Substrate

According to reports in Korean media, Samsung is developing a new process which will allow it to reduce the thickness of its QD-OLED panels.

The current QD-OLED design uses two glass substrates, one for the TFT backplen (and the OLED frontplane materials), and one for the QD conversion layer. The new plan is to remove the QD glass substrate, and inkjet print the QDs directly on the OLED TFE encapsulation layer.

Panasonic announced a new thermoset stretchable film for printed electronics, called Beyolex. Panasonic targets several applications for its new film, including OLED substrates and encapsulation film.

Beyolex is based on a proprietary non-silicone thermoset polymer chemistry developed by Panasonic researchers at the company's Electronic Materials laboratory in Osaka, Japan. The film features softness, conformability, high temperature resistance, and ultra-low permanent deformation after stretching.

As demand for larger mobile OLED displays, for laptops, tablets and monitors is on the rise, there are reports that Samsung Display is considering building a 8.5-Gen AMOLED fab dedicated for laptop and IT displays.

This new fab will be the first 8.5-Gen RGB OLED deposition fab, and Samsung is looking into new technologies to enable OLED deposition on larger substrates. It is reported today that SDC is developing, in collaboration with ULVAC, vertical deposition technology.

An AILU (Association of Industrial Laser Users) webinar, scheduled for September 15, will introduce the basics of OLED lighting, discuss the choice for the right substrate and encapsulation material as well as the current status of roll-to-roll processing. The webinar is sponsored by 3D Micromac, the industry leader in laser micromachining and roll-to-roll laser systems.

The webinar will also show results from the EU-funded LAOLA project, which is a collaboration between German and Japanese companies and research institutes. The LAOLA project, led by the Fraunhofer FEP, develops the use of ultra-thin flexible glass as a substrate and encapsulation material in roll-to-roll technology for this purpose.

Dongxu (Tungshu) Optoelectronics has started to construct China's largest OLED substrate glass factory, in Tianshui City. Total investment in the new glass factory will be 5 billion yuan ($760 million), and the plant will include four 6-Gen glass production lines.

The local Tianshui Municipal Government helped finance the project and provided 2 billion yuan.

Korea's KAIST institute researchers developed a new stress-relief substrate that is suitable for the creation of stretchable OLEDs that can maintain their performance under high-strain deformation.

The researchers say that the new stress-relief substrates have a unique structure and is made from a patterned "upper substrate" with bridges on top of pillars that decentralize the stress on the device.

Samsung is working on its next foldable phone, which according to leaks will be called the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. According to XDA's Max Weinbach, the new phone will be use ultra-thin flexible glass, instead of polyimide.

In November 2019 Samsung indeed signed an exclusive deal with Korea's Dowoo Insys to supply ultra-thin glass (UTG) for future foldable OLED devices. Samsung is aiming to switch to glass as its current foldable OLEDs which are protected by a plastic cover are highly prone for scratching and are very fragile.

The Fraunhofer FEP institute, in collaboration with Nippon Steel & Sumikin Materials (NSMAT) and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC), developed a new OLED lighting prototype that is made on a stainless steel substrate.

The researchers say that a stainless steel substrate has several advantages compared to glass or plastic - it has excellent thermal conductivity and excellent barrier properties. The lighting panel features an extremely homogenous OLED light, thanks to the planarization layer developed by NSSMC. The prototype panel was produced at the Fraunhofer's R2R research line.

The US Department of Energy announced 11 new solid state lighting projects grants, out of which five are related to OLED technologies (the rest are for new LED technologies).

We already posted on two of these grants which were awarded to Pixelligent. In addition to Pixelligent, OLEDWorks were also awarded with two SBIR Phase 1 projects, one for an ultrathin, curved, high-efficiency OLED light engine that will reduce the cost OLED lighting and the second for the development of a novel substrate and encapsulation process.

Fraunhofer FEP and Sefar developed a roll-to-roll processed large-area flexible OLED lighting panels in a joint project. This achievement followed a batch-based flexible OLED panel demonstrated in early 2017.

The R2R process currently used enables Fraunhofer and Sefar to produce 30 cm wide OLEDs in lengths of up to 30 meters.