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 leading OLED TV producer and a leading developer of flexible OLED for smartphones, wearables, automotive and more. LG's subsidiary LG Display is responsible for OLED R&D and panel production, while LG Electronics produces and markets OLED TVs.
LG OLED TVs
LG Display is the world's leading OLED TV panel producer, and LG Electronics is its largest customer - although LGD also supplies OLED panels to other companies including including Panasonic, Sony, Philips, Loewe, JVC, Hisense, Konka and others. OLED TVs are considered the world's best TVs, offering the best image quality. LG makes a wide range of OLED TV panels, ranging from 42-inch to 97-inch, including bendable solutions and even a rollable 65" 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 Flexible OLEDs
LG currently produces flexible OLEDs (branded as pOLEDs), for both wearable devices and smartphones. LG is the leading supplier of AMOLED displays for Apple's Watch smartwatch and it also supplies OLED displays for smartphones. Click here for more information on LG's pOLED displays and its production capabilities.
LG is also the world's leading automotive OLED producer, and is already supplying flexible OLEDs to Cadillac, Mercedes, and others.
LG Transparent OLEDs
LG has been working on transparent OLEDs for many years. In 2014 LGD unveiled a 18" transparent OLED prototype, and later in 2016 LGD demonstrated transparent 55" FHD AMOLED display prototypes. In 2019, the company started commercial production of 55" FHD transparent OLEDs, finding small markets in signage, commercial, mobility and more.
Further reading
The latest LG OLED news:
LG Display's WOLED panels receive new low-plastic and eco-friendliness certifications from UL and SGS
LG Display says that its WOLED TV and gaming displays have been awarded UL's low-plastic verification, given to products in which the plastic usage accounts to less than 5% of their total weight.
LGD says that its 65-inch OLED TV panel contains about 4% plastic content, about 905 lower than to a 65" LCD panel. In addition, by substituting key components with easily recyclable materials, LG Display has increased the recyclability of parts to as high as 92.7% at disposal.
Samsung: we sold 1 million OLED TVs in 2023 and had a market share of 22.7% in the OLED TV market
Samsung announced that in 2023 it retained its market-leading position in the TV mraket, with a 30.1% market share (revenues). The company also disclosed that it sold 1.01 million OLED TVs in 2023 - mostly QD-OLED TVs, and some WOLED TVs as well.
Samsung quotes Omdia saying that it had a 22.7% market share in the OLED TV Market (by revenue), which is pretty impressive, as the company is relatively very new to this market.
Lian Li shows a prototype motorized gaming desk with a 30-inch transparent OLED display
Taiwan-based PC cases and accessory maker Lian Li is showing a new motorized gaming desk with a built-in 30-inch transparent OLED display.
The DK-07, currently in prototype stage, adopts LG Display's1366x768 transparent WOLED display. The desk is also a PC case. It's not clear what is the use case for the transparent display - the company is saying it can be a secondary display for your computer - and it is also showing a demo in which the transparent OLED displays ocean waves to create a nice effect. The display does not cover the entire desk area, as you can see in the image above.
Samsung and LG to deepen their cooperation on OLED displays and other areas
Samsung and LG have a long history of rivalry, but recently the companies started a surprising collaboration in the OLED industry, when in 2023, Samsung launched its first OLED TV that used WOLED panels produced by LG Display, and recently the company signed a 5-year supply agreement with LGD.
According to recent reports from Korea, this is not an isolated case. The two Korean conglomerates have decided to increase their collaboration in order to increase their competitiveness against rivals, mostly from China. The two companies have formed a "TV alliance", of which the first step is by Samsung to adopt LGD's WOLED panels. LG Display, in return have agreed to use Samsung Display's AMOLED panels in its LG Gram laptop range. This was reported already last year, but we did not know it was part of Samsung's and LG's new strategy of cooperation.
