» Samsung OLED

Samsung OLED company spotlight

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 photoSamsung 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:

Further reading

Latest Samsung OLED news

Reports from Korea suggest that Samsung still faces technology challenges before it can begin producing QD-OLED TVs

Samsung is developing its QD-OLED TV technology and the company was supposed to hold an investment review committee on April 2019 to decide whether to go ahead with plans to start production soon (mass production by the end of 2020).

QD-OLED stack scheme (DSCC, Oct-2018)

However in May we later reported that Samsung decided to delay the production - trial production will begin towards the end of 2020, with real mass production on a new 10-Gen line only at around 2023. A new report from Korea sheds some more light on Samsung's situation.

Read the full story Posted: Jun 13, 2019

UBI: OLED production capacity to double by 2023, Korean makers to retain their 80% market share by area

UBI Research estimates that OLED production capacity will increase from 34.9 million sqm to 68.5 million by 2023. LG Display and Samsung Display are expected to increase production of OLED TV and introduce new 10.5-Gen fabs better suited for 65" TV production.

OLED production capacity by country (2019-2023, UBI)

Mobile OLED production capacity will also grow, but at a slower rate - from 13 million sqm in 2019 to 19.3 million sqm in 2023, mainly driven by Chinese OLED producers that produce flexible smartphone OLED displays mainly for the Chinese domestic market. Korean OLED producers (SDC and LGD) will continue to dominate the market and will retain their ~80% market share in 2023.

Read the full story Posted: Jun 12, 2019
The OLED Marketplace, find your OLED here

Asus demonstrates a dual display laptop with a main 15.6" 4K OLED

Last week we reported that Asus demonstrated an OLED gaming laptop - even though it still has some concerns with OLED displays and is not ready to release such a device commercially.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo prototype photo

It turns out that Asus has another OLED laptop in the works - the ZenBook Pro Duo which actually features two screens - an SDC 15.6" 4K AMOLED main display and another, smaller 14" LCD that is placed above the keyboard. This is just a prototype, but according to reports this seems like a finished product, and it could reach the markets soon.

Read the full story Posted: Jun 05, 2019

Planar launches its 2nd-Gen 55" transparent OLED signage displays likely based on LGD panels

In November 2015 Planar launched its LookThru displays, based on 55" FHD transparent OLED panels made by Samsung Display. SDC stopped producing these OLEDs shortly after, though, and Planar had to halt its sales.

In February 2019 LG Display launched its own 55" FHD transparent OLED production, and now Planar announced its 2nd-Gen LookThru (LO552) displays - which are likely based on LGD's panels this time.

Read the full story Posted: Jun 03, 2019

Korean site suggests that Apple is considering adopting AMOLED displays in future iPads and Laptops

In February 2019 Samsung Display started to mass produce its new 15.6" 3840x2160 OLED display panels, and some of the first 2019 OLED laptops are already shipping.

HP Spectre x360 15 photo

Korea-site The Elec says that according to its sources, Apple is "considering adoption" of OLED displays in its Pro laptop and tablets lines. The iPad Pro will adopt an 11" OLED while the MacBook Pro will adopt a 15.6" one.

Read the full story Posted: May 25, 2019

OnePlus launches the 7 and 7 Pro smartphones with high quality AMOLED displays

OnePlus launched it latest flagship smartphones, both of whom utilize high-end AMOLED displays. We'll start with the OnePlus 7 Pro - a flagship smartphone that features a large 6.67" 90Hz 1440x3120 Fluid AMOLED - which apparently is a 90Hz Super AMOLED. This is a full-screen display that has an under-the-display fingerprint sensor.

OnePlus 7 Pro photo

The OnePlus 7 has a smaller notch-type 6.41" 1080x2340 Optic AMOLED - which is again OnePlus' own display marketing term for an SDC's Super AMOLED. It seems as if OnePlus brands its regular 60Hz AMOLED displays as Optic Displays - and its higher-end 90Hz ones as Fluid AMOLEDs.

Read the full story Posted: May 16, 2019

OLET developer Mattrix Technologies raised $3 million

Organic-TFT backplane/emitter developer Mattrix Technologies (previously nVerPix) announced that it has closed its Series A financing round, with $3 million in investment from Samsung Ventures and JSR Corporation.

Mattrix Technologies, spun-out of the University of Florida in 2011, developed the world's first full-aperture OLET (organic light emitting transistor) display technology, based on the company's proprietary CN-VOLET (carbon-nanotube enabled, vertical, organic, light emitting transistor) technology, a new pixel architecture that combines the drive transistor, storage capacitor and light emitting layers into a sequentially deposited, vertical, transparent stack. The company is also looking into graphene electrodes as an alternative to CNTs.

Read the full story Posted: May 14, 2019

Intel is looking into foldable OLED laptops, will not arrive before 2021

GizChina reports that senior executives at Intel said that the company is looking at laptops with foldable OLED displays, working together with LG Display, Samsung Display, BOE and Sharp. There are many challenges to overcome, and Intel estimates that such foldable laptops will not arrive before 2021.

In October 2018 Samsung Electronics said that it is developing laptops with foldable displays, while other reports suggested that that LG Display is collaborating with Lenovo to develop a 13" foldable tablet.

Read the full story Posted: May 11, 2019