Pioneer

UK-based PolyPhotonix announced that it has raised $10 million from Prevail Partners, which will help the company perform trials for the FDA with hopes to market its Notura eye mask in the US.

PolyPhotonix's Noctura 400 is a sleep mask that uses green OLED lighting panels for a non-invasive treatment for diabetic eye disease (DED). which helps patients with Diabetic Retinopathy. Pioneer supplies the OLED panels for PolyPhotonix.

UK-based PolyPhotonix, has been researching OLED technologies for many years, and its first commercial product will be the Noctura OLED sleep mask which helps patients with Diabetic Retinopathy.

The company announced today that it has signed a deal with Pioneer for the supply of OLED panels for the sleep masks.

In March 2017 Konica Minolta and Pioneer announced that the two companies are set to merge their OLED business unit, and on June 2017 the new 50:50 joint venture, called Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED, was officially established.

Pioneer was recently acquired by Hong Kong private equity firm Bearing Private Equity for $904 million, and the company is now trying to focus its business, and we learned that it has decided to quite the OLED lighting market. KMPO has been closed and all assets and employees were moved to Konica Minolta. This is quite sad news regarding Pioneer who's been active with OLED lighting for many years (see below).

During Tokyo's Wearable Expo, Pioneer introduced new PMOLED displays and devices. One of the devices on display seems to be an AR glasses concept that adopts a curved transparent PMOLED:

We don't have more information on Pioneer's new PMOLED besides what you can see in the image above. Pioneer announced it has developed flexible monochrome PMOLED panels back in 2013 (produced on ultra-thin glass) but did not commercialize such panels yet.

A few days ago we posted on Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED (KMPO) and its demonstration of simple flexible OLED lighting panels integrated into packaging. My friend Takatoshi Tsujimura, CTO at KMPO, sent me this nice Christmas greeting card, which arrived yesterday, with an integrated small red OLED. The OLED has a mirror finish when off.

This was exciting to get, and the whole card is very well done and feels great. It's a very nice surprise to see something light up in such a thin paper card. KMPO calls this concept "thin paper products with functionality".

In June 2017 Konica Minolta and Pioneer established a new OLED Joint Venture called Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED, which will combine the OLED business and product divisions of both companies, with a focus on automotive applications.

KMPO released a new video today showing a different possible application of its OLED lighting - integration into paper for packaging or greeting cards. KMPO calls this concept "thin paper products with functionality".

In June 2017 Konica Minolta and Pioneer established a new OLED Joint Venture called Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED, which will combine the OLED business and product divisions of both companies, with a focus on automotive applications.

According to the Nikkei Asian Review, Pioneer is aiming to deploy flexible OLED panels - and the company hopes it will have products ready for commercialization by 2020. Pioneer has already demonstrated flexible OLED based prototypes, and is in talks with OLED makers regarding the adoption of its panels in future cars.

Pioneer demonstrated new automotive OLED prototype applications at CES Asia 2017. First up are these beautiful OLED taillight prortotypes, which use flexible OLEDs that are bent to create these 3D shapes.

Pioneer also demonstrated an updated version of its transparent brake light system, which was first unveiled in January 2016. The idea is that the brake light can be embedded in the back window of the car to create a beautiful design that is safer as it enlarges the back field of view compared to current brake lights.

In March 2017 Konica Minolta and Pioneer announced that the two companies are set to merge their OLED business unit, and on June 1st the new 50:50 joint venture, called Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED, was officially established.

Konica Minolta says that the new company will take charge of all business and product planning, product development, production technology development and marketing functions of both companies' OLED lighting business to drive its initiatives.

In January 2017 we reported that Konica Minolta and Pioneer are set to merge their OLED business unit, and today Konica Minolta officially announced a joint-venture with Pioneer to accelerate automotive OLED lighting.

Konica Minolta and Pioneer will setup a joint venture, which will be called Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED. The new 50:50 JV company will be established in May 2017 with an initial capital of 490 million yen (about $4.4 million) and a focus on OLED lighting for automotive applications.