Israel-based Orbotech announced that TianMa selected the company's Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) and test systems in its new 6-Gen flexible OLED fab in Wuhan, China. Orbotech's systems will be used to optimize the quality, throughput and process efficiency at Tianma's new production line.

AMOLED panel produced at TianMa 6-Gen fab, Wuhan

Orbotech also reveals that Tianma's investment in this new fab will reach about $1.8 billion. The new fab has stated sample production recently and will ramp up to mass production by the end of the year. The new line capacity will reach 30,000 monthly substrates, and Tainma aims to double the capacity in 2018.

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Hyperfluorescence combines TADF and fluorescence to provide the ultimate OLED emission technology, and unlike phosphorescence, it enables full RGB color, 100% IQE and pure narrow spectrum color. Hyperfluorescence is set to replace existing emitter technologies by early 2020, and Kyulux aims to release its first commercial materials by 2018.

Researchers from the Institute of low temperature and structure research in Wroclaw, Poland, developed a new white light source based on graphene-foam. Graphene does not have a band-gap, but this device uses a continuous-wave laser to excitate the graphene and opens up a bandgap which results in light emission that UV to near-infralight.

The researchers say that the light spectrum of this device is similar to the spectrum of the sun which is better than current light sources such as LEDs that offer light spectrum with strong peaks (the main problem is the strong blue light emission in LED lighting). This design can achieve a high efficiency (over 200 lm/W), high color rendering index (CRI > 99) and a broadband warm white color. The lifetime depends on the laser, which can be over 10,000 hours.

JOLED announced that it started to sample 21.6" 4K OLED monitors. These monitors, demonstrated in March 2017, feature a 3840x2160 resolution (204 PPI), a brightness of 350 cd/m² and a contrast ratio of 1,000,000 : 1. The panel thickness is 1.3 mm and the weigh is 500 grams.

JOLED aims to start mass producing these panels in 2019, but will also attempt to sell these to the medical market even in low-volume production out of its current 4.5-Gen pilot production line.

Corning announced that Samsung Display is using the company's Lotus NXT glass as the carrier glass in its latest flexible OLED panels, including those that are used in the Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones. Both these new flagship phones also adopt Corning's Gorilla Glass 5 cover glass.

Samsung Display is producing its flexible OLEDs on a flexible polyimide substrate, and the Lotus NXT glass is used as a carrier glass during production (it is removed at the end of the process).

UBI Research estimates that the OLED emitter material market will grow from $960 million in 2017 to $3.36 billion in 2021.

UBI says that displays shipping to Apple will amount to $560 million in emitter material sales in 2021.

Oculus developed a new way to improve extended focus depth issues with VR HMDs. The so-called focal surface display augments a regular HMD setup by using a spatially programmable focusing element placed between the eyepiece and the underlying color display.

Oculus's prototype unit uses an eMagin WUXGA (1920×1200) 60 Hz color microOLED display. Oculus is currently using SDC's AMOLED displays in its commercial HMDs. It is great to see the company experimenting with microOLED displays as well, even if these are just prototypes at this stage.

According to China Daily, BOE started producing flexible OLEDs at the company's new 6-Gen fab in Chengdu. BOE's new fab has a capacity of 45,000 monthly substrates - enough to make around 90 million smartphone sized AMOLEDs annually. It's likely that BOE only started pilot production currently, as earlier estimates were that full production will only begin towards the end of 2017.

According to the report the total investment in this new fab will reach $6.75 billion - higher than earlier reports of around $3 billion (more on this below).

LG Electronics launched its 77" Signature OLEDW7 Wallpaper TV in Korea, with a price tag of 33 million Won (almost $30,000, although there's a 4 million Won discount if you order before the end of June). LG aims to gradually release its flagship TV globally in the coming months.

LG's OLED W7 is the company's top-of-the-line OLED TV for 2017. The TV is extremely thin (2.57 mm all the way) and attaches to the wall using magnets. A thin cable on the bottom connects to the sound bar. Other features include a 4K resolution, HDR support (to four different standards), WebOS 3.5 and Dolby Atmos sound. The 65" model is now shipping for around $8,000.