Technical / Research - Page 79

Mexican design studio Agent has designed a couple of OLED lighting concepts for Konica-Minolta. The first one is called Wearable band of light - 'cool, wrap-on accessories that glow with light and can be worn around your body, matching your personality". The bands are bendable, thin, light and can be curved any way you like. Agent says this is a hybrid of jewelry + safety element + wearable light.

The second design is called Strip Light - a bus stop with illuminated timetables and neighborhood maps. This design also uses flexible OLED panels.

Back in February, Pioneer and Mitsubishi Chemical has announced an OLED Lighting JV. Pioneer will produce OLED lighting panels, Mitsubishi Chemical will supply chemicals and will market and sell the panels through their Verbatim daughter company.

We had the good chance to speak with Verbatim regarding this new OLED business.

Q: Are there any updates on the OLED JV?
Mitsubishi Chemical Corp will start to supply samples at the end of 2010, and mass production in the middle of 2011.

Sim4tec has released a new version (v3.0) of their OLED simulation software, SimOLED. New features include a new user interface, faster calculation speed, line plots and contour plots, electronic, excitonic and optic module seamlessly combined and new results (current, power, and quantum efficiencies, CIE diagram and more)

The new combination of the electronic module with the excitonic and optic modules allows users to simulate voltage-dependent optical quantities like the color maintenance of white OLEDs.

Update: This is not an AMOLED, but an LCD. Thanks for all the readers who commented!

Samsung has developed a touch-enabled transparent AMOLEDs, and has a very nice demo showing it off. Sadly we do not have any technical details about this display, or when Samsung expects to commercialize it...

Back in February, we learned that Samsung is strongly into transparent AMOLEDs, and want to introduce several new products that use this technology. Here's another great use of transparent OLEDs in a wine point-of-sale or museum or information center.

Philips Research developed the first white OLED module that can be powered directly from a mains electricity supply. Philips says that such an OLED will be cheaper to use (there's no need for a bulky power management circuitry) and will also simplify luminaire design.

"We have combined proprietary interconnect and packaging technology to create this demonstrator," says Dr. Dirk Hente of Philips Research. "We’re already seeing AC-driven LEDs coming onto the market. Our prototype marks a breakthrough step towards a similar evolution in OLEDs.".

Heraeus, a German precious metals and technology group, based in Germany, has bought the Clevios business unit from H.C. Starck. Clevios developed a wide range of Conductive Polymers that have been developed for use as the hole injection layer (HIL) in OLED displays. The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2010. The parties have agreed to keep the purchase price confidential.

Here's the first photo of LG's booth in IFA 2010, or at least the part of the booth that shows the new 31" OLED TV. The TV is said to be just 0.29cm thick, support polarized 3D and have a 600Hz refresh rate. It's most likely just a prototype.

Last week we reported that LG is set to show a new 31" OLED TV at IFA 2010 (September 3rd). So now LG has released a photo and some information about it. So they will be showing a 31" OLED TV, but it's only a prototype, not a product yet. It will be just 0.29cm thick, support polarized 3D and have a 600Hz refresh rate.

We don't know if/when they plan to release this as a product. But we do know that LG's new 5.5-Gen plant is only scheduled for 2012, and LG estimates that OLEDs will be competitive with LCDs in 2014.

Cintelliq has released a new report (Encapsulation and barriers: A review of the patent landscape) and say that "The commercialisation of OLED technology is driving the growth of sealing, barrier and encapsulation technologies". OLEDs are responsible for more than 90% of the new patents in those technologies.

The increasing market acceptance of OLED based displays has been a major driver in the development of encapsulation systems, as OLED lighting begins to gain market adoption this too will also be a primary driver for further development. In fact the growth in encapsulation and barrier technologies has shown the same explosive growth OLED lighting has shown since 2000.

Shanghai Tianma has decided to build a pilot AMOLED production line (4.5-Gen) in a $72 million investment (the company will apply for a $40 million government funding). The pilot line will be placed within Tianma's existing 4.5-Gen LCD production line, and will output around 1000 glass substrates monthly. This will probably be China's second AMOLED pilot line, as Visionox's one is already online today.