Sharp

TOYOTech, Sharp Display Technology Corporation (Mie, Japan), and the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Ishikawa, Japan) have developed a novel measurement technology to analyze the behavior of Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) under extremely low luminance conditions.

This new technology measures the gap between the onset voltage of current change and the emission voltage—factors closely linked to OLED degradation. It is expected to play a critical role in analyzing display Mura, a defect that appears in low luminance or as OLEDs degrade.

OLEDs emit light when a voltage is applied to organic compounds, enabling the creation of displays that are thinner, lighter, and more energy-efficient, suitable for devices like TVs and smartphones. Unlike Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), OLEDs have a simpler structure due to their self-emissive properties, which eliminate the need for a backlight. OLEDs are formed by stacking multiple layers of thin films, and their performance depends on optimizing deposition conditions. Traditionally, these characteristics have been evaluated using J-V-L (current density-voltage-luminance) measurements, which track current and luminance as voltage is applied. However, J-V-L technology has limitations in detecting small currents and low luminance levels at the start of OLED light emission.

Japan-based Sharp Corp, an LCD display industry pioneer, announced that it will stop all of its large-area LCD production by the end of 2024. Sharp's Osaka-based factory was the last LCD TV fab in Japan, and it will be turned into a data center run by its subsidiary Sakai Display Products Corp.

Sharp says that its current midterm plans are strengthen its home appliances and office equipment businesses, by incorporating AI technologies. It also plans to sell its semiconductor business. Sharp says it will focus its remaining small/medium LCD display business on the automotive and VR sectors.

This is a sponsored post by Amorphyx, where display industry consultant Ian Hendy has interviewed Amorphyx's CEO John Brewer

Q: Can you start by telling us a little about what Amorphyx does, John?

Amorphyx has several fundamentally new technology platforms that provide for TFT performance improvements in three areas: (1) Switching speeds, with options to move to the Tera-Hz range ultimately, (2) Power, where the IGZO AMeTFT can achieve even lower power performance than today’s LTPO OLED Pro Motion displays and better refresh range, and (3) Small transistor size.

Our technology platforms are lower cost than the alternatives, and move from amorphous and crystalline semiconductor approaches, to devices based on different effects that do not have a semiconductor at all, yet can still drive a display, drive current, deliver grey scale and switch very fast. Or they can operate a flex IC at higher clock speeds than known today.

For now, our main commercial focus is on IGZO AMeTFT which is fundamentally a potential replacement transistor for LTPS or LTPO used in modern OLED phones and has the capability to replace more highly compensated LTPO circuits in modern Smartphone displays due to enhanced stability.

Sharp introduced a new phone in Japan, called the AQUOS R6, which features a 6.67-inch 2730x1260 1Hz-240Hz dynamic refresh rate IGZO AMOLED display.

This is an interesting development. Sharp started producing flexible OLEDs for its own devices in low volume in August 2018, but has since ceased production later in 2019. This is the first time we hear of an IGZO mobile AMOLED display, and it is likely that Sharp produces these in-house.

According to reports from Japan, Sharp plans to split-off its display unit to a new company called Sharp Display Technology, or SDTC. According to the reports, SDTC will focus on MicroLED technology development.

SDTC will also, likely, take over Sharp's existing LCD factories (and OLED R&D lines). If this report is accurate, it is not clear what will be the future of Sharp's OLED projects.

According to a report from Korea, Japan's Sharp will start offering OLED TVs in Japan, based on LGD's WOLED panels. Sharp's first OLED TVs will launch by the end of 2020.

According to the ETNews, in Q3 2019 Sharp was the leading TV vendor in Japan - and as the company starts to adopt OLED panels for its premium TVs this could be good news for LG Display and the OLED market in general.

Sharp started producing flexible OLEDs in low volume in August 2018, and have adopted these displays in its own smartphones. According to reports Sharp understands it cannot compete with Korean and Chinese companies with both technology and price and has halted smartphone OLED production (although it still develops advanced OLED technologies and will continue to produce OLEDs for other applications).

We now offer Sharp's flexible OLED displays at the OLED marketplace, at a clearance sale. These are high-end 6.18" 1440x2992 flexible AMOLED displays with on-cell touch, and we have 15,000 such panels available at a great price. Check out more information over at the OLED Marketplace, or contact us now.

Sharp announced that it has developed, in collaboration with NHK, a 30" rollable 4K OLED panel on an IGZO backplane. This is a direct emission OLED, which sharp says is the world's largest ever produced (LG's OLEDs all use color filters).

Sharp's OLED panel is deposited on a thin-film substrate, and has a thickness of 0.5 mm. The display uses NHK's signal processing and panel driving technologies to "improve the brightness uniformity and video clarity".

Sharp demonstrated a flexible 12.3" 1920x720 AMOLED display for automotive applications. The displays uses an IGZO backplane, and Sharp says that it intends to use external compensation to improve the uniformity in the display.

Sharp demonstrated the display at the 2019 Vehicle Displays and Interfaces Symposium - at which apparently this was the only OLED on display. According to Display Daily's Ken Werner, OLED displays are finding it difficult to penetrate the automotive display market.

Business Korea reports that Sharp will withdraw from the smartphone OLED market. Sharp started producing OLEDs in low volume in August 2018, and Business Korea quotes IHS saying that Sharp understands it cannot compete with Korean and Chinese companies with both technology and price.

Business Korea says that Sharp produced a total of 60,000 smartphone OLED panels - 6.2" 1440x2992 flexible notch-type AMOLEDs that were adopted in Sharp's own Aquos Zero phone. Sharp has already stopped production last month. It is not clear if Sharp will still continue to produce OLEDs for other applications (automotive perhaps?) or will it withdraw from all production.