Samsung OLED | OLED-Info

OLED is an emerging display technology that is fast becoming the mainstream display technology in many markets, as OLED enables display panels that offer the best image quality and free design as they can be made flexible and transparent. The Samsung OLED displays are considered to be the best in the industry and the Korean company is the clear lead in AMOLED production for mobile devices.

SDC 5.7'' FHD rollable OLED at SID 2016

Over the pay years Samsung invested billions of dollars in OLED research and production facilities as the company sees OLEDs fast replacing LCD displays in all mobile applications.

Samsung AMOLED displays

Samsung is currently producing over 300 million AMOLED displays in a year, used mostly in smartphones - such as Samsung's own Galaxy S7 (and S7 edge ) - but also in smartphones from Gionee, Meizu, Acer, HP, Vivo, Microsoft, Lenovo, ZTE, Hisense, Konka and others. Samsung also produces large mobile OLEDs for tablets, laptops and monitors.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge photo Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

In August 2013 Samsung launched the company's first OLED TV, the KN55S9C, which used a curved 55" OLED panel. The TV was priced at around $8999 in the US and Korea, but is no longer in production, and was never in real mass production. Samsung has yet to return to OLED TV production.

Samsung flexible OLED displays

Following its initial flexible OLED production launch in 2013, and the huge success of its edge-type phones, Samsung is currently producing around 9 million flexible OLEDs each month to satisfy demand for the Galaxy S7 edge and its other flexible OLED products. Samsung has reportedly been chosen to supply 100 million flexible OLED panels to Apple's future iPhones.

Future Samsung OLED devices

Samsung is developing several next generation display technologies based on OLEDs. Samsung has been developing a foldable OLED device for a long time - which may dramatically change the mobile device market as it could enable smartphone to turn into tablets or phones that can be folded into smaller devices.

Samsung is also developing transparent OLEDs (see the company's 55" FHD transparent and mirror-type OLEDs here) for retail application, and also readies next generation displays for the automotive industry.

Several years ago Samsung released the following video, showing a concept transparent flexible AMOLED tablet device. It will be years before Samsung can commercialize such a display, but it's nice to see what the future holds:

Samsung Display's 90Hz and 120 Hz OLED certified by SGS

Samsung Display announced that its latest 90Hz and 120Hz Smartphone AMOLED displays were certified by Swiss-based SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance) to be "Seamless" displays. It seems as if SDC brands these OLEDs as Seamless OLED (90hz) and Seamless Pro OLED (120Hz).

Such high refresh OLEDs are gaining in popularity for high-end smartphones, as they deliver better gaming and video experience. SDC's 90Hz OLEDs feature blue length (image drag) of less than 0.9 mm (0.7 for the 120Hz OLEDs) and a response speed (MPRT) of less than 14 ms (11 ms for the 120Hz OLEDs). Samsung says these are the best specifications in the industry.

Read the full story Posted: Jun 05, 2020

DSCC: OLED revenues in Q1 2020 were $6.7 billion, will reach $33 billion in 2020

DSCC says that OLED revenues in Q1 2020 were $6.7 billion (up 24% from Q1 2019, but down 18% from Q4 2019). Both Samsung and BOE gained market share in the quarter, as LGD had a weak quarter.

DSCC sees the entire OLED market reaching $33 billion in 2020 (up 18% from 2019). Smartphone OLED sales will reach $26.6 billion, mostly led by a growth in flexible OLED sales. The OLED TV market will grow 19% to 4 million units in 2020. DSCC sees the laptop OLED market increasing significantly in 2020.

Read the full story Posted: Jun 02, 2020

Graphene for Displays and Lighting Market Report

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.

Apple iPhone 11 Pro photo

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").

Read the full story Posted: May 26, 2020

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).

Read the full story | 2 comments | Posted: May 21, 2020

Samsung Display shuts down parts of its A3 OLED fab as fire breaks out

Korean media reports that due to a fire at Samsung's A3 OLED production fab in Asan, the company had to shut down the production at some of the lines. Luckily, there were no casualties.

Production of AMOLED panels at Samsung (photo)

Samsung Displays says that this won't effect the supply of OLED panels, but the extent of the damage is not yet determined.

Read the full story Posted: May 02, 2020

Samsung Electronics reports good results in Q1 2020, but warns of a weaker quarter ahead

Samsung Electronics reported its financial results for Q1 2020. It was a good quarter for Samsung, driven by high demand for its chips - and also its mobile OLED displays. Samsung sales int he first quarter reached $45 billion while its operating profit rose 3.4% from last year to $5.2 billion.

Samsung warns though that its Q2 2020 results will be lower than previously estimated due to the CoronaVirus outbreak. Samsung did not detail its expectations for its display unit in Q2.

Read the full story Posted: May 01, 2020

Samsung Electronics is looking to develop its own ulta-thin glass cover for foldable smartphones

Samsung Electronics's 2nd foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Z Flip, sports an ultra-thin glass cover, which replaced the polyimmide one used in its previous foldable, the Galaxy Fold. The UTG glass cover is produced by Korea-based Dowoo Insys, who processes Schott's ultra thin glass.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip photo

According to a new report from Korea, Samsung Electronics wants to develop its own UTG cover, as it feels the Dowoo Insys UTG is still not robust enough and the company also wants to increase production yields and reduce costs. SE is already in talks with several glass suppliers for this project.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 04, 2020

Samsung Display to stop all LCD production by the end of 2020

Reuters reports that Samsung Display has decided to stop all LCD production by the end of 2020. The company will continue to support it current customers without any issues.

SDC has two LCD production lines in Korea. One of these will be converted to next-generation QD-OLED TV panels (in a $10.8 billion investment announced in October 2019). According to Reuters, the second line will also be converted to QD-OLED in the future. SDC did not yet decide what will it do with its two LCD production lines in China.

Read the full story | 2 comments | Posted: Apr 01, 2020

LG's iPhone display orders propel its OLED smartphone market share to over 10% in Q4 2019

Towards the end of 2019 LG Display started to supply Apple with 6.1" film-touch OLED flexible displays for its 2020 iPhone, and IHS Markit now says that these shipments propelled LGD's OLED smartphone market share to 10.8% in Q4 2019 (up from only 2.1% in Q3 2019).

Apple iPhone 11 Pro photo

In fact LGD now says that mobile OLED revenues make up for 36% of its total revenues in Q4 - which is higher than its OLED TV revenues for the first time ever.

Read the full story Posted: Mar 12, 2020

A Q&A with Cynora's CEO, to discuss the company's new blue emitter

OLED material developer Cynora recently announced its first commercial product, the cyBlueBooster fluorescent blue emitter that is 15% more efficient that current fluorescent blue emitters on the market.

Cynora cyBlueBooster OLED closeup photo

This was a very interesting announcement, and Cynora's CEO Adam Kablanian was kind enough to answer a few questions we had to help understand the new material and Cynora's current business and latest technology.

Read the full story Posted: Mar 05, 2020