Sharp - Page 6

Sharp is showing new 7" MEMS-Shutter Display prototype at Ceatec 2013. MEMS-Shutter displays are similar to LCD in that they have a LED backlighting unit (BLU), color filters, and a component that blocks the light. But instead of liquid-crystals and polarizers, these displays use MEMS shutters.

A MEMS-Shutter Display is about 6 times more efficient than a regular LCD. This is mostly due to the fact that you do not need a polarizing filter like in LCDs. The displays also use a WRGB structure in which there is a white subpixel which increases brightness and efficiency. The panels on display had a resolution of 800x1,280 (220 PPI). The backplane is an IGZO. Sharp co-developed these panels with Qualcomm.

According to reports from Japan, Taiwan's Hon Hai (Foxconn) is establishing an OLED R&D center in Japan with an aim to start AMOLED panel production in 2015. Hon Hai is in talks with Sharp's Sakai Display Product (SDP) large-size LCD production base. SDP is jointly operated by Hon Hai and Sharp.

According to the report, Hon Hai understand it needs to catch up with the leading Korean OLED makers and is so looking to tap into Japan's technical experienced personnel. Hon Hai expects to recruit around 20 OLED related employees during 2013, and this will grow to around 40 employees during the next three years.

According to Japan Economic Newswire, Sharp decided to launch a three-year project to develop OLED mass production technologies. Sharp's mass production technology will be ready by 2016 and then the company will decide whether they will build their own OLED fab or outsource the production to other makers or even license or sell the technology. It's not clear whether Sharp aims to make OLEDs for mobile displays, flexible OLEDs or OLED TV panels.

According to JEN Sharp will release its 3-year business plan on May 14, and then we'll know whether the OLED project is indeed included in their plan. The report says that Sharp plans to use "unique materials" that will make "clearer OLED images". Perhaps they mean SEL's and Sharp's new crystal structure innovation, used in the company's latest OLED prototypes.

A couple of weeks ago SamMobile reported that according to their sources, the S4 will use an LCD not an AMOLED display. A week later they posted that the S4 will actually use an OLED. Samsung will announce the S4 tomorrow and we'll know for certain, but in the meanwhile the same blog now reports that the Note 3 may use an LCD, according to their sources.

I don't know whether we should regard those SamMobile reports as serious, but they do still create a hype and a lot of sites re-post these articles - so I wanted to post on it as well. According to the new rumor, an insider from Samsung says that the company is still in internal discussions regarding the upcoming display. If they choose an LCD, they might go with the latest ones from Sharp.

Update: the deal is now official, new insights below

Samsung has bought a 3% stake in Sharp in a $112 million investment. Sharp is already providing LCD panels (small, medium and large-size ones) to Samsung and this will "further strengthen the alliance" between the two companies. According to some reports Samsung is interested in Sharp's IGZO technology and the two companies may also collaborate on AMOLED and Full-HD LCD technologies.

Other reports and analysts say that this may sign that Samsung intends to divert more energy and finance into OLED TV production and that they seek to outsource more LCD panels from Sharp during the market transition from LCD to OLED. LCD aren't making money anymore and a deal with Sharp may be a good idea for Samsung.

There are some new conflicting reports regarding AUO's OLED program. According to Digitimes, AUO is still struggling with technology issues (mostly low yields and costs) - and has only managed to produce 126 PPI displays. It's possible that all through 2013 AUO will only be able to make these low density panels, and so only target the entry-level and mid-range mobile phone markets. According to digitimes high-resolution OLED panel orders will go to Samsung instead. Yields at the AUO line is still low at 30%-40%.

According to Chinese site OLEDW, however, AUO managed to overcome the yield issues (reached 60% yield), and HTC will use AUO's 4.65" OLED panels in their upcoming M7 flagship phone (Digitimes says that HTC decided to use Sharp-made LCD panels instead). These 720p panels will sport a high 317 PPI (this panel was unveiled by AUO back in October 2012). OLEDW claims that HTC requires a monthly supply of 2 million panels, and have reserved the entire line output of AUO's 3.5-Gen Linkou, New Taipei City fab (7,000 substrates a month, which is not enough for 2 million panels actually, so some of OLEDW numbers aren't correct). This was already reported several times in the past.

Sharp is showing flexible 3.4" IGZO-based flexible touch OLED prototypes at CES. These panels seems to be the same ones shown at SID back in June 2012 - and if so they have a resolution of 540x960 (326 ppi).

Sharp wouldn't say whether they intend to start producing such panels, but they did say that they have the technology to produce such panels in sizes up to 10". They say the image quality and resolution is the same as in their non-flexible OLEDs.

LG Display's CEO, Han Sang-beom, says that the company is in talks with Japanese TV makers for the supply of OLED TV panels. Han says that the Japanese companies are "very much interested in OLED panels".

Last week LG Display finally launched their first OLED TV, the 55" 55EM9700 - which costs around $10,000 in Korea and $12,000 in the US (will start shipping in March). LG capacity is still very low so it seems strange that they will be able to supply other companies besides LGE. Still it seems that even though LG plans to invest heavily in OLED TV production in 2013, a commitment from another maker for OLED panels will make LGD more confident in its OLED investment.

In February 2012 ASUS unveiled the Padfone - an Android smartphone with a tablet docking station. The display of the phone was a 4.3" qHD (800x600) Super AMOLED. Yesterday ASUS unveiled the Padfone 2 - and this time the phone uses a 4.7" 720p IPS+ LCD panel. The LCD is made by Sharp and uses their IGZO backplane.

Sharp announced a new mobile phone - the first one with an IGZO Oxide-TFT backplane. The Aquos Zeta SH-02E, bound for NTT DoCoMo will have a 4.9" 1280x720 display. Other features include a quad-core 1.5Ghz CPU, Android 4.0, LTE and NFC. The phone will start shipping before the end of 2012.

Back in April 2012, Sharp announced that they have begun to produce Oxide-TFT based LCDs at their Kameyama Plant #2 - and now indeed we see the first product to use the new technology. Sharp says that these displays will have smaller TFTs and thus increased pixel transparency - which leads to lower power consumption.