Amber Molecular announced that it has completed its Series A funding round, raising $5 million USD, led by Phoenix Venture Partners.
Amber Molecular was established in 2017 by researchers at The University of Toronto in Canada to develop novel fluorescent OLED emitters. Amber Molecular's patented family of fluorescent OLED emissive materials produce photons in the orange, red and infrared spectrum, targeting new OLED applications.
JOLED announced that it has filed lawsuits in the US and Germany against Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display. JOLED says that Samsung infringed on its OLED patents without a license
JOLED (Japan OLED) was established in August 2014 by Japan Display, Sony and Panasonic to produce OLED displays using inkjet printing technology. The company has (or applied for) around 4,000 global OLED patents. We do know which patents JOLED refers to in its new law suit.
JOLED announced that TCL CSoT has invested 20 billion Yen (around $187 million USD) in the company, and has also signed an agreement to jointly develop OLED TV printing technologies.
This is a very interesting development. TCL has been a long time believer in inkjet printing for OLED displays, and the company has established Juhua Printing in 2016 (together with TianMa and other collaborators) as an "open-innovation platform" to develop ink-jet printing of OLED panels. JOLED was not involved as far as we know in this alliance - so has TCL given up on Juhua and is now aiming to rely on JOLED's technology?
Germany-based OLED lighting developer Inuru announced that it has completed its Series-A funding round. Inuru raised €2.3 Million, led by Warsaw based venture capital fund ARIA.
Inuru aims to use the funds to accelerate the production of affordable active packaging and labeling products. Inuru uses flexible OLED lighting devices to develop "luminous label and packaging solutions".
OLED microdisplay maker eMagin announced that the company received a $5.5 million award from the US Department of Defense to improve eMagin’s OLED microdisplay manufacturing capabilities.
The award was granted under the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) Program for OLED Supply Chain Assurance. These funds will be used for procurement and installation of capital equipment in eMagin’s NY-based manufacturing facility.
LG Chem announced that it has sold most of its LCD polarizer business to China’s Ningbo Shanshan, in a $1.1 billion deal. LG Chem will retain its automotive LCD polarizer business, and aims to focus on "strengthening its competitiveness in tech materials, especially OLED and nurture its OLED polarizer business".
In 2018 DSCC estimated that the OLED circular polarizer market will grow from $428 million in 2017 to $1.27 billion in 2022. The market is still dominated by mobile displays. In 2018 the OLED circular polarizer market was led by Sumitomo Chemical and Nitto Denko, with LG Chem increasing its market share in OLED TVs polarizers.
In 2019, Doosan Corp spun-off its OLED materials unit, which is now called Doosan Solus (and is listed on the Korean stock market). Last month it was reported that Doosan Corp aims to sell its 51% stake as it needs to raise funds to bail out its troubled Doosan Heavy I&C company.
According to a new report from Korea, Doosan Corp demands 1 trillion Won for its Doosan Solus stake (around $810 million USD), but at this price it did not manage to find any buyers.
Universal Display reported its Q1 2020 financial results. While the company and its market are effected by the Corona Virus, UDC had an excellent quarter with revenues of $112.3 million (material sales of $66.6 million, up from $60.8 million in Q4 2019 and $54.5 million in Q1 2019) and a net income of $38.2 million.
At the end of the quarter, UDC had $640 million in cash and equivalents. Due to the pandemic, the company withdraws its 2020 annual guidance. UDC also says that some of its orders in the quarter was due to its customers stocking up inventory due to industry uncertainties.
OLED driver IC developer MagnaChip announced its financial results for Q1 2020. OLED DDIC revenue was $69.7 million, up 43.6% from last year and up 3.5% from last quarter. The company estimates that 8 new smartphones that adopt its OLED drivers were released in Q1 2020, and 9 just entered pilot production.
MagnaChip has a total of 16 OLED display drivers, almost double the number of drivers it had in its portfolio in Q1 2019. The company has started to develop OLED drivers for automotive products, which the company expects to to into production in the first half of 2021.
Kopin Corporation reported its financial results for Q1 2020 - with $7.9 million in revenues (up 42% from Q1 2019) and a 50% decrease in R&D expenses as the company implements its strategic realignment program.
Kopin also announced that during the quarter it received the first commercial order for its OLED backplane wafers. Interestingly Kopin says the order was for wafers and not complete displays. Kopin says that its current internal R&D investments are primarily focused on OLED displays.
