Direct emission - Page 7

LG officially launched the G Flex today in Korea. This is the first phone that uses LG Display's flexible plastic OLED display. The G Flex has a 6" 720p RGB flexible OLED display made by LG Display that is curved from top to bottom (unlike Samsung's Galaxy Round which is curved from left to right). Unlike Samsung, LG did specifically say this is a plastic-based display, but they too don't seem to mention the fact that it is shatterproof.

The G Flex has a 2.3Ghz Snapdragon S800 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal memory, a 13MP camera, NFC, Android 4.2.2 and a 3500mAh non-removable battery (LG Chem's curved battery). The G Flex has two rear-mounted buttons and a "self-healing" back (that will heal scratches quickly).

In October 7, LG Display announced that it will soon start mass producing flexible OLEDs. Today we have talked with LG Display officials, and they confirmed that mass production has indeed started. The company currently makes 6" panels that weigh just 7.2 grams are are only 0.44 mm thick (only a third of the thickness of LG's thinnest mobile LCDs).

LGD updates us that the current flexible OLED production capacity in their 4.5-Gen line is 6,000 substrates a month (previously we reported that capacity will be 12,000 substrates). Perhaps the rest of the capacity is dedicated to R&D. In any case 6,000 substrates a month means almost 400,000 6" panels - assuming 100% yields. Of course yields will be lower but it seems that LGD indeed means to produce a fair share of displays and it'll be interesting how they (or other companies) adopt these panels in products.

Samsung launched a new cinema advertisement campaign in the UK for the S9C curved OLED TV. The campaign slogan is "life in every pixel" (obviously hinting at the fact that Samsung is using Direct-Emission as opposed to LG's WRGB design). I personally don't like this specific ad, but it's great to see Samsung continue push its OLED technology to consumers:

Samsung's S9C (KN55S9C), now shipping in the US for $8999, is a Full-HD 55" curved OLED TV that offers the "perfect picture quality" (according to Samsung) as the distance from the viewer to the TV screen is the same from almost any angle. It sports a "timeless arena" design (the display is placed within a luxurious frame whose curved shape mirrors the curvature of an arena).

DisplaySearch says that OLED TV panels production costs are still very high, but this will not deter investments and the company forecasts rapid expansion in AMOLED capacity, as can be seen in the chart below (in which the yellow bars show AMOLED capacity while the green bar is capacity that can be used for either LCD or AMOLED production):

According to this chart dedicated AMOLED fab capacity grew from less than a million square meters in 2011 to almost four million square meters in 2013. In 2017, dedicated AMOLED capacity will reach 14 million square meters (i.e. 28 times as much capacity as in 2011).

According to the OLED Association, Panasonic said that they are progressing fast enough to launch the 55" (probably 56") UHD OLED TV in Q4 2013. Panasonic will start mass production in its Himeji Pilot Gen-5.5 line (which means initial production will be very limited). If this report is true it means a real acceleration as Panasonic previously said they will only be ready in 2015 (although you may say that the current Himeji line will not be real mass production in any case).

Panasonic OLED TV prototype, IFA 2013

Panasonic's OLED TV panel, unveiled in January 2013, is produced using ink-jet printing and uses an RGB subpixel matrix (direct-emission). Panasonic is using Sumitomo's PLED materials, and AUO's oxide-TFT Substrates. The company is collaborating with Sony on OLED technologies.

French site Lesnumeriques posted an article on Samsung's KN55S9C curved OLED TV, in which they include a macro-photo showing the TV's sub pixels up close:

As you can see, the blue subpixels are bigger than the red and green ones (about twice as large). This was designed this way because the blue OLED has the lowest lifetime - if it is bigger then you can lower the brightness and so conserve lifetime. We've seen many OLED displays with differently-sized subpixels - including PenTile ones and the rather unique display used in the Note 2.

Now that both LG and Samsung are shipping 55" curved OLED TVs in the US, we can expect several reviews that compare these two TVs. The first one comes from HDguru via NBC News. They like both TVs saying that they provide an image superior to any LCD or plasma TV they ever tested - but Samsung's OLED TV is better than LG's (and it's cheaper by 40%, too).

Samsung's KN55S9C was found to be brighter than the LG 55EA9800. LG's TV also suffered from dimming of test signals and stuck sub-pixels. Surprisingly, both TVs suffered from motion blur, but Samsung offers a special mode (Clear Motion) which inserts black frames between live frames. This removes the blur (but lowers the brightness).

Last week Samsung launched their 55" curved OLED TV (the KN55S9C) in the US (for $9000). CNET's David Katzmaier posted a very positive review on Samsung's OLED TV, saying that the TV offers the best picture he ever saw.

David says that Samsung's OLED TV picture quality surpasses plasma (even Pioneer's legendary Kuro) and LED LCDs with no major downsides. He does say that he'd like a flat OLED even better than a curved one, though.

Only a few weeks after launching the KN55S9 55" curved OLED TV in South Korea for 15 million Won (about $13,000), Samsung slashed the price today by 34% - to 9.9 million Won (about $8,900). Samsung said that this price cut will enable them to reach more consumers and lead the OLED TV market. Samsung will refund the difference for customers who already bought the TV.

Reports from Korea say that Samsung were also able to improve the production yield of these OLED TVs and so can now produce more panels and lower the price. Now it will be interesting to see how LG responds - their own curved OLED TV costs $13,000. LG is using a theoretically more cost-effective production technology (WRGB vs Samsung's direct-emission OLEDs).

eMagin posted their financial results for Q2 2013: $7 million in revenues (down from $8.6 in Q2 2012) and a net loss of $1 million. These are disappointing results due to lower contract revenues from US government agencies and manufacturing challenges.

The new SNU deposition tool is still problematic. eMagin accomplished almost half of the OLED deposition on the new machine, but neither yield nor output are where they want them to be. The company is utilizing personnel and other resources to optimize the tool - which incurred higher manufacturing costs. Currently the yields are about the same in the new tool and in the older Satella machine.