November 2017

IHS: SDC will retain its RGB OLED market lead, will double its capacity by 2022

IHS analyst David Hsieh posted a very interesting article that discuss the global OLED industry with a special focus on China. Samsung is expected to retain its lead in this market - and will more than double its capacity between 2017 to 2022.

RGB OLED Capacity, 2012-2022 (IHS)

In five years (2022), Samsung will have a capacity to produce 16.6 million square meters of RGB OLED displays, or 52% of the global capacity. SDC will be followed by LG Display (11%), Tianma (6%), CSoT (5%), Visionox (4%) and EverDisplay (4%).

Read the full story Posted: Nov 30,2017

The Korean Government did not finish its review of LGD's plan to build an OLED TV fab in China

In July 2017 LG Display announced that it has decided to build a 8.5-Gen (2200x2500) OLED line in Guangzhou, China, to make OLED TV panels. The Korean government hesitated whether to approve this plan, as it sees OLED as a strategic technology Korea' economy and this is the first time a Korean company plans to build an OLED fab outside of Korea.

Earlier this month we posted a report from Business Korea that seemed (it was a rather confusing report...) to suggest that the Korean Government committee decided to approve this plan, and LG is now free to start constructing its fab. Today YonHap news says that the Korean government has not finished to review LGD's request.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 29,2017

JR Kyushu installs Japan's largest OLED signage display in Hakata Station, Fukuoka

JR Kyushu announced that it will install Japan's largest OLED signage, at Hakata Station in Fukuoka early next year. The sign is a curved display made up from 36 OLED TV (55") panels produced by LG Display.

Hakata Japan, OLED signage installation (Nov-2017)

The whole sign is 4 meters high and 7 meters wide, designed in a curve that seems as if the viewers are enclosed by the image. The display was jointed developed by Dai Nippon Printing and LG Electronics Japan. We have visited Fukuoka a few months ago (to participate in the TADF workshop) - it will be great to see this new OLED sign next time we are in Hakata Station.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 29,2017

IHS: smartphone AMOLED revenues reached a record $5.11 billion in Q3 2017

IHS says that SDC increased its lead in the smartphone display market, reaching a market share of 42.7% in Q3 2017. Samsung is followed by JDI (12.5%), LG Display (10.1%), BOE (8.8%) and Sharp (7.7%). The smartphone display market totaled $11.8 billion in Q3, a new quarterly high.

Smartphone display market share Q3 2017 (IHS)

IHS says that OLED smartphone revenue reached a record high in the quarter - $5.11 billion (up 32.4% from the $3.86 billion in Q2 2017). SDC's market share in the OLED smartphone display market is 98.5% ($5.03 billion). IHS actually expects SDC's market share to increase slightly to 98.8% in Q4 2017.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 29,2017

Kateeva officially launches its R&D and pilot OLED TV ink jet printing systems, acquires a large IP portfolio

OLED ink-jet developer Kateeva made several interesting updates regarding its OLED Ink Jet printing technologies. First up, the company formally introduced its inkjet equipment for large-area RGB OLED emitter deposition. Kateeva brands its new line as YIELDJet Explore and these systems are targeted for R&D lines and pilot lines.

Kateeva YIELDJet TFE system photo

Kateeva offers two systems, the Explore, which is used for early development and small panels (up to 200 mm substrates) and the Explore Pro which can be used to produce panels up to 55" in size (this is still a development/pilot system, though). Kateeva announced that it has shipped four Explore systems in 2017, and it expects to ship three additional systems by Q2 2018.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 29,2017

ETNews: BOE is considering its third flexible OLED line as it aims to become an Apple OLED supplier

Last month BOE started to produce flexible OLED displays at its Chengdu B7 fab, and according to ETnews the company is aiming to become a future Apple supplier and so is planning ambitious flexible OLED capacity expansion.

BOE Flexible AMOLED prototype photo

BOE's B7 fab, the company's first flexible AMOLED line, will have a full capacity of 48,000 6-Gen substrate per month (this will only be achieved in the first half of 2019). In October 2016 BOE announced another 6-Gen OLED fab (the B11 line) in Mianyang. The Miangyang fab will have a similar capacity and will initiate production in 2019.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 28,2017

Sigmaintell: LGD shipped 1.2 million smartphone AMOLED panels in Q3 2017

China-based Sigmaintell estimates that the smartphone display shipments were about 530 million units in Q3 2017, with SDC ranking as the top vendor (with 106 million panels). LG display shipments were down 28% (to 33 million units).

Sigmaintell estimates that LG Display shipped 1.2 million smartphone AMOLED panels. LGD is currently shipping a single smartphone AMOLED panel, a 6" 1440x2880 (537 PPI) one used in LG's own V30 and Google's Pixel 2 XL. Reviewers and consumers alike were disappointed in LG's AMOLED performance.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 23,2017

Solar-Tectic developed a new OLED backplane technology to bridge the gap between IGZO and LTPS

US-based Solar-Tectic has launched a new low-temperature OLED backplane technology that could replace LTPS in future high-end mobile OLED displays and bridge the performance gap between IGZO and LTPS.

Solar-Tectic process, called LT1CS (Low temperature single crystal silicon) is a silicon based technology that creates highly oriented c-axis aligned or "textured" silicon crystals. Solar-Tectic says that the performance of LT1CS backplanes will be higher than IGZO performance. The company says that process is similar to SEL's CAAC-IGZO only based on silicon and not IGZO.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 22,2017