November 2011

Kodak and Heraeus have developed a new easily-patterend transparent conductive film that can be used as a cost-effective alternative to ITO in touch displays. The two companies unveiled a 14" touch LCD prototype that was was fabricated using Kodak HCF-225 Film/ESTAR base and the Clevios PEDOT:PSS coating with a surface resistivity of 225 ohms/sq. It was fabricated using conventional printing processes, including UV-cured and heat processed inks.

According to the companies, the polymer-based touch screen system provides superior touch performance, flexibility, stability, a high level of transparency, neutral color and low haze all at an economic price

TAOS announced new digital color RGB and proximity sensors (the TCS3x71 and TCS3x72) - which are especially aimed to be used in phones with OLED displays. The company says this is the world's first color sensor with an IR blocking filter integrated directly on-chip and localized only to the color sensor photodiodes.

TAOS says that having a combined color and proximity sensor can be used to determine the color temperature of the ambient light and then provide the optimum display picture quality and to provide touchscreen control. These devices can also be used to create smarter products, such as household appliances, which sense color and user presence.

According to the Taipei Times, Merck is looking for Taiwanese partners to co-develop OLED technologies, mostly for small displays. Merck signed a letter of intent with Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs director-general. According to the report Merck may setup a joint-venture firm that will actually produce OLED panels.

It seems that Merck is accelerating their OLED plans, just last month they opened a new OLED R&D lab in Korea.

Samsung launched two new phones today for the Korean market - the Galaxy Note LTE and the Galaxy Nexus LTE - and both phones feature Super AMOLED HD displays (with PenTile technology). The Note has a 5.3" Super AMOLED 1280x800 stylus enabled display, a dual-core 1.4Ghz processor and a 8mp camera.

The Galaxy Nexus is the first Android v4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) smartphone with a 4.65" HD Super AMOLED display (1280x720, curved glass), a dual-core 1.2Ghz CPU, Full-HD video encoding, 5mp camera, NFC, 1GB of RAM and 16/32GB of internal memory.

Philips released their first OLED panels (or Lumiblades, as they call them) back in April 2009, and in May they sent us a few panels for a review. Since then Philips released new panels, and last week they sent us a new "experience kit" with two OLEDs: a white dot and a white tall rectangle.

Jusung Engineering reports that they managed to developed a a new metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technology to apply IGZO for use on flat panels. Jusung says they are the only company to develop an 8-Gen MOCVD IGZO tool, and that this technology will be compatible with future OLED display processes. We talked to Jusung and they say that they are already in talks with several potential clients (in Japan, China and Korea) and they hope to get purchase orders and start shipping equipment in the middle of 2012.

There are other methods (such as sputtering) for IGZO production. Sharp will soon start to produce IGZO displays in their upcoming production line, and over the past year we've seen IGZO OLED prototypes by Sony, Toshiba, AUO and other companies. Most (or all) of these prototypes have been developed using sputtering. Jusung claims that MOCVD will enable higher resolution than sputtering - indeed 4 or even 5 times higher! They also say that scaling sputtering to 8-Gen will be difficult, while their own MOCVD tool will be scalable up to these sizes easily.

Back in August Visionox officially launched their AMOLED project, which includes a 4.5-Gen production line which will start production in 2013. Today we hear that they have successfully developed a 7.6" AMOLED panel that features WVGA (800x480) resolution, 16.7 million colors, 84% NTSC color gamut and 500cd / m² brightness. Visionox says that when 30% of the pixels are lit the panel consumes 4.8W.

Visionox AMOLED pilot production line

The 7.6" panel was developed at Vixionox's Pilot line (completed in June 2010) was co-developed with the Kunshan Industrial Technology Research Institute (K-ITRI).

Engadget posted a review of the Galaxy Nexus - calling it the best Android phone on the market (and perhaps the best phone in the market period). And they love the 4.65" PenTile HD Super AMOLED display, which is "simply beyond par. Gorgeous doesn't even begin to describe this screen -- try amazing, jaw-dropping, mind-boggling... fonts are crisp, colors are vibrant, blacks are deep and viewing angles are exceptional... the writing's on the wall: Super AMOLED is brilliant, and it's only getting better.

The Galaxy Nexus is the first Android v4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) smartphone - made by Samsung. It features a 4.65" HD Super AMOLED display (1280x720, using PenTile technology) with a curved glass, a dual-core 1.2Ghz CPU, Full-HD video encoding, 5nmp camera, NFC, 1GB of RAM and 16/32GB of internal memory. The phone is now shipping in the UK (with a contract). It will be available sim-free on December 2nd, for £519 (you can pre-order now). You can buy it unlocked in the US for $879.

We haven't heard much from MicroOLED since 2009 (when they planned to release their first product towards the end of the year). Two years later - and it seems that the company is finally ready for mass production. The company reports they received orders for over 10,000 OLED microdisplays - and shipments will begin in a couple of months. The first product will be a 9.6mm 800x480 (WVGA) OLED microdisplay that uses white SM-OLEDs and RGBB color filters. Power consumption is 25mW for 60Hz video at 150cd/m².

MicroOLED OLED microdisplay

MicroOLED says that their first microdisplays will be used in a professional security product and in "sport optics" products (for example electronic binoculars for bird watching). MicroOLED is also developing their second product which will sport SVGA resolution (1280x1024). They say that the current production line has a yearly capacity of 300,000 units.

We just got word from Philips that they will offer a special "Black Friday Box" edition of its Lumiblade Experience Kit. The box will include a single Lumiblade Rectangle Tall White panel and dedicated electronics. The cost will be €120 - a €225 discount over the normal price of a €345. This offer will soon be online in their web shop.

We will soon post a review of this particualr panel. In the meantime you can read our 2009 review of Philips' smaller Lumiblades.