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: no plans to release an OLED TV soon, but we are researching hybrid QD-OLEDs

In February it was reported that Samsung is developing a hybrid Quantum-Dots OLED technology for its future TVs. This report was soon denied by Samsung's Visual Display Business VP, Han Jong-hee, who said that Samsung is sticking to its two-track strategy for premium TVs, namely QD-LCDs and Micro-LEDs.

Samsung OLED TV (2013)

Today Samsung's Han Jong-hee again says that Samsung has no plans to produce an OLED TV any time soon - but he does confirm that the company is researching a way to combine QDs with OLEDs. According to our information, Samsung's main R&D initiative use blue OLED emitters and blue light to white light conversion using quantum-dots, combined with color filters (QDCFs) to add red and green colors.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 18, 2018

Huawei aims to release the world's first foldable phone

Samsung Display is aiming to start producing foldable OLED displays by the end of 2018, and it is assumed that the company will supply its first such displays to Samsung Electronics (who is planning to release its first foldable phone/tablet by early 2019).

A new report from Korea suggests that Huawei is planning to beat Samsung Electronics to the market with a "truly" foldable phone. Huawei will unveil its first such phone in November - but the phone will take longer to actually ship. The phone will fold inside.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 13, 2018

Apple in talks with Samsung, aiming to get a lower price for the iPhone Xs OLED

It seems that more and more analysts believe that Apple will eventually release two new OLED iPhone models in 2018. According to the latest report from Korea, Apple is now in talks with Samsung regarding the price of its flexible OLED panels for the smaller 5.8" iPhone Xs 2018 variant.

Apple iPhone X photo

Samsung's OLED fab utilization rates are low as Apple cut its orders for the iPhone X displays in half. It seems that Apple now aims to take advantage of that and the iPhone maker is asking for a lower price for 2018 OLED panel. The reports suggest that Samsung will supply 100 million OLED panels to Apple in 2018 - 25 million for the 2017 iPhone X and 75 for the 2018 iPhone Xs. The larger (around 6.5") OLED iPhone (iPhone Xs Plus?) will use panels produced by LG Display.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 13, 2018

Samsung delays its 6-Gen A4 flexible OLED line by 6 months

Samsung's next flexible OLED line, the 6-Gen A4 line was supposed to be ready by Q2 2018, but according to a new report from Korea Samsung decided to delay the operation in this fab by six months.

The reason, of course, is softer demand from smartphone makers in China and the lower shipments to Apple - which already resulted in the construction delay of Samsung's A5 line.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 03, 2018

Samsung researchers study the degradation of blue PHOLED materials, offer new design strategies for longer lasting blue emitters

Researchers from Samsung Electronics and the Ewha Womans University in Korea collaborated in a new study of the degradation in blue phosphorescence OLED materials. This study demonstrate the importance of controlling exciton-induced electron transfer, and more importantly provides strategies for the design of longer-lasting blue PHOLED materials.

Degradation study of blue PHOLED, exciton-inducted (Samsung/Ewha)

The researchers say that the study reveals the charge-neutral generation of polaron pairs (radical ion pairs) by electron transfer from the dopant to host excitons. According to the study, device lifetime correlates linearly with the rate constant for the annihilation of the radical ion pair.

Read the full story Posted: Mar 25, 2018

Will Samsung construct an OLED TV fab at its A5 production site?

Samsung's OLED fabs are currently under utilized - with some analysts estimating that its flexible OLED fabs are running at about 50% capacity following lower-than-expected orders from Apple. SDC also decided to delay its upcoming A5 production fab.

Samsung OLED TVs (2013)

This is a lot of wasted capacity. Last month I speculated that SDC may target new applications for its OLEDs - including monitors and laptops - or perhaps transparent OLEDs as well. According to a new report from Korea, SDC may be aiming to start constructing an A5 line - but use it to produce large-area OLED TV panels. According to a financial analyst, Samsung recently assembled a new OLED TV team with 300 R&D employees.

Read the full story | 1 comment | Posted: Mar 22, 2018

DSCC revised its OLED market forecasts down following lower Apple orders

Earlier this month DSCC announced that it sees low AMOLED fab utilization at SDC, following lower than expected Apple orders. The weaker-than-expected 2018 will move OLED makers to delay and cancel new OLED fab expansion plans.

OLED revenues and growth (2016-2022, DSCC, revised March 2018)

DSCC now released its updated forecast numbers. The company lowered its outlook for 2018 by 22% and expects total OLED revenues to be $30.3 billion (up 30% from 2017). Looking further ahead to 2022, DSCC sees the market growing at a CAGR of 23% (down from its earlier estimates of 27%). In 2022 the total OLED market will reach $64.3 billion in revenues (down from its earlier estimates of $79.6 billion).

Read the full story Posted: Mar 20, 2018

Digitimes - Apple will introduce two new OLED iPhones in 2018

Apple's iPhone X sales were lower than expected, which resulted in a reduction of OLED display orders from SDC (from an estimated 40 million in Q1 2018 to 20 million). Several reports also suggested that Apple may decide to only introduce one new OLED iPhone model in 2018 (the larger 6.5" one, with panels made by LGD).

Apple iPhone X photo

One of these reports came from Taiwan's Digitimes, but a new report from Digitimes suggests that Apple does plan to upgrade its OLED iPhone X in 2018. According to Digitimes, Apple will introduce a slightly larger 5.9" OLED model. In total Apple will buy 110-130 OLED panels in 2018, for all three OLED models (the 2017 iPhone X, the 2018 5.9" iPhone XI and the larger 6.5" OLED iPhone XI plus).

Read the full story Posted: Mar 19, 2018

Samsung aims to ship 43 million Galaxy S9 phones in 2018

Yesterday reports from Korea suggested that pre-orders for the Galaxy S9 in Korea are 30% lower compared to the pre-orders of the Galaxy S8 in 2017. The Korea Herald, however, today says that Samsung believes it will sell more Galaxy S9 phones than it did with the GS8.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus photo

The Korea Herald says that Samsung told its suppliers that its target is to sell 43 million GS9 (and GS9 plus) phones in 2018. In 2017, Samsung shipped 41 million GS8 and GS8 plus phones. In 2016, Samsung shipped 48 million GS7 phones, so even if it reaches its target of 43 million GS9 phones, it will still lag behind The GS7.

Read the full story Posted: Mar 13, 2018

Galaxy S9 pre-orders in Korea are 30% lower than the S8 preorders in 2017

According to reports from Korea, pre-orders for the Galaxy S9 in Korea are 30% lower compared to the pre-orders of Samsung's Galaxy S8 in 2017. Yonhap news says that Korea's three largest carriers distributed only 180,000 GS9 phones, while at the same time last year these three companies distributed 260,00 GS8 phones.

Samsung did not yet disclose any pre-sales data. The GS9 has a flexible 5.8" 1440x2960 (570 PPI) Super AMOLED display (6.2", 529 PPI, on the S9 Plus). DisplayMate says that this display is the best mobile display ever tested, surprassing in quality the 5.8" flexible AMOLED used in the iPhone X.

Read the full story Posted: Mar 12, 2018