LG Electronics Exhibition Trend At KES 2022

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At ‘KES 2022 (Korea Electronics Show)’ held from October 4th to the 7th, LG Electronics displayed OLED TVs, OLED monitors, and transparent OLED signage according to the theme and exhibited them for direct experience.

LG OLED TV exhibited at KES 2022

LG OLED TV exhibited at KES 2022

Starting with the 97-inch OLED EVO TV placed at the entrance of the exhibition hall, LG Electronics exhibited LG Electronics’ signature 8K OLED TV ‘OLED88Z2’ and transparent OLED signage ‘55EW5G’. The transparent OLED signage ‘55EW5G’ had a resolution of FHD, a transparency of 38%, and a peak brightness of 400nit.

LG transparent OLED TV exhibited at KES 2022

LG transparent OLED TV exhibited at KES 2022

In the separately arranged ‘OLED Flex/Ultra Gear’ zone, 32/48 inch ‘Ultra Gear’ and 42 inch ‘OLED Flex’ were exhibited. ‘Ultra Gear’ was 32-inch LCD model and 48-inch OLED model by size. 48-inch ‘Ultra Gear’ had a resolution of 4K, response speed of 0.1ms, color gamut of DCI-P3 99%, and peak brightness of APL. 600 nits based on 3%, the contrast ratio was 1.5 million to 1, and the color gamut was DCI-P3 99%.

‘OLED Flex’, which was first unveiled at ‘IFA 2022’ held in Germany last September, is a bendable gaming monitor that can adjust the curvature in 20 steps as desired by the user, with a resolution of 4K and a curvature of 900R.

‘OLED Flex’ ‘Bending’ exhibited by LG Electronics BEFORE (left) / AFTER (right)

‘OLED Flex’ ‘Bending’ exhibited by LG Electronics BEFORE (left) / AFTER (right)

In addition to OLED products, LG Electronics exhibited 8K mini LED beam projectors, automotive displays, kiosks, smart and medical monitors, and ‘One:Quick’, an all-in-one display. LG Electronics mentioned that it has no plans to release OLED-applied kiosks, smart and medical monitors, and all-in-one display products so far.

[IMID 2022] ETRI to Show ‘Stacked QD-OLED’ With Top Glass Removed

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At IMID 2022 held in BEXCO, Busan, from August 23rd to the 26th, ETRI held an exhibition and presentation, ‘Development of QD-OLED Technology with Fine Quantum Dot Pixel Array using Inkjet Printing Process’.

Stacked QD-OLED structure/ ETRI

Stacked QD-OLED structure/ ETRI

Two glass substrates are used in the QD-OLED produced by Samsung Display, but the ‘Stacked QD-OLED’ developed by ETRI has a structure in which the glass with the QD color conversion layer is removed. In the stacked OLED, TFE and BM are formed on the light emitting layer, and the QD color conversion layer is formed by the inkjet printing process instead of the lamination process. The ‘Stacked QD-OLED’ structure has advantages such as material cost reduction and process simplification compared to the existing method.

ETRI explained that there are advantages of material cost reduction and process simplification compared to the existing process through this, and the thickness of the QD color conversion layer can be made thicker than before, resulting in a higher color conversion rate and less blue light leakage.

Meanwhile, ETRI collaborated with Kosan Tech for inkjet module head, Duksan Neolux for black bank material, and Chem e for QD material to develop ‘Stacked QD-OLED’.

‘Stacked QD-OLED’ Developed by ETRI

‘Stacked QD-OLED’ Developed by ETRI

▶ OLED Display Report Sample Download

[IMID 2022] Samsung Display to Start Mass Production of 49-inch and 77-inch QD-OLED Panels Early Next Year

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At ‘IMID 2022’, which was held in BEXCO, Busan, from August 23rd to 26th, 2022, Samsung Display exhibited 77-inch QD-OLED and foldable OLED such as ‘Flex S’, ‘Flex G’, ‘Flex Note,’ ‘Flex Gaming’, and ‘Diamond Pixel’.

