ZTE announced the Axon 20 5G, the first smartphone with an under-the-OLED camera. The Axon 20 5G features a full-screen 6.92-inch 1080x2460 90Hz AMOLED display and will ship in a few days in China for around $320.
The Axon 20 5G also sports an under-the-display fingerprint sensor - and ZTE says that it includes an "under-the-OLED" sound, which could mean that the OLED acts as a speaker membrane (in a similar way to LG's Crystal Sound Technology), but it is not clear exactly.
Xiaomi announced that it will start producing smartphones that adopt the company's Under-Display Camera technology next year. Xiaomi says that this is actually the company's third-gen under-the-OLED camera technology, that hasn't been adopted in mass market products yet.
Xiaomi says that it's latest development enabled the front camera to be completely disguised. This was achieved by a new pixel arrangement (with a large aperture ratio) developed by Xiaomi, and the optimization of the camera algorithms.
Taiwan-based Innolux demonstrated several new display technologies that will enable the company to compete against OLED displays. First up we have this 55" rollable mini-LED display prototype. This is an emissive mini-LED display, it is not a mini-LED backlit LCD display.
Innolux did not disclose any specifications on this display (not even the resolution), but it did say that the display use a flexible PCB and features "high curvature, high brightness, high contrast, high saturation and high definition dynamic picture". Innolux says that rollable OLEDs face challenges of reliability and cost and this technology could prove to succeed where rollable OLEDs cannot.
OTI Lumionics announced that its latest ConducTorr Cathode Patterning Material (CPM) materials will start shipping by the end of 2020 to customers, which will use these to create OLED displays with under-the-display camera and face unlock technologies.
OTI says that the first mobile devices using OTI’s CPM materials are expected to ship in 2021. Last month we reported that Visionox will soon start shipping AMOLED displays with an under-the-display camera, it could be the Visionox is OTI's first customer. OTI received a strategic investment from LG recently, which could hint that LG could be OTI's customer as well.
In January 2019 Austria-based Sensor developer AMS announced a new RGB light and proximity sensor IC that can be placed behind an OLED screen, and still accurately measure the intensity of ambient light. Later in 2019, AMS said that the new sensor is a "resounding market success".
In its latest conference call, AMS management said that its behind-the-OLED light and proximity sensing is continuing their adoption in major Android platforms. The company is now shipping very high volumes of sensing solutions. The company is now developing more behind-the-OLED technologies with significant R&D activities.
OLED producers are looking at under-the-OLED cameras - this is a great technology that could enable complete bezel-less smartphone displays without any pop-up selfie cameras. Samsung, in 2018, announced it is working on several behind-the-OLED sensors, including a camera. But China's Visionox is the first company that actually launched such a technology commercially.
Microsoft recently published an interesting research project (led by Sehoon Lim) that discusses the potential use cases of under-the-OLED camera and its advantages, and also the challenges - with AI technologies that could assist in solving these issues.
Last month Chinese OLED producer Visionox launched an under-the-OLED camera technology, branded as InV See - which enables a selfie camera in a full-screen OLED smartphone. According to new report from China, Visionox has already shipped InV See displays to Huawei and Xiaomi which will launch smartphones with these displays soon.
The report suggests that Visionox started to ship these displays in the second half of 2019 - and these deals were worth over 3.5 billion yuan (around $500 million USD).
Chinese OLED producer Visionox launched a new under-the-OLED camera technology, branded as InV See - which is the world's first such display. The main application for this technology is to enable a selfie camera in a full-screen OLED smartphone.
InV See utilizes a transparent section in the OLED display that allows a camera to be placed behind it. Visionox says that for this technology it developed a new pixel structure, new driver circuits and used new materials.
BOE and Qualcomm announced plans to establish a strategic collaboration to develop innovative display products featuring Qualcomm's 3D Sonic ultrasonic fingerprint sensors. BOE have already started to embed Qualcomm's sensor in its flexible OLED displays.
BOE also says that this collaboration will result in a streamlined supply chain and reduces the bill of materials (BoM) and R&D expenses expenses. BOE says that it will start shipping the integrated panels and sensors in H2 2020.
In January 2019 Xiaomi unveiled a new prototype smartphone that uses a tri-foldable OLED display. The company did not disclose much information, but a report from Taiwan suggested that the OLED supplier for this prototype was Visionox.
In an interview with China Daily a Visionox VP confirms that Visionox supplied the foldable OLED prototypes to Visionox. He also says that Visionox supplied Xiaomi with the innovative OLED displays with under-the-screen camera (seen in the video below).
