Sony announced their financial reports today. The company will continue its development of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology which is brighter than current technology and provides energy savings.
However, chief financial officer Nobuyuki Oneda said: "I do not see a rapid growth in production [of OLED TVs] in the future."
Toshihiro Sakamoto, president of Panasonic AVC Networks Company said that we won't see any OLED TVs retailed for a few years yet. Panasonic feels they need their own specialized facility for the production of OLED and doesn't expect it to be available in larger screen sizes (32 inches and above) until somewhere in the vicinity of 2012-2014.
Honeywell plans to develop materials for the flexible electronics used in OLED television displays. The company entered into an agreement to develop the components with the U.S. Display Consortium. Honewell will develop materials to prevent short circuits in flexible OLED displays. Honeywell says the new material will be tested at Arizona State University’s Flexible Display Center in Phoenix, which receives U.S. Army funding to develop flexible technology.
The new feature OLED display is offering advanced OLED technology and retrofit function for customers that were displaced by discontinuations. This model features 128x64 monochrome yellow OLED at 1 bit/pixel. This display is perfect for 1RU rack mount designs, automotive, avionics, and a full range of applications both industrial and consumer. The display offers compatibility with parallel, I2C, and SPI interfaces via a standard 24 conductor ZIF-type 0.5mm pitch flex interface. OLED technology features extraordinary contrast of 160:1 minimum and exceeding 1000:1 in ideal conditions. The display is a relatively large OLED display offered at 2.8 @ 84.0 x 25.8 x 2.2 mm outline dimensions.
TMDisplay has succeeded in doubling their OLED efficiency using a metal membrance. The new design allows them to run the OLEDs at half the brightness, and thus gain twice the lifetime. TMDisplay did not disclose when they will start making OLED TVs, although the new design should not delay the TVs.
They have also showed a 20.8" prototype.
Digitimes reports that Sony is looking for partners to cooperate in the production and sales of OLED panels.
United Keys announced today that it has formed a strategic partnership with Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, a member of Foxconn Technology Group. As part of this partnership, Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer, will build display-key input devices using United Keys technology. The first product, a keyboard tailored for PC gaming, will start shipping as early as summer. The company also announced new patents and patents pending in a number of countries, representing a portfolio of IP with broad application making use of display keys.
Display-keys are regular keyswitches with small OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) displays embedded in their tops. This allows interactive and image-based communication between software and users. The promise of display-key input devices is a significant improvement in usability for any application. For example, macros or other actions can be mapped to OLED keys with user-customizable images or icons precisely identifying their function. In the future, display-key support will be included in new software applications, where keyboard OLEDs change contextually and dynamically. Driven by intelligent software, images on these small OLEDs will simplify command choices, increase productivity and create a more engaging, interactive computing experience. United Keys' strategy of enabling standard keyswitches retains an important usability attribute: tactile feedback. It also helps keep costs low.
United Keys has secured patents for broad application of display-key technology -- including interaction logic between software and hardware, transmission of images over networks and the internet, and user customization -- related to a wide range of input devices, including cell phones, remotes, game consoles, automobiles and medical devices. Besides the U.S., the company has patents or patents pending in numerous countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada and the European Union.
Digitimes says that CMEL is likely to add a 3.5-inch panel to its AMOLED panel range. CMEL currently offers 2.2- and 2.8-inch AMOLED panels, and it is set to start shipping a 4.3-inch version in the second quarter.
He revealed that monthly shipments from CMEL's present production line amount to 150,000 units, and that its second production line will begin equipment installation in September and volume production by the end of the year.
While CMEL sources LTPS backplanes from CMO, the current shortages in the small-and-medium-size panel market has strained supply from the parent company, Chen said. To deal with the tight supply, CMEL is gearing up efforts to raise its yields, which currently stand at 60-70%, he added.
There are some interesting updates about Chinese OLED makers and research-
The institute will have corporate offices, research labs, and technology application support centers.
Smartdisplays (Xi’an) went into OLED mass production in 2006 with an annual capacity of 200,000 units. Orders may have upped production by as much as 50% in 2007.
Beijing Visionox Technology has just completed a new production base in Kunshan in Jiangsu Province costing somewhere in the range of RMB 400 to 500 million (US$ 53-66 million). The new 30,000 sqm factory was scheduled to start operations by the end of 2007.
Saint-Gobain and Novaled have demonstrated the feasibility of large area OLEDs, based on a new high-performance metallic anode, with Saint-Gobain Recherche technology and Novaled OLED proprietary developments.
The goal of a two-year research cooperation programme between both partners has been to develop basic technologies for high-performance white OLEDs. Researchers at Saint-Gobain Recherche (SGR) have created a highly conductive transparent electrode Silverductâ¢, bringing up to 10 times better surface conductivity than traditional ITO (Indium Tin Oxide). Thanks to Novaled PIN OLED⢠technology for high efficiency OLEDs, samples were successfully manufactured on large area surfaces. SGR and Novaled now see the possibility to produce homogeneous OLED devices up to 100 cm² which will ease the manufacturing of large OLED lighting products.
Traditional ITO coated glass impedes the race to large area OLED, due to its limited ability to carry current over distances longer than a couple of centimetres. Therefore, for large area OLEDs, the ITO layer must be topped with a thick metallic grid to prevent gradient of light emission caused by the sheet resistance of ITO alone (typically 30 Ohm/sq). The new anode Silverduct⢠has a sheet resistance of less than 4 Ohm/sq, thus enabling large area OLEDs without additional metal grids. This is an important step especially for transparent and bottom emission OLEDs in which the metal grid is visible. Additionally, by eliminating the metal grid Silverduct⢠offers significant potential for reducing manufacturing costs.
