Competing technologies - Page 16

Canada-based VueReal has developed a 4K Micro-LED microdisplay (6000 PPI). The company plans to finish the verification and evaluation this year and provide samples to several interested customers by October 2017. In 2018 VueReal will start mass producing such displays for niche customers and aim to license its technology for display makers.

VueReal says that its "Continous Pixelation" Technology enables it to achieve low-power high brightness (10,000 nits) high-density displays at very high yields and at an affordable price.

AUO demonstrates several OLED panels and technologies at SID 2017, and the excellent video below walks through these displays with lot's of details.

First up is AUO's foldable 5" 1280x720 (295 PPI) high color gamut (95% BT.2020) display announced last month. JJ Lih, AUO's R&D manager, says that the company expects to have this display in mass production within 2 years. The panel is only 1 mm thick and the bending (folding) radius is 4 mm.

Last week BOE demonstrated two Q-LED displays, 5" (320x240) and 14" (960x540). These prototype displays use electroluminesence quantum-dots as emitting materials.

According to BOE, switching to an in-organic emitter enables a display that features an excellent display quality - on part with OLED displays - while also being compatible with ink-jet printing, which will enable QLED displays to be lower-cost compared to OLEDs.

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. Production was planned for the first half of 2018.

According to a new report from Korea, LGD decided to scrap these plans and use the P10 fab to produce LCD panels and not OLEDs. LGD will establish a 10.5-Gen production line and will start making large-area LCDs (mostly 75" TV panels) towards the end of 2018.

Universal Display announced its financial results for Q1 2017. The company reported an excellent quarter, with revenues of $55.6 million (up 87% from Q1 2016) and net income of $10.4 million (up from $1.9 million in Q1 2016). Material sales were $46.6 million, up 92% over Q1 2016.

Universal Display believes that the OLED industry is poised to grow faster than earlier expectations in 2017, and the company raised its 2017 guidance to at least $260 million to $280 million - reflecting a year over year growth of 30% to 40%.

According to an industry insider in Taiwan, Samsung is set to acquire Taiwan's PlayNitride for the company's micro-LED technology for around $150 million. Our inside says that Samsung aims to develop micro-LED based displays for VR applications, but may also look into micro-LED based TVs using PlayNitride's technology.

Micro-LED is a promising display technology as it has the potential to enable brighter and more efficient displays compared to OLEDs. It also may be cheaper, but there are still technical challenges to overcome and analysts estimate that micro-LEDs will not be commercialized before 2020.

An IDC Analyst estimates that Apple will start low-volume Micro-LED production in its plant in Taoyuan, Taiwan, by the end of 2017. Mass production will begin in 2018 with an aim to use these displays in future smart watch devices.

Apple acquired Micro-LED developer LuxVue in May 2014 and has not updated on the technology since, so this is all speculation at this stage. In 2016 Oculus acquired InfiniLED, another Micro-LED startup. Sony is also developing Micro-LED displays.

Countless reports claim that the 2017 iPhone 8 (or will it be a >$1000 iPhone X?) will use AMOLED displays for at least one variant. Most of these reports suggested that Apple want to use a flexible curved AMOLED display.

TrendForce, following talks to supply chain sources, now says that Apple was not happy with the production yields and drop-test results of those flexible OLEDs, and the company decided to adopt a flat display (with rounded edges, what is called 2.5D glass). This design is similar to the one used in current iPhone models.

Last week we reported that Japan Display is developing flexible LCD displays. The company demonstrated a 5.5" FHD LCD that it brands as FULL ACTIVE FLEX, aiming to mass produced such displays that compete with flexible OLEDs in 2018.

JDI posted a presentation detailing the company's strategy, in which they showed the video you see above. This shows how flexible the display is - but it also shows that the LED backlighting unit is not flexible which seems to be a major flaw - I'm guessing JDI will want to change that, otherwise there's not much point in a flexible LCD...

Japan Display announced that it is developing flexible LCD displays. JDI demonstrated a 5.5" FHD (401PPI) LCD that it brands as FULL ACTIVE FLEX. This display uses a plastic substrate which makes the display flexible and also very durable. JDI says it plans to start mass producing such displays in 2018.

The 5.5" FHD display's normal refresh rate is 60Hz, but it can be driven at 15Hz which significantly reduces the power consumption. The brightness of the display is 500 cd/m² and the contrast ratio is 1500:1.