January 2015

A US-based company called eSight developed new glasses that enable the legally-blind (also known as having low-vision) to see. The glasses use a sophisticated high-speed camera, patented video processing software and high quality OLED displays to project a real-time image.

Check out the video above (update: the video was removed and can no longer be shared) showing Kathy Bleitz who has been living with Stargardt disease (an inherited degenerative disease of the retina that leads to progressive vision loss). Kathy can only see fuzzy, wavy shapes, but using eSight she can see better and in the video she sees her baby for the first time.

Samsung updated its Milk Music application, and in the supported-devices list they accidentally listed a tablet that was never announced the Tab S Pro. According to SamMobile, this tablet may sport a 12.2" display (this is likely due to the Pro part of the name, as Samsung's previous Note Pro tablet has a 12.2" display).

Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5

Samsung's current Galaxy Tab S tablets use WQXGA (2560x1600) Super AMOLED displays (8.4" and 10.5"). It's likely that the new Tab S Pro will sport an AMOLED, and it will be great to see Samsung release such a large AMOLED to the market. Maybe following such a large display Samsung will finally release the first AMOLED laptop...

LG Display reported today during the company's conference call that production in their OLED TV fab resumed after two weeks following the nitrogen leak that unfortunately killed two employees and injured four others.

Regarding their OLED TV production capacity, LGD re-iterated their aim to produce 600,000 OLED TV (mostly 55", but also 65" and 77") panels in 2015. The company currently has a monthly capacity of 14,000 Gen-8 substrates, and this will grow to 34,000 by the end of the year. So most of the 600,000 panels will be produced in the current lines before expansion (so the capacity in 2016 should grow to about 1.5 million panels). Profitability, by the way, is only expected in 2016.

Samsung released quarterly results for Q4 2014 - revenues were $48.6 billion (-11% compared to last year) and the profit was $4.9 billion (down 36%). Mobile revenues fell 23%, but the company saw strong DRAM demand and growing TV and mobile panel sales.

Regarding SDC's OLED display unit, earnings improved, "led by increased new premium products shipments". SDC expects OLED shipments to increase in 2015 due to expansion of customer base. SDC also aims to increase flexible panel sales.

Apple's CEO Tim Cook announced that the company aims to ship their first wearable, the Apple Watch, in April 2015. Officially Apple said that the phone uses a "flexible Retina display", which doesn't really tell us anything regarding the technology, but according to several trusted sources, the Watch uses a flexible OLED display.

It's highly likely that the flexible OLED supplier is LG Display. This has been reported months ago. We reported that Apple may be interested in signing a deal with SDC too for the same flexible OLEDs, but apparently that did not happen.

A couple of weeks ago LG Chem announced that they have started to mass produce the world's largest OLED lighting panel at 320 x320 mm. The panels are 0.88 mm thick and feature 60 lm/W, CRI of over 90 and an output level at 800 lm - 1,200 lm. LG today revealed that the panels cost $680 per panel (lower prices for bulk orders).

LG Chem also announced that they completed the development of their "truly flexible" plastic-based OLED panels. They now offer engineering samples for $250 and mass production is expected by July 2015. Prices will be lower when mass production starts.

Digitimes Researchers says that they expect LG Display and Samsung Display accumulated OLED production capacity to grow 36% in 2015 (up from the 24% expansion in 2014).

Most of the growth at Samsung Display will come from its upcoming 6-Gen A3 flexible OLED production line, while LG Display is focused on its new M2 8-Gen OLED TV line. LG will also increase its flexible OLED capacity, but this will not be as significant as the OLED TV expansion.

Philips announced its intention to spin-off its OLED activity. Philips is searching for a buyer for its whole OLED business activity. Following the spin-off, Philips Lighting will focus on LED based connected systems and services.

Philips has been one of the leaders in the OLED lighting industry for years, so this is a major announcement and a very interesting one - and only time will tell whether this move will be positive or not for OLED technology. From my contacts at Philips it seems that this is seen as a very positive development for OLEDs...

Universal Display and LG Display signed a new long-term OLED technology license agreement and supplemental material purchase agreement. The agreement runs till December 31, 2022.

Similarly to UDC's agreement with Samsung (signed in 2011), LGD gets non-exclusive license rights to manufacture and sell OLED displays, and will pay license fees and running royalties on its OLED product sales. UDC will also continue and supply phosphorescent materials for LG Display.

Manz AG has been developing Gen-8 OLED OVPD deposition equipment since early 2014, in collaboration with Aixtron, and the company also offers wet-chemical processing equipment for OLED display production (and already won some contract, including a large 9 million Euro order from a Chinese OLED maker in August 2014).

In a recent press release, the company's CFO commented that OLED technology has a "very big potential for the future", but he does not see any mass production breakthroughs in the next two years. Small-sized OLEDs are of course being mass produced already, which means he likely refers to OLED TV production.