September 2022

Last month LG announced its first bendable OLED monitor/TV, the OLED Flex LX3. The company now announced that it will start shipping it next month, for $2,999.

LG's OLED Flex LX3 is a bendable OLED monitor/TV that features a flexible 42" 4K 120Hz WOLED panel that can change from a flat shape to a 900R curved one (with twenty levels of possible curvature settings). Other features include D0lby Atmos, two 40W speakers, HDMI 2.1, VRR, ALLM and G-SYNC and AMD FreeSync support.

LG Display has showcased its latest transparent OLED solutions for mobility applications at InnoTrans 2022, a trade fair for transport technology.

LGD shows its 55" 38% transparency FHD transparent displays, that actually has been adopted for subway windows before. Interestingly, LGD has also unveiled a new transparent OLED display - a smaller 30" display that offers higher transparency - 45%. You can see both of these displays in the video above.

On October 25th the MicroLED Industry Association will host a webinar on microLED technologies with the University of California, Santa Barbara. UCSB has a world-leading LED research program, led by Mitsubishi Distinguished Professor Steven DerBaars and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate Professor Shuji Nakamura, professor of materials and of electrical and computer engineering.

During the webinar, Prof. Nakamura and Prof. DenBaars will both give a lecture to update on the latest microLED research done at UCSB, and a few members of the MicroLED Association will also give a lecture to introduce their company technologies. There will also be time for questions, and an open discussion.

During Intel's Innovation Day 2022, Samsung Display's CEO shows a prototype rollable AMOLED laptop display that opens up from 13-inch to 17-inch:

Over the years, Intel has been working with display makers to showcase innovative new display technologies. In early 2020 the company showed a foldable 17-inch laptop device.

Our friends at DisplayMate posted an in-depth technical review of the iPhone 14 Pro Max display. The 6.7-inch 1290x2796 10Hz-120Hz 2,300 nits LTPO AMOLED receives DisplayMate's highest display performance grade of A+.

The new iPhone has the same display size and resolution as the earlier generation iPhone 13 Pro Max, but it includes several new enhances - such as a new always-on display mode, a new dynamic island centered around the sensor area at the top area, and a higher brightness of 2,300 nits vs 1,200 nits. Altogether, the iPhone 14 Pro Max sets 15 new display performance records.

The Elec reports that LG Display lowered its internal OLED TV panel shipment goal in 2022, as it realizes it will not be able to ship the 7.8 million panels it hoped for. The TV market in general is seeing lower demand this year, and in addition LGD's hopes to sell panels to Samsung Electronics did not materialize.

Looking to 2023, however, LGD plans to produce 9.2 million OLED TV panels (out of which 5.4 million will be produced at the company's Guangzhou fab).

DSCC says that spending on equipment for the production of large area OLED panels (used in TVs and monitors) have decreased from $3 billion in 2019 to $2.05 billion in 2020, $1.47 billion in 2021 and will drop further to $1.42 billion in 2022.

DSCC estimates that in 2023, the spending on such equipment will be zero. But OLED producers will resume buying large OLED equipment in 2024. Spending in 2024 will amount $2.01 billion, and in 2025 - $1.51 billion.

OLED makers are gearing up to increase production of IT OLED panels, used in laptops, monitors and tablets. Towards that, analysts expects over 10 8.5-Gen OLED lines under consideration now in the industry. This drive is led by Samsung Display that confirmed is is building a 8-Gen (2200x2500 mm) OLED production line, that will begin production in 2024.

A 8-Gen (or actually 8.5-Gen) fab uses 2200x2500mm glass substrates. According to a new report in Korea, Samsung actually decided to adopt a larger glass - a 8.7-Gen 2290x2620 mm. The ~10cm increase will increase production efficiency by around 9%, but this means that current 8.5-Gen LCD equipment that Samsung hoped to use will not be usable any more.

This is a sponsored post by Merck

Merck inaugurated its first OLED production site in China, that has now begun operations, and it joins Merck's China-based production of liquid crystals and photoresist materials.

Merck's local OLED production will give Merck's China-based and Asia-based customers easier and faster access to OLED materials and a stable and more flexible supply chain.

A few months ago, Japan Display (JDI) announced that it has developed a "historic breakthrough in display technology" - a new OLED deposition process which they refer to as eLEAP, that is said to be cost effective and can be used to create freeform OLEDs that are brighter, more efficient, and longer lasting compared to OLEDs produced using mask evaporation (FMM).

According to a new report from Korea, Samsung Display is interested in JDI's new technique. Interestingly the report shows conflicting views within SDC - some are interested in adopting this new technology, especially at SDC's upcoming 8-Gen IT OLED production line, while others are more interested in preventing SDC's competitors (JDI, or others?) from using it, perhaps by pressuring OLED equipment makers to not offer needed equipment to JDI.