OLED is an emerging display and lighting technology that enables beautiful and efficient displays and lighting panels. Thin OLEDs are already being used in many mobile devices and TVs.
LG Display - pOLED displays
LG Display is one of the leaders in OLED production. LG Display started producing flexible OLEDs for mobile devices in 2015, initially focusing on small wearable OLEDs - for devices such as Apple's Watch and LG's own wearables.
In October 2017, following a large expansion in LGD's AMOLED production capacity, LG Display started to produce large flexible OLEDs for smartphones. This is when LGD also started to brand its OLED displays as pOLEDs (p is for plastic). LGD now provides its pOLED displays for several smartphone vendors, including Apple.
LGD pOLED production fabs
LG Display has several flexible OLED production fabs. The first one was a pilot 4.5-Gen line, with limited capacity - and so the E2 line is used to produce LGD's flexible wearable OLED displays.
LG Display's second pOLED fab is is its E5 line in Gumi, which has a monthly capacity of 7,500 monthly 6-Gen substrates (or about 1.5 million 5.5" panels at 100% yields). LG Display's thoird line is the E6 line in Paju which is another 6-Gen line, but with a larger capacity of 15,000 monthly substrates.
LG's fourth flexible OLED line may be built at the company's large P10 display production complex in Paju. The P10 will be a large display complex with a total investment of close to $10 billion - but will mostly produce OLED TV panels. It could include a flexible OLED line, but LG's plans are not finalized yet, its seems.
pOLED vs PLED
pOLED is LG Display's brand name for mobile flexible AMOLED displays. Somewhat confusingly, PLED, also called P-OLEDs, are Polymer-based OLED materials - a class of materials pioneered by CDT (now owned by Sumitomo) that can be used to create OLEDs (most OLEDs today use Small Molecule OLED materials). For more on PLEDs, see here.
Further reading
The latest LG pOLED news:
Omdia: LG Display holds a 92.5% share of the Automotive AMOLED market
Market research company Omdia estimates that LG Display held a 92.5% share in the automotive AMOLED panel market in 2020, in terms of sales. Samsung Displays accounted for 6.9% and BOE 0.6%.
LG 12.8-inch P-OLED in Mercedes Benz 2021 S-Class
OMDIA estimates that the total AMOLED automotive market in 2020 was 240,000 units, and says that the market will experience a fast growth of 60% CAGR to reach 4.4 million units in 2025.
LG Display reports good results for Q4 2020, driven by strong demand for OLED TV and pOLED panels
LG Display reported its financial results for Q4 2020. Revenues reached $6 billion USD, up 11% from Q3 2020 and 16% from Q4 2019. Net profits jumped to $555 million, up from $10 million in Q3 2020 and a loss of $1.6 billion in Q4 2019.
LG Display says that demand for TV and IT products remained strong as the global work-from-home situation continued. Shipments of OLED TV panels and p-OLED smartphone panels increased meaningfully.
LG's OLED sales continue to improve as demand for TV and smartphone panel increases
Omdia says that in 2020, LG Display's OLED TV sales surpassed LGD's LCD TV sales, for the first time. LGD's OLED TV sales were 53% of the company's total TV sales (up from 33% in 2019).
Omdia says that it expects LG's total OLED display sales (including TVs, mobiles and automotive displays) to reach 10 trillion Won in 2021 (around $9.15 billion USD).
LGD reports a profitable quarter for the first time since 2018 as OLED sales grow
LG Display reported its financial results for Q3 2020, with a net profit (of $9.8 million) - which was the company's first profitable quarter since 2018. Revenues in the quarter were $5.9 billion, up 27% from the previous quarter and up 16% from Q3 2019.
LG Display says that its turnaround was due to increased demand for IT displays and OLED displays - both OLED TV panels and flexible OLEDs for smartphones. Profitability was also assisted by the mass production that finally began at LGD's new OLED TV fab in Guangzhou. Next year LGD says it aims to ship over 7 million OLED TV panels.
LGD reports its financial results for Q3 2020, with lower demand for OLED TVs and pOLEDs
LG Display reported its financial results for Q2 2020 - with revenues up 12% over last quarter, as the company enjoyed an increase in demand for IT panels (monitors, notebooks, tablets). But lower demand for TVs and lower utilization at its POLED fabs increased LGD's operating loss.
LG Display says it expects its Q3 revenues and operation profit to improve - as mass production of OLED TV panels in Guangzhou finally started, and the company will ship pOLED panels to Apple's iPhone 12 in the next quarter. LG maintains its 4.5-5 million OLED TV panel shipment forecast for the whole of 2020.
The Elec: LG and Samsung will supply AMOLEDs to Apple's iPhone 12
The Elec reports that Apple ordered around 55 million AMOLED panels for its iPhone 12 smartphone series, which will be announced later this year. LG Display will supply around around 20 million AMOLEDs - which is a big increase from the 5 million OLEDs LGD supplied for Apple's previous generation phones.
According to The Elec, LG will supply the panels for Apple's iPhone 12 Max (6.1"), while Samsung will supply all the panels for the iPhone 12 (5.4"), iPhone 12 Pro (6.1") and iPhone 12 Pro max (6.7").
DSCC details the iPhone 12 screens and OLED suppliers
DSCC posted an interesting blog post, in which they detail what they believe to be Apple's iPhone 12 smartphone family specifications.
So we start with the iPhone 12, which will use a 5.42" 2348x1048 (476 PPI) flexible AMOLED display, produced by Samsung Display. DSCC believes the iPhone 12 will use a Y-OCTA integrated touch. DSCC believes that while BOE did not manage to get its panel to the iPhone 12, it may become a supplier in 2021 to the iPhone 12s - if all goes well with the iPhone 12 Max (see below).
LG Display reports disappointing results for Q1 2020 as COVID-19 lowers demand for smartphones and TVs
LG Display reported its financial results for Q1 2020. LGD's revenues were 4.7 trillion Won ($3.8 billion USD), decreased 26% from the previous quarter and 20% from Q1 2019. The company's net loss in the quarter was 199 billion Won ($161 million USD).
LGD's revenues and earnings were below analysts expectations - the company's business was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic which caused lower demand for smartphones and TV panels (which were also hit due to the postponing of major sporting events). LCD panel prices have also taken a hit.
Cadillac unveiled the 2021 Escalade with its 38-inch LGD P-OLED display
In December 2019 Cadillac announced that its 2021 Escalade will sport a 38-inch curved OLED display. Rumors suggested that LG is the producer of this display, and indeed Cadillac now unveiled the car and its next-generation display - and LG confirmed that this is indeed its P-OLED screen.
The displays, which will come standard on all 2021 Escalade versions, include an instrument cluster and infotainment systems, and enable several customizable displays which include AR navigation and night vision modes. There are actually three different displays - from left to right a 7" display, an 14" one and a 16.9" display. The center 14" is the instrument cluster and it is not-touch enabled (the other two do include touch).
LG Display reports better-than-expected Q4 2019 results, driven by a strong demand to OLED TVs and smartphone OLEDs
LG Display posted its financial results for Q4 2019, with a lower-than-expected loss of $361.6 million and revenues of $5.4 billion - a 10% increase over last quarter, driven by a rise in sales of OLED TVs and smartphone OLEDs.
LGD has given an optimistic forecast for 2020 as it sees higher demand for its OLED TV and mobile P-OLED panels. LGD expects its OLED TV panel revenue to "rise steeply" as its Guangzhou OLED TV fab increases its production - LGD now says it expects the fab to start mass production in March 2020.