77-inch QD-OLED TV/ Samsung Display

77-inch QD-OLED TV/ Samsung Display

The 77-inch QD-OLED exhibited by Samsung Display was very similar to the previously released 65-inch QD-OLED TV with a resolution of 4K, a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, and a refresh rate of 120 Hz, but Samsung Display revealed that there was a slight improvement in luminance.

Following the existing 55-inch and 65-inch QD-OLEDs, Samsung Display plans to start mass production of 49-inch and 77-inch QD OLEDs from early next year. If the MMG (Multi model glass) process is used in the 8.5 generation (2200x2500mm) ledger used by Samsung Display, it is possible to produce two 77-inch panels and two 49-inch panels, a total of four panels.

Samsung Display concluded with, “Depending on the situation of the set makers, a new size QD-OLED TV is expected to be released as early as the second quarter of next year.”

▶ OLED Display Report Sample Download

[IMID 2022 Keynote] Samsung Display Announces OLED Big Step in 2022

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At IMID 2022 held in BEXCO, Busan, from August 23rd to the 26th, Samsung Display CEO Joo-seon Choi gave a keynote speech, ‘Changing Display Industry with Disruptive Innovation’. He announced plans to expand the display business for automobiles and invest in micro-displays for AR/VR.

Samsung Display's mid- to long-term plans

Samsung Display’s mid- to long-term plans

First, President Choi mentioned the investment in 8.5G IT OLED and said, “When 8G ledger is used, glass efficiency is improved by more than 20% compared to the existing 6G half cut. This will accelerate the penetration of OLED in the IT market. Through this, we are also targeting the automotive display market in the future.”

Characteristics of premium OLED for automobiles

Characteristics of premium OLED for automobiles

Next, President Choi showed key features in Premium OLED in Automotive

 ‘Safety’ – accurate information with the characteristics of premium OLED for automobiles.

‘Interior Design’ – such as narrow bezel and multi-lamination.

‘Entertainment’ – high brightness through tandem structure and wide color gamut of OLED emphasized.

Samsung Display's AR/VR micro display

Samsung Display’s AR/VR micro display

Finally, “The AR/VR industry is a great opportunity to expand the display market. Samsung Display plans to develop micro-displays for AR/VR, such as micro-OLED and micro LED, to keep pace with the market needs. For the AR/VR industry to develop, cooperation across the ecosystem is important.”

According to the announcement, Samsung Display is aiming for commercialization in 2026 by mass-producing prototypes in 2024 and expanding the capacity in 2025. This is the first time that Samsung Display has revealed a specific time for AR/VR business.

In the announcement, CEO Joo-sun Choi predicted that the self-luminous display market would reach $100 billion in 2030 and that displays would penetrate all industries.

▶ OLED Display Report Sample Download

[IMID 2022] SEL Develops 5,291ppi Micro OLED Display Integrating Si CMOS and OSFET

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At IMID 2022 held from August 24th to the 26th, Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL) announced that it has developed a 5,291ppi micro OLED display for AR/VR that integrates Si CMOS and OSFET.

OLED, OS, Si structure/SEL

OLED, OS, Si structure/SEL

According to SEL’sannouncement, two problems arise when manufacturing an OLED display with high pixel density by integrating the existing Si FET. The first is that the source/gate drivers are located outside the display area, which increases the bezel width. A thin bezel width is a prerequisite for a decent AR/VR device size. The second issue is the high mobility of Si FETs and the balance between pixels. In order to apply Si FET to Micro OLED, it is necessary to reduce the transistor size while suppressing the increase in current.

In order to solve these problems, SEL announced that it has manufactured an OLED micro-display prototype that integrates Si CMOS and OSFET. SEL states that, “The mobility of OSFETs is not as high as Si FETs, but it is sufficient to drive OLED devices. Through the OLED/OS/Si structure in which OS (OSFET) and OLED are combined on CMOS, the width of the bezel area can be reduced by up to 40%. In addition, in the characteristic evaluation of OSFETs, it was possible to implement deep black and drive a low rate of fire, and the good distribution in a channel length of 200 nm and a breakdown voltage of about 20 V made it suitable for high voltage OLED driving of white-tandem OLED devices.”

