At the end of last month, Xiaomi introduced its first foldable OLED device, the Mi Mix Fold smartphone, with a main 8.01-inch HDR10+ 1860x2480 AMOLED display that folds inwardly, and an external 6.52-inch 90Hz HDR10+ 840x2520 AMOLED display.
The Mi Mix Fold is now shipping in China, starting at around $1,500. According to Xiaomi, it has sold around 40,000 units in the first minute - generating over $61 million in revenue for the smartphone maker.
Korea-based OLED materials maker Solus Advanced Materials (previously Doosan Solus, which was spun-off from DEM in 2019) announced that it will setup a $20.5 million OLED materials fab in Changzhou, Jiangsu province in China.
The new factory will be modeled after the company's existing Iksan (South Korea) fab and iwll produce the same high quality OLED materials. It will start operations by the end of 2022, and by 2025 it will have a capacity of 20 metric tonnes.
Earlier this month we reported that the US district court in Texas decreed that Samsung Display and Samsung Electronics are to pay $62.7 million in damages as the companies wilfully infringed upon two of Solas OLED fundamental OLED patents (USPTO #7,446,338 and #9,256,311).
Samsung proceeded to file a patent office challenge against the #311 patent, and apparantly Samsung won the challenge. The patent describes a flexible touch sensor that is wrapped around the edge of the display - and Samsung argued that as a flexible touch sensor is already known, this patent is "obvious". It appears as if Samsung will not have to pay the $35.4 million in damages for this patent.
In past years Apple had to pay millions of dollars to Samsung Display as a compensation for lower smartphone OLED orders. Apple is committed to buy a certain amount of displays, and this payment is a fine due to lower orders.
Due to lower OLED orders in 2021, analysts estimate that Apple, again, will have to compensate Samsung. The main fault is with lower sales of Apple's iPhone 12 mini. In total, according to reports, Apple reduced its OLED Orders for the iPhone 12 series by 20% to 75 million units in the first half of 2021.
Phosphorescent materials are based on the addition of a heavy-metal to the emissive materails, and most (if not all?) commercial materials use Iridium. The price of this rare metal has hit an all-time high last week.
Towards the end of last year, the price of one oz of Iridium was $1,760. Last week it hit $6,000 - the price jumped over 300% in just three months. Experts explain that the price has risen due to a disruption in the supply in South Africa (which supplies around 80% of the global market) and strong demand from the electrical and electrochemical sector.
OLED microdisplay maker eMagin posted its financial results for Q4 2020. Revenues for the quarter were $7.7 million (up from $7.3 million in Q3 2019) with contract revenue of $1.5 million reflecting continued work for a Tier-1 consumer company.
Net loss for Q4 2020 was $3.7 million. For the full year 2020, eMagin reports revenues of $29.4 million, up from $26.7 million in 2019. The net loss in 2020 was $11.5 million.
Ireland-based OLED IP company Solas OLED announced that a jury in the US district court in Texas has found Samsung Display and Samsung Electronics liable to Solas for wilfully infringing two fundamental OLED patents (USPTO #7,446,338 and #9,256,311). The jury awarded solas with $62.7 million in damages.
Solas says that these patents are required for AMOLED to function - these patents were used in the OLED displays used in Samsung's Galaxy S and Galaxy Note smartphones.
China-based OLED maker Visionox has spun-off its PMOLED business, to create a new company called Qingyue. Visionox will now focus on AMOLED production (after having spun-off its OLED lighting unit Yeolight back in 2015).
Qingyue, which is one of the world's leading PMOLED makers, has two 370x400 mm production lines, each with a capacity of 8,000 monthly substrates (around 1.75 million 1” displays).
UK-based OTFT display backplane developer SmartKem has closed a $24.6 million private placement financing. Prior to the financing, the company also completed a reverse acquisition transaction with Parasol Investments Corporation (Parasol), a public Delaware corporation, whereby SmartKem became a wholly owned subsidiary of Parasol which later changed its name to SmartKem and will continue with the company's business as it is.
SmartKem says that the new financing will allow the company to continue and scale and expand the production of its ink material, its electrical design automation tools and its foundry services.
TADF emitter materials developer Kyulux announced that it has finalized its Series-B-prime funding round, raising $34.3 million USD from several VCs and companies. Kyulux will be able to now accelerate its product development and drive for adoption of its materials in smartphone OLED displays.
Kyulux also announced plans to establish a mass production system for its materials, in cooperation with chemical companies.
