Researchers from Wake Forest university in North Carolina have developed new plastic based lighting technology called field-induced polymer electroluminescent (FIPEL). FIPEL panels are made from three layers of light-emitting polymers that can emit light in any color and can be made in any shape. The efficiency is on par with LEDs and they say the lifetime could reach 50,000 hours or so.

The researchers say that the all-plastic FIPEL "lamps" will be cheap and easy to make - and in fact they already found a "corporate partner" that aims to start producing samples in 2013. Obviously actually getting this technology to market will take a lot of time, effort and investment.

The Fraunhofer's COMEDD published a new video explaining all about COMEDD and its activities and the OLED production process. The video focuses on OLED Lighting and shows the institute's transparent TABOLA panels (which we reviewed back in April):

In early 2012, Samsung said they aim to start mass production of plastic-based flexible OLEDs towards the end of 2012. But 2012 is almost over, and new reports suggest that Samsung delayed their plans to early 2013.

But is Samsung really that close to mass production? One of the major hurdles towards plastic based OLEDs is the encapsulation technology. Back in early 2012 Samsung said they will use Vitex' technology (which they bought in 2010) - but this technology is difficult to scale and is very slow. When Samsung delayed the launch to 2013, it was reported that the main issue indeed was the slow encapsulation (that, and low uniformity).

A few days ago we reported that Tianma developed a 4.5" Full-HD AMOLED panel. Now we hear from a trusted source that this report was in fact wrong - the company did not develop any such panel.

When I talked to Tianma at SID they said that the current plan is to first focus on LTPS LCD production, with an aim to achieve mass production in 2013. Only then they will start adapting the process for OLED production, with mass production to start in 2014. If last week's report was wrong indeed, then I assume the company still aims for OLED mass production in 2014.

Macy's just announced a new sweater (designed by Sean John) that includes an embedded OLED video tag on the sleeve. This seems to be the same tag made by Recom for their own video-tag products (a 2.8" 320x240 display) - back in 2009. It includes 2Gb of memory and can play back images and videos (the battery will last for 6-10 hours). The more I think about wearable displays, the less I like them, but if you like getting this kind of attention, maybe it's for you.

The sweater will soon be available at Macy's, we do not know the price yet.

Researchers from the US DOE's Ames Laboratory have developed a new OLED display anode ITO alternative based on a PEDOT:PSS polymer. This material is basically not conductive and transparent enough to be used in OLEDs, but by using a multi-layered technique and special treatments the researchers were able to fabricate PEDOT:PSS OLEDs that are actually 44% more efficient than ITOs, and are transparent enough. This is in fact the most efficient transparent anode material ever developed.

PEDOT:PSS is also flexible, which means it can be used to make flexible OLED panels, unlike ITO. There's a lot of interest in replacing ITO which is expensive, not flexible and not environmental friendly. Just last month there were two interesting announcement regarding ITO alternatives in OLED lighting: Konica Minolta and NEDO's new replacement film and Heraeus' new polymer OLED HIL-E materials.

Idemitsu Electronic Materials Korea (Idemitsu Kosan's Korean subsidiary) announced that their OLED material production plant in Paju is now complete - and they will soon start production. Commercial shipments of OLED materials will start at next spring, after quality inspection and production processes are complete. The building floor area is about 5,000 m2 and the annual production capacity is about 10 tons.

Idemitsu will offer these materials to companies in Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Europe. Idemitsu is currently producing OLED materials in its Shizuoka factory in Japan, and this second production base will extend their capacity while also enable a more stable supply to customers.

Correction: according to our trusted source, this report was wrong - Tianma did not develop such an AMOLED display...

According to reports, Tianma developed a 4.5" Full-HD AMOLED panel. In a recent trial production run the company managed to produce the panels (in addition to 3.2" AMOLED panels as well). Tianma may be possible to mass produce these panels in 2013 - with an aim to become one of the world's leading smartphone display makers.

The company has a pilot 4.5-Gen AMOLED fab in Shanghai (it was reported in 2010 that the pilot line's cost was $72 million and the Chinese government helped with $40 million in funding). The pilot fab is able to produce around 1,000 glass substrates in a month. Tianma's prototype panels shown at SID (in June) used a direct-emission architecture and an LTPS backplane. I assume the new panels use the same architecture.

Verizon are now offering the Stratosphere II smartphone for free with a two-year contract. Samsung's Stratosphere II is a QWERTY slider Android 4.0 smartphone that features a 4" Super AMOLED display, a 1.2 Ghz dual-core CPU, LTE and NFC.

Sony offered some nice discounts for the PSP Vita portable gaming console for Black Friday, and the company announced today that they sold 160,000 Vitas from November 19 to 25. Sony sold over 2 million consoles already (selling around 250,000 in a month worldwide). It costs $249 for the Wi-Fi model and $299 for the 3G model, and Sony offered the Wi-Fi bundle for $199 (including the Uncharted Dual Pack, inFamous Collection and PS Plus trial).

The Vita features a 5" touch Samsung-Made OLED display (960x544, apparently with green PHOLED), a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor and a quad-core PowerVR (SGX543MP4+) GPU (Sony says that it is as powerful as a PS3), Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and 3G (AT&T, optional). Gaming controls include dual analog sticks, motion controls and a multi-touch pad on the rear side.