A week ago we reported that Philips is going to release a new 'secret' TV.
There were rumors that it will be an OLED TV, but it ain't so - Engadget reports that the new TV is an ultra-widescreen (21:9 ratio, that's cinema-proportion) LCD.
Graphene has great mechanical and electronic properties (it is basically an atom-thick strong carbon nanotube), but up until now it's been very difficult to make in a large size. Now scientists say they can make a centimetre-scale samples of the stuff.
If/When this technique actually works, it could lead to create films that are transparent and flexible - which could be used in displays (also in solar cells).One of the problems with flexible OLEDs is the backplane. Some work on metal-foil, and some on plastic, but Graphene could prove to be the ideal material.
Following Australia and California, it seems that the EU is also considering banning power hungry TVs - large Plasma ones, to be exact.
The EU proposed standards are less stringent than those proposed in California. It's quite possible that in future years we'll no longer be able to buy those kind of TVs anywhere - which might give power efficient technologies such as OLED TVs a great boost.
Novaled announced that it has closed its third round of financing with a â¬8.5 million (or about $11.2 million) investment. Novaled will use the money to extend the commercialization of its OLED lighting and display technologies (PIN-OLED).
Novaled managed to raise this kind of money in a tough financial environment and it's good news for the company - which has been an OLED-Info sponsor since 2007...
UDC announced that it got a $1,089,600 new contract (SBIR III) from the United States Army to continue and develop the Flexible OLED display tech. The wrist-worn 4" OLED device has been shown at CES earlier this month.
UDC Flexible OLED Display Prototype
The program is extended for 15 months, and will focus on demonstrating advances in display performance, including higher display
brightness and enhanced reliability, as well as improved product design
(i.e., a thinner, lighter weight and more compact system housing). During this time they will also put actual prototypes in the field for soldiers to test.
The OLED materials are from UDC, while the backpane is amorphous Siliocn (a-Si) TFT backpane made by LG. The wrist-worn device was designed by L-3 Display Systems.
Sony is showing a rather nice concept of a flexible-oled based walkman called 'Contrast'. The whole device is flexible, which allows for physical bending which is the control interface.
LG has signed a deal with Apple to supply LCD displays. SoftPedia are reporting that LG will also supply OLEDs to Apple to use in new laptops, iPods and iPhones.
This will be a great deal and will put OLEDs in the spotlights. We can only home the Softpedia report is true (currently I classify it as rumors only...)
Here's a nice video from CES showing the iRiver SPINN with its 3.2" touch AMOLED display (480x372):
MagnaChip has announces a new high-end WVGA AMOLED driver, the EA8850 for high-res handsets.
The chips supports resolutions of 480x864 and 360x640, at 16m colors, and also supports
Qualcomm's MDDI 1.2 tech (enables frame buffer-less architecture and lowers power consumption with its reduced
signal swing).
The EA8850 also has power-saving functionality.
Here's a nice video interview with Barry Young from the OLED Association. Beside the interview, you can see some pretty neat flexible OLED prototypes:
