CMEL

Samsung has announced a new product, the 700Z digital photo frame. It has a 7" AMOLED display. This is the largest OLED Samsung has commercialized to date, and it's great news. They haven't said when it'll be released, or how much it'll cost.

Samsung 700Z

This is not the first large OLED photo frame. Back in 2008 Kodak has released their own 7.6" digital wireless frame, using CMEL's OLED panels. Kodak's frame costs around 800$ (but seems to be out of stock). Hopefully Samsung will have a lower price...

Taiwan's Innolux has acquired two companies that had OLED programs: TPO and CMO. This is a 3-way-merger that is supposed to take place in May 2010, and the new company will be called Chimei Innolux. 

This is interesting news, and we do not know yet what will happen to the OLED programs of the two companies. The two companies had problems in their OLED subsidiaries (technical and financial) so this might be a good thing as they can now work together to solve the technical issues. Hopefully Innolux will not decide to simply give up on OLEDs...

CMEL (CMO's OLED subsidiary) has bee making OLED panels for quite some time. They offer the largest OLED panel available (7.6") which is being used by a few high-end products, such as Kodak's digital-photo frame. There were some rumors that CMEL are working at only 40% of their capacity, because of financial problems at CMO. These problems are now over with the merger, hopefully. 

TPO hasn't yet started to mass-produce OLEDs, and were facing some technical problems, that caused some delays. They are currently developing 3"-4" panels for mobile phones and cameras. They had plans to start producing the 3" panels this year, but we're not sure if they have actually begun. It was reported that TPO will supply Nokia with these AMOLEDs.

OLEDNet reports that CMEL is now working at only 40% of its capacity, because of financial trouble at the parent company CMO. In addition, Sony has stopped its production line.

CMO has actually merged with Innolux this week, hopefully this means that the financial problems are over. It is true however that we haven't heard any news from CMEL for quite some time. 

Sony are rumored to be releasing their new OLED TV soon (the KDL-ZX, which might be 21" or 27"). But they might have decided to stop making the loss-making XEL-1.

Taiwan's Institute for Information Industry is showing off a concept computer that is both an XP netbook and a Android OS tablet - the display can be 'pulled' off for the tablet mode. TIII are using a 7.6" OLED (the one made by CMEL, most likely) in their concept computer.

DisplaySearch has released a new report (small/medium TFT LCD and AMOLED product roadmap). They give an interesting chart showing AMOLED roadmap from all players:

There is a lot of interesting information in there:

TCZ today announced that they recieved their first purchase order for the TCZ-900A, a production tool for flat panel display (FPD) fabrication. The TCZ-900A is designed to manufacture both advanced LCDs and OLEDs (small mobile panels, and larger OLED TV panels), and the shipment is scheduled for 3Q 2009.

TCZ says that the order came from a 'market leader in OLED manufacturing in Korea' - probably Samsung or LG, but can also be CMEL.

TCZ, using Cymer's industry-leading light source technology and the innovative optics expertise of Carl Zeiss SMT, has developed a patented laser crystallization technology which improves uniformity, while increasing throughput and reducing the cost of crystallization by up to 50 percent compared to current industry standards. The TCZ Crystallization System uses a 600W laser, twice the power of current systems, to form a very narrow line focus that is 730 mm long, allowing a gen 4 size glass plate (730mm x 920mm) to be processed in a single pass.

TechOn reports that OLED displays are being tested in Japan train stations, for advertisements. They are using CMEL's 7.6 OLED panels (like the ones used in Kodak's photo frame). 

OLED Digital signage

Previously they have tested ads using e-Paper displays, but the OLEDs are cheaper than the custom-fit ePapers.