October 2016

BOE Technology announced that it signed a framework agreement with the Miangyang government in Sichaun to establish a Gen-6 (1500 × 1850 mm) flexible AMOLED fab. Total investment in this fab is estimated at 46.5 billion yuan ($6.87 billion USD).

BOE says that the fab's capacity will be 48,000 substrates per month, and it will be used to produce small to medium sized flexible OLEDs, mainly for mobile phones. BOE aims to start construction in the second quarter of 2017 and mass production will begin in 2019.

Apple's move to adopt OLED displays in future iPhones has been discussed many times in the past, and now it is Sharp's newly appointed CEO Tai Jeng-wu turn to "confirm" these reports. During a talk in Tatung University, Tai said that Apple is indeed switching to an OLED display in future iPhones.

Tai further commented that OLED represents the best chance for Apple to truly innovate its displays - so this is both a problem and an opportunity for Apple. This cannot be considered to be a real confirmation as many reports suggest, but it is pretty clear that OLED is the way to go for future displays.

During LG Display's financial results conference call, the company made some interesting comments on its OLED business. First of all LGD says that its OLED TV unit is now EBITDA positive (even though currency changes held harmed the profit), and as capacity and shipment increase, the company will improve its profit as well.

Regarding the small to mid-size panels, LGD sees the transition from LCD to flexible OLED accelerating. Mass production from LGD's E5 Gen-6 flexible OLED fab is expected by the first half of 2017. LGD aims to both achieve mass production stability and strengthen its business cooperation with various customers.

During AU Optonics' financial results conference call, the company's Chairman and CEO Paul Peng said that he expects OLED shipments to double next year. AUO is still cautious about the OLED industry, though, and will refrain from large-scale investments in the near term.

The reasons given for AUO's prudent approach to OLEDs is first of all that the company is not sure it will have a good return on investment. Secondly, AUO says that it is not sure OLED quality is actually higher than LCD - but this seems to be a defensive stance, as OLEDs are widely regarding to be the best performing displays ever.

The US DoE published a new CALiPER report made by the PNNL laboratory, with photometric testing, laboratory teardowns and accelerated lifetime testing of OLED luminaires. As you can see in the photo below, the four luminaries (from top-left, clockwise) are the OTI Aerelight, Acuity Brands Chalina and Acuity Brands Nomi (single panel and dual panel).

The report contains a lot of interesting information (see the link below to access the PDF). The PNNL researchers find that efficiency of OLED luminairies is still low compared to LED lamps - ranging from 23 lm/W to 45 lm/W. The OLED panels themselves are more efficient (42 - 55 lm/W) but the reduction in efficiency is mostly due to very inefficient transformer and driver selections and combinations.

LG Display's OLED business unit president Yeo Sang-duk says that the company's OLED TV production capacity is currently 100,000 units per month, as the company achieved a stable yield rate of over 80%.

LGD is expanding its capacity and will be able to produce 2 million panels in 2017 and 2.5 million in 2018. Only a couple of months ago LGD said that they plan to sell 1.7 million panels in 2017 - so it seems the company is indeed more optimistic now, maybe due to the higher yields.

According to ETNews, LG Display is aiming to start pilot production of ink-jet printed large-area OLEDs during the first half of 2017. This is just an initial step, and it may take one or two years to achieve mass production following the launch of the pilot line.

LG Display's pilot line will be an 8-Gen line and the company hopes that the new production technology will be more efficient than vacuum deposition - and will also enable LGD to produce "direct emission" RGB OLED TVs - which will offer lower-cost production, higher quality and more efficient displays and less components (no need for color filters).

As was pretty much confirmed by several reports and leaks, Apple introduced its new MacBook Pro 2016 models - which include an OLED Touch Bar instead of the traditional function keys.

The OLED strip is supported by most of Apple's applications and can be used to show bookmarks while you browse the internet, emojis in messaging applications, and more. Apple released an API to developers can support the Touch Bar in third-party applications. The OLED strip also includes a Touch ID sensor that is activated for example when you wish to pay online (on supported web stores).

During a display seminar in Korea, Park Won-sang, SDC's principal engineer, said that the company is expecting VR and AR applications to increase demand for high-end OLED displays. Park says that smartphone-based VR device shipments will grow to 66 million units in 2017, up from 4 million units in 2013 (this data originates from ABI Research).

VR and AR technology demands very high-end displays, and OLEDs are seen as the ideal technology - as it features high response time and better contrast compared to LCD displays. The biggest challenge, according to Park, is the power consumption that needs to be increased to enhance the AR and VR experience.

Following the Galaxy Note 7 discontinuation, Samsung Electronics reported a 17% drop in quarterly profits - and its net income fell to $3.9 billion.

Regarding its OLED business, Samsung is sending a confusing message. The company reports a decline in flexible OLED shipments compared to the previous quarter - due to the discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7. On the other hand, Samsung says that OLED earnings increased as overall high-end flexible display shipments increased. So it's not clear what actually happened...