4D Systems (an Australian R&D company that supplies OLED displays) recently started to ship their first transparent OLED display, the uTOLED-20. Here's my hands-on review of this great little OLED panel.

A couple of days ago we reported about Futaba's 3.5" (256x64) flexible PMOLED prototype shown at CEATEC 2012 in Japan. It turns out that Futaba also demonstrated a smaller one at 1.3" (128x128). Bother are very thin at 0.22 mm. here's a nice video showing these prototypes and some more OLED displays from Futaba:

Futaba unveiled a new 3.5" (256x64) full-color flexible PMOLED prototype. The new prototype is thin (0.22 mm thick - thinner than Futaba's current 0.29 mm thin panels) and features 100 cd/m² brightness.

This seems to be quite similar to the old flexible OLED panel shown at CEATEC 2010 by TDK Micro (now owned by Futaba), but it's quite a bit thinner (back in 2010 the panel was 3 mm thick). The old panel was made on a resin substrate and used a white emitter with color filters. We do not know the technology used in the new panel.

Futaba says they have developed a new thin PMOLED display - in fact it's one seventh as thin as their existing PMOLEDs at 0.29 mm (Futaba's regular PMOLEDs are 2 mm thick). The new display is also much lighter: a 2.7" panel weights 1.3 grams. In order to make these new displays Futaba developed new materials and eliminated the hollow structure used to protect the OLED materials.

Futaba will begin mass producing the new displays towards the end of 2012. The new displays will cost about 50% more than Futaba's thicker panels.

Update: Futaba asked me to remove the roadmap from my site...

Back in October 2011 Futaba bought out TDK's part in their joint OLED company, which is now a subsidiary of Futaba. Today we got hold of Futaba's OLED roadmap for 2011-2015. For the consumer market, Futaba is currently offering small (around 2") PMOLED displays. They are also offering 2.4" transparent panels, but it seems to be made in small quantities.

Futaba is also planning to start using OLEDs in printer heads. They currently use VFD technology and will adopt OLEDs in 2012-2013. For the automotive market, Futaba currently offers 0.9", 2.0", 3.4" and 3.5" monochrome panels,The company is also interested in round shaped OLEDs.

TDK announced that it sold all its shares in its subsidiary TDK Micro Device Corporation to Futaba Corporation. The two companies dissolved their equity-based business alliance. Back in August 2009, TDK and Futaba established a three-way alliance to develop PMOLED products and market them.

TDK says they want to "selectively focus on business activities". From what we hear they will no longer be involved in OLEDs at all. TDK Micro Device has recently started to produce transparent PMOLED displays and have also shown flexible PMOLED panels which were planned to enter mass production towards the end of 2011.

TDK announced that it will establish a new business alliance with Futaba - to develop new OLED products. This is actually a three-way alliance - between TDK, TDK Micro Devices (a wholly-owned TDK subsidiary) and Futaba Corporation. TDK has been working and producing PMOLED displays for quite some time, while Futaba is making vacuum fluorescent displays (VFD) and field emission displays (FED).

The new equity-based business alliance aims to develop new OLED products and open new markets (such as the automobile and consumer equipment industries).