OLED TV: Introduction and Industry News - Page 2

Stacked, or tandem, OLED architecture involves integrating multiple OLED emission units vertically within a display panel, rather than just one as in traditional OLEDs. By stacking these layers, each can contribute to the overall light output, enabling higher brightness and efficiency – and also longer lifetime as each OLED device is driven at a lower current. Technically, a tandem device includes exactly 2 layers, but this term is now loosely used to describe any stacked OLED.

Standard RGB OLED stack, vs Tandem RGB stack (source: Excyton)

The stacked OLED structure is particularly valuable for applications where high brightness (including in HDR scenarios), efficiency (although this is not dramatic) and durability are essential – mostly IT devices (laptops and tablets), microdisplays and automotive displays. OLED TV panel makers have also adopted stacked architectures, but for slightly different reasons (which we will discuss below). Companies are developing novel stacked based architectures.

In this article, we will discuss:

• The advantages and disadvantages of stacked architectures
• The current architecture used by OLED panel makers
• The stacked designs of LG’s WOLEDs and Samsung QD-OLEDs panels
• The latest innovative technologies
• The future of the stacked OLED industry and markets

UBI Research says that Samsung Display's mid-large OLED panel shipments reached 4.9 million panels, up 58.2% from Q1 2025 (3.1 million). In the mid-large panel category, UBI includes panels for IT devices (monitors, tablets, laptops), TVs and automotive applications.

The main market for these panels for SDC is laptops with 2.5 million units, more than double than the shipments in the first quarter. UBI believes SDC will ship around 10 million laptop OLEDs in 2025, and over 15 million in 2026 when it starts shipping panels to Apple's MacBook Pro series.

According to TheElec, LG Display plans to cut the number of display drivers ICs (DDI) is uses in its OLED TV panels in 2026. This will enable the company to reduce the cost of its OLED TV modules.

The company managed to double the rate drive on its OLED TV ICs, using a technique called DRD, which doubles the signal transfer rate, and so it can make use of half the number of drivers per panel. This is the first time that DRD are used on OLED TV panels (it has been used for LCD panels for many years).

LG Display announces their Q2 2025 financial results, a seasonally weak quarter, with revenue down 17% from last year to 5.587 trillion Won ($4 billion USD), but with earnings climbing to 890 billion Won ($645 million USD) - up from a 237 billion Won ($170 million USD) loss in the last quarter, thanks to the sell of its Guangzhou LCD fab to TCL CSoT.

LG's also has to thank its new strategy of prioritizing profits over expansion, and new frugality measures, for the improved results. Demand for its OLED panels was on the rise, and in the second quarter, the company's operating loss was 116 billion Won ($84 million USD). Its OLED TV business segment reported a profit in the quarter.

According to industry reports, LG Display is looking into adopting Japan Display's eLEAP technology at its OLED TV production lines in Paju. It is suggested that as LGD isn't utilizing these production lines at a high enough rate, it is looking into converting them to produce RGB AMOLED display panels (likely for IT applications).

It seems as if the conversion of these OLED TV lines (which do not use a mask as this is a WOLED panel production line) to eLEAP technology (which is also a maskless OLED process) is relatively straightforward. This allows LG Display to use the non-utilized line as a pilot eLEAP line to test the process.

Last week, LG Display announced plans to invest $925 million to develop "advanced OLED technologies", saying that the funds will be invested over a period of 2 years (until June 30, 2027). The company did not share more information, but recent reports from Korea break down the project in more details.

So first of all, there are reports that LG Display will mostly focus on small and medium sized displays, for smartphones and IT devices. LG will also upgrade its WOLED production technology, for TV panels. Most of the funds will go into enabling LG to produce a higher percentage of high-end panels out of its OLED production lines.

OLED technology has transformed the display industry, enabling thinner, lighter, efficient and flexible displays, with superb image quality than ever before. The journey from laboratory discovery to mass-market dominance is marked by a series of pivotal moments. Here, we explore five of the most significant milestones that shaped the OLED landscape, followed by a look at other critical achievements and what the future may hold for the OLED industry and market.

1. The original Kodak OLED moment (1987)

The story of OLED began in 1987 at Eastman Kodak, where Ching Tang and Steven Van Slyke built the first operational OLED device. Their breakthrough combined modern thin-film deposition techniques with suitable organic materials to create a double-layer OLED that could emit light efficiently at low voltages. This foundational work proved that organic materials could be used to make practical light-emitting devices and laid the groundwork for decades of innovation. Kodak continued to develop OLED technologies, until it sold its entire OLED IP to LG for $100 million in 2009.

2. The invention of PHOLEDs and the founding of Universal Display Corporation (UDC, 1994-1998)

While early OLEDs used fluorescent emitters, the next major leap was the development of phosphorescent OLEDs (PHOLEDs). PHOLEDs, pioneered by researchers at Princeton University and the University of Southern California (and commercialized by Universal Display Corporation, founded in 1994), dramatically improved efficiency by allowing nearly 100% internal quantum efficiency, compared to about 25% for fluorescent OLEDs. This efficiency gain was crucial for battery-powered devices and large-area displays.

UBI Research predicts that shipments of OLED TV panels will grow from about 7 million units in 2025 to almost 10 million units in 2028.

UBI Research further says that at around 10 million units, both Samsung's QD-OLED fabs and LGD's WOLED fabs will operate at almost full capacity, which means that any increased shipments will have to be preceded by capacity increases.