WRGB - Page 8

A couple of weeks ago I reported that BOE showed a 55" 4K WRGB OLED TV at SID 2014. When I posted on this, I said that BOE probably used a panel supplied by LG Display (although it didn't make a lot of sense).

It turns out that I was wrong, and that panel was produced by BOE Display themselves, at the company's AMOLED pilot Gen-8.5 line in Hefei. The panel uses a bottom-emission white OLED with a color filter array (WRGB architecture). BOE also uses internal compensation technology. The 5 mm thick panel features a contrast ratio of over 100,000:1, a response time of 0.2 ms and a brightness of 120-400 nits.

Samsung Display and LG Display had been fighting over display patents for a long time - with lawsuits launched by both sides and even accusations of stolen prototype TVs. In February 2013 the two companies agreed to resolve their OLED dispute and they even considered cross-licensing patents. Later in September 2013, they dropped all OLED lawsuits against each other in a reconciliatory gesture.

But the latest report from Korea is that the LG and SDC failed to negotiate a settlement. SDC wants to reach a patent cross-licensing deal, but LG is not interested. I think this may be because LG believes its WRGB technology is superior (and indeed they are much more advanced in their OLED TV efforts) - and perhaps Samsung is interested in adopting this technology for their OLED TVs as well.

Update: that panel was actually produced by BOE themselves, at the company's Gen-8 AMOLED pilot line in Hefei

It turns out that BOE had a 55" UHD (3840x2160) WRGB OLED TV prototype on display at SID 2014. The TV features a contrast ratio of over 100,000:1, a color gamut over 85%, a response time of 0.2 ms and a brightness of 120-400 nits. The whole TV is less than 5 mm thick.

It seems likely that BOE is using a 55" 4K panel made by LGD. After all we know that LG already launched such 4K OLEDs in Korea, and the Korean company is happy to offer its panels to other makers (including Changhong, Skyworth and perhaps even Sony and Panasonic).

Sony announced a new 0.23" 640x400 (nHD+) OLED microdisplay aimed for wearable devices. The microdisplay features a pixel pitch of 7.8um and a 110% NTSC color gamut. Sony aims to ship this display in 2015.

Sony says that the new microdisplay, while being smaller (and with a lower resolution) compared to their current 0.5" product, it offers a higher performance. The contrast ratio has been improved from 10,000:1 to 100,000:1, the brightness enhanced from 200 to 800 cd/m² and the power consumption has been slashed from 400 to 140 mW. The viewing angle has also been improved.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory, in collaboration with Nokia developed a new foldable OLED display. The companies are demonstrating two display prototypes. Both displays are 5.9" in size with a 1280x720 (249 PPI) resolution. One of them can be folded in two (like a book) and the other can be folded in three (seen in the video below).

Those flexible OLED displays use a white OLEDs with color filters (WOLED-CF) design. To produce the display, SEL deposited the organic and color filters layers on a glass substrate, which is later peeled off and replaced with a flexible substrate. The displays can be bent up up to a curvature of 2 mm (two-folds) or 4 mm (three folds). SEL says that these displays can be bent more than 100,000 times.

China's Changhong launched their first OLED TV, the 55Q1A. This TV uses LG Display's curved 55" panel. It's not clear from the info I saw, but it may feature 4K resolution (although it's seems rather unlikely). In any case, the TV is now shipping in China for 48,888 yuan (about $7,800).

Changhong is now China's second OLED TV maker. Just last month Skyworth launched their own 55" curved OLED TV, the TianChi E980. Skyworth also uses OLED panels supplied by LG Display. It's interesting to see LG Display strategy of supplying OLED panels to other companies beside LG Electronics.

Japan Display's OLED R&D manager Masahiko Suzuki discussed the company's AMOLED program during a conference in Japan. Masahiko explains (see slide below) that for the medium-term, the small/medium display maker is focused on high-res LCD panels (over 500 PPI), but for the long term the main focus will be on OLED displays.

JDI sees OLED as a way to create a new market for flexible, transparent and roll-to-roll printed displays. JDI is set to develop flexible OLEDs and later on high-resolution OLEDs. JDI is using LG's WRGB technology which enables them to achieve a high resolution and a lower power consumption on mainly-white images (such as a web browser). But currently JDI sees OLEDs as still too expensive, and there are still issues with lifetime and uniformity.

During a conference in Korea, LG Display's OLED technical strategy team leader Lim Joo-son said that the company's WRGB technology does not place any limits to the size of the OLED TVs they can make, and once the M2 goes into operation, the company will be able to produce 110" TVs.

LG Electronics 77-inch OLED TV prototype

LG also managed to increase the pixel density, and can now produce 8K (7680x4320) panels - but they admit that the smaller aperture in such panels limits the lifetime and they urgently need to develop longer lasting OLED materials.

In December 2013 Skyworth announced its first OLED TV, and now the company announced it finally started to mass produce the TV. The Tianchi E980 is a 55" curved Full-HD OLED TV that supports Skyworth's Tianchi 4 OS offering smart capabilities. The E980 uses LG Display's WRGB OLED panel.

Interestingly, when Skyworth announced the E980 and E990 OLED TVs back in December 2013, the TVs were flat (see photo below). But it seems the company finally adopted a curved design. You can see LG's OLED branding displayed on the panel of the E980 below.

So CES 2014 is now over, and one thing is certain - at least in that event, LG is making a much stronger push into OLED TVs than their arch rival Samsung. While Samsung only showed new 55" bendable 4K OLED prototypes, LG showed many prototypes and two new products, including a 77" curved 4K OLED TV that they plan to launch soon for $29,999.

But it seems that it's not just about TVs on display at CES. A Samsung visual-display VP says that there are significant OLED manufacturing issues and they only expect cheap OLED TVs to enter the market in 3 or 4 years. LG on the other hand sees a "rapid shift into OLED TVs". The market will remain small in 2014 (30,000 to 50,000 units) but LG expects the market to ramp up quickly.