The size of the 5,291ppi micro OLED display announced by SEL is 0.51 inches, the resolution is 1920×1920, and the pixel size is 4.8×4.8 μm. The backplane is a combined structure of 130 nm Si FET and 60 nm OSFET.

5,291ppi Micro OLED display specification/ SEL

5,291ppi Micro OLED display specification/ SEL

[K-Display 2022] FMM Exhibition of Core Materials for OLED Deposition That are Leading in Localization

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The K-Display 2022 exhibition, a Korean display industry exhibition was held at COEX in Samseong-dong from August 10 to 12.

Display-related materials, equipment, and parts companies such as Samsung Display and LG Display participated.

As OLED business is expanding from Smartphones and TVs to IT such as Notebooks, Tablet PCs and Micro OLED, related parts makers drew attention in exhibitions.

FMM for OLED Mobile(6GH)/ Philmaterials

FMM for OLED Mobile(6GH)/ Philmaterials

Invar, which is used for metal masks, is an iron-nickel alloy material necessary for manufacturing FMM for depositing RGB in OLED manufacturing.

Phillmaterials is using Invar as an ultra-high resolution display material because it has a low thermal expansion rate and thin thickness using the electroplating method.

Pixel Shadow can be improved compared to the compressed FMM. 6G half-sized OLED mobile masks and IT masks were also displayed.

Unlike the existing FMM method, Olum Materials used a method of attaching individual cells to a frame.

It is effective in preventing sagging in a large area, and if a mask is defective, it has the advantage of not replacing the entire mask.

Olum Materials exhibited a mask of 6G half size, they are developing it in the lead of localization.

FMM/ Olum Material

FMM/ Olum Material

FMM for micro OLED/ APS Materials

FMM for micro OLED/ APS Materials

Because FMM for micro OLEDs requires finer holes, APS Materials introduced patterning laser technology using high-power lasers, the 2,050 ppi FMM, which can pattern on 8-inch wafer substrates used in display fields for AR and VR.

▶ 2022 OLED Component and Material Report Sample Download

The next full-screen display trend is the under-display camera

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Reporter : Daejeong Yoon

Since Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and Apple’s iPhone X launch, smartphones with the Home button removed have become a trend in the smartphone market.

Due to the nature of smartphones that cannot grow indefinitely, display sizes with a large proportion within limited smartphone sizes are directly related to the competitiveness of smartphone set makers.

Samsung’s Galaxy S10, which was recently released, attracted great attention with its flexible OLED with HIAA (hole in active area) technology. Notch or HIAA designs, however, can still interfere with video viewing and gaming because camera lenses occupy a small portion of the display.

That is why a number of panel makers are developing under display camera technology for a full-screen display.

Under display camera technology allows the front camera to be placed behind the display for a full-screen display. Oppo unveiled the first smartphone with the technology at MWC China 2019, and BOE and Visionox also anticipated that under-display cameras will become the next trend in smartphones at CIOC 2019.

It is expected that screen, camera module, and algorithmic technologies will all be specially designed to implement under display camera technology. Specifically, the technology to make the pixel near the camera at low resolution to secure transmittance, to mount a CMOS image sensor of a larger pixel size than the existing, and to apply algorithm technology to improve the picture quality.

The trend of full-screen smartphones, which began in 2017, is paying attention to whether full-screen smartphones will bloom with the technology of under-display cameras since 2020.

[SID Vehicle Display 2019] OLED is optimal for side mirror replacement display

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In October 2018, Samsung Display received a lot of attention by supplying OLED for side mirror replacement to e-Tron of Audi, a global automaker. e-Tron has a camera installed in the side of the existing side mirror, and the driver can check the surroundings through the OLED installed in the vehicle.

Mirrorless cars were discussed at the SID Vehicle Display 2019 panel discussion in September 2019.

Drew Harbach pointed out that “existing side mirrors may have the effect of glare in tunnel-like spaces.” “The cameras and displays can be reduced to provide a better night view.”

