According to the terms of the MOU, Kaga will provide sales and marketing support to the consumer electronics design community throughout Japan for MED’s microdisplay products. Additionally, Kaga will incorporate MED’s P-OLED microdisplay into its proprietary electronic viewfinder (EVF) modules to create new products for the Japanese digital camera market.

Commenting on the agreement, MED chief executive Bill Miller, said, The agreement with Kaga represents a significant step forward for MED and a chance to showcase the considerable quality and power advantages of our P-OLED microdisplay in this technology hungry market. The EVF market in digital cameras is a significant opportunity for our product and we look forward to developing a strong relationship with a partner of the calibre and market presence of Kaga.

The P-OLED microdisplay from MED provides a unique lightweight, low power display with distinct advantages over existing LCD technology. The device is ideally placed to exploit the opportunities in the growing EVF market, as it dispenses with inefficient and bulky backlighting resulting in a smaller more efficient module.

TMDisplay, the joint venture between Toshiba (60%) and Matsushita (40%) will setup production lines for 2.5" AMOLED by fall 2009. They aim to make 1M panels a month, of the 'high-quality-panels'. The total cost for those production lines will be 140M$.

Interestingly Toshiba is also working with Canon and Hitachi on AMOLEDs.

In July 2008, I had the chance of interviewing Gildas Sorin, Novaled's CEO. Novaled is engaged in the commercialization of the new generation of OLEDs. Novaled developed an innovative doping technology (Novaled PIN OLED) enabling large area OLED display and lighting.

Novaled claims to deliver the highest power efficiencies in combination with longest lifetimes and holds several OLED world records.

Novaled, established 5 years ago, is located in Dresden, Germany. Dresden city is becoming the biggest European organic electronic centre with a network of university, R&D centers and companies acting in the organic fields.

White OLEDs are already producing more light per watt than incandescent bulbs, according to engineering professor Stephen Forrest from Michigen University, but it is trapped inside the device. By fabricating a tandem system of grids and micro lenses on a white OLED, the device can achieve a brightness of over 70 lumens per watt, compared with 15 lumens for incandescent bulbs--almost as much as fluorescent tube lights (90 lumens).

"We have achieved 78 lumens using our grid and lens structures--almost as much as fluorescents," said Forrest. "And when you consider that a lot of the fluorescent tubes light is lost, since it comes out it all directions around the tube, our white OLEDs will be perceived in many applications as brighter than fluorescents."

As reported a few weeks ago, Samsung SDI and Samsung Electronics will combine their OLED units. The company will be called Samsung Mobile Displays, and will focus on AMOLEDs for mobile devices and small TVs.

The agreement should be finalized within the month.

Merck KGaA and DELO Industrial Adhesives announced today that they have formed a strategic partnership in the field of OLED technology. Within the scope of their agreement, the companies plan to develop future system solutions for OLED applications. The companies will join forces to market OLED adhesive products from DELO through Merck’s extensive marketing and sales channels.

In addition, Merck and DELO intend to develop innovative materials for improved OLED sealants that will facilitate the entry of OLEDs into large-format display applications. OLEDs show a high potential as the display technology of tomorrow and already are being used in MP3 players and cell phones. Within the OLED technology, Merck offers light-emitting materials while DELO offers new adhesive systems required to produce OLEDs.

Merck’s OLED materials are characterized by high quantum efficiency and longevity and the adhesives developed by DELO reliably seal off the sensitive metal layers from oxygen and moisture. This considerably extends the life of OLEDs. 

LG Display has decided to construct a new AMOLED producion line in Paju, Gyeonggi, with a 100M$ investment. The plant will start to mass-produce panels in 2010, and will focus on mobile-phones displays, and displays for PMP and navigation (less than 10").

The new 4G line will use LTPS (low temperature poly-silicon) substrate, and the capacity will be "flexible".

LG also plans to increase the capacity of their existing AMOLED line in Gumi from 50,000 units to 200,000, by the end of the year.

Read more here (DisplayBank)

In July 2008, I had the chance of interviewing Dr. Michael Fiebig from OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. Dr. Michael Fiebig gained his PhD in Physics at the University of Hanover in 1998. He joined OSRAM Opto Semicondutors in 2001, and since 2008 he is leading the Marketing and Business Development in the business segment Solid State Lighting at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors.

OSRAM is part of the Industry sector of Siemens and one of the two leading lighting manufacturers in the world. Its subsidiary, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors GmbH in Regensburg (Germany), offers its customers solutions based on semiconductor technology for lighting, sensor and visualization applications. OSRAM Opto Semiconductors has production sites in Regensburg (Germany) and Penang (Malaysia).

The Japanese government will team up with several Japanese companies to develop key-technologies for producing large-size OLED panels. The aim is to cut the development cost for the Japanese companies, to be better able to compete against Samsung and LG, and the Japanese government will pitch in around 32$M.

The project will also try to make the displays more efficient and have longer lifetime.

One report says the project will run till 2013, another that it will run until 2015, and the aim is to produce 40" OLED TVs by then. We'll have to wait and see...

The companies include -

• Sony
• Toshiba
• Matsushita
• Sharp
• Idemitsu Kosan
• Sumitomo chemical
• Dainippon Screen Mfg
• Shimadzu
• Hitachi

Interesting to see Sharp in there, after having stated that "OLEDs will not threat LCD for at least a decade".