According to reports in Japan (by Nikkei Asia), Apple has teamed up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) to develop OLED microdisplay technologies for Apple's upcoming AR products.

The reports says that TSMC is also doing trial production of microdisplays, but it will take several years before mass production is achieved. Apple's OLED microdisplay research is performed at its Taoyuan labs, where the company is also developing microLED technologies. It is reported that Apple is publicly looking for employees with OLED expertise in Taiwan.

According to reports from Vietnam, LG Display plans to expand its OLED TV module production facility in Hai Phong, Vietnam, in a $750 million investment. If approved, LG's plan will increase its total investment in Vietnam to $3.25 billion.

LG Display built it first Hai Phong facility back in 2016, and it then expanded the module factory in 2017. According to recent reports, Samsung Electronics is also looking into building an OLED display module factory in Vietnam.

Yesterday we posted that according to our information, LG Electronics is planning to release a second OLED monitor soon, with a 27-inch OLED panel. Today B&H added an early product page, listing the new monitor with a $2,996 price tag. The model number is indeed 27EP950B as expected. B&H does not list any other details or even a photo of the monitor, but you can already pre-order the monitor.

LG's first 2021 OLED monitor, the 31.5-inch 4K UltraFine OLED Pro, model 32EP950 is using an inkjet-printed OLED panel produced by Japan's JOLED. It is likely that the 27-inch panel used in the 27EP950 is also produced by JOLED. We still do not know the price of the 31.5-inch monitor.

According to a new report from Korea, two SDC researchers were convicted of handing over OLED technology to other companies, and are being sent to prison for two years. Representative and directors of the company that bought the technology was also sent to prison and the company was fined.

The technology in question relates to Optical Adhesive Materials used in OLED production processes. The arrest of these employees was reported in August 2020.

Last month LG Electronics announced its first OLED monitor, the 31.5-inch 4K UltraFine OLED Pro, model 32EP950. According to online reports, LG Electronics is planning to release another OLED monitor, this one with a 27-inch panel (likely to be model number 27EP95).

The 31.5" 4K OLED used by LG Electronics is produced by JOLED, using an ink-jet printing process.

Researchers from Soochow University, in collaboration with a wide team of scientists from China and Japan (including Prof. Adachi from Kyushu University) developed a TADF emitter material compound that features high efficiency and a narrow color spectrum.

Up until now, most TADF emitters featured a wide spectrum, which limits the adoption of TADF materials in displays as they cannot enable a wide color spectrum. To overcome this problem companies employ a structure in which the TADF emitter is combined with a narrow-spectrum fluorescence emitter (so-called Hyperfluorescence).

In 2019 Samsung Display formally announced its decision to invest $10.85 billion in QD-OLED TV R&D and production lines. The company is already starting to produce prototypes, and is on track to start mass production in Q3 2021. Reports in 2020 suggested that Samsung Electronics was hesitant about the adoption of QD-OLED panels.

This may have changed now, as we hear that Samsung Electronics has decided to cooperate with SDC and release its first QD-OLED TV next year (2022).

DSCC posted an interesting post with its latest views and forecasts on the OLED material market. The company expects AMOLED stack material sales to grow at a 18% CAGR in the next five years, from $294 million in 2019 to $2.46 billion in 2024. Compared to its previous estimate, DSCC sees higher sales as demand for OLED TVs and OLEDs in the IT market (tablets and notebooks) is increasing.

DSCC also posted an analysis of LGD's new evo OLED material stack. Compared to LGD's "standard" WOLED stack, the evo adds an emitting green layer to improve the brightness by 20%. This of course adds an extra material cost to the panel price.

Scientists from North Carolina State University and the University of Texas have developed and demonstrated a new approach for designing photonic devices. The new method enabled the team to control the direction and polarization of light from thin-film LEDs, overcoming the widely known obstacles of beam shaping that arise from their Lambertian nature. Such LEDs with directional and polarized light emission could be useful for many photonic applications.

The researchers demonstrated that this approach could be used to emit directional and polarized light from an OLED devices without external optical elements.

The Fraunhofer FEP Institute published this nice video that shows its latest technology innovations, including its OLED (regular and bi-directional) microdisplays, its new AR/VR optics, flexible OLED lighting panels, its Monarch flexible and transparent OLED panels, sensor and coating technologies and more.

The Fraunhofer FEP also created and published a new virtual tour of its facilities, where you can have a look inside the labs and flexible organic electronics R&D clearnroom.