He mentioned that the resolution of the display is important, of course, but the contrast and FOV are also very important factors. He also emphasized that the contrast ratio should be very high so that objects can be seen under any environmental conditions.

The high contrast ratio is a very helpful factor in recognizing objects not only in dark nights but also under the strong sunlight of the day.

Panelists mentioned the various displays such as LCD, OLED, micro LED, etc., but OLED is the only display with high contrast ratio and wide viewing angle in the environment where mass production is possible. In addition, OLED has a very fast response time, which is widely used in VR devices and professional monitors where image quality is very important.

OLEDs are mentioned as potential candidates for side-mirror displays and are expected to be used in internal displays, such as clusters and CIDs (center information displays). Korean and Chinese panel makers are actively developing automotive OLEDs, and Samsung Display has forecast that automotive OLED panels will increase to about 3 million by 2022.

[IFA2019] Sony’s OLED TV Evolving from Year to Year

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Sony, which is driving the OLED TV market with LG Electronics, is exhibiting OLED TVs with new features at CES and IFA after the first display of OLED TVs.

The OLED TV displayed at Sony’s booth, which was first opened on Media Day of IFA2019, did not show a woofer. Using surface acoustic technology to produce sound from the screen, Sony showcased the CES2019’s model with four actuators on the back of the OLED panel and a woofer speaker as the rear stand. However, the woofers disappeared in IFA2019.

According to exhibition officials, the secret is that the panel is arranged with six actuators, three rows of two behind the panel, so that sound can be displayed on the screen from low to high.

[SID2019] What material is better for cover windows of foldable OLED? colorless PI or UTG?

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Since Royole introduced ‘FlexPai’, a foldable OLED phone, Samsung Electronics and Huawei have also launched Foldable OLED phones, attracting great interest from the industry and the public.

The biggest change of the foldable OLED phone currently being commercialized or under preparation is that the cover window of the glass material used in the existing flexible OLED has been changed to colorless PI material.

Colorless PI is thinner than conventional cover window glass, which is advantageous in reducing the radius of curvature and has the advantage of not breaking. UTG (ultra-thin glass), which has good surface touch-feel and scratch-resistant glass as thin as possible, is also attracting attention as a cover window material for foldable OLEDs.

At the SID Display Week exhibition in San Jose, KOLON exhibited colorless PI with hard coating. KOLON, which has been ready for mass production of colorless PI since 2018, is currently supplying colorless PI for foldable OLED cover windows to AUO, BOE, LG Display, and Royole.

Hard coating company DNP and TOYOCHEM also exhibited colorless PI with hard coating. DNP’s company official said that the film is under development and its main business area is hard coating, and TOYOCHEM’s company official said that it supplied hard coating samples to KOLON and SKC.

Meanwhile, SCHOTT, a UTG development company, also attracted the attention of the audience by displaying UTG for foldable OLED cover windows. An official of SCHOTT said that the UTG currently being developed is a cover window product for out-folding, not in-folding, and that the thickness is currently in development from 0.7 mm to 2.5 mm in accordance with customer requirements.

As the smartphone set makers are expected to release foldable OLED phones in the near future, competition for related materials is also expected to be intense. Whether the Colorless PI will continue to dominate or whether UTG will be able to exercise its influence is highlighted.

[Lighting Fair 2019] NEG, OLED lighting collaborated with other lighting companies

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At the Lighting Fair 2019 held in Tokyo Big Sight from March 5 to 8, 2019, Nippon Electric Glass (NEG) attracted the attention of the audience by exhibiting a large number of OLED lighting produced in collaboration with Kaneka, OLEDWorks and Lumlight. NEG, which produces ultra-thin glass for OLED lighting, introduced ‘Internal Extraction Layer (IEL)’ and ‘HX-1’, which improve external luminous efficiency, and high refractive index glass.

And NEG presented two OLED lighting panels were made in collaboration with Kaneka, a rechargeable OLED lighting ‘LUCE T1’, and a rotatable wall lighting ‘LUCE W1’. OLED lighting panels consist of square panels and rectangular panels with 3000K and 4000K color lighting, while square panels are in volume production, while rectangular panels are in progress.

