We've got some interesting updates regarding Chimei Innolux (CMI) OLED program. As a reminder, CMI was born as a merger between Innolux, CMO and TPO. Both CMO (through its CMEL subsidiary) and TPO had active OLED programs, and CMEL were even producing panels up until the merger. CMI's own OLED plans are still unclear.

Back in February 2011 we reported that CMI indeed plans to start producing OLEDs in two plants - a Gen-3.5 (620x750mm) LTPS/OLED Plant in Jhunan, Taiwan and a Gen-5.5 (1,300x1,500) IGZO-TFT plant in Tainan (also in Taiwan). Later on there were reports that CMI actually scrapped all OLED plans for now. But in March the company unveiled a couple of new AMOLED prototypes (3.2" and 3.5", shown above).

We had the good chance to talk with Gerd Guenther, Novaled's Chief Marketing Officer. He was kind enough to answer a few of our questions, and give us some information and updates from Novaled.

Gerd, thanks for your time. Can you explain Novaled's business model to us?

When Novaled started as a spin-off from Fraunhofer and Technical University of Dresden in 2001 with just 3 people, the idea was to market its doping technology Novaled PIN OLED^®) along with its proprietary materials. Today, quite an impressive number of well known display and lighting makers are customers of Novaled. That means we offer IP, licensing and technology transfer packages but also R&D contracting as well as trainings.

Novaled 15x15 cm white OLED

Samsung is aiming to improve their AMOLEDs in the near future. They claim they will double the efficiency (from 20cd/A to 40cd/A), the lifetime (from 50,000 to 100,000 hours) and the power consumption (from 62W to less than 30W). Samsung will use advanced color pattern methods to overcome the current FMM method large-size limitation. They will also move from glass encapsulation to thin-film, and apply Oxide substrate. They will also use only triplet OLED emitters instead of using both singlets and triplets.

Samsung has recently began to construct their new 5.5-Gen AMOLED plant, which will start production in July 2011. Samsung plans to invest $2.2 billion on that plant that will have 3 production lines (1300X1500mm). Having a larger wafer size results in better efficiencies for both small and large panels (such as 30" or 40" OLED TV panels). Samsung did not say whether the new methods will apply in the new plant only, or also in the current one.

DisplaySearch and cintelliq have announced a distribution agreement whereby cintelliq will produce and DisplaySearch will market and distribute the Quarterly Organic Semiconductor Patent Analyst Report (OSPA).
The Quarterly Organic Semiconductor Patent Analyst Report is a 200+ page quarterly report that provides an overview of patents related to organic semiconductor technologies that were published or granted by the European, Japanese, US or World patent offices in the previous quarter. Each issue analyses about 1200 patents, covering areas such as LEDs, substrates, photovoltaics, transistors, memory cells, encapsulation, materials, patterning, deposition, lasers, sensors, and fabrication.
The report classifies patents to identify areas of greatest activity, as well as highlighting interesting trends in research and patenting. The report also analyses the patents by assignee, tracking the major players in the industry and spotting new entrants to the field. Patents issued to academic organizations are monitored, as are patents issued to the major OLED licensors, Kodak and CDT, and their licensees.

Read more here