PPI - Page 9

Update: The LOMID project was actually launched in 2015, the post below details its interim results...

The EU launched a new project called LOMID (Large cost-effective OLED microdisplays and their applications) that aims to develop next-generation large-area OLED microdisplays for VR and AR applications. The project's partners will produce flexible OLED microdisplays sized 13 x 21 mm (about 1-inch diagonal) with a resolution of 1200x1920 (2,300 PPI).

The project is led by the Fraunhofer FEP and other partners include MicroOLED, CEA-Leti and the University of Leipzig and the University of Oxford. The project will run until 31.12.2017. The Fraunhofer will demonstrate the prototype you see above at the SID-Mid-Europe Chapter Spring Meeting.

Sunic System recently unveiled a new evaporation-FMM based AMOLED system that enables high resolution deposition - Sunic says it will enable PPI up to 2,250 PPI. Sunic's new technology makes use of a plane source for evaporating OLED materials, as opposed to the currently-used linear source. Such high resolution displays will be very useful for VR applications.

Sunic System now announced that it succeeded in implementing 1.1um shadow distance by using the new plane source evaporation and 100um shadow mask. Such a small shadow distance can achieve 1,000 to 1,500 PPI resolutions. The company's next step is to lower shadow distance to 0.37um - which will indeed enable 2,250 PPI and 11K high-resolution mobile AMOLEDs.

One of the key requirements for VR application is high-density displays, as small-sized displays are magnified to cover our whole field of view. Some estimate that realism VR demands around 2,000 PPI.

During SID 2016, Samsung announced it developed a 806 PPI AMOLED especially for VR application. This is an upgrade from current OLEDs, but still a far cry from the 2,000 PPI mentioned above.

After years of OLED R&D but no actual reports, Taiwan's Innolux is finally demonstrating its new OLED prototypes, signalling that the company is finally about to re-enter the OLED market. Innolux says that it has recently "achieved success with AMOLED technology" and now plans to continue development and ultimately mass produce AMOLED panels.

In a trade-show in Taiwan, Innolux is demonstrating several OLED prototypes. First up we have a 5.5" WQHD (2560x1440, 534 PPI) flexible AMOLED built on a plastic substrate and an LTPS backplane. The panel has a "proprietary pixel rendering methods" (perhaps PenTile like?) and uses thin-film encapsulation and is produced using an FMM mask (more on this below).

A few weeks ago Everdisplay demonstrated several AMOLED prototypes, including some new displays such as a 0.95" square AMOLED and a 1.2" circular one.

In a recent tradeshow, Everdisplay demonstrated these new displays, but now the company unveiled the specifications of its new panels. The 0.95" square AMOLED features a resolution of 180x120 (228 PPI), a thickness of 0.5 mm and a luminance of 350 nits. The 1.2" circular panel is 390x390 (326 PPI), 0.4 mm thick and with the same luminance of 350 nits.

Kateeva recently announced a large $88 million Series-E funding round, and the ink-jet equipment maker today announced that Ink-Jet guru Eli Vronsky has been promoted to the company's Chief Product Officer.

During our recent visit to San Francisco, we caught up with Kateeva’s executive team on a break from their presentations on inkjet printing for flexible OLEDs. Chief Product Officer Eli Vronsky gave us an update, as well as an overview of the company’s product strategy.

BOE Display had a large booth at SID, and the Chinese company demonstrated several new AMOLED prototypes - including large 10" panels and bendable OLEDs.

So first up we have 4.35" bendable and foldable OLED displays. The bendable panels offer a resolution of 1120x480 (HWVGA, 280 PPI) and a bending radius of 15 mm. The brightness is 350 nits. The color gamut is 100% NTSC. The foldable panels are the same - except the bending radius is much smaller at 5 mm.

Samsung Display demonstrated several new OLED prototypes for the automotive market at SID 2016. The company showed three different panels - a transparent OLED, a mirror-OLED and a 'regular' OLED. All three were 7" in size, but with different resolution and specifications.

So first up we have the transparent OLED. This is a 7" panel with a resolution of 480x272 (79 PPI). The transparency is 45% and the brightness is 1,000 nits.

At SID 2016, Samsung Display demonstrated its latest rollable OLED, a 5.7" display that features a Full-HD resolution (386 PPI) and a curvature radius of 10 mm. The whole display is 0.3 mm thick and weighs 5 grams.

According to reports, Samsung is getting ready to release its first foldable OLED phone soon. Such a device will require a display with a very small curvature radius. According to SamMobile, the device will be called the Galaxy X and it will feature a display with a 4K resolution.

Samsung unveiled its 2016 flagship phones, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. The phones feature similar specs, but the Edge has a large display that is curved around the edges (a flexible OLED of course) and a larger battery.

The Galaxy S7 sports a flat 5.1" 2560x1440 (577 PPI) Super AMOLED display, an 12MP camera (with a new high-performance sensor), 4GB of RAM, 32/64 GB of storage, optional dual-IM, NFC and a 3,000 mAh battery. The phone has a metal and glass body and is IP68 water resistance (up to 1.5 meters for 30 min).