In 2019, it was reported that Samsung Electronics is in early talks with China's CSoT for flexible OLED supply for low-end and mid-tier smartphones. According to a new report from Korea, Samsung Electronics has decided to adopt a CSoT flexible OLED panel for its upcoming budget Galaxy M41 smartphone.

Motorola Edge

If true, this is the first time that Samsung Electronics will adopt an OLED that wasn't produced by Samsung Display. The M41 will use a 6.67-inch 1080x2340 AMOLED, the same panel used in Xiaomi's Mi 10 and Motorola's Edge.

Researchers from Korea's Pusan National University have developed an efficient deep-blue phosphorescent OLED emitter. The researcher say that their new materials has an EQE of 24% while the color point is CIE (0.149, 0.085).

According to the Korean press, the main achievement in this research was the adjustment of the doping concentration of a novel dopant (mer ‐Ir1) to optimize the balance of electron and holes in the light emitting layer.

Earlier this year, reports from Korea suggested that Samsung Electronics is looking to order some OLED panels from China's BOE - including for its flagship S21 smartphone to be announced later this year.

A new report from Korea's DDaily suggests that BOE failed to pass Samsung's display quality test. Samsung Electronics is likely to retain Samsung Display (partly owned by SE) as an exclusive AMOLED supplier for its 2020-2021 smartphones.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin announced that the company received a $5.5 million award from the US Department of Defense to improve eMagin’s OLED microdisplay manufacturing capabilities.

The award was granted under the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) Program for OLED Supply Chain Assurance. These funds will be used for procurement and installation of capital equipment in eMagin’s NY-based manufacturing facility.

LG Display announced that it has been selected by the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to lead a national large-scale project to develop stretchable displays. LGD says that this project is a major part of the MOTIE's drive to help Korea's next-generation display industry.

A 9.1" stretchable OLED (Samsung Display)

LGD says that the goal of this project is to develop stretchable display products with a 20% elongation rate by 2024. The company believes such displays can vastly widen the scope of applications that displays can be applied to. 21 companies, universities and research institutes will take part in this government-supported project.

LG Chem announced that it has sold most of its LCD polarizer business to China’s Ningbo Shanshan, in a $1.1 billion deal. LG Chem will retain its automotive LCD polarizer business, and aims to focus on "strengthening its competitiveness in tech materials, especially OLED and nurture its OLED polarizer business".
In 2018 DSCC estimated that the OLED circular polarizer market will grow from $428 million in 2017 to $1.27 billion in 2022. The market is still dominated by mobile displays. In 2018 the OLED circular polarizer market was led by Sumitomo Chemical and Nitto Denko, with LG Chem increasing its market share in OLED TVs polarizers.

CLSA says that Samsung Display saw a decline in demand for OLED panels in Q1 2020, and its flexible OLED fab utilization rate dropped to 40%.

In April demand from Chinese smartphone maker recovered and CLSA expects meaningful growth in OLED smartphone demand with Samsung's utilization rates exceeding 90% in Q3.

In early 2019, nreal unveiled its AR glasses that provide high quality 52-degree FOV images in a relatively small and normal-looking frame that weighs just 85 grams. The prototypes shown at CES used Sony's FHD 0.7" OLED microdisplays (ECX335AF-7), but according to reports the commercial units will use BOE's OLED microdisplays (probably sized 0.71").

This a good design win for BOE, who started shipping its OLED microdisplays towards the end of 2019. nreal's AR glasses will ship in Q3 2020 for $499.

Chinese OLED producer Visionox launched a new under-the-OLED camera technology, branded as InV See - which is the world's first such display. The main application for this technology is to enable a selfie camera in a full-screen OLED smartphone.

InV See utilizes a transparent section in the OLED display that allows a camera to be placed behind it. Visionox says that for this technology it developed a new pixel structure, new driver circuits and used new materials.

Helio Display Materials, based in the UK, was spun-off from both Oxford and Cambridge University, to commercialize photoluminescent and electroluminescent perovskite-based materials for the display industry - with solutions for the OLED, LCD and Micro-LED markets.

Our sister site, Perovskite-Info, posted an interview with Helio's CEO, Simon B. Jones, discussing the company's technology and business.