flexible and transparent PMOLEDs
• AMOLED vs PMOLED

The report also includes:

• Information on all PMOLED producers
• Current and future PMOLED fabs
• Automotive PMOLEDs
• Display catalogs and datasheets
• Free updates for a year

During Tokyo's Wearable Expo, Pioneer introduced new PMOLED displays and devices. One of the devices on display seems to be an AR glasses concept that adopts a curved transparent PMOLED:

We don't have more information on Pioneer's new PMOLED besides what you can see in the image above. Pioneer announced it has developed flexible monochrome PMOLED panels back in 2013 (produced on ultra-thin glass) but did not commercialize such panels yet.

Taiwan-based PMOLED developer Wisechip announced plans to start mass producing In-Cell Touch PMOLED displays in Q4 2017. Wisechip says that its 1-inch ICT PMOLED will be cheaper by about $1 compared to current touch PMOLEDs, and will also be thinner and lighter.

An In-Cell Touch display has the touch layer embedded within the panel itself. There's no need to laminate a separate touch layer. Wisechip said that it developed an enhanced manufacturing process and new technologies that were required for the In-Cell layer addition.

Hyperkin announced that Microsoft has approved its latest Xbox controller, which is a recreation of the original Xbox Duke controller. The new controller includes a monochrome (green) PMOLED display.

Hyperkin is still developing its controller so it is not clear when this will be released. The company also says that it will only produce the controller in a limited number.

OLED maker Truly Semiconductor, based in Hong Kong, sees a large increase in PMOLED demand in the near future, and the company is executing an ambitious PMOLED capacity expansion plan.

Truly is currently operating two production lines: the P1 and P2 lines, both 2.5-Gen and with a monthly capacity of 625K and 1.25M pcs (Truly counts its capacity as per 1" displays). Truly has set out to build two new production lines. The P3 line which is a 2.5-Gen line with a capacity of 3.13 million 1 panels monthly is almost ready and will start mass production by the end of the month.

Last month PMOLED maker WiseChip demonstrated a Hyperfluoresence TADF PMOLED display in a trade show in Japan, following a collaboration with HF TADF developer Kyulux. Wisechip says it will bring its first HF-TADF PMOLEDs to the market by the end of 2017.

Kyulux today uploaded Wisechip's presentation from the TADF workshop. In this lecture Wisechip’s VP of R&D Engineering Division, Dr. York Tsai, gave a presentation that detailed the Hyperfluorescence-PMOLED development effort and the performance boost enabled by the new material.

The phosphorescent OLED emitter market is currently dominated by Universal Display who owns the basic patents to phosphorescent OLED emitters. All the major OLED makers (including Samsung and LGD) are using UDC's materials in order to achieve higher display efficiencies, beyond what is available from fluorescent emitters.

Universal Display holds over 4,000 issued and pending patents, but some of its basic phosphorescent patents are set to expire by the end of 2017. Honestly, it is very difficult to know exactly what effect this will have on the market - some analysts believe that it will carry very little effect while others say that this will open the door for other companies to sell competing phosphorescent emitters.

Wisechip, the Taiwan-based PMOLED maker, demonstrated its latest display panels and prototypes at the TADF Workshop last week in Fukuoka, Japan. This was an impressive display and a great chance to experience the latest PMOLEDs displays from Wisechip.

So first up we have the company's transparent PMOLED. This is a 4.1" (106x37.9 mm) segmented T-OLED specifically aimed for automotive HUD applications. The display has 4 colors (red, orange, green and blue) and offers a typical brightness of 800 nits (max is 1,500 nits). According to Wisechip the display will soon hit the market for a specific automotive partner.

Hyperfluoresence TADF materials developer Kyulux announced a collaboration with PMOLED maker WiseChip to bring Hyperfluoresence TADF emitter based displays to the market by year's end. Wisechip demonstrated an HF TADF display at the TADF Workshop last week in Fukuoka, Japan.

The PMOLED display shown by Wisechip was a 0.96" monochrome yellow 128x64 one. The demonstration showed how much brighter (or more efficient) the Hyperfluoresence based display is compared to Wisechip's current fluoresent-based displays. The power saving is almost 50%.

In August 2016 we reported that PMOLED-producer RiTdisplay sees growth ahead in the PMOLED market with plans to increase capacity - and today Digitimes states that RiTdisplay has indeed increased its capacity by 20% in 2016 (to 18,000 monthly substrates, up from 15,000). The company aims to increase production by a further 40% (to 25,200 monthly substrates) by the end of 2017.

Earlier reports suggested that the capacity increase will come from more efficient production ("deleting bottlenecks") - not from new equipment.