UK-based SmartKem develops a new class of flexible high-mobility OTFT display backplane technologies. The company provides customized solutions involving molecular synthesis, electronic prototyping and on-site technology transfer support.

As Smartkem is developing new backplane materials for OLEDs, ePaper and mini-LED devices, we discuss its technology and business with the company's CEO and chairman, Ian Jenks.

Samsung Display announced a new OLED technology, called Adaptive Frequency that enables variable refresh rate in AMOLED displays - ranging from 10Hz to 120Hz. Running OLEDs at low refresh rates when possible can reduce the power consumption of the display (over all applications) by up to 22%.

This new display technology was applied for the first time in the Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G smartphone, announced earlier this month, with its 6.9-inch 1440x3088 Dynamic AMOLED.

Organic-TFT backplane/emitter developer Mattrix Technologies (previously nVerPix) announced that it has received a $1.5 million investment from JSR Corporation. This second investment by JSR is the first tranche in the company's new round (which will total, hopefully, $3 million)

JSR is a strategic investor, and has also launched a joint-development project for the development of solution-based conductive inks that will be sued in Mattrix's next-generation backplane transistors.

Samsung announced several new OLED devices yesterday. We'll start with the new Galaxy Note 20 which sports a 6.7-inch 1080x2400 HDR10+ Super AMOLED Plus display (which could mean this is an RGB display, not a Pentile one). The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has a larger 6.9-inch 1440x3088 Dynamic AMOLED. The display supports a refresh rate of 120Hz at Full-HD resolution and 60Hz at QHD. According to the Elec in Korea, the Note 20 Ultra display has an LTPO backplane (which Samsung calls HOP).

Next up is the company's 2nd generation Galaxy Z Fold 2 that is an update to the original fold with a larger internal foldable display at 7.6" 1768x2208 HDR10+ 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED and also a larger 6.23" 816x2260 Super AMOLED cover display. The Fold 2 also improves the hinge design and sports an ultra-thin-glass cover (like the Galaxy Z Flip).

Researchers from Yonsei University in Korea developed a full-color wearable AMOLED display that can be placed directly on human skin. The device can be flexed and stretched as needed.

The researchers demonstrated a 18x18 AMOLED array, fabricated on a thin substrate with a 2D MoS₂ (a graphene-like material) backplane.

Photonics-based solutions provider Coherent reported its financial results for Q4 2019 - with revenues of $320.8 million, and a net profit of $5.8 million. The company says that these are encouraging results, and full-year outlook is improving.

Coherent's display orders were up significantly for LineBeam systems and service. These systems orders are all destined to China, and the increase in service orders "reflects higher demand for OLED-equipped smartphones in Q4 2019". Orders for OLED cutting using short pulse and CO₂ lasers were also up.

Researchers from the Holst Center has applied spatial atomic layer deposition (sALD) to create both the semiconductor and dielectric layer in a thin-film transistor (TFT) Oxide-TFT (IGZO) display backplane - for the first time ever.

The researchers created a 200 PPI QVGA OLED display prototype on a thin PEN foil. This shows how TFTs can be produced in a low temperature process (below 200 degrees Celsius) using sALD on a cheap transparent plastic foil. The TFTs achieved a mobility of 8 cm²/V2 with channel lengths down to 1 um.

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.

Taiwan-based INT Tech unveiled its proprietary glass-based high pixel density OLED technology, that enables the production of over 2,200 PPI displays on glass. Such high resolution displays can find applications in the visually demanding devices in the medical market, the defense market and also for VR headsets.

INT Tech demonstrated a 2.17 2,228 PPI prototype (see image above). This technology can compete with OLED microdisplays (Silicon based) for high-end VR solutions for 2 merits: they can be larger than silicon-based OLED microdisplays to achieve higher FOV, and they are at a much lower cost.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL) demonstrated two new OLED display prototypes, both based on the company's proprietary CAAC-IGZO (c-axis aligned crystalline In-Ga-Zn-O) backplane material.

First up is the world's smallest 8K display, a 8.3" OLED (1058 PPI) with a resolution of 7680x4320. The panel is based on a white OLED with color filter architecture.