OLED production

Nippon Seiki has developed new technology that enabled 75% reduction in power consumption for PMOLEDs. They have already commercialized this with a 0.8" green monochrome OLED panel that will be shipping in samples this month. The company also plans to develop panels of other colors including white. It's not clear whether this technology can also be used to make AMOLED panels more efficient.

new green PMOLED vs regular PMOLED

Nippon Seiki says taht the new panel is as efficient as a LED-backlit LCD, and has the same visibility as their previous PMOLED panels. The lower power consumption was realized by making improvements to the structure of an organic EL element, production processes and manufacturing management.

Via Tech-On

We have some more information about Linde's group and Shanghai University flexible OLED project. It turns out that the packaging and encapsulation is just the first phase, and should be completed by the end of 2010. In the second phase they will develop OLED materials (this will take 2-3 years). In the 2nd phase they will also work with TFT-LCD manufacturers to test volume production of the new OLED designs.

Linde themselves want to sell gases for OLED production, but they also want to get the OLED technology itself to market. They could sell the OLED technology itself via a technology transfer.

Via +PlasticElectronics

AU Optronics announced plans to recruit 2,500 new employees in 2010: fors its LCD panel production unit, PV unit and OLED business. AUO are planning to start (or resume, really) making OLED panels in 2011.

AUO 14-inch OLED prototype

Via digitimes

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

Samsung Mobile Display's president of engineering Brian Berkeley said yesterday that Samsung is accelerating its development of OLED displays, including increasing  the size and volume to enable rollout of OLED TVs. Samsung has been critical of OLED TVs in the past years, but things are changing: there's high volume AMOLED production, with millions of OLED displays for mobile devices shipping each month.

Samsung 30-inch 3D OLED TV prototype

Samsung are now making huge investments in OLEDs, including development of medium to large sized panels. They are actually working on how to scale a Gen 4 sized plants (like they have today) to a Gen 7 or even a Gen 8, which will be able to make TV panels economically. This will require either much more powerful lasers working much more quickly than today's process for creating the backplane on which they deposit the OLEDs, or some alternative technology. There are also issues in color patterning, for which Samsung thinks it has a new unique solution, and OLED printing.

Berkeley predicts that a 40" OLED TV will use only 10 watts in about five years (compared to 40 watts today for a 40" LCD). He also said that the technology will be great for 3D TVs (image switching is quicker and so left and right images are completely separated).

Sony says that they have stopped production of the XEL-1 OLED TV in Japan, and will stop selling it when they run out of inventory. They will continue to sell and produce the OLED TV for the US, EU and other markets though (which is a bit confusing, because they say they stopped producing it). Sony will also continue their OLED R&D. Still no news on any upcoming larger OLED TVs...

Sony XEL-1 OLED TV

Via Reuters