In addition, NEG presented OLEDWorks ‘Brite 3’ series. ‘Brite 3’ has started mass production in the third quarter of 2018, efficiency is over 80 lm / W, color rendering is over 90, and color temperature is 3000K and 4000K.

Lastly, NEG exhibited the ‘OLED EYECARE LAMP’ stand by Lumlight. A represent said “OLED lighting would be a very useful lighting for infants and young people because it is less glare and feels very weak.

[MWC 2019] The new form factor, foldable phone wars heat up

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Reporter : Daejeong Yoon

Smartphone makers are promoting the new form factor, foldable phones at MWC 2019 started on February 27 and it runs until 29 in Barcelona Spain.

The show is buzzing with products from big-name tech companies, including Samsung Electronics and Huawei,TCL, LG Electronics being unveiled. That includes a variety of phones with foldable screens.

Samsung unveiled foldable phone ‘Galaxy Fold’ to customer, highly touted at the Samsung Galaxy unpacked event.

In folding ‘Galaxy Fold’ features a 7.3-inch QXGA + resolution OLED screen and it was built to be compact size with 4.6-inch HD + resolution OLED when folded.

And Huawei announced its own foldable phone “Mate X” uses roll out foldable technology, it is surrounded by a 6.6-inch main OLED on the front and a 6.38-inch on the back. It is 8.7 inches when it is opened, 1.4 inches bigger than Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Fold.

Mate X’s front display has 2480 × 1148 resolution with a 19.5: 9 aspect ratio. The back OLED has a 2480 × 892 resolution with a 25: 9 aspect ratio. When you flip it open, the resolution is 2480 × 2200 with an aspect ratio of 8: 7.1. .

Also, TCL announced the prototype device uses the company’s proprietary “DragonHinge” mechanism to fold and unfold the screen, it has 7.2-inch screen.

According to TCL, this device will build a production version that is slated for release by 2021.

Lastly, LG showed off V50 which is similar to a folding phone, it does have an optional case with a whole second screen on it. With two near-identical phone displays next to each other, the functional split-screen allows multitasking and gaming easily.

LG Display Vice Chairman Han Sang-Bum, “50% of sales of OLED and upbringing business in 2020”

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Growing into the mainstream of OLED growth by expanding large OLED, differentiated products and supply

■ Small and Medium-sized POLED, strengthening fundamental business capacity and preparing future products such as Foldable

■ Develop commercial and automotive products, new technologies / new markets and develop into first-class business

LG Display is one of the world’s largest electronics exhibitors, and will hold a press conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) in Las Vegas on June 7, the day before the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) with Han vice chairman, executive vice president Kang In-Byoung, Strategy and Marketing Group Director Song Young-kwon, and other executives.

At the meeting, Han Sang-bum said, “Although there were many difficulties due to excessive supply and enormous investment due to intensified global competition last year, large-sized OLED business turned to surplus and stable profit was generated mainly in high value-added products. “This year, LG Display will focus on OLED investments, accelerating OLED growth, and focus on commercial and automotive businesses. By 2020, LGD will account for more than 50% of total OLED and growth businesses. “He said.

To this end, LG Display plans to expand its large-size OLED market, strengthen its fundamental business capabilities in small- and mid-sized P-OLED (plastic OLED) businesses, and develop new markets with differentiated commercial and automotive products.

■ Large OLED, differentiated products and supply expansion

Since LG Display first supplied OLED TV panels in 2013, LG Display has continued to develop its technology. And last year, it sold nearly 3 million units and developed into a strong player in the premium TV market. This year, the company plans to expand its TV product lineup from the existing 4K resolution to 8K, and to further enhance its competitiveness by further enhancing performance such as luminance and response time. In addition, the company will expand its market by expanding differentiated products such as wall paper, CSO (Crystal Sound OLED), rollable and transparent display. LG Display will complete the G8.5 OLED panel factory in Guangzhou, China in the first half of this year, and mass-produce OLED from the third quarter. Through this, the company plans to expand its sales volume from 2.9 million units in 2018 to 4 million units this year, and to achieve more than 10 million units in 2021.

