Competing technologies - Page 15

Digitimes posted an interesting story, quoting PlayNitride's CEO that says that Micro-LED displays are easier to produce than people estimate. The company hopes to start mass producing such displays in the second half of 2017.

In PlayNitride's R&D setup, it takes about 10 seconds to transfer and place 200,000 LEDs - which means that a 5" panel will take only 10 minutes to produce. The yield rate at the company's setup is over 99%.

An interesting report in Business Korea discloses that the price competition between high-end LCD and rigid (glass-based) OLED displays is intensifying. Both LCD and OLED display makers are struggling to win orders from low-end and mid-range smartphone makers, and as a result prices are declining.

In 2016 several new LCD plants have started operations ,which resulted in a large increase in LTPS LCD capacity - and thus lower prices. BK states that a smartphone LCD is now around 5$ cheaper compared to an OLED, which puts pressure on SDC and other AMOLED producers to lower prices.

According to IHS, sales of quantum-dot enhanced LCD TVs, or QLED TVs, dropped 48% in Q2 2017 compared to Q1 2017. Total sales in Q2 amounted to only 351,000 units - down from 671,000 in Q1 2017. OLED TV sales, meanwhile, increased from 29% from 212,000 units to 282,000 units.

Following this report, Business Korea speculates that Samsung Electronics may have to change its premium TV strategy, as it faces market share lose in this very important segment and may lose its leading position in the total TV market.

We are happy to announce a new Metalgrass knowledge hub, MicroLED-Info.com. Our new site will focus on Micro-LED display technology and its future market. MicroLED is quickly becoming a promising future display technology.

Many expect the first Micro-LED devices to hit the market in the very near future, with first applications in the wearable market - and also in HUDs and HMDs. MicroLED promise great performance, very high efficiency and brightness - and may indeed compete with OLEDs in the future. There are still many technical challenges ahead, but this is certainly a technology that any display expert should not ignore.

UBI Research estimates that the AR and VR market will grow to 96.4 million units and $58.7 billion in device sales by 2021. In 2017, 17 million units will ship generating $3.9 billion in revenues. From 2017 to 2021 the market will grow with a CARG of 54%.

According to UBI, the VR and AR market was split almost 50% between OLED and other technology displays, with 2.6 million OLEDs shipped in 2017. Most next generation VR headsets will use OLED displays, however, and by 2021 OLEDs will occupy 80% of the market.

SmartKem announced that it has finalized an industrial grade 2.5-Gen (400x500 mm) process for the mass production of OTFT backplanes on glass or plastic. SmartKem achieved this step at its pilot line in the UK CPI and its own synthesis and formulation Technology Centre based at Hexagon Tower in Manchester. The approved process is now being transferred to its production partners in Asia. The OTFT backplanes can be used for LCD or OLED displays.

SmartKem's customer will integrate the new process in a pilot line for the manufacture of product prototypes and scaled display production. It is anticipated that the first display products manufactured through this collaboration will hit the Asian market within 12-18 months.

IHS says that as production volumes of AMOLED panels increases the gap between OLEDs and LCDs narrow - in fact currently the price of a 5.5" HD AMOLED display ($12.1) is cheaper than an equivalent LTPS LCD ($12.2). The main cause of recent price reductions are lower depreciation costs and lower labor costs.

For higher-resolution displays, LCDs are still much cheaper than comparable OLEDs - IHS estimates that a 5.5" QHD LCD costs 30% less than a comparable AMOLED.

Digital Trends posted that interesting flagship TV shootout, pitching LG's E7 OLED TV against Samsung's Q9 QLED TV. Both TVs offer great image quality, and both has their strengths and weaknesses - but Digital Trends says at the end of the day they prefer LG's OLED.

According to Digital Trends, pretty much everybody who looked at these two TVs stacked up against each other chose the LG as the best TV - if by a razor-thin margin. Credit is due to Samsung, who did manage to produce a very bright, sharp and great looking TV though.

Last month BOE demonstrated several exciting new display technologies at the SID DisplayWeek, and now we have this very nice (and long) video that shows most of BOE's new displays.

We start with a tablet-phone device, a 7.56" foldable touch-enabled OLED that features an QXGA (2048x1536) resolution, a bending radius of 5 mm and a contrast rate of over 70,000:1.

Towards the end of 2015 LG Display announced that it plans to build a new OLED fab (P10) in Paju in a $8.7 billion investment to produce both mid-sized flexible OLED and large-sized OLED TV panels. In May 2017 it was reported that LG decided to produce LCD panels rather than OLED panels in its upcoming fab.

According to Business Korea, LGD has confirmed that the P10 plant will indeed be used to produce only OLED displays - and will vote on this decision next week. The P10 fab will be used to make OLED TV panels in addition to small and medium sized flexible OLEDs. LGD has yet to decide exactly how to split the production capacity between large-area and small-area displays.