OLED-Info: the OLED experts

An interesting industry report suggests that Samsung is planning to ship 5-6 million foldable smartphones in 2026, from its new 8-Gen series (which will include the Galaxy Z Fold8, Z Flip8, and the new Galaxy Wide Fold). 

These numbers are slightly lower than what the company shipped in 2025, about 6 million units for their Galaxy Z7 series. It appears as if Samsung is anticipating a somewhat lower demand this year for foldable smartphones - a few months ago it believed it will ship 6.5 million units in 2026.

We're excited to launch Bright Side with Brannan, a new column by Prof. Alexander Brannan of the University of Manchester. In this column, Prof. Brannan will explore the science behind OLED technology — the materials, the physics, and the open questions driving the field forward. The following article is the first in the series.

OLED emitter materials are currently dominated by closed-shell compounds. This means their occupied molecular orbitals, including the highest occupied molecular orbital, or HOMO, are fully occupied by paired electrons in the ground state. In other words, there are no unpaired electrons.

This electronic structure underpins the conventional OLED emitter families: fluorescent, phosphorescent, and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters. In each case, the excited states are usually described within the traditional singlet and triplet framework.

Panasonic Avionics announced that two new airlines have deployed its Astrova 4K OLED entertainment systems. Saudia has installed the new systems aboard its new Airbus A321XLR aircraft.

Azerbaijan Airlines has deployed the Astrova OLEDs on 11 of its Airbus narrowbody aircraft (six A321neo and five A320neo aircraft).

A few months ago, LG Display announced a new plan to invest $745 million in its OLED production facilities, to improve ‌its ⁠technological competitiveness, following a $925 million plan announced last year to advance its OLED technologies and production facilities.

This week Avaco announced that LG awarded it with a contact to supply 6-Gen AMOLED vacuum automation equipment.

Last year we reported that Meta is said to be working on a new Quest VR headset, powered by OLED microdisplays, that will be supplied by both BOE and Seeya. It was believed that Meta aims to release the headset in 2026, and now we hear that Meta will likely delay the launch to 2027, and some more interesting specifications have surfaced.

The original Oculus Rift, and then the 2019 Oculus Quest both adopted OLEDs, but since then Meta opted for lower-cost high-performance LCDs. Now that competition is intensifying with Apple and Samsung aiming at the high-end part of the market, it makes sense for Meta to upgrade the performance of its VR headsets - and OLED microdisplay provide improved form factor, image quality, and power consumption. The rise of OLED microdisplay production in China also means that prices are getting lower.

Universal Display Corporation announced that its OLED Technology and Innovation Center in Chengdu, China, is now open. UDC says that this new center marks the company's continued expansion in the region and its commitment to supporting the next phase of OLED innovation.

UDC's new Chengdu facility features state-of-the-art laboratories and a dedicated customer support center. The site is designed to support materials characterization, device optimization and application development.