LG Display said to be progressing with its 8.6-Gen IT AMOLED line plans, to announce its plans in H2 2024
According to recent rumors, LG Display has decided to go ahead and build its 8.6-Gen (2250 x 2600 mm) IT AMOLED line, in Paju, Korea (at its P10 hub, which was originally planned for OLED TV production). The company recently started to conduct discussions with equipment makers for supply agreements.
LG Display's plan is to officially announce its 8.6-Gen production line plans in the second half of the year, and start ordering equipment. It is likely that the capacity of the fab will be between 7,500 to 15,000 monthly substrates. LG will be using its P10 building and existing equipment (backplane deposition) to reduce the costs of the 8.6-Gen line. This will mean that there will be delays to LG's WOLED TV panel capacity expansion plans.
Samsung Electronics signs a 5-year WOLED supply agreement with LG Display
In July 2023, Samsung Electronics officially launched the 83" 83S90C, the company's first TV to use LG's WOLED panels, following several years of negotiations and hesitation by the Korean rivals. Samsung then continued to launch more WOLED TVs, but did not made large orders, as it mainly uses QD-OLED panels from SDC for its high-end TVs.
According to a new report, Samsung Electronics has signed a five-year WOLED supply agreement with LG Display. This is an interesting development that may have implications for Samsung Display's QD-OLED production plans. We do not have more details, it will be interesting to learn what kind of volumes Samsung committed to.
Report says Apple reduced its OLED iPad Pro orders by 20-30% due to low expected demand
Earlier this month we reported that Samsung Display and LG Display have started to produce AMOLED displays for Apple's future iPads, to be announced later this year. Earlier expectations were for Apple to order a total of 10 million iPad AMOLED displays in 2024 from both LGD and SDC, with LGD getting around 60% of the orders.
According to a new report, Apple has decided to cut its order size by around 20-30%. Apple will be launching two OLED iPad Pro devices: 11" and 13", and the reduction in orders is for the 13" device, for which LGD is the exclusive supplier, which is why only LGD is effected by the new order cut.
LGD's Automotive OLED receive TÜV Rheinland Product Carbon Footprint certification
LG Display announced that its automotive OLED displays (both its flexible P-OLED panels and its rigid ATO panels) received TÜV Rheinland’s ‘Product Carbon Footprint’ certification, a milestone marking compliance with emissions standards across the product’s lifecycle. LGD's automotive OLEDs are highly efficient, and both utilize the company's tandem OLED structure.
LGD says that it recently introduced a new film to its automotive OLEDs, developed in-house, "Light Control Film Integration Technology" that enabled it to reduce its automotive OLEDs carbon emissions by up to 18% compared to its previous OLEDs. This method also has the added benefit of effectively streamlining the manufacturing process, further reducing product weight, and improving power efficiency compared to conventional panels that use external films.
The OLED Marketplace now lists LG Display's and BOE's transparent OLED displays
The OLED Marketplace is now listing LGD's range of transparent OLED displays, currently in 30-inch (HD resolution) and 55-inch (FHD resolution). LG's 77" transparent OLED, which will soon enter production, will also be available soon. The displays are available with an optional touch display, can be bought as a bare panel, or a monitor, or a complete 'kiosk' solution.
In addition to LGD's displays, we also list BOE's 55" FHD transparent OLED displays. BOE's panel offers similar specifications to LGD's panels, but are lower in cost. BOE is also producing 49-inch transparent OLEDs, and these will hopefully be available at the OLED marketplace soon.
LG Display returns to profit as OLED smartphone and TV shipments increase
LG Display announced its financial results for Q4 2023, with an operating profit of almost $100 million - after 7 quarters of losses. LGD says that demand for both its smartphone displays and WOLED panels (TVs and monitors) has increased. OLED revenues amounted to 57% of the company's total revenues during the quarter.
LG Display says that it expects market volatility to continue in 2024, due to prolonged unstable macroeconomic conditions. The company will be "strengthening the competitiveness of its OLED businesses", and it expects OLED panel shipments to grow 20% in 2024 compared to 2023. In the upcoming Q1 2024 quarter analysts expected earnings to weaken due to low seasonal demand.
