PMOLED (Passive Matrix OLED): introduction and basics - Page 8

Wisechip announced that next week it will demonstrate its new flexible and transparent PMOLED panels, at a tradeshow in Taiwan. The company says it has achieved a breakthrough in transparent OLED production, and mass production will begin by the end of 2016.

Wisechip did not reveal any details about these upcoming panels, only saying that the panels will feature "good transparency". Wisechip will also demonstrate flexible PMOLEDs with a bending radius of 60 to 40 mm.

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) announced it will actively support the development of flexible AMOLED and PMOLED technologies in Taiwan, in a bid to boost Taiwanese display makers. According to the report Taiwan will invest NT$100 billion - about $3.2 billion USD, although this kind of investment seems unlikely.

The Taiwanese government will channel most of the investments through ITRI with an aim to vertically integrate the flexible OLED supply chain and get the Taiwanese makers to co-develop OLED materials, equipment and panels. Just a couple of months ago ITRI announced it developed a foldable AMOLED display, and the institute is also developing flexible OLED lighting technologies.

RitDisplay's president and CEO, D.C. Wang, sees growth ahead in the PMOLED market. RitDisplay expects revenues to grow more than 20% in the second half of 2016, up from almost $32 in the first half.

In order to meet the expected demand (mostly from wearable devices, it seems), RiTDisplays aims to grow its capacity by 20 to 40 percent in 2017. Earlier reports suggested that the capacity increase will come from more efficient production ("deleting bottlenecks") - not from new equipment.

A few days ago we posted that Taiwan's RiTDisplay, one of the world's leading PMOLED makers, is seeing strong demand for its OLED displays, expanding its production by 20% and filing for an IPO in Taiwan.

Following that story, Digitimes now posts a story on RiTDisplay, quoting its president that says that PMOLED panels are replacing STN-LCD panels in small sizes - even though PMOLEDs are more expensive (by about 50%) than LCDs.

Taiwan's RiTDisplay, one of the world's leading PMOLED makers, is reportedly seeing strong demand for its OLED displays. According to a new report, the company's revenue reached $31.2 million in the first half of 2016, up 40% over the first half of 2015.

The company is also enjoying higher profits - and in fact the profit in the first half of 2016 may pass the profit from the whole year 2015. PMOLED is seeing a rising demand in wearable devices - and other emerging applications.

Solomon Systech demonstrated several OLED drivers at SID 2016 - including drivers for PMOLED, transparent PMOLEDs, AMOLED displays and OLED lighting panels.

The SSD2355 was announced in 2015, and this is the world's first single-chip OLED lighting driver. It can drive several OLED lighting panels at the same time, and it has a wide dimming depth - which is demonstrated in the video below (the panel on the right is driven using a regular LED driver).

We're proud to launch a new service - the OLED Marketplace. This new service offers what we hope is the world's most complete OLED panel catalog. The Marketplace is a free resource that allows you to find the best OLED panel for your project, and includes character, graphic, flexible and transparent OLEDs.

The OLED Marketplace includes over 120 OLED panels from over 12 producers (both PMOLED and AMOLED displays). We hope this new service will enable device makers to find the best OLED for their product - and increase OLED adoption.

According to a report from Korea, the Kolon Group decided to close its OLED subsidiary, Neoview Kolon. NeoView Kolon was established in 2000 and has been producing PMOLED and OLED lighting panels, including transparent panels. According to the report, Kolon invested almost $84 million in Neoview Kolon - but the company never turned a profit.

Neoview Kolon transparent OLED prototype

In the last few years NeoView Kolon focused on transparent panels for the automotive industry - but could not generate revenues. Recently the company also started developing flexible transparent PMOLEDs.

Taiwan's PMOLED maker WiseChip Semiconductors licensed National Tsing-Hua University's blue-light free OLED lighting technology, with an aim to mass produce panels. Supported by the Taiwanese government, Wisechip aims to start mass producing those 1900K OLEDs within two years.

Today we have some more information on this interesting project. National Tsing Hua updates that they have now developed (together with Wisechip) a 2nd-gen lighting panel that features an efficiency of 70 lm/W and is 5x15 cm in size. The University has been awarded two OLED lighting awards (a Taiwanese golden-award and the IDA Lighting Design Award).

Taiwan's ITRI research institute developed a long-lasting OLED blue emitter. The researchers used a green phosphorescent emitter with a new double metal structure - that emits a blue light. The so-called Plasmon-Coupled Organic Light Emitting Diode (PCOLED) structure's lasts 27 times as long as a blue fluorescent emitter.

The researchers explain that a regular green phosphorescent emitter always emits a very weak emission. By using the double-metal structure, more plasmons are generated which means a larger blue emission. This is not an up-conversion process - but merely a change in conditions within the green material. This condition was actually discovered by accident.