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We're excited to launch Bright Side with Brannan, a new column by Prof. Alexander Brannan of the University of Manchester. In this column, Prof. Brannan will explore the science behind OLED technology — the materials, the physics, and the open questions driving the field forward. The following article is the first in the series.

OLED emitter materials are currently dominated by closed-shell compounds. This means their occupied molecular orbitals, including the highest occupied molecular orbital, or HOMO, are fully occupied by paired electrons in the ground state. In other words, there are no unpaired electrons.

This electronic structure underpins the conventional OLED emitter families: fluorescent, phosphorescent, and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters. In each case, the excited states are usually described within the traditional singlet and triplet framework.

Towards the end of 2025, we believed that 2026 will be another year of increased AMOLED panel shipments, even without taking into account the two new 8.6-Gen IT OLED Lines that are expected to begin production. But as 2026 started, everyone started to realize that macro constraints are starting to shape OLED panel demand, and the AMOLED market started to contract.

The clearest example is memory. DRAM and NAND prices are both rising sharply, due to AI datacenters demand. This increased the cost of smartphone production, which led to a lower demand - some analysts estimate that smartphone shipments will fall around 10-14% in 2026. The main problem lies in low cost smartphones that already suffer from low margins. For OLED makers, the problem is even worse - as some brands are switching to lower cost LCDs in their budget and mid-range smartphones.

In this article we examine the three new macro constraints that are shaping the OLED industry in 2026, why this matters now more than it did in previous cycles, what we learned from the post-COVID IC shortage, the return of LCDs, which OLED segments are more resilient, and deeper implications for the next chapter in the OLED industry's growth story.

Recently, we have started to witness a new trend in the display manufacturing equipment industry - companies that supply deposition systems to OLED fabs are now actively developing, testing, and commercializing equipment for perovskite solar cell production. The same is true for OLED material makers.

In this article we introduce the perovskite industry and market, discuss the perovskites production process, talk about OLED process companies and material developers active with perovskites, and give advice to industry players.

Several companies, including Sunic System, Jusung Engineering, and Suzhou Precision Systems (SPS) have already finalized their R&D, and secured perovskite equipment contracts. This is not coincidental. The technological DNA of OLED deposition — vacuum chambers, large-area thin-film coating, precision moisture control, encapsulation — maps almost perfectly onto the manufacturing requirements of perovskite devices. At the same time that interest in perovskites is at an all time high, the OLED equipment market is entering a plateau phase and future investments are uncertain. For equipment makers, the timing could not be more deliberate.

In our OLED history article series, we look back 20, 10, and 5 years ago, and revisit the history of the OLED industry. We hope these are articles are nostalgic, and fun - but also informative - by reflecting on the past, we can better understand how far the industry has come and where it is headed. 

20 years ago - Q2 2006

In early 2006, the industry was still at a very early stage, mostly focused on PMOLED production and microdisplays. In may 2006, Universal Display reported revenues of $3.2 million in revenues from the quarter - mostly from grants, projects and development materials. This is far from its current $170 million quarter, but it was actually more than double its Q2 2005 revenues. In Q2 2006, UDC started working with Mitsubishi on inkjet printing materials, and with Nippon Steel Chemicals on evaporation materials. We posted an interview with UDC's VP Janice Mahone - this is an interesting read from a 20 years perspective. The company was already getting ready for Samsung's 2007 AMOLED production.