Oxide TFT - Page 9

LG Electronics announced today that their curved 55" OLED TV is now available in the US, exclusively through Magnolia stores inside Best Buy. The 55EA9800 costs $14,999 (in South Korea it costs around $13,500) and it is currently on display in Best Buy's store in Richfeld, Minnesota.

In the following weeks more stores will display and sell the OLED TV (in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle and San Antonio) and later on more stores will offer it. According to Pocket Lint, LG's TV is "jaw-droppingly stunning". LG's curved OLED TV features an Oxide-TFT WRGB Full-HD OLED panel (like LG's 55EM9700 'flat' OLED TV). The TV features "infinite" contrast ratio, passive 3D, Smart Touch Controls and a "paper-slim" design (it's only 4.3 mm thick and weighs just 17Kg). It is made from Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Plastic (CFRP).

NHK's Science & Technology Research Laboratories (STRL) unveiled a new 8" flexible OLED prototype panel. The panel features a resolution of 640x480 (100 ppi) and is based on an amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) TFT backplane.

STRL says that the red emitter material is a new phosphorescent material that is made from a benzoquinoline derivative host doped with a platinum based complex. The encapsulation is made from a polymer material.

Several companies announced new flexible OLED panels at SID 2013. None of the panels were demonstrated (except for Toshiba which showed the OLED but it was not powered). First up is Toshiba, which showed a 10.2" 1920x1200 (223 PPI) panel. Toshiba's OLED has an Oxide TFT backplane and uses the WRGB (white OLED with color filters) architecture.

Toshiba flexible OLED prototype

Panasonic developed a 4" flexible OLED with 224x224 resolution (only 80 PPI, direct emission). Panasonic used PEN as a substrate and the panel can be bent up to a curvature radius of 10 mm. This is also an Oxide-TFT panel. To produce it, Panasonic attached the PEN sheet to a glass substrate, deposited the OLED materials and then de-laminated the glass.

A few weeks ago we reported that AU Optronics developed a new 65" Oxide-TFT direct-emission OLED panel (the largest OLED panel ever made). Today at SID 2013 AUO discussed this new panel and unveiled the prototype:

AUO says that the panel is Full-HD in resolution, and it uses an "advanced" Oxide-TFT backplane. It was made in a Gen-6 production line which uses the largest Fine Metal Mask (FMM). AUO says that the uniformity of this panel is excellent. AUO also developed new pixel compensation driving technology which is employed in this panel. As can be expected from an OLED panel, AUO reports that their latest OLED features low power consumption, high picture quality, high contrast, high brightness, fast response time and free viewing angles.

Corning announced their new, second-generation Lotus XT glass for high performance displays (LCDs and OLEDs). The Lotus XT offers better dimensional stability and can withstand higher temperatures compared to the previous version.

The new glass features better total-pitch variation (the distance features move during panel processing). All this means that using the new glass shall increase production yields and result in more precise manufacturing. The new glass can be used as substrate for LTPS and Oxide-TFT backplanes.

SID 2013, the world's most prominent display conference will take place next month (May 19, in Vancouver, Canada) - and they now published some technical papars that will be discussed during the conference. And there's some interesting stuff in there.

First up is AU Optronics paper, describing how the company developed the world's largest OLED panel: a 65" direct-emission Oxide TFT one. This panel, that was produced using an FMM process, features a long-range threshold voltage uniformity of 0.34 V, and the dam and fill encapsulation process is simple and highly stable.

According to Japan Economic Newswire, Sharp decided to launch a three-year project to develop OLED mass production technologies. Sharp's mass production technology will be ready by 2016 and then the company will decide whether they will build their own OLED fab or outsource the production to other makers or even license or sell the technology. It's not clear whether Sharp aims to make OLEDs for mobile displays, flexible OLEDs or OLED TV panels.

According to JEN Sharp will release its 3-year business plan on May 14, and then we'll know whether the OLED project is indeed included in their plan. The report says that Sharp plans to use "unique materials" that will make "clearer OLED images". Perhaps they mean SEL's and Sharp's new crystal structure innovation, used in the company's latest OLED prototypes.

Update: the deal is now official, new insights below

Samsung has bought a 3% stake in Sharp in a $112 million investment. Sharp is already providing LCD panels (small, medium and large-size ones) to Samsung and this will "further strengthen the alliance" between the two companies. According to some reports Samsung is interested in Sharp's IGZO technology and the two companies may also collaborate on AMOLED and Full-HD LCD technologies.

Other reports and analysts say that this may sign that Samsung intends to divert more energy and finance into OLED TV production and that they seek to outsource more LCD panels from Sharp during the market transition from LCD to OLED. LCD aren't making money anymore and a deal with Sharp may be a good idea for Samsung.

We all know that LG Display managed to beat Samsung and be the first company to actually produce and ship OLED TV panels. Today the Korea Times claims that Samsung decided to adopt LG's own WRGB architecture and the company will start producing such OLED TV panels towards the end of 2013.

Samsung and LG have taken different paths towards large sized OLED panels. Samsung is using an LTPS backplane and a direct-emission (or side by side) architecture which means that there are three sub pixels for each pixel (red, green and blue). Samsung's design does not use any color filters. LG's OLED panels use an Oxide-TFT backplane and white sub pixels with color filters (this is called WRGB because there are four subpixels: red, green, blue and one white, non filtered. Is is also referred to sometimes as WOLED-CF).

CES 2013 was exciting - what with the new OLED TVs and Flexible OLED prototypes and launches. Barry Young from the OLED Association, one of the world's top OLED experts, gave us his views on the new OLED developments from Samsung, Sony, LG and Panasonic. Thanks Barry!

Sony and Panasonic both showed 4K2K 56" OLED TVs, with some parts jointly developed. How close are these two companies to actual mass production?