May 2019

TCL starts flexible OLED pilot production at its Wuhan CSoT fab

China-based display maker TCL announced that its 6-Gen LTPS flexible AMOLED production line in Wuhan has commenced operation. The company already achieved some design wins with "top-class" phone makers and is expected to start shipping OLED displays to its customers in Q4 2019.

TCL's production line in Wuhan (which is actually owned by the company's subsidiary CSoT) will have a production capacity of 45,000 6-Gen substrates.

Read the full story Posted: May 31,2019

Intel shows a concept laptop design with a flexible OLED touchbar strip

Intel is showing a new concept laptop design called the Ambient at Computex Taipei 2019. The new laptop has a flexible OLED panel integrated into the touchpad, that is visible when the laptop is closed.

Intel Ambient laptop OLED touchbar prototype photo (Computex 2019)

The idea is that you can see information and control some basic functions (like Spotify music) even when the laptop is closed. The touchbar is controlled by its own Atom CPU which means it does not draw much power. This is just a prototype at this stage, it'll be interesting to see whether any laptop maker will adopt this design in future devices.

Read the full story Posted: May 31,2019

SALDtech announces its 2nd investment round, to develop flexible OLED deposition tools

SALDtech logoThe Netherlands based SALDtech, established in 2018 as a spinoff from the TNO institute, announced that it closed its 2nd financing round led by Innovation Industries and BOM, Brabant Development agency.

SALDtech developed deposition tools based on the Holst Centre's Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition that can be used to produce large area ultra-thin layers with world class performance. SALDtech says it will used the investment to develop and build flexible OLED production equipment.

Read the full story Posted: May 27,2019

Korean site suggests that Apple is considering adopting AMOLED displays in future iPads and Laptops

In February 2019 Samsung Display started to mass produce its new 15.6" 3840x2160 OLED display panels, and some of the first 2019 OLED laptops are already shipping.

HP Spectre x360 15 photo

Korea-site The Elec says that according to its sources, Apple is "considering adoption" of OLED displays in its Pro laptop and tablets lines. The iPad Pro will adopt an 11" OLED while the MacBook Pro will adopt a 15.6" one.

Read the full story Posted: May 25,2019

LGD confirms it is Lenovo's 13.3" foldable OLED supplier

Earlier this month Lenovo demonstrated a prototype 13.3" foldable OLED ThinkPad laptop. We speculated that LGD is the display supplier, and yesterday LGD's CTO confirmed this.

Lenovo said that it developed this device for over three years, and hopes to launched a commercial one in 2020. In October 2018 it was first reported that LG Display is working together with Lenovo on a 13.3" foldable OLED laptop device, but that was not confirmed until now.

Read the full story Posted: May 24,2019

IGNIS demonstrates how its compensation technology can remove burn-in signs from automotive AMOLED panels

IGNIS Innovation published the following interesting video that shows how its compensation technology can remove the visible signs of pixel aging:

IGNIS tells us that this is a 12" LTPS automotive AMOLED panel. The company tested it for 1,000 hours at 85 degrees Celsius - to make sure the company's compensation technology can remove all signs of burn-in patterns. IGNIS's Max Life technology combines a functional in-pixel compensation pixel circuit with a sensing line and the company's current measurement driver chip that can perform external compensation.

Read the full story Posted: May 20,2019

TPK and the Harvest Group not decided yet on JDI's bailout deal

Last month Reuters detailed the upcoming $2.1 bailout deal for Japan Display, led by a group of investors from Taiwan and China, including TPK and the Harvest Group. TPK and the HG are supposed to invest 80 billion Yen, but a new report from Reuters says that the plan is not finalized yet.

In what could just be a negotiating tactic, Reuters reports that the company informed JDI that they have not made a decision yet and are now "re-examining the prospects for Japan Display’s business performance". In any case it seems that JDI's future is not secure yet.

Read the full story Posted: May 17,2019

BOE unveils new OLED displays at SID 2019

China-based BOE Display has a very ambitious OLED project, and the company unveiled new flexible and automotive OLEDs at SID 2019.

BOE demonstrated several new automotive OLED technologies including a 12.3" flexible OLED display for the main instrument panel which employs a new pixel compensation circuit technology apparently developed by BOE, which can improve the brightness uniformity of the display.

Read the full story Posted: May 16,2019

OnePlus launches the 7 and 7 Pro smartphones with high quality AMOLED displays

OnePlus launched it latest flagship smartphones, both of whom utilize high-end AMOLED displays. We'll start with the OnePlus 7 Pro - a flagship smartphone that features a large 6.67" 90Hz 1440x3120 Fluid AMOLED - which apparently is a 90Hz Super AMOLED. This is a full-screen display that has an under-the-display fingerprint sensor.

The OnePlus 7 has a smaller notch-type 6.41" 1080x2340 Optic AMOLED - which is again OnePlus' own display marketing term for an SDC's Super AMOLED. It seems as if OnePlus brands its regular 60Hz AMOLED displays as Optic Displays - and its higher-end 90Hz ones as Fluid AMOLEDs.

Read the full story Posted: May 16,2019

LG to launch its rollable 65" 4K and its 88" 8K OLED TVs in the second half of 2019

In early 2019 LG Electronics announced the world's first rollable OLED TV, the 65" Signature OLED TV R and the 88" 8K Z9 OLED TV. Today LGE announced that it plans to start shipping both TVs in the second half of 2019, in Korea. LG did not disclose the price of these two high-end TVs.

LG Signature OLED TV R photo

The rollable and 88" OLED TVs will be highly expensive - these are high-end premium products. LG Electronics did however say that as it shipped over 4 million OLED TVs since the first one shipped in March 2013, OLED TVs are now "crossing the chasm" and are starting to be adopted by the mainstream market and not only early adopters.

Read the full story Posted: May 15,2019