May 2022

According to reports from Korea, Samsung Display has decided to shut down all of its remaining LCD production line next month (June 2022).

SDC has actually made the decision to quit the LCD market back in 2020, but this decision was reversed as demand for LCD displays increased following the COVID pandemic. In recent months the price of LCD panels have dropped sharply to an all time low.

China-based AMOLED producer Everdisplay is progressing with its expansion plan for its 6-Gen production line in Shanghai. EDO's new line, which will have a monthly capacity of 15,000 substrates is progressing as planned, with trial production expected in 2023.

It seems as if EDO is targeting automotive applications for its latest AMOLED displays. The company already started developing OLEDs for automotive applications in 2015, and now the company is now stepping up its efforts, as large displays are entering the automotive market.

Hyundai Mobis (Hyundai Motor Group''s car parts maker) demonstrated a new display technology, which it refers to as a variable display. The display is made from a large (34-inch) curved display, that can be moved up and down.

The curved display includes several OLED panels, to reach a total resolution of 6K

Second-generation OLED phosphorescence emission features an internal quantum efficiency of almost 100% - which would normally mean you cannot get more efficient than that.

As Kyulux explains in a recent post, though, phosphorescent suffers from a wide emission spectrum. In order to achieve a good color gamut (for which as narrow-spectrum emission as possible is best) display makers have to filter out the "tail" of the emission. This results in reduced brightness and efficiency.

At SID Displayweek 2022, BOE demonstrated a 95" 8K OLED TV display prototype. This was an impressive display, and according to DSCC, BOE actually hopes to start producing such panels commercially.

BOE, it seems, aims to produce the display at its B5 R&D line, which has a very limited capacity. But as TVs based on this panel will be premium TVs, the limited capacity may be enough.

The story of Royole financial situation continues to unfold. Last month we updated that Royole is in financial problems, and that it needs a new injection of cash in order to continue its operation.

We reported that Royole started to pay salaries for employees (after it did not pay for over 5 months), but according to a new update the company has started to lay off a large number of its employees in several departments, including sales, marketing, product development and more. In some departments, over 50% of the employees have received notices. It is understood that the compensation package for these employees is low.

According to reports from China, TCL's CSoT has finished developing its polarizer-free OLED technology (PLP) as it gets ready to adapt its T4 production line in Wuhan to produce PLP LTPO AMOLED displays.

At DisplayWeek 2022, TCL demonstrated 8" 360-degree foldable PLP-LTPO OLEDs prototypes. PLP technology is especially useful in foldable displays thanks to their thin form factor. The company says that it will soon have a capacity of 15,000 monthly 6-Gen PLP-LTPO substrates at the T4 line.

China-based OLED lighting developer Yeolight Technology is starting to build a 4.5-Gen OLED lighting production line, in Huaibei City, Anhui Province, China.

The total investment in this new fab will reach 2 billion Yuan (around $300 million USD). Construction at the site has already began. When ready, the fab will have a yearly capacity of around 7 million OLED panels.

Digitimes has an interesting article, in which it details plans by a company based in India to establish a $3 billion AMOLED fab, in India .

The company, Rajesh Exports, is a gold trading company, that aims to become an EV battery producer, and an AMOLED display maker. The company apparently has launched a subsidiary called Elest for the AMOLED project, and it started talking to three states in India, in order to gain support for its 240 Rupee (around $3.1 billion USD) fab.

Qualcomm released a new AR smart glasses reference design, called the "New Wireless AR Smart Viewer" which is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2 Gen-1 Platform. The reference design is now being sampled to select OEMs.

Qualcomm's design uses dual 0.49" 1920x1080 90Hz OLED microdisplays, produced by China-based Seeya.