Royole demonstrates its latest flexible AMOLED displays
China-based Royole demonstrated its latest technologies at IFA 2018 - including the company's flexible AMOLEDs integrated into a top hat and a jacket and the company's Moon OLED HMD and its RoWrite E Ink writing pad.
Royole's flexible OLED displays are produced at the company's "quasi-G6" (5.5-Gen) OLED production fab in Shenzhen which started production in June 2018. In full capacity, Royole's fab will be able to produce over 50 million flexible OLEDs per year (45,000 monthly substrates).
Royole starts to produce flexible OLEDs at its Quasi-6-Gen fab in Shenzhen
China-based Royole announced that it started volume production in its Quasi-6-Gen (5.5-Gen, most likely) flexible OLED production fab in Shenzhen. In full capacity (45,000 monthly substrate) and at high yields Royole will be able to produce about 50-million flexible smartphone panels in its new fab.
Royole says that it will be able to produce "full-flexible" (which means foldable and rollable) displays as it is producing the world's thinnest panels at 0.01 mm with a bending radius of 1 mm.
Royole to evaluate Universal Display's PHOLED materials
Universal Display announced today that Royole has signed an OLED evaluation agreement. UDC will collaborate with Royole and supply its proprietary UniversalPHOLED phosphorescent OLED materials and technology for Royole’s display applications.
UDC did not disclose any more details or the financial terms of the agreement. Royole is constructing a 5.5-Gen (Royole calls it a Quasi-6-Gen) flexible OLED production facility in Shenzhen, China. The new fab is scheduled to begin operation in 2018 and will have a monthly capacity of 45,000 substrates.
Royole set to launch a new OLED tablet
Update: it seems this is an E Ink (monochrome) device and not an OLED one...
According to our sources, flexible OLED developer Royole is set to release a new tablet device that uses an OLED display. The tablet, which will be called the Royole RoWrite Wordpad, will have a display sized at around 6-7 inch. Royole did not officially announce the device yet.
Royole is constructing a 5.5-Gen flexible OLED production facility in Shenzhen, China. The new fab is scheduled to begin operation in 2018 and will have a monthly capacity of 45,000 substrates. In addition to flexible OLED production and R&D, Royole also develops VR headsets, and in 2016 Royole launched its first product, the Royole Moon foldable VR headset - that uses OLED microdisplays to achieve a PPI of over 3,000.
Royole raises $800 million to finance its upcoming flexible OLED production line
Flexible OLED developer Royole has raised $800 million in its fourth financing round, from Bank of China, ICBC, Citiy Bank and others. Part of that round ($560 million) was in debt while the rest was in equity.
Royole's previous financing round was in November 2016 - when it raised $75.5 million at a valuation of $3 billion. It's likely that the current financing round is at an even larger valuation.
Royole orders production equipment from SFA Engineering for its upcoming flexible OLED fab
SFA Engineering announced that it has signed a $53.5 million contract with OLED developer Royole to supply OLED manufacturing equipment. SFA did not disclose what kind of deposition equipment it will deliver exactly.
Royole is constructing a 5.5-Gen flexible OLED production facility in Shenzhen, China. The new fab is scheduled to begin operation in 2018 and will have a monthly capacity of 45,000 substrates.
Digitimes: Chinese OLED makers to more than double their OLED capacity each year between 2016-2020
According to Digitimes Research, OLED display makers in China will increase their total annual capacity from 272,000 m2 in 2016 to 7.86 million m2 in 2020 - a CAGR or 131.9%.
The largest producer in 2020 will be BOE Display (35% of the Chinese OLED market), followed by Tianma (17.6%), Visionox (14%), Everdisplay (11.6%), CSoT (9.5%), Truly (7.8%) and Royole (4.5%).
Chinese phone makers are worried about tight OLED supply, may form an alliance to secure capacity
According to reports from China, several mobile phone makers, including Huawei, Oppo and Vivo (BKK) are worried about the tight AMOLED supply, especially as Apple's appetite for AMOLED displays may end up taking up all existing and future capacity in the near future.
The reports suggest that the three phone makers are discussing the forming of a new alliance that will secure AMOLED supply. The alliance will make investment into flexible OLED production by Chinese display makers, and secure capacity - in a similar fashion to what Apple is doing with Samsung and has done before with LCD makers.
Royole raises $80 million, reaches a valuation of around $3 billion
Flexible OLED technology and VR headset developer Royole announced that it received a $80 million series Pre-D funding from the Warmsun Holding Group. Royole raised around $280 million since its inception in 2012 - and the current valuation is set at around $3 billion!
So what does Royole do to justify such a lofty valuation? A couple of months ago Royole launched its first product, the Royole Moon foldable VR headset - that uses OLED microdisplays to achieve a PPI of over 3,000. The $799 Moon also includes noise-cancelling headphones and runs on the company's own Moon OS.
Royole shows a 0.01 mm thick flexible AMOLED prototype
Royole, a startup established in the US in 2012, unveils their first prototype, a 0.01 mm thick (thin?) flexible AMOLED prototype (which they say is the thinnest ever). Here's a video showing the display in action:
The display is bendable, and has a bending radius of 1 mm. Samsung's recent flexible AMOLED prototypes has a radius of 5 mm - but these prototypes are closer to production units (the flexible OLED in the Galaxy Note Edge has a radius of 7 mm). Samsung's aim is to achieve a radius of 1 mm in production within two years.
