Phosphorescent - Page 16

DisplayMate, the experts on display optimization, testing and evaluation, posted a new article comparing the GS4 display (4.99" Full-HD, 441 PPI) to the iPhone 5's LCD and the GS3. The GS4's Super AMOLED is a "very impressive display", and DisplayMate says that OLEDs have now reached the stage when they challenge the best LCD displays. There are advantages and disadvantages to both technologies, but we have to keep in mind that OLEDs are advancing at a much more rapid rate compared to LCDs which is now a mature technology.

Samsung Galaxy S4

Compared to the S3, the S4 is brighter by 25% (and when using Automatic Brightness, it's 68% brighter as this setting allows the brightness to reach a high level unreachable in manual brightness mode), it's 20% more power efficient (due to the green PHOLED materials) and it's got 44% more pixels per inch (and more than double the total number of pixels).

In December 2012 we posted about Japan's Kyushu University new rare-metal free fluorescent OLED emitter materials that achieve 100% emission efficiency. Now the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) released a new video featuring Kyushu's professor Chihaya Adachi. Following a rather long introduction into his lab and his own biography, professor Adachi explains their thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) technology (also called hyperfluorescence).

Adachi says that are seeking a commercialization partner, and they still need to study the degradation mechanism and expand the emission spectrum. Towards the end of this video you can view a couple of prototype monochrome (green) panels that use their new emitters.

IHS iSuppi posted a "virtual teardown" for the upcoming Galaxy S4, saying that the bill of materials is about $236 (for the HSPA+ S4 with 16 gigabytes of NAND flash). According to iSuppli, the 5" Full-HD Super AMOLED display costs $75. As the 4.8" WXGA AMOLED on the S3 costs $65, this represents the largest cost increase for the S4 compared to its predecessor (The cost of making an S3 is estimated at $208). The cost of the AMOLED display is over 30% of the cost of the entire S4.

Other expensive components on the HSPA+ S4: the Exynos 5 processor at $30, memory (NAND + Flash) at $28, the two cameras at $20, the UI and sensor subsystem at $16 and the HSPA+ chip at $16. You can see the complete list on the table above, which includes also the S4 LTE and S3 Built-Of-Materials (BOM) estimates.

Samsung unveiled their new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4. As expected, it sports a 4.99" Full-HD (1920x1080, 441 PPI) Super AMOLED display behind a Corning Gorilla Glass 3. This phone will launch towards the end of April worldwide (on 327 carriers in 155 countries). The S4 seems to be more of an upgrade to the S3 than a revolutionary new handset.

According to previous reports, Samsung Display started producing these 5" Full-HD AMOLED panels in February at a rate of 3 million units per moth (this will grow to almost 10 million monthly units in coming months). The S3 is Samsung's best selling and fastest selling smartphone, and obviously the company hopes that the S4 will sell even better.

Since Samsung unveiled their 4.99" Full-HD AMOLED panels at CES 2013, we assumed that the Galaxy S4 will use those panels. Some supply-chain analysts from Korea confirmed this. But then, towards the end of February, SamMobile posted that the S4 will in fact not use an OLED at all, but rather a 4.99" Full-HD SoLux LCD display.

Today the same blog posted a new post saying that they received new information about the S4 - and indeed it will use a new kind of AMOLED display - one with green PHOLEDs (instead of the fluorescent green currently used by Samsung) - which will make it 25% more efficient. This isn't really news - it was expected and we reported this back in early February. But it's good to see this new post by SamMobile anyway.

GLOLED unveiled their first product, the Vuucu OLED lighting device. The Vuucu (designed by Keiji Akiba) is an atmospheric lamp that uses a single OLED lighting panel and a folding transparent acrylic board. As you can see in the video ad below, Vuucu can be setup in several methods, including a bedside light or a "penlight" in a hotel reception or bar:

The OLED panel is made by Lumiotec. This is their P05 module which is an all-phosphorescent panel that features 40 lm/W and 3,000cd/m².

NEC Lighting announced that they developed a new OLED lighting device that has an efficiency of 156 lm/W - that's the world's most efficient OLED to date. This device was co-developed with Yamagata University's research group led by Junji Kido. You can see Professor Kido's work in the video below (from 2011):

The device is 2x2 mm in size and the brightness is 1,000 cd/m2. NEC said that the emitter materials were developed in the Kido Lab of Yamagata University. Unfortunately NEC did not reveal the structure and technologies used to fabricate this OLED.

Universal Display reported their financial results for Q4 2012. Revenues were $28.1 million and net income was $5.4 million. In 2012 the company revenues were $83.2 million, up 36% from 2011.

LG Chem sent us an update on their OLED lighting program, with some very exciting news. Besides planning flexible OLED lighting panels in July 2013 (I already posted about this earlier), LG says they have successfully developed high efficiency OLED lighting panels (80 lm/W, similar to CFLs) that will enter mass production in July 2013 (together with the flexible panels). These will be the world's most efficient OLED panels (beating LG Chem's current 60 lm/W panels).

The upcoming 80 lm/W will feature 20,000 hours lifetime (LT70), 3000K color temperature, brightness of 75 lumens (3000 cd/sqm) and a CRI of 85. The first 80 lm/W panels will be 100x100 mm in size and only 1.1 mm thick (thinner than LG's current panels which are 1.8mm thick). LG says that these panels will have a surface temperature of 26 degrees - roughly around room temperature (this is better than their current panels).

We've just got word from LG Chem that the company now plans to start mass producing the world's first flexible OLED lighting panels in July 2013 (and also high-efficiency 80 lm/W rigid panels). This is exciting news and if LG Chem will indeed go through with this plan it will be an important milestone for OLED lighting. Those OLED panels will be 200 x 50 mm in size and will feature 45 lm/W and a color temperature of 4,000K.

LG's flexible panels are only 0.33 mm thick and weigh under 8 grams - which not only allows new design possibilities but is also useful for energy saving for applications sensitive to weight (electric cars, airplanes, submarines, etc).