OLED is an emerging display technology that uses thin films of organic materials to make efficient, thin and high quality displays. OLED panels can made flexible, rollable and transparent. Korea's LG is at the forefront of OLED development and production - as the world's only OLED TV producer and a leading developer of flexible OLED and OLED lighting panels. LG's subsidiary LG Display is responsible for OLED R&D and panel production, while LG Electronics produces and markets OLED TVs.
LG's 2018 OLED TV lineup include the flagship Wallpaper OLEDW8 (which attaches to the wall using magnets), the OLED-on-glass OLEDE8, the basic OLEDC8 and the entry level OLEDB8. The only TV that is shipping now is the 55" OLEDC8 which is priced at $2,500 (note: this is an affiliated link to Amazon).
As of 2018, the only company that produces produces commercial OLED TV panels is LG Display, and LG Electronics is the leading OLED TV producer - although LGD also supplies OLED panels to other companies including including Panasonic, Sony, Grundig, Philips, Metz, Loewe, Skyworth, Changhong, Haier, Konka and others.
LG 2018 OLEDW8
Reviews of OLED TVs are terrific, and most experts and consumers agree that these OLED TVs are the best TVs ever produced - with virtually perfect image quality and beautiful form factors. LG is also developing next-generation OLED TV technologies, and has recently demonstrated a 65" rollable TV.
While the basic OLED TV design uses RGB OLED sub-pixels to create each 'pixel' (what is referred to as direct emission OLED, the design used in mobile OLED displays used in Samsung's and Apple's smartphones, for example), LG Display opted for a different OLED TV design. The so-called WRGB (or WOLED-CF) architecture uses four white OLED subpixels with color filters on top (hence W+RBG). The WRGB technology (developed by Kodak and now owned by LG Display) is much easier to produce and scale-up, even though it has some technical disadvantages - and it is the technology that enabled LG to be the first company to actually produce commercial OLED TV panels.
LG currently produces flexible OLEDs (branded as pOLEDs), for both wearable devices and smartphones. LG is the exclusive supplier of AMOLED displays for Apple's Watch smartwatch and it also supplies OLED displays for smartphones - such as the 6.4" 1440x3120 notch-type pOLED used in LG Electronics's V40 ThinQ, introduced in October 2018 and the 6" QHD+ display used by Sony in its Xperia XZ3 flagship. Click here for more information on LG's pOLED displays and its production capabilities.
LG are also working on transparent OLEDs. In 2014 LGD unveiled a 18" transparent OLED prototype, and later in 2016 LGD demonstrated transparent 55" FHD AMOLED display prototypes. These panels are not yet in production, but hopefully LG will start producing these eventually.
LG Display is developing and producing OLED lighting panels, and the company is one of the leaders in OLED lighting. The company produces several panels, including flexible OLED panels and high efficiency panels. In December 2017 LG started mass production at its new 5-Gen OLED lighting fab in Gumi, Korea.
The 5-Gen line has an initial capacity of 15,000 substrates per month - about 30 times the capacity of LG's previous 2-Gen line that had a monthly capacity of 4,000 substrates. LG hopes that the new line will enable it to produces OLED lighting panels at a much lower cost (initial estimates suggested a 95% cost reduction!) which it hopes will trigger the widespread adoption of OLED lighting globally.
According to reports from Korea, supply chain issues are slowing down LG Display's OLED production expansion plans, and key components cannot be secured.
According to the report, the delivery times of some components have more than doubled, and Korean equipment makers cannot produce and supply the production systems that LGD requires. Only 9% of components used in equipment makers in Korea are produced in Korea.
Today we published a new edition of our OLED and MicroLED Microdisplays Market Report, with all the latest information. The new edition includes more than 10 new updates, new companies, new datasheets and revamped sections on APS, Mojo vision, Porotech, PlayNitride and more.
This microdisplays market report provides a great introduction to OLED and MicroLED microdisplays, and covers everything you need to know about the current status of the market and industry. This is a great guide if you're considering to adopt OLED microdisplays in your product, if you're looking to learn more about next-generation micro-LEDs and if you want to understand this industry better.
LG Display, together with British design magazine Dezeen recently launched the 2nd OLED Go! Design competition. LGD announced the winner of this year's competition, the Caelum desk, designed by Turkish designer Cagatay Afsar.
Caelum integrates a 27-inch transparent OLED displays into the desk partition, eliminating the need for a separate monitor to free up desk real estate and reduce household clutter. When not in use, the display can switch to its transparent mode as to seamlessly blend in with the room’s décor.
LG Display has deployed 38 55" transparent OLED displays at a new bakery in Korea. This is a "futuristic" flagship branch of Korea-based Paris Baguette, in Pangyo. LG says that in this new bakery, new products and services can be experienced first, and this goes in line with the adoption of the transparent screens.
This is the largest ever transparent OLED installation, where these OLEDs are used to create a giant digital signage system. The screens are used in the store's entrance, as a smart partition between the baking station and the store, as transparent art wall, and also as transparent signage on the windows, on the bread stand.
The Korean Supreme court put an end to a years-long legal battle between LG Display and Samsung Display, saying that SDC's employees and a chief executive of one of LG's suppliers are not guilty in IP theft.
The supreme court upheld the original ruling and dismissed the appeal. The case revolved around LGD's face seal encapsulation technology for OLED displays. The main issue in the legal case was whether leaked LGD documents were trade secrets. The employees and executives were first found guilty, but at a higher court they were found innocent as it was decided that the information was already widely known in the industry.
Last year LG Display unveiled its latest OLED TV technology, branded as OLED EX, which uses a deuterium-based blue emitter materials, that enabled that LG to increase brightness by up to 30%. These panels are now adopted in LG's higher-end OLED TV panels.
According to a report from Korea, the deuterium-based blue emitters were supplied to LGD by DuPont. But the company has also been working its affiliate LG Chem to develop the capabilities to produce a similar deuterium emitter, and now LG Chem is starting to supply some of these materials to LGD.
LG Display announced that it has raised $1 billion in long-term loans from international banks, that will be invested in expanding its OLED module production line in Vietnam.
In September 2021 LGD announced it is set to expand its Hai Phong fab capacity to 13-14 million monthly units, in a $1.4 billion investment. It's not clear whether the new funds are an addition to that, or is this the funding for the 2021 announcement.
LG Display has been developing OLED microdisplay technologies for several years, and according to a new report from Korea the company is now aiming to build its first production line, as it has hopes to supply OLED Microdisplay to Apple in the future. LG is reportedly ordering deposition equipment from Korea-based OLED equipment maker Sunic System.
According to reports, Apple is using 4K OLED microdisplay produced by Sony for its first-gen AR device. But Apple could aim to replace Sony (which is a direct competitor) in its later-generation devices.
LG Display is holding its Open Innovation Forum (OIF) in Las Vegas, and the company is showing new potential applications for its 55" transparent OLED displays. LGD has teamed up with its customers and design houses to introduce these new use cases.
Above you can see the E-Crystal, which is a proposed solution for conference rooms, created with Korean interior company EXA E&C. The E-Crystal embeds a transparent OLED into the conference room glass wall. LGD also shows the Transparent Wall Skin, produced with DAIER, that adds OLED displays into a glass wall which can be easily installed in offices, hotels, and hospitals.
LG Electronics is expanding its "lifestyle" OLED Objet TV range, with two new TVs, both based on 65" 4K WOLED evo panels.
The Easel (65Art90), which you can see above, resembles an easel used for painting or showing art, and offers a movable fabric cover that can be controlled from the remote and offer just part of the TV image (Line View).
