OLED-Info: the OLED experts

Merck opened a new OLED technology center in Shanghai. The new center will provide local customers with tailor-made solutions to enable innovative OLED application development.

Merck says that the new center offers a range of state-of-the-art equipment and clean room facilities that enable enable OLED device fabrication and characterization.

More and more reports suggest that Apple's 2018 iPhone lineup (to be introduced in September 2018) will include two OLED models and one LCD models. A few days ago it the Nikkei Asian Review said that Apple's 2018 OLED iPhone launch orders will be 20% lower compared to 2017, amounting to 80 million panels.

Now the Korean site The Bell says that Apple ordered 45 million 6.5" OLED panels from SDC for the iPhone Xs Plus and only 25 million for the smaller 5.84" iPhone Xs - to a total of 70 million panels. For the lower-end LCD model, Apple ordered only 30 million panels from Japan Display.

In July 2017 LG Display announced that it has decided to build a 8.5-Gen (2200x2500) OLED TV production line in Guangzhou. The Korean government hesitated whether to approve this plan, as it sees OLED as a strategic technology Korea' economy, but by the end of 2017 LGD got the approval for its new OLED TV fab.

LGD is still waiting for an approval from the Chinese authorities, and according to today's Korea Times report, the Chinese government is expected to approve LG's plans. Apparently China hesitated as it aims to help the country's own OLED industry, but it hopes that local companies will benefit with a close partnership with LGD.

Motorola has been granted an interesting patent that aims to solve screen deformation with foldable displays. Motorola says that one of the issues with foldable displays is that they deform in low temperatures.

Motorola suggests using a temperature sensor that detects when the display is deformed, and then the hinge is heated so that the display is automatically corrected. This could be used to create foldable OLEd phones that bend both inward and outwards, and can work with more than one hinge (so that you can fold a display several times).

Kyulux and Wisechip unveiled a flexible PMOLED display that uses Kyulux’s Hyperfluoresence yellow emitter. Wisechip says that the power consumption of this display is almost half of Wisechip's regular fluorescent yellow PMOLED.

The first flexible HF PMOLED is a 1.71″ 256x64 display, that is now ready to be produced (Wisechip says this will enter mass production before the end of 2018). Wisechip originally aimed to introduce its first glass-based HF yellow emitter PMOLED by the end of 2017, but it seems they decided to jump straight to a flexible panel.

The display industry's top conference, SID DisplayWeek 2018 took place at the end of May in Los Angeles. As always, we found this trade show to be very interesting - especially as OLED is quickly becoming the technology of choice for many applications. SID also gave us the chance to check out other technologies such as Micro-LEDs, next-gen e-paper displays, quantum dots and more. Here's a list of all our articles from SID:

• Samsung Display - rollable, transparent, automotive and more!
• Samsung Display - new VR AMOLED displays
• LG Display - VR OLEDs, 77" transparent and flexible panel, and more!
• BOE - flexible and foldable AMOLEDs
• BOE - 0.39" FHD OLED microdisplay
• BOE - ink-jet printed OLED prototype
• Visionox - PMOLED and AMOLED prototypes and displays
• Visionox - transparent OLED prototype
• Visionox - blue TASF OLED device
• Tianma - foldable, flexible and rigid AMOLEDs
• AUO - OLED and Micro-LED prototypes and displays
• Kyulux/Wisechip - 1.71" flexible Hyperfluoresence PMOLED
• Futaba - automotive, flexible and transparent PMOLEDs
• The Fraunhofer's LOMID 1-inch OLED microdisplay
• Amorphyx's quantum-tunneling display backplanes
• The EU's €14 million Lyteus OLED lighting initiative
• Coherent summarizes the differences between LCDs, OLEDs and Micro-LEDs