Direct emission - Page 3

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin posted its financial results for Q4 2020. Revenues for the quarter were $7.7 million (up from $7.3 million in Q3 2019) with contract revenue of $1.5 million reflecting continued work for a Tier-1 consumer company.

Net loss for Q4 2020 was $3.7 million. For the full year 2020, eMagin reports revenues of $29.4 million, up from $26.7 million in 2019. The net loss in 2020 was $11.5 million.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin announced reported its financial results for Q2 2020. Revenues reached $7.7 million, an increase of 44% from Q2 2019. Operating loss was $1.3 million (down from $2.8 million in Q2 2019).

eMagin says it continues to see strong demand for its microdisplays in the military market, and also in the medical market. At the end of the quarter eMagin's backlog was $13.3 million of products to be shipped in the next 12 months. Cash and equivalents at the end of the quarter were $11.5 million.

In 2012, we first heard that eMagin is developing direct emission (or direct patterning, as the company calls it) OLED microdisplays. Fast forward into 2020, and the company is aiming to soon start producing such displays (it already launched its first such panel, see more below). In this article we'll look into the technology and the latest updates from eMagin.

All current OLED microdisplays on the market from all producers use a white OLED with color filter. This is a simple design, but it is wasteful in energy, as the filters block around 80% of the light, and in addition to achieve the white color one needs to use a blue OLED emitter (in addition to a yellow one, or red and green ones) - and blue is the least efficient color for OLED emission.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin announced that the company received a $5.5 million award from the US Department of Defense to improve eMagin’s OLED microdisplay manufacturing capabilities.

The award was granted under the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) Program for OLED Supply Chain Assurance. These funds will be used for procurement and installation of capital equipment in eMagin’s NY-based manufacturing facility.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported its financial results for Q4 2019. Revenues were $7.3 million (up 35% from Q4 2018), and the net loss was $0.2 million (down from $2.4 million in Q4 2018).

The company's booking in Q4 2019 were a record for eMagin, exceeding $15 million. The company received 80 orders and it has started a new consumer-related AR development project for a next-generation display for a Tier-1 customer.

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".

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported its financial results for Q2 2019. Revenues were $5.4 million, down from $7.1 million a year ago and eMagin had an operating loss of $2.9 million (down from $3.6 million in Q2 2018). At the end of the quarter eMagin had $3.7 million in cash and equivalents.

eMagin says that the second quarter of 2019 was a challenging one for the company, as deliveries were impacted by continuing production issues and revenue and profitability fell short of expectations. The company is taking several actions to address the shortfall and are seeing early signs of progress. The company's backlog remains strong, at $11.6 million (an increase of approximately $1 million over the backlog of $10.6 million at December 31, 2018).

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported its financial results for Q1 2019. Revenues were $6.1 million (down from $6.1 million in Q1 2018) and net loss was $1.4 million (down from $2.1 million in Q1 2018). At the end of the quarter, eMagin had $3.5 million in cash and equivalents (before its latest financing round).

Regarding its consumer business, eMagin updates that it successfully processed the first 4k x 4k wafers for its Tier-1 consumer electronics partner and has confirmed its ability to develop a large-area silicon OLED microdisplay with no visible non-uniformity. It plans to finalize the first full-color prototypes in Q3 2019.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported its financial results for Q2 2018 - revenues increased 34% over Q2 2017 to reach $7.1 million, and net loss was $1 million (excluding one-time charges). At the end of the quarter, the company had $8.7 million in cash and equivalents. eMagin's backlog at the end of June was $10.3 million (an increase of $0.5 million from the end of 2017).

eMagin says it sold OLED microdisplays to 75 customers (including 3 new ones) during the quarter - for a wide range of applications including night vision, thermal weapon sights and see-through HMD systems for mounted and dismounted missions. The company improved its production yields (with some support from the US government for OLED production and yield improvement project) and its product quality.

Researchers from the Fraunhofer FEP institute developed a new micro-patterning process using an electron beam to produce OLED microdisplays on silicon substrates. This could enable a new way to produce direct-emission OLED microdisplays, which will be more efficient and bright compared to the current ones that use color filters.

The electron beam patterning is performed after the encapsulation step - the beam goes through the encapsulation layer and can be used to modify the emission of the OLED materials. To create red, green, and blue pixels, an organic layer of the OLED itself is ablated by a thermal electron beam process.