In addition, LGD will expand sales areas for existing customers, strengthen collaboration with strategic customers, and increase sales of premium products such as ultra-large size panel.

■ Small and mid-sized P-OLED, strengthening fundamental business capacity and preparing future products.

LG Display is targeting the small- and mid-sized OLED market through P-OLED.

This year, it is a great challenge to develop core technologies and products for strategic customers in a timely to raise market share of small- and medium-sized panel.

In addition, LGD plans to increase the production capacity of the Gen 6 Gumi factory, which has a capacity of 15,000 sheets per month, and to expand the P-OLED production capacity by early stabilizing the Gen 6 factory in Paju.

In addition, LGD plans to steadily prepare related technologies and infrastructure so that future products such as Foldable can be released on time.

■ Commercial and automotive displays, Fostering first-class business

LG Display nurtures the rapidly growing commercial and automotive businesses to first-class business.

In the commercial market, LGD plans to pursue differentiated products such as 98 and 86 inches, ultra-slim products such as in-touch, bezel of 0.44 mm, transparent and gaming.

For automobiles, LTPS-based high-resolution LCDs and P-OLEDs are expected to focus on 8-inch and larger screens and high-resolution products. In addition, LGD will prepare its production infrastructure to expand its business in a timely manner and further strengthen its cost competitiveness, thereby achieving the first place in the fast growing auto market.

This year LGD plans to complete investment in preparation for the future, which began in 2017. LGD Han Sang-Bum, vice chairman of LG Display, said, “LG Display will be able to lead the global display market once again with OLED.

[28TH FINETECH JAPAN] Denso, Automotive displays that are directly connected to safety are OLED

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At the 28th FINETECH JAPAN held in Makuhari Messe, Japan during December 5-7, 2018, Hiroyuki Hara, manager of Denso said that OLED will be used as future automotive displays due to their various advantages.

Hara refers to the large screen including the touch panel as the latest trend of automobile display, and now LCD is mainly used. However, OLED is expected to be used more and more in automobiles as the automotive electronics makers and drivers demand high-quality displays.

Saying that key elements in automotive displays are high contrast ratio, wide viewing angle, design autonomy, light weight, low reflection and reliability, Hara emphasized that the display that can satisfy all of these key elements is OLED. In addition, the factors related to image quality such as contrast ratio and viewing angle are directly related to safety for the driver. Thus, OLED is to be adopted more. Referring to the requirements of automotive OLED, he finally commented that improving reliability, such as lowering the luminance drop due to temperature changes and preventing damage to OLED due to high humidity, will be key to OLED for its entry into the automotive display market.

The automotive display is likely to lead the market for next-generation displays following mobile devices and TVs. Various OLED panel makers such as BOE and Visionox, as well as LG Display and Samsung Display, are showing automotive displays at domestic and international exhibitions. Denso also invested Japanese yen 30 billion in JOLED early 2018 to compete with Korean panel makers. Meanwhile, the market for OLED displays for automobiles led by Samsung Display and LG Display is expected to grow to US$ 540 million in 2023 according to UBI Research’s recently published “Automotive OLED Display Report”.

[28TH FINETECH JAPAN] Sharp, announced Future Strategy Combining IGZO and OLED

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Mr. Atsushi Ban, Vice President of Sharp presented a future strategy that combines IGZO and OLED through a keynote session at the 28th FINETECH JAPAN, held in Makuhari Messe, Japan from December 5, 2018.

Ban emphasized “The proportion of OLED in the entire display market is expected to grow even higher, and the new value of OLED is no different than flexibility.”

He said, “Sharp is also planning a variety of applications using the thin, light-weight and flexible characteristics of OLED. From the third quarter of 2018, its Taki plant has produced 4.5G backplanes and the Sakai plant is under injecting glass for OLED and module processing for 4.5G 15K quantity.”

