WRGB - Page 7

Japan Display demonstrated their flexible OLED panels, which they refer to as film-type OLEDs. The panels on show are 5.2" in size with a Full-HD resolution (423 PPI). These panels use a WRGB (white-OLED with color filters) architecture. Similar panels have been on display in 2014.

Note that for some reason JDI had a sticker saying "In plane Switching" near those OLEDs. IPS is an LCD technology, so this was probably done erroneously.

UBI Research sees fast growth ahead for white-OLED displays (WRGB) in the next five years. Currently WRGB is only used in OLED TV panels (made by LG Display) and all OLED microdisplays, but UBI says the technology will be adopted in small and medium sized panels as well.

UBI sees over 150 million WRGB OLEDs produced in 2020, out of over a billion OLED displays in total - so WRGB displays will account for 15% of the OLED market. Not all of these will be large OLED TV panels of course. In terms of revenue, WRGB OLEDs will generate over $13 billion in 2020 - most of which will come from large-sized OLED panels.

Samsung and LG agreed to stop the ongoing legal disputes between LG Display and Samsung Display - thus ending a very long court battle that involved technology theft accusation, stolen TVs and even broken washing machines. The two companies ended all current disputes, and agreed to not take new legal actions - and try and settle all issues through dialog.

In past years we've heard of several lawsuits launched by both sides and even accusations of stolen prototype TVs. In 2013 two two Korean arch-rival agreed to resolve their OLED dispute and they even considered cross-licensing patents and dropped all OLED lawsuits against each other, but settlement negotiation failed. Maybe this time they will finally make peace.

According to Korean site ETNews, Samsung Display decided to re-enter the OLED TV market. The Korean display maker reportedly finds it difficult to make a profit from the competitive LCD business (some reports suggest that SDC aims to split the OLED and LCD business soon).

Interestingly, the reports suggest that Samsung aims to use a WRGB architecture - like LG uses in their own OLED TVs, and unlike the direct-emission used in Samsung's small display and first-generation OLED TVs. The WRGB (white OLED with color filters and four sub pixels) was originally developed at Kodak, and then bought by LG back in 2009.

DisplayCentral posted an interesting article on LG Display's OLED TV program. The author reports from a discussion he had with Changho Oh, Senior VP for LG Display’s OLED TV Development Division, in which Changho says that LGD is investing heavily in soluble OLED production and aims to have such panels available in 2018.

A few days ago we reported that an LG Display researcher revealed that the company is developing a roll-to-roll process to produce flexible OLED displays. This is one of several possible printing technologies that can make soluble OLED panels possible.

In June 2014, Japan's Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL), in collaboration with Nokia, unveiled new foldable OLED display prototypes - 5.9" 1280x720 (249 PPI) ones, which can be folded in two or in three (these were two different prototypes).

Last month in Japan SEL unveiled new prototypes. The new panels are bigger at 8.7" and offer a higher resolution (1920x1080, 254 PPI). The new panels are also touch-enabled. And they are still tri-folded like the ones shown in June.

CNet posted an interesting interview with LG's Global Communication Director, Ken Hong. Ken says that their OLED TV production yields are over 80% now - and it's all thanks to the WRGB technology they bought originally from Kodak. Ken says that LG has a large lead over competitors - and they do not expect anyone to catch up for at least 2-3 years.

Ken further says that consumers are ready for OLED TVs now. He says that other makers cannot produce OLED TVs with reasonable yields and this is why they say consumers are not ready. At the current price point, LG's job is to educate consumers why they should spend a premium on OLED technology.

Last month Japan Display, Sony and Panasonic announced the formation of a new OLED company. JOLED, funded by the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, will be established formally in January 2015, and will focus mainly on medium sized OLEDs for tablet applications.

JDI 5.2-inch FHD OLED prototype

One of the key questions surrounding JOLED is the technology choice. While Sony (and JDI, which is basing its OLED program on Sony's tech) is using small-molecule OLEDs and an evaporation process, Panasonic based its OLED development on Sumitomo's PLED materials and printing technologies.

Since they launched the world's first OLED TV in August 2013, LG managed to slash the price from $14,999 to about $4,000 (currently the EA9800 costs $4,299 in Amazon.com). We all hope LG will continue to lower the price, obviously, so it's good to hear that LGD's Byeonggyu Roh says that they will continue to reduce the cost of their OLED TV panel production.

According to UBI Research, LGD ultimate goal is to reach a price premium of only 10% over LCDs. LG needs to lower the costs across the board - taking advantage of existing LCD lines and equipment, optimizing the thickness of all th display layers (TFT, organic materials and encapsulation), improving the production process times and more.

LGD is still constructing its $650-million Gen-8 M2 OLED TV production line, but the company's CEO announced yesterday that LGD will invest a further 700 billion Won (over $788 million) to increase the capacity of that fab to 34,000 monthly substrates (up from 26,000).

It seems that LG is forecasting a rising demand for OLED TVs once their prices become competitive with LCDs (which should happen once the M2 is online). The company also wants to sign up more TV producers besides LG Electronics (they are currently supplying to China's Skyworth and Changhong, but reportedly they are in talks with Sony and Panasonic as well).