Financial - Page 6

Inkjet printing pioneer JOLED has filed for bankruptcy, following many years of struggles to increase production capacity and revenues.  According to earlier reports from Japan, display maker Japan Display will take over JOLED technology and remaining operations.

There are now reports from Korea that suggest that TCL's CSoT is considering buying JOLED's OLED production equipment, and moving it to China to attempt OLED production in-house using inkjet printing. If this plan goes through, the plan is to initiate production in 2024. It's not clear whether CSoT is in talks with JDI, or whether JDI did not take over the equipment from JOLED.

In 2022, Japan Display (JDI) announced that it has developed a "historic breakthrough in display technology" - a new OLED deposition process which they refer to as eLEAP, that is said to be cost effective and can be used to create freeform OLEDs that are brighter, more efficient, and longer lasting compared to OLEDs produced using mask evaporation (FMM).

Japan Display announced an agreement with China-based LCD maker HKC Corp to mass produce panels by 2025 in China, based on JDI's technology. But now it is reported that this joint venture is canceled. The report suggests that the two companies could not agree on a license fee that HKC was to pay to JDI. There is speculation that the HKC's canceled IPO and the slowdown in China's economy are to blame.

LG Display has been developing OLED microdisplay technologies for several years (branding these as OLEDoS), and last year it was reported that LGD is planning to build its first production line, as hoping to supply OLED Microdisplay to Apple in the future. LG is reportedly started ordering deposition equipment from Korea-based OLED equipment maker Sunic System.

According to the Korean publication The Elec, LGD has decided not to build an OLED microdisplay production line, at least for now. The company will continue its R&D project, though.

According to reports, the U.S. Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command has placed a $347 million order with Lockheed Martin for a specialized helmet for pilots of the F-35 fighter jet. The new helmet, developed in collaboration between Collins Aerospace and Elbit Systems, will feature an OLED microdisplay, to replace the currently-used LCDs.

In 2018, we reported that the current F-35 Joint Strike Fighter helmet uses an LCD microdisplay (produced by Kopin), which suffers from a green glow (from the LED backlighting) that prevents pilots from seeing a carrier's lights at night. In addition, the current LCD display suffers from optical blooming - light that spills from lit pixels to their adjacent area. Following these issues, the US Navy started testing OLED microdisplays to replace the LCD.

Germany-based beeOLED announced that it has raised $14.4 million in its Series A funding round, co-led eCAPITAL and Innovation Industries. Other investors include KBC Focus Fund and the company's existing investors M Ventures (the corporate venture capital arm of Merck), HTGF, TGFS, and JBN-Invest.

beeOLED was established in 2020 with an aim to develop deep-blue OLED emitters. The company's material technology is based on intra-metallic emission, that has been used in other display technologies in the past but have not been usable in OLED displays yet. beeOLED said that it is the first to make intra-metallic molecules compatible with the vacuum processing technology used in high-volume OLED display manufacturing.

beeOLED's CEO, Dr. Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth has 20+ years experience in managing deep tech teams and companies, and is the founder and CTO of Novaled. Dr. Jan was kind enough to answer a few question we had regarding beeOLED, its technology and business.

China-based Valiant announced plans to spin-off its OLED production subsidiary, Yantai Gem Chemicals. 

Yantai Gem Chemicals was established in 2005, and it produces intermediate materials for OLED panels (and other applications). If Valiant is successful in its plan, Yantai Gem will list in Shanghai's stock exchange. Following the spin-off, it will become an independent company, while Valiant will remain the major shareholder.

China-based AMOLED producer Everdisplay (EDO) reported its financial results for the first half of 2023. The company's income was 1.373 billion yuan ($189 million USD), a decrease of 23.4% from the first half of 2022. The company's loss was 1.296 billion yuan ($178 million USD), an increase of 173% from 2022. 

Everdisplay attributes its loss to the global economic recession that results in weak demand for consumer electronics, and also to the overcapacity in the industry which leads to aggressive pricing by OLED makers. In addition to the market conditions, Everdisplay's interest expenses has increased and exchange rate fluctuations results in more losses.

In May 2022 we reported that China-based OLED lighting developer Yeolight Technology is starting to build a 4.5-Gen OLED lighting production line, in Huaibei City, Anhui Province, China. The company is now starting to move in and install the first production equipment. The total equipment cost is estimated at 800 million Yuan (about $111 million USD). 

Yeolight says that the new fab, when complete, will have a capacity of around 7 million panels in a year, or 1.2 million automotive lighting modules (probably referring to rear light modules). This will be the world's largest OLED lighting fab, when complete.

LG Display reported its financial results for Q2 2023, with revenues of 4.74 trillion Won ($3.7 billion USD) - up 7% from last quarter, and an operating loss of 881 billion Won ($690 million USD). LGD says that demand for display panels increased during the quarter.

LGD is on track to begin mass production of medium-sized panels in the first half of 2024, building a new 6-Gen production line, that is reportedly aimed to supply for Apple's iPad Pro, the first Apple tablet to sport an AMOLED display.