VR - Page 17

Samsung Display developed a new high-resolution OLED display, specifically for VR applications. The 5.5" panel, on display at SID DisplayWeek, sported a 3840x2160 resolution - or 806 PPI. The panel offered a brightness of 350 nits and a color gamut of 97% adobe RGB.

This is the highest resolution mobile phone sized OLED ever demonstrated, and it exactly matches the highest resolution LCD - Sharp's 5.5" 806 PPI IGZO panel unveiled in 2015. Samsung's display probably uses some sort of PenTile architecture, though, so actual sub-pixel count is smaller.

San Francisco based Osterhout Design Group (ODG), makers of the R7 enterprise-bound AR / VR smartglasses (pictured below), are developing a new AR / VR platform that is based on OLED microdisplays.

ODG R-7

The so-called Horizon Platform offers a wide-field of view, 4K 3D content @ 120 fps and can switch between VR and AR modes. The resolution is 2K x 2K for each eye.

eMagin, the OLED microdisplay maker, demonstrated a full-color directly-patterned OLED microdisplay, the first time that such a display prototype has been developed. eMagin's display (called the OLED-ULT) features a high luminance of 4,500 nits and a PPI of 2,645.

eMagin targets VR and AR applications for this high-brightness and high-resolution display, and the company says that the demonstrated generated "tremendous interest", including from some Tier-1 display company representatives.

Analyst firm IDTechEx has just released their new market forecasts for OLED displays. IDTechEx expects the market will reach nearly $1.6 billion this year and will grow to $57 billion in 2026.

For the last two years, the company has correctly predicted that plastic OLED and flexible OLED would be the major trend in displays. In the latest report, IDTechEx has revised their market forecast upwards based on the planned increase in production capacity.

During CES Asia 2016, Everdisplay demonstrated several AMOLED prototypes, including some new ones. For the wearable market, EDO is showing several displays:

• 1.2" circular
• 0.95" square
• 1.41" square
• 1.4" circular (already in production)

EDO announced that the 1.2" panel will enter production in July 2016 - and the company says that Huawei will launch a smartwatch with this display in September. EDO also reveals that Hauwei's 1.4" round Watch (shipping now for $349 - $799) uses an AMOLED made by EDO, as well.

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.

IHS say that the lower prices of AMOLEDs and the improvements in production is attracting more device makers to adopt AMOLED panels in their products. This leads to rapid increase in AMOLED shipments.

IHS sees 395 million AMOLEDs shipped in 2016 (this seems a bit optimistic) - an increase of 40% compared to 2015. Revenues will increase by 25% to reach $15 billion. AMOLED penetration in smartphone displays will rise from 17% in 2015 to 21% in 2016. IHS says that "AMOLED is becoming the shiniest spot in the flat-panel display industry".

The VR market is set for very fast growth in the next few years, and OLED displays are the best displays for this market - mostly because of the fast response time which is required for such applications. OLEDs also offer, of course, a better image quality, better colors, lighter weigh and better efficiency.

As companies such as Apple, Samsung, Google, Facebook and Sony enter this market, display makers are starting to develop products specifically for VR headsets. According to a report from Business Korea, the major problem with VR today is the screen density - a good VR experience requires a screen resolution that is at least three times higher than that of a mobile phone display (which is currently at around 500 PPI).

AU Optronics announced several new display products, including some new OLED panels - a 12.3" Full-HD AMOLED display, a foldable AMOLED panel and OLED displays for smart watches and VR headsets.

The foldable panel features a thickness of only 0.1 mm and can be repeatedly folded over 200,000 times on a radius of 4 mm. This is an improvement of AUO's previous bendable panel (shown above) that was 0.2 mm thick.

Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, gave a short keynote speech last week about Virtual Reality. Mark talks about the collaboration between Oculus (owned by Facebook) and Samsung, and specifically mentions the OLED displays - which are the only displays that can deliver a good comfortable VR experience.

Here's Mark exact quote, you can find it at about 3:45 in the full-keynote video above: "Samsung is the only company that can deliver, at scale, the low-persistence OLED screens to give a good, comfortable VR experience ,and that’s because these OLED screens are the only screens that can update faster than your eye. No other screen and display or company can deliver this experience.".