AUO unveiled a new 4.3" AMOLED panel offering 257ppi. The company actually said they "launched" the new product, but it seems that they aren't mass producing it yet (this will probably happen in early 2012). But the company is reportedly shipping samples already.

The company has also demonstrated a 6" transparent OLED display (with a transparency rate of over 35%), and a 4" Touch AMOLED display that features 30% less energy consumption compared to other AMOLED. We assume that this display includes an in-cell touch panel - similar to Samsung's Super AMOLED displays. AUO unveiled their AMOLED in-cell touch technology back in June 2010.

Air Products announced a new contract with Samsung Mobile Display to supply gaseous nitrogen and oxygen, and liquid Argon to SMD's 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab. Air Products will build another air separation unit and pipeline at its Tanjeong, Korea site for gases supply to SMD's upcoming fab. Air Products will also build purification, filtering and monitoring systems.

This is Air Products's 2nd AMOLED gas contract with Samsung - the first one announced in December 2010.

There are reports from Korea that Samsung Mobile Display may delay their 5.5-Gen AMOLED fab expansion. The reports claim that SMD already postponed equipment orders for the third phase, and they will also delay expansion of the second line.

Samsung's original plans were to finish all three stages by the end of 2011. This was later delayed - the second line towards the end of 2011, and third line at the first half of 2012.

There are reports that AUO has started to ship AMOLED panel samples to smartphone makers - and the company plans to start mass production in 2012. We're not sure what kind of panels these are, but back in March 2011 they added a 3.5" AMOLED 360x640 panel to their product line, so these may be the same panels samples being shipped now.

AUO actually planned to start mass production back in Q2 2011, but the company faced technology issues and had to delay to Q3/Q4 2011, and now we hear of further delays to 2012. AUO will use their Taiwanese Gen-3.5 fab for these panels, most likely (the company is also working towards converting its 4.5-Gen LTPS line in Singapore to AMOLED production).

Universal Display announced that they have been awarded a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project to demonstrate further gains the performance of large-area phosphorescent based OLED lighting panels through enhanced thermal management techniques. The DOE awarded $1 million (or $999,963, to be exact) to UDC. This is a follow up to the SBIR Phase I project awarded in June 2010.

While OLEDs generate low heat, and UDC's PHOLED technology and materials generate even less heat, using thermal management techniques can still lower operating temperature and extend the OLED's lifetime.

MagnaChip announced that they are providing the display driver IC for the new Galaxy S2 LTE smartphone announced a couple of weeks ago. MagnaChip's driver will be used in the S2 LTE phone with the 4.65" 800x480 Super AMOLED Plus display, not the S2 LTE HD phone (which has a Super AMOLED HD 1280x720 display).

MagnaChip says that their drive features MIPI DSI (Mobile Industry Processor Interface Display Serial Interface) designed specifically for smartphone applications and ACL (Automatic Current Limit) which significantly improves performance and power consumption efficiency.

Update: it turns out that the report was not entirely accurate. Philips thinks that the prices will drop to â‚¬10-€20 in two years (by the end of 2013, not the end of 2012).

Philips say that the new €40 million Aachen OLED lighting production line will expand their capacity 10 times - and will enable them to drop the prices significantly. In fact, while prices today are in the range of €70 to €800, by the end of 2012 the cheapest panels will cost €10-€20.

According to Philips, if they can get the price down to €10-€20, this will become a mass market - they want customers to get OLED panels in their local hardware shops. I think that even with 10 times the current capacity, it won't be enough to actually consider this a mass market lighting device, but still it's great to hear that Philips have aggressive targets.

eMagin announced their financial results for 2Q 2011. Revenues were $7.4 million, operating income was $623,000 and net income was $3 million. The company says that production has improved - and so has gross margins. They also say that the business continues to expand, and that they begun shipments to their new high-end camera customer.

The company also announced that this filing will enable them to regain compliance with the NYSE/Amex listing continued requirements. They are still optimistic that they will meet their 2011 revenue guidance of $29 to $33 million. The new OLED deposition machine is on its way - which will result in improvements in capacity and yield. Investors seemed happy with this report - and the stock climbed 37%.

Merck announced it has opened a new Application Development Laboratory in Korea. This lab will focus on OLED R&D and its design is based on the OLED labs in Merck's Materials Research Center in Darmstadt.

The lab will develop OLED materials in collaboration with Merck's Korean customers, and will offer chemical synthesis, refinement and analysis.

The OLED Association decided to award this year's OLED Leader Award to Ted Tohma. Ted was responsible to create Pioneer's OLED business unit back in 1997 and also of producing and marketing the world's first commercial OLED (PMOLED) displays. Ted also prophesied the progression from PMOLED to AMOLED and transitioned Pioneer towards Active Matrix displays.

Ted now consults several organization in the OLED industry. Ted Tohma started it all says Barry Young, Managing Director of the OLED Association.