LG

LG Group has decided on four R&D technologies to focus on: lighting, solar cells, next-gen batteries and integrated heating/ventilation/air-condition systems. The lighting technologies will include LED lighting and OLED Lighting materials, developed by LG Chem. LG Chem have already announced their plans to develop OLED lighting materials and panels, and hope to start production in 2H 2010.

Back in January, LG announced that they will spend most R&D money on consumer electronics, wireless communication and next-gen displays (OLEDs, 3D panels and e-paper displays).

Via KoreaHerald

Technocorp Energy (formed by ex-Kodak employees) will license Kodak's OLED Lighting technology from LG. Technocorp plan is to produce efficient OLED panels (70lm/W) at $64/m². This will take time and a lot of effort of course, and the company is looking for funding, partners and joint-ventures to achieve this goal.

Via +PlasticElectronics

OLEDNet has published an OLED market forecast for 2010-2016. Basically the say that during 2010, Samsung will introduce 5" and 7" AMOLEDs, and LG Display will produce 2.7" AMOLED for digital cameras, 3.5" WVGA for mobile phones and 4.3" OLEDs for portable TVS. Toshiba Mobile Displays (TMD) will begin AMOLED small panel production during 2010 as well.

Toshiba, Matsushita and Hitachi are all expected to introduce 20"-40" OLED TV panels as early as 2011. AUO will begin mass production in 2011, too.

Via OLEDNet

LG Electronics announced today that they will release their EL9500 15" OLED TV in May in Europe. It will cost 1999 euro ($2700) - similar to the cost in Korea. The 15" panel has 1366x768 resolution and is only 1.7mm thick.

Via LGE Austria

A group of ex-Kodak employees, who left the company following Kodak's OLED business acquisition by LG in December 2010 has formed a new company, called TechnoCorp Energy. The company (based in New York, US) will work on OLED Lighting, and has already given seed funding. It's not clear yet whether they will use Kodak's OLED Lighting IP, which was bought by LG as part of the acquisition.

In the company's web site, they do not actually mention OLEDs, but rather say they will work on a 'select set of renewable energy projects and working these projects in tandem'.

Via PlusPlasticElectronics

Back in December, LG announced it will buy Kodak's OLED unit. The price was not revealed, but now Kodak has released their quarterly report, in which they reveal that the price was $100 million. Kodak also entered into a licensing transaction with LG which gave them $414 million in revenue.

via cintelliq

Tech-On has posted an interesting article about OLED TV status. They discuss the situation of the technology, why is it so difficult to make a large OLED panel, and how are the various TV makers trying to solve the issues.

I think the two most interesting points are: 

• They suggest that because LCDs have got so good in terms of efficiency,thinness and quality, it'll be hard for OLEDs to compete. Instead companies try to open new markets with transparent or flexible OLEDs, things that cannot be done with LCDs. Indeed we can see Samsung, Sony and LG all showing these kinds of displays. I think we may also add 3D OLED TVs to the mix here.
• They say that LG plans to volume produce 20" OLED panels in 2010. This is the first time we hear of such plans (beside a promise for 'larger panels' a few weeks ago). LG also plans 30" OLED TVs in 2011, and 40" in 2012.

Here's the link to Tech-On's article.