Samsung Display - Page 21

The Korean Supreme court put an end to a years-long legal battle between LG Display and Samsung Display, saying that SDC's employees and a chief executive of one of LG's suppliers are not guilty in IP theft.

The supreme court upheld the original ruling and dismissed the appeal. The case revolved around LGD's face seal encapsulation technology for OLED displays. The main issue in the legal case was whether leaked LGD documents were trade secrets. The employees and executives were first found guilty, but at a higher court they were found innocent as it was decided that the information was already widely known in the industry.

In February 2022 we reported that Samsung Display launched a new platform for OLED material simulation, called Sync-OLED, which is used to evaluation OLED material characteristics before they are synthesized, to help speed up R&D projects.

According to a new report from Korea, the new software platform have started operating, and is already in use by three companies. Sync-OLED, developed by Samsung and the KISTI institute, runs on a supercomputer called Nurion located at the KISTI Super Computing Application Centre. Samsung offers access to the software to small and medium OLED material research companies. Samsung's partners have access to the software at no cost.

Samsung Display officially announced its latest laptop OLED display, a 15.6" 240Hz panel aimed for gaming laptops. The display offers a QHD (2560x1440) resolution, a response time of 0.2 ms and VESA DisplayHDR 600 certification.

Samsung also announced that the first laptop to adopt the new display, which will enter production soon, is MSI's Raider GE67 HX, which is already available for pre-orders.

DSCC says that 2.22 million foldable smartphones shipped in Q1 2022, up 571% from the first quarter of 2021. In Q4 2021, however, 4.2 million units shipped (a 47% decrease).

DSCC estimates that a total of 16 million foldable OLED phones will ship in 2022, a 107% increase compared to 2021. In terms of OLED panels, over 20 million will be produced and shipped in 2022.

According to reports from Korea, Samsung Display has decided to shut down all of its remaining LCD production line next month (June 2022).

SDC has actually made the decision to quit the LCD market back in 2020, but this decision was reversed as demand for LCD displays increased following the COVID pandemic. In recent months the price of LCD panels have dropped sharply to an all time low.

Nintendo disclosed that it shipped over 5.8 million Nintendo Switch OLED devices, since launching the new gaming console in October 2021.

The Nintendo Switch OLED model is an upgrade to the original Switch with a 7-inch 1280x720 OLED display (produced by Samsung Display). The Nintendo Switch OLED model is now shipping globally for $349.99.

Samsung Display unveils new OLED displays at SID Displayweek 2022. First up is the Flex G flexible display, which folds inwards twice, and the Flex S, that can fold both inwards and outwards.

Samsung is also new rollable displays - a 6.7" slidable display that can expand and a larger 12.4" slidable OLED that can expand from both ends. When close, the display is 8.1" in size.

Reports from Korea suggest that LG Display is looking into adopting a microLens array in its large OLED TV panel architecture. The microlens layer could boost brightness by up to 20%, which will also increase efficiency (if brightness is kept as before).

MicroLens array structure, University of Michigan

According to the report, the project is at an advanced stage, and panels with the microLens array could be introduced by the end of this year. LGD will apply the technology to its OLED.EX panels, so brightness could reach up to 1,200 nits. LGD considers this technology as it faces competition in large-area OLED production, from Samsung's QD-OLED panels, for the first time.

BOE has been aiming to supply OLED displays for Apple for a long time, and Apple also welcomed BOE as a supplier as it wants to reduce its dependence on Samsung and LG.

In 2020 BOE did not pass Apple's OLED quality test for the iPhone 12, but later it it did manage to enter Apple's supply chain, for aftermarket (refurbished models) 6.06" LTPS AMOLED displays.

An interesting report from Korea suggests that Apple's CEO met with Samsung Display's CEO recently, as Apple is looking to reduce its OLED iPhone orders from Samsung by around 15% in 2022.

Apple, like the rest of the technology industry, is facing supply constraints and has already said that it won't be able to meet the demand for its products in 2022. Apple's original plan was to produce 220 million iPhones in 2022, and it expected to order 160 million iPhone AMOLED panels from SDC. Apple's now expects to ship only 185 million iPhones.