Ban also pointed out the possibility of expanding the OLED industry through flexible OLED, commenting that Sharp’s next goal is to develop foldable OLED that combines IGZO. Sharp has pioneered a new display technology, called IGZO, which has been known for its semiconductor properties for years, but Sharp has developed a crystalline form that maximizes its benefits for greater display performance, and IGZO improves the performance of display panels in three significant ways: lower power consumption, higher resolution and special benefits for touch-sensitive displays. Ban expected that it could create new value if IGZO is combined with medium to large sized foldable OLED or rollable OLED.

Finally, Ban introduced Sharp’s IGZO development roadmap and announced that it will develop much improved IGZO.

[ICEL 2018] TADF attracts attention as next generation emitting material

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In addition to monitors and virtual reality devices, OLED is gradually expanding its domain beyond smartphones and TVs, inclusive of the application of side-mirror OLED in automobiles. As new OLED applications are increased in various environments, it is essential to develop technologies to satisfy users.

In ICEL 2018, which is being held at Jeju International Convention Center from October 15th, many presenters and attendants emphasized that material development is essential to improve the performance of OLED as the OLED market grows more. As an alternative material, TADF (Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence) is mentioned.

First, Hwang Seok-Hwan, chief researcher in Samsung Display said that TADF is to be a good resolution as one of emitting materials for new deposition process, referring to the continued growth of OLED panel and material market.

Hwang said that the efficiency of fluorescent Blue is almost saturated, so 100% luminance efficiency can be obtained theoretically by applying TADF with the advantages of not using expensive rare earth metals. He added that improvement of material stability, improvement of color purity by using boron material, development of host having high triplet energy need to be superseded.

Also, CYNORA, a leading TADF developing company, disclosed the performance of dark blue TADF developed so far.

CYNORA said that the luminance efficiency and color purity of dark blue TADF reached the level that the related companies required, and that its current goal is to develop the technology to improve lifetime. In addition, based on this know-how, the company will quickly develop green and red TADF, and now green TADF has been delivered to several customers as a sample.

Merck confirmed that TADF is the most powerful luminescent material to replace fluorescent Blue at its presentation together with a poster about TADF.

OLED companies and research institutes are focusing attention on whether blue TADF can quickly enter OLED market and upgrade OLED performance further.

[ICEL 2018] What are the future challenges for LG Display to improve OLED TV performance?

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At ICEL 2018, held at Jeju International Convention Center from Oct. 15, Soo-Young Yoon, Vice President and Head of LG Display Laboratory, presented the challenges for the OLED TV performance improvement and price reduction

Yoon said “In 2018, the future prospects of OLED TVs have changed more positively compared to that in 2016. In 2013, only LG Electronics was an OLED TV set maker. The number of OLED TV set makers has steadily increased; ten in 2016, and fifteen in 2018. Many TV set makers are choosing OLED. ”

He added that although OLED TV is on the track of success with lots of improvement, it has to be further developed. The challenge is the improvement for high brightness, color reproduction rate and with the development of 8K resolution. Also he mentioned that the price reduction is to be necessary.

Yoon explained that the development of components such as driver IC and controller is an important task to develop 8K OLED TV. In order to improve the brightness, color reproducibility, and lifespan, TADF and phosphorescent Blue are to be good alternatives for improving the RGB emitting materials. The enhancement of out-coupling is also important.

In addition, he referred to the solution processed OLED as a technology, to compete against LCD TV price, with the necessity of developing inkjet equipment, process, and soluble materials. For this, it is required to develop the ink jet equipment and shorten the process time for mass production, but the performance and reliability of the soluble materials will be more important.
Finally, he commented that the company will focus on 8K OLED TV and rollable OLED TV with the improvement of brightness until 2020. After 2022, the company will develop the OLED TV which has an enhanced brightness of 300 nits or more, a color gamut that satisfies BT.2020, and a lifespan of more than 30,000 hours.

[SID 2018] OLEDON, presented about X-mixing plane source deposition technology for AMOLED efficiency enhancement.

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In SID 2018, Hwang Chang-Hoon, CEO of OLEDON, announced a new plane source FMM deposition technology that can produce ultra-high resolution AMOLED of 2,250 ppi.

