Cynora announced that it finalized its Series-B funding round. Both Samsung (via Samsung Ventures) and LG Display participated in this round which totaled €25 million. Both LGD and samsung will also establish separate joint development efforts to assist in advancing Cynora's R&D.
Cynora did not disclose how much did each company invest, although earlier reports suggested that LG invested €15 million while Samsung invested €10 million.
KGI Securities' analyst Ming-Chi Kuo estimates that SDC charges Apple $120 to $130 for each flexible OLED display to be used in the upcoming iPhone OLED edition. Ming-Chi says that the 5.5" LCD used in the iPhone 7+ costs $45-$55.
SDC is the exclusive supplier of OLEDs to Apple (mostly because no other company can produce such high quality displays and at such high volumes) and so can enjoy a high premium on its flexible OLEDs. Other estimates we hear, though, say that the price premium of SDC's flexible OLEDs is only about $50 over a competing LCD. It is a bit difficult to compare these two kinds of displays, though, as flexible OLEDs offer functionality that LCD cannot compete with.
Visionox announced that it has chosen Israel-based Orbotech to supply it with an end-to-end automated optical inspection (AOI) solutions for its upcoming 6-Gen flexible AMOLED fab in Hebei.
This deal includes a large number of Orbotech AOI systems for TFT Array and OLED-related layers for inspection and classification. Among the solutions provided is the Orbotech Quantum Flex series, which will resolve challenges that manufacturers typically face with OLED flexible display processes. The solution includes unique technologies to address the requirements of flexible OLED panel inspection.
According to ETNews, Sunic Systems is set to become a public company via an IPO in Korea towards the end of September. The OLED deposition equipment maker aims to raise between $61 to $73 million.
Sunic business dramatically grew when it started to ship its 6-Gen deposition systems to L G Display, which uses these machines in its E5 mass production line (which reportedly is still struggling with very low yields). Sunic's sales grew from $25.7 million in 2015 to $128 million in 2016.
In March 2017 display market BOE Technology and OLED Microdisplay maker OLiGHTEK announced a new joint-venture to produce OLED microdisplays for the consumer VR and AR markets. The new venture will establish production fab in Kunming, Yunnan with an annual production capacity of a million OLED microdisplays.
BOE Technology announced a few days ago the structure of this venture has been finalized. Total investment will amount to ¥1.15 billion (around $172 million USD), a bit higher than first announced. BOE will invest ¥670 billion and will hold a 67% stake. OLiGHTEK will invest ¥200 million.
OLED maker Truly Semiconductor, based in Hong Kong, sees a large increase in PMOLED demand in the near future, and the company is executing an ambitious PMOLED capacity expansion plan.
Truly is currently operating two production lines: the P1 and P2 lines, both 2.5-Gen and with a monthly capacity of 625K and 1.25M pcs (Truly counts its capacity as per 1" displays). Truly has set out to build two new production lines. The P3 line which is a 2.5-Gen line with a capacity of 3.13 million 1” panels monthly is almost ready and will start mass production by the end of the month.
A report from the Korea Herald suggests that Samsung Display decided to invest €10 million in TADF developer Cynora, which follows LG Display's €15 million investment in the company. Both companies aim to secure access to next-generation emitter technology.
The Korean report actually states €100 million from SDC and €150 million from LGD - but this is surely a mistake as it's highly unlikely that Cynora could be raising such a huge sum of money at this stage. An earlier report from ETNews claimed LGD's investment totaled $9 million.
OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported its financial results for Q2 2017. Revenues in the quarter were $5.3 million (down from $5.5 million in Q2 2017) and the net loss was $2.3 million (up slightly from $2.2 million in Q2 2017).
At the end of the quarter, eMagin had $4.9 million in cash and equivalents. eMagin is focused on expanding its presence in military programs, advancing discussions with major consumer electronics companies for VR/AR products and progressing with finding high-volume production partners.
Japan Display says that it must must overhaul its manufacturing system and restructure the company as losses increase. JDI says that it has failed to keep up with the industry shift to new technologies (OLEDs), but it now plans to strategically focus on OLED displays.
JDI announced a loss of $287 million in the last quarter, three times higher than the loss last year. JDI plans to shed 3,700 jobs (about 30% of its workforce) and it says that this is the last chance to restructure.
Universal Display announced that China-based AMOLED producer Everdisplay (EDO) has signed an OLED evaluation agreement. As per the agreement, UDC will supply EDO with phosphorescent OLED materials to be used in EDO's displays.
Everdisplay actually started mass producing AMOLED displays towards the end of 2014 in a 4.5-Gen line with a monthly capacity of 20,000 substrates. The company is currently producing both small AMOLEDs for wearable devices and larger smartphone displays. EDO is also developing flexible OLEDs, transparent OLEDs and OLEDs for VR and automotive applications. EDO's current OLED displays can be found in the OLED Marketplace.
