Financial | OLED-Info

The US DOE awards $1 million to develop silver inks to replace ITO in OLED lighting panels

The US Department of Energy (DoE) awarded a $1 million project that aims to replace ITO with a metal-based micro-grid with an aim to improve the performance of OLED lighting panels.

This research project is led by Professor Paul Leu from the University of Pittsburgh and Texas-based Electroninks which provides the silver-based inks. Electroninks’ metal inks can cure at low temperatures, be printed into patterns, and has conductivity comparable to bulk metal. Using a new metal patterning technique that prints the metal grid directly on glass or plastic, it is possible to create micro-grids that can outperform ITO at a lower manufacturing cost.

Taiwan's Chunghwa Picture Tubes filed for bankruptcy

In September 2019, CPT (Chunghwa Picture Tubes) filed for bankruptcy - as the company could not repay its debt.

CPT was established in 1971 in Taiwan and was a CRT and LCD display maker. In 2012 CPT started to develop AMOLED technologies and the company established a small-size experimental line. Later on CPT actually started to produce AMOLEDs in low volume, and also developed flexible OLED technologies.

eMagin reports significantly improved Q3 2019 financial results

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported its financial results for Q3 2019. Revenues were $7.9 million (up from $6.9 million a year ago) and operating loss was $0.4 million (down from $1.3 million in Q3 2018).

eMagin SXGA OLED-XL microdisplay photo

eMagin says that these financial results present a significant improvement, with the second highest quarter revenues in the Company's history. The company demonstrated significant improvement in yield and throughput as production volumes increased over 50% from the second quarter.

Coherent sees the OLED equipment market starting to recover in 2020

Photonics-based solutions provider Coherent reported its financial results for Q3 2019 - revenues of $335.5 million and a non-GAAP gross profit of $122 million.

LTPS laser annealing photo

Regarding the OLED market, Coherent says that it finally started to receive some new orders for OLED equipment (ELA), following a "stretch" where there were no new system orders. Coherent says that it looks forward to the OLED ramp - with 2020 as a "bit of a recovery over 2019" - but the real strength coming in 2021 and 2022.

Samsung reports stronger OLED sales in Q3 2019

Samsung Electronics reported its financial results for Q3 2019 - with sales of 62 trillion Won ($53 billion USD) and an operating profit of 7.78 trillion Won ($6.6 billion USD). Samsung reported lower memory earnings - but stronger smartphone and OLED panel sales.

Apple iPhone 11 Pro photo

Samsung Display saw increased profit from smartphone displays as demand for flexible OLED panels increased. SDC also reported improved OLED utilization rates.

Universal Display reports excellent quarterly results and increases its guidance for 2019 again

Universal Display reported its Q3 2019 financial results - revenues were $97.5 million, and net income was $37 million. This was another strong quarter for the company, which increased its 2019 guidance to revenues of $400 - $410 million.

UDC believes that year-end 2019 will have an installed OLED square meter cpaacity that is 50% larger than year-end 2017. In 2020 the company sees continued revenue and earnings growth. By 2021, UDC sees OLED capacity to incrase about 50% again over year-end 2019.

Samsung Display formally announces its $10.8 billion investment in QD-OLED TV production

Samsung Display formally announced its decision to invest ₩13.1 trillion (around $10.85 billion USD) in QD-OLED TV R&D and production lines. The investment plan will span 6 years (2019-2025) and the first step will be to convert an LCD production line in SDC's L8 fab in Tangjong, Korea to QD-OLED production.

Samsung Display production hub, Tangjeong, South Chungcheong Province

The Tangjong line will be converted from 125k monthly substrates of LCD production to 30k monthly QD-OLED substrates, and mass production will begin in Q1 2021. In the long run SDC plans to convert all its 8-Gen LCD lines (360,000 monthly substrates) to QD-OLED production (which will yield around 100,000 monthly QD-OLED substrates).

Japan Display starts to produce OLED displays, probably for Apple's watch

In April 2019 Reuters reported that Japan Display (JDI) signed a deal with Apple to supply it with AMOLED displays for its smartwatches, and today JDI's new CEO Minoru Kikuoka said that the company recently started producing OLED displays - likely indeed this is low volume production for Apple's wearables.

Apple Watch Series 5 photo

Apple's Watch Series 5 (its latest generation) features a 324x394 1000-nits always-on LTPO AMOLED display (368x448 on the 44m model). Apple is currently buying these OLED displays exclusively from LGD.

Bloomberg says SDC saw an increased demand for OLED displays in Q3 2019

Samsung posted its Q3 2019 financial estimates - and the company's income was higher than what was expected from analysts - even though profit dropped over 50% compared to 2018.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 photo

Bloomberg says that Samsung Display has seen increased demand for OLED displays - due to strong sales of Samsung's own Note 10 smartphone and Apple's iPhone 11 Pro.

Early-stage startup Noctiluca to commercialize new TADF OLED compounds

A new company has recently been launched in Poland, to commercialize a new family of TADF OLED compounds. Noctiluca, which takes its name from a bio-luminescent marine creature, was established a few months ago with aims to be the world's first company to produce a commercial-ready blue TADF emitter.

Noctiluca Synthex materials photo

Noctiluca's story begins with an innovative organic DSSC solar cell platform that was developed at Synthex, an organic chemistry development platform company based in Toruń, Poland. A few years ago the researchers turned their attention to light emitting materials (which are quite similar to the light harvesting materials used in solar panels) and intensive research culminated in a promising family of new TADF compounds - which was then spun-off as Noctiluca,