According to the announcement, the linear source currently applied to mass production has a problem of causing superimposition of fine adjacent patterns in a high resolution implementation due to a shadow distance of 3 μm. But Hwang said he succeeded in reducing the shadow distance of the patterns by 0.18 um using plane source, which is the smallest shadow distance ever introduced.

<Shadow effect comparison between current process and the process applied with the plane source, Source: OLEDON>

Hwang added that he developed ‘X-mixing’ technology in which the host and dopant thin films were separately deposited on the metal surface and then the host molecules and dopant molecules were automatically diffused through the plane evaporation to form the light emitting layer. Hwang commented, “It is not easy to control the composition of the dopant by using the linear source evaporation technology, which vaporizes the host material and the dopant material at the same time. However, since X-mixing technology can control the composition, it is possible to achieve a material utilization rate up to 4 times higher than the conventional method.”

<SIMS data comparison between the emitting layer deposited by conventional method and the emitting layer deposited by the plane source, Source: OLEDON>

<Dopant gradient data of the emitting layer applied with X-mixing technology, Source: OLEDON>

Hwang said, “In case of green OLED produced by X-mixing technology, 40% improvement in the emitting efficiency was verified, compared to the existing technology. OLEDON is currently under development of the optimized X- mixing development for forming exciton and the mask aligner with new concept sub-micron precision.

<Luminance data for green OLED produced by X-mixing technology and green OLED produced by the conventional method, Source: OLEDON>

Finally, Mr. Hwang mentioned that based on the development results, he plans to install a plane source FMM evaporator capable of manufacturing ultra-high resolution micro OLED devices in Dankook University.  (Reference: OLEDON homepage: www.oledon.co.kr)

SID2018] Samsung display’s OLED technology, one step closer to full screen

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At the SID2018 exhibition in Los Angeles, a new concept OLED with no front speakers on the Smartphone was introduced.

Samsung Display’s new “Sound on display” removes the speaker at the top of the smart phone. Instead, it has a piezo electric actuator on the back of the panel that can turn the electrical signal into vibration. This is the mechanism by which the actuator vibrates the OLED panel to produce sound. It is the same method as LG Display’s “Crystal sound OLED”.

When this technology is utilized, the speaker can be removed from the front of the smart phone, resulting in a wider display area. Following the trend that the home button is embedded in the display, OLED will continue to evolve in the direction that the speaker is also embedded in the display.

Foldable smart phone, can it absorb tablet PC market?

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“If foldable Smartphone is launched and commercialized in earnest, the high-priced tablet PC market is likely to disappear.”

Choong-hoon Yi, president of UBI Research, said in ‘the Latest OLED Technology Trends Seminar’ held at COEX in Seoul on the 26th April, 2018.

He also mentioned “The foldable smart phone is expected to be implemented as a 5.2 inch display with a 7.2 inch display folded in half. In addition, a bar-type display is to be added to the outside to check time and other information.”

Yi analyzed, “Foldable Smartphone can provide a momentum to revitalize the stagnant Smartphone market, and a positive aspect that can induce new investments to secure a sufficient number of panels due to the increase in the display screen size.”.

“If foldable smartphones are launched and commercialized, there is a possibility that the expensive tablet PC market will be disappeared. Foldable Smartphone can bring the tablet PC market which is being led by Apple.”He added.

Yi then predicted that foldable smart phones would implement 4K since their screen size is larger than normal smart phones. “OLED smart phones, which currently remain in QHD resolution, are expected to be difficult to implement it in five years due to the problems in masks, wiring widths and exposure systems; however, foldable smart phones are more free from these problems.” He said.

Finally, Yi pointed out the market success factors of the foldable smart phone as pioneering the Smartphone market for over $ 1,000, development of dedicated applications/contents and early establishment of 5G communication technology for data transmission such as video streaming.

Meanwhile, he estimated that OLED panels for foldable smartphones would be shipped to 100 thousand units in 2018, and 2.83 million units would be shipped in 2022.

Micro LED TV