WRGB - Page 9

There are reports from China that Skyworth is set to release their first OLED TV next week (December 5). The company sent out invitations to reporters for the launch event:

According to one report, Skyworth will use LG Display's WRGB panels. The second report actually says Skyworth are releasing a "Samsung OLED TV", but they still say it is an WRGB panel so this may be just a mistake.

China's BOE Display has been discussing its 5.5-Gen LTPS fab in Ordos for a long time. Today BOE announced that it finally approves the AMOLED line in that fab, and will begin construction soon in a 22 billion yuan investment ($3.6 billion). The fab's capacity will be 54,000 glass substrates a month and will produce small and medium sized panels.

BOE Ordos 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab

According to earlier reports, the fab will begin producing LTPS LCDs soon (by the end of 2013). It's not clear whether the AMOLED line is a new line or whether BOE will convert one of the LCD lines to AMOLED. It is expected that BOE will only start mass producing AMOLEDs by the end of 2014. BOE's AMOLED fab will use high-resolution FMM deposition and a WRGB architecture. We know that BOE is also developing ink-jet printing technology but this will most likely take more time to commercialize.

Taiwan has a large display industry, but in recent years it seems that it is lagging behind Korea, Japan and China in AMOLED technologies. We asked a local industry expert to check out the three main Taiwanese AMOLED companies (AUO, Innolux and RiTDisplay), and now we post on his updates.

AUO

As we reported already, AUO started producing AMOLEDs in their 4.5-Gen fab in Singapore after years of delays. According to our source, AUO is actually only producing samples. Those 5" 720p (295 ppi) panel samples have been been submitted to a company based in China. Earlier reports suggested AUO is going to supply HTC and Sony but it appears these two companies will keep using LCDs for now.

A few days ago we reported about SEL's new 13.5" QFHD (3840x1260, 326 PPI) flexible OLED prototype. Now DigInfo published a video showing this new OLED panel and several prototypes showing how it can be used to design curved displays:

SEL's OLEDs use a WRGB (white OLEDs with color filters) architecture and and it uses SEL's CAAS-OS (C-Axis Aligned Crystalline Oxide Semiconductor) substrate.

During the FPD International 2013, SEL unveiled a new 13.5" QFHD (3840x1260, 326 PPI) flexible OLED prototype. This is a WRGB panel (white OLEDs with color filters) and it uses a CAAS-OS (C-Axis Aligned Crystalline Oxide Semiconductor) substrate.

Toshiba was also showing a flexible panel - a 10.2" WUXGA (1920x1200, 223 PPI) WOLED panel on an IGZO backplane. This seems to be the same panel shown at SID 2013 in May 2013. Finally, Yamaga University's Research Center for Organic Electronics (ROEL) unveiled new flexible OLED technologies, including soluble organic-TFT based panels (on PET).

China's BOE Display is building a 5.5-Gen LTPS fab in Ordos by the end of 2013. This fab will first produce LTPS LCDs, but BOE wants to switch it to AMOLED production. According to OLEDNet, during the FPD International 2013, BOE's Dawei Wang (their flexible technology R&D director) said that in addition to the 5.5-Gen line in Ordos, they are also working towards a Gen-8 Oxide-TFT line in Hefei.

BOE Ordos 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab

This new line will use high-resolution FMM deposition and a WRGB architecture. We know that BOE is also developing ink-jet printing technology, it's not clear from OLEDNet's article whether printing technologies are also planned for the Hefei line.

In October 7, LG Display announced that it will soon start mass producing flexible OLEDs. Today we have talked with LG Display officials, and they confirmed that mass production has indeed started. The company currently makes 6" panels that weigh just 7.2 grams are are only 0.44 mm thick (only a third of the thickness of LG's thinnest mobile LCDs).

LGD updates us that the current flexible OLED production capacity in their 4.5-Gen line is 6,000 substrates a month (previously we reported that capacity will be 12,000 substrates). Perhaps the rest of the capacity is dedicated to R&D. In any case 6,000 substrates a month means almost 400,000 6" panels - assuming 100% yields. Of course yields will be lower but it seems that LGD indeed means to produce a fair share of displays and it'll be interesting how they (or other companies) adopt these panels in products.

According to our sources, AUO finally started AMOLED mass production in their AFPD subsidiary in Singapore. AFPD has a Gen-4.5 LTPS fab that was converted for AMOLED production. The fab has a monthly capacity of 45,000 substrates but it's not clear whether all the lines were converted to AMOLED and how many OLED panels are currently produced there.

AUO 4.4-inch AMOLED prototype

I'm not sure which panels are being produced there at the moment, but it's likely that AUO is producing the panels they have recently unveiled at trade shows - 4.4" 1900x600 (413 PPI) panel, 5" Full-HD (443 PPI) panel and their newest 5" HD720 AMOLED panels. Earlier reports suggested that HTC and Sony are waiting to integrate AUO's AMOLEDs in their mobile devices.

Sharp is showing new 7" MEMS-Shutter Display prototype at Ceatec 2013. MEMS-Shutter displays are similar to LCD in that they have a LED backlighting unit (BLU), color filters, and a component that blocks the light. But instead of liquid-crystals and polarizers, these displays use MEMS shutters.

A MEMS-Shutter Display is about 6 times more efficient than a regular LCD. This is mostly due to the fact that you do not need a polarizing filter like in LCDs. The displays also use a WRGB structure in which there is a white subpixel which increases brightness and efficiency. The panels on display had a resolution of 800x1,280 (220 PPI). The backplane is an IGZO. Sharp co-developed these panels with Qualcomm.

Samsung launched a new cinema advertisement campaign in the UK for the S9C curved OLED TV. The campaign slogan is "life in every pixel" (obviously hinting at the fact that Samsung is using Direct-Emission as opposed to LG's WRGB design). I personally don't like this specific ad, but it's great to see Samsung continue push its OLED technology to consumers:

Samsung's S9C (KN55S9C), now shipping in the US for $8999, is a Full-HD 55" curved OLED TV that offers the "perfect picture quality" (according to Samsung) as the distance from the viewer to the TV screen is the same from almost any angle. It sports a "timeless arena" design (the display is placed within a luxurious frame whose curved shape mirrors the curvature of an arena).