OLED-Info: the OLED experts

Chinese blogging site Weibo shared some very blurry photos that seem to show a TV being tested by Apple in a special testing environment. The site claims that this photo shows a secret 60 OLED TV that Apple is developing.

Obviously this can only be considered a rumor at best - and of course even if Apple is testing a product or a design, it does not mean it will be the light of day. Nothing in this photo proves that this is an OLED, or whether it is indeed 60" in size.

We are happy to announce a new Metalgrass knowledge hub, MicroLED-Info.com. Our new site will focus on Micro-LED display technology and its future market. MicroLED is quickly becoming a promising future display technology.

Many expect the first Micro-LED devices to hit the market in the very near future, with first applications in the wearable market - and also in HUDs and HMDs. MicroLED promise great performance, very high efficiency and brightness - and may indeed compete with OLEDs in the future. There are still many technical challenges ahead, but this is certainly a technology that any display expert should not ignore.

The phosphorescent OLED emitter market is currently dominated by Universal Display who owns the basic patents to phosphorescent OLED emitters. All the major OLED makers (including Samsung and LGD) are using UDC's materials in order to achieve higher display efficiencies, beyond what is available from fluorescent emitters.

Universal Display holds over 4,000 issued and pending patents, but some of its basic phosphorescent patents are set to expire by the end of 2017. Honestly, it is very difficult to know exactly what effect this will have on the market - some analysts believe that it will carry very little effect while others say that this will open the door for other companies to sell competing phosphorescent emitters.

Korea's Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the country's Engineering Research Center (ERC) are joingly setup a new OLED light therapy engineering center.

The new R&D center will initially target skin wound treatment and sleep disorder treatment, using flexible OLEDs to replace current LED-based solutions. In the longer range, the center will also look into dementia prevention and treatment, mild cognitive impairment solutions and other diseases.

Last week Japan Display announced a new strategic shift to OLED technologies, as its LCD business is losing money and the company now says that a transformation into an OLED-focused company is its last chance to become profitable.

JDI said it will need to raise new funds to finance this focus shift and overcome its losses. An interesting report from Japan claims that Foxconn is interested in acquiring JDI with an aim to integrate it with Sharp to create a Japanese OLED alliance that will be able to compete with Samsung and LGD.

A report from the Korea Herald suggests that Samsung Display decided to invest €10 million in TADF developer Cynora, which follows LG Display's €15 million investment in the company. Both companies aim to secure access to next-generation emitter technology.

The Korean report actually states €100 million from SDC and €150 million from LGD - but this is surely a mistake as it's highly unlikely that Cynora could be raising such a huge sum of money at this stage. An earlier report from ETNews claimed LGD's investment totaled $9 million.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported its financial results for Q2 2017. Revenues in the quarter were $5.3 million (down from $5.5 million in Q2 2017) and the net loss was $2.3 million (up slightly from $2.2 million in Q2 2017).

At the end of the quarter, eMagin had $4.9 million in cash and equivalents. eMagin is focused on expanding its presence in military programs, advancing discussions with major consumer electronics companies for VR/AR products and progressing with finding high-volume production partners.