OLED-Info: the OLED experts

IHS estimates that sales of mobile flexible AMOLED displays reached about $2 billion in Q2 2017 - more than double compared to Q2 2016 ($886 million).

Samsung still commands this market - IHS says that SDC had a market share of 98.3% in the second quarter. The second flexible OLED market is LG Display which is reportedly still struggling with yield and quality issues at its new E5 flexible OLED line and so has a low capacity. LGD will hopefully soon increase its capacity dramatically. Chinese OLED makers are now initiating flexible OLED production as well.

Back in May it was reported that BOE started producing flexible OLEDs at the company's new 6-Gen (the B7) fab in Chengdu. This was apparently a bit optimistic, but a new report from Japan now says that BOE aims to ship its first flexible OLED out of the Chengdu fab at the end of next month (October 2017).

BOE's new fab has a capacity of 45,000 monthly substrates - enough to make around 90 million smartphone sized AMOLEDs annually. It is likely though that initial yields will be low and production quite limited.

Hyperkin announced that Microsoft has approved its latest Xbox controller, which is a recreation of the original Xbox Duke controller. The new controller includes a monochrome (green) PMOLED display.

Hyperkin is still developing its controller so it is not clear when this will be released. The company also says that it will only produce the controller in a limited number.

The Fraunhofer FEP institute, in collaboration with Nippon Steel & Sumikin Materials (NSMAT) and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC), developed a new OLED lighting prototype that is made on a stainless steel substrate.

The researchers say that a stainless steel substrate has several advantages compared to glass or plastic - it has excellent thermal conductivity and excellent barrier properties. The lighting panel features an extremely homogenous OLED light, thanks to the planarization layer developed by NSSMC. The prototype panel was produced at the Fraunhofer's R2R research line.

Taiwan-based Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT), in collaboration with European research institute imec (in the framework of the Holst Centre collaboration) have demonstrated an ultra-high resolution OLED display that was patterned using photolithography - without the need for an FMM (metal mask). A photolithography process offers a high aperture ratio, large substrate sizes and good yield control.

The prototype display that was demonstrated is a passive display with a 1400x1400 resolution (or 1250 PPI!) of side-by-side orange and green OLEDs. imec reports that preliminary lifetime investigation shows operation of each color after patterning for a few hundred hours at more than 50% of the original brightness.

A few days ago we reported that the four largest smartphone makers in China (Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi) have all confirmed plans to adopt LGD's flexible OLEDs starting in 2018. A new report from Business Korea now suggests that Huawei and LGD are set to sign a strategic long-term OLED supply agreement.

According to the report Huawei is the largest customer for mobile OLED displays in China, and the company wants to sign a long-term supply contract with LGD. The agreement will call for a relatively small (tens of thousands, it seems) supply of OLEDs in 2018, so most of Huawei's OLEDs orders in 2018 will remain with Samsung Display as is the situation today. Huawei's upcoming Mate 10 flagship phone will adopt SDC's glass-based AMOLEDs.