Update 2: It's official - the OLED microdisplay is made by Sony.

Update: We got this rumor confirmed by a trusted source.

We just got an interesting rumor sent to us by an anonymous tipper. Remember Sony's A77 OLED viewfinder? Our tipper says that the microdisplay is made by Samsung. Samsung is using a "laser based technology" and not FMM (see more on Samsung's upcoming move to LITI here). Samsung is also using "new organic colors".

The display itself is 0.9" in size and has a 4:3 format. According to earlier reports the resolution is XGA (1024x768).

Researchers from RIKEN (Japan) developed a new efficient copper complex that can be used to replace Iridium phosphors in OLEDs - and would be much cheaper (copper is about 1/2000 cheaper than Iridium).

The researchers altered the molecular environment in which the copper sites - wrapping each copper ion with a newly designed organic ligand. The ligand forced the copped to become three-coordinate (three bonds to the ligand), rather than the usual four. This caused the efficiency (EQE) of the copper complex to increase dramatically.

Moser Baer broke ground today on their new OLED Lighting plant in Canandaigua, NY. They say that construction (for the first pilot line) is currently scheduled to be complete in January 2012 - which is actually a delay (originally they planned to complete the first line in 2011).

Prototype OLED lamps by UDC

Moser Baer's plant will have two pilot production lines and will produce OLED panels based around Universal Display's PH-OLED technology. This is a $20 million project - partly funded by the DOE.

I just had an interesting talk with two industry insiders (one of them is a Samsung supplier) - about Samsung's upcoming Super AMOLED HD display. It turns out that these displays are indeed real - and will be unveiled soon. We can expect 5" to 6" smartphones in fall 2011 (the first will probably be the GT-I9220 with a 5.3" display) and 7" tablets by the end of 2011.

A 7-inch Super AMOLED prototype

According to my sources, Samsung managed to achieve HD resolution on these small displays by using PenTile matrix again (like in the original Super AMOLED displays). They have also developed a new manufacturing process and are using new materials. It might be that they have finally started to use Universal Display's green PHOLED (we reported that Samsung is using a green phosphorescent in their new 5.5-Gen plant, but perhaps they will only start using it in the HD displays).

There are reports that BOE Display "considers" building a 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab in a $3.44 billion investment. According to the reports, the location will by Ordos (Inner Mongolia).

It seems that people from China's panel industry are questioning the feasibility of this project, as Ordos does not have a panel supply chain. BOE is also trying to get into the coal business and wants to get coal excavating right in the region - so some speculate that this project is simply a gimmick to help the company get those rights from the local government.

Nokia said they will not launch the N9 in the US (it's a rather limited launch, really) - but you can actually buy it unlocked in Amazon.com for $500 (or $650 for the 64Gb model). It will be shipping on September 23rd. 

The N9 is Nokia's first Meego phone - and it sports a 3.9" AMOLED display (854x480, we're not sure if it's a CBD display), 16 to 64 GB memory, 1GB RAM, Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi, compass and GPS. There's a 8mp F2.2 camera capable of 720p video. The phone is 'wrapped' in a polycarbonate shell and comes in three colors. Applications are Qt 4.7 compatible and HTML5 support in built in.

eMagin reported their 2Q 2011 results - in line with expectations. The company had $7.4 million in revenue (37% higher than 1Q, but lower than 2Q 2010). Operating income was $623,000. The company changed their accountant and will have to take some more time to complete the full Q2 earning release. They are also still experiencing yield and production issues.

The company is still on ytack to bring a new seal machine and next-gen OLED deposition machine online during the second half of 2011.

Samsung's phone roadmap was leaked - showing us 9 upcoming phones and two tablets. There are two AMOLED phones in there. The first is the GT-I9220-W43 which features a 5.3" 1280x720 Super-AMOLED-Plus display (or Super-AMOLED-HD?). This might be the Galaxy-Q phone we heard about a few weeks ago. Achieving 720p resolution on a 5.3" display requires around 270 ppi - which isn't possible with Samsung's current AMOLED technology, so we'll label this rumor 'unlikely'?

The second AMOLED phone is a Bada hone - the Wave III (S8600-W47). It will have a 4" Super AMOLED display.

Chimei Innolux (CMI) had plans to start producing AMOLED, but back June we heard that the company faces both technical and financial difficulties, and later on the company announced it will cut their expenses, although the OLED program will remain. Today we see another report that CMI will indeed reduce capex by about NT$50-60 billion (US $1.7-2 billion) for 2011, but they do plan to continue investing in OLED R&D.

While it's good to hear that the OLED program will not be terminated, we also understand that the company won't start producing AMOLEDs in the near future.

Update: It seems that there's not OLED back-display, only an OLED viewfinder, see translation below

Update II: eMagin says that Sony's viewfinder does not use their technology.

Back in March there were rumors that Sony's upcoming Alpha A77 DSLR will have an OLED viewfinder. That camera is not official yet, but Sony did submit it to a design contest - and from that page (which was taken down in the meantime) we can see that indeed it has an XGA OLED electronic viewfinder (or Tru-Finder as Sony calls it). We're not sure, but it also mentions a second OLED display - perhaps the 'normal' camera back display will also be an OLED (if someone can translate the Japanese text below, it'll be great).

The viewfinder resolution (XGA, or 1024x768) is rather a disappointment - as it was rumored that this will use Sony's 720p (1,280x720) resolution. There were also some rumors that eMagin is behind that OLED microdisplay. While eMagin do not have an XGA product, they have mentioned that they are working with a customer on a special 'commercial' microdisplay, so this may be it (disclose: I'm holding some shares in eMagin...).