Taiwan-based INT Tech and UltraChip have setup a new joint-venture called Ultra Display that will focus on driver ICs for AMOLED panels. Ultra Display aims to start sampling its first IC by the end of 2017, and start commercial production in 2018.
Ultra Display was launched with a capital of almost $2 million. UltraChip holds a 40% stake, while INT Tech holds 30%.
Solomon Systech announced it financial results for 2016, and the Hong Kong based display IC maker reported strong growth of its PMOLED display drivers in 2016, following strong demand from the wearable market.
Solomon Systech also announced several new design wins for its PMOLED display drivers with "world-renowned brands of wearable health and fitness devices". In January 2017 the company shipped its millionth SSD1306 PMOLED driver, the best selling OLED driver ever. The SSD1306 has been introduced in 2008 and is (according to Solomon Systech) the de-facto PMOLED module design standard.
Solomon Systech announced that it has shipped over 200 million units of its SSD1306 PMOLED driver. The company believes that this is the best selling OLED driver ever. The SSD1306 has been introduced in 2008 and is (according to Solomon Systech) the de-facto PMOLED module design standard.
Solomon Systech says that is has a market share of over 50% of the global PMOLED display driver IC market. The SSD1306 is the world's first OLED driver IC with built-in charge pump, which means that external DC / DC converter and associated passive components are no longer necessary. The SSD1306 also features programmable frame rate and multiplexing ratio, as well as screen saving continuous scrolling function in both horizontal and vertical direction which enables smooth content display. It can connect to different MCU interfaces, including I2C, 8-bit 6800/8080-series parallel interface, 3/4-wire serial peripheral interface and more.
Synaptics announced a new display driver IC for OLED-based smartphones. The new R66452 IC supports resolutions up to 1080x2160, HDR and 90Hz refresh-rate, which means that it can be used for VR OLEDs.
The R66452 also features Synaptics' latest OLED image processing technology (including flexible digital gamma control for smooth dimming, local-area ACL for high-contrast text and high-accuracy color enhancement). It integrates RAM for low-power operation and is available in either COF packaging for flexible displays or COG packaging for rigid displays.
Solomon Systech announced that it acquired mobile touch technology assets from Microchip for $23 million in cash. Solomon now has a license to sell Microchip's maXTouch based products and also has access to Microchip's design database and a portfolio of over 500 patents.
Solomon Systech says that this technology is renowned in the touch controller market, and has widespread applications in mobile phones and tablets. This technology is leading, according to Solomon System, especially in the flexible OLED touch controller market.
MagnaChip reported its financial results for Q2 2016, and the company says that there is a very strong demand for AMOLED drivers. AMOLED IC revenue jumped 73% from Q2 to Q1 - and over three fold compared to Q2 2015. AMOLED IC now accounts for 65% of MagnaChip's display solutions business.
MagnaChip explains that this growth mostly comes from the "wave" of smartphone makers in China that started to adopt AMOLED displays in their mobile phones. MagnaChip's ICs were designed into 29 smartphone models, and MagnaChip believes it is the world's second largest supplier of AMLED ICs.
Solomon Systech demonstrated several OLED drivers at SID 2016 - including drivers for PMOLED, transparent PMOLEDs, AMOLED displays and OLED lighting panels.
The SSD2355 was announced in 2015, and this is the world's first single-chip OLED lighting driver. It can drive several OLED lighting panels at the same time, and it has a wide dimming depth - which is demonstrated in the video below (the panel on the right is driven using a regular LED driver).
MagnaChip reported its financial results for Q1 2016, and the company says the demand for AMOLED drivers is "exceptionally strong". There was a surge in AMOLED display driver demand in Q4 and this carried over to Q1 - and continues to gather momentum.
MagnaChip's AMOLED revenue in Q1 grew 42% from Q1 2015 and 63% from Q4 2015. This was driven from demand by smartphone makers in China. Magnachip believes it is the world's second largest AMOLED display driver supplier, and its AMOLED drivers has been designed into 28 smartphone models. The company is also starting to produce AMOLED drivers for two VR headset makers.
MagnaChip announced that since 2013 when initial OLED TV sales began, the company shipped over 6 million driver ICs for OLED TVs.
Since started selling OLED TVs LG Display made less than a million OLED panels - which means that each TV has over 6 driver ICs. Samsung also produced some panels back in 2013 and 2014 but in very small volume.
MagnaChip announced that since 2007 it has shipped over 160 million AMOLED driver ICs. Most of these ICs went to smartphones, but MagnaChip says they also shipped drivers to digital cameras and tablets. The company's latest AMOLED drivers target the VR headset and automotive markets.
MagnaChip says the company has a unique proprietary foundry model. This model allows MagnaChip to apply its own unique AMOLED process patents as well as other intellectual property, proprietary process design kits and custom design-flow methodologies using internal and external foundries. MagnaChip's technology current uses 55-nm process nodes, and is developing sub 55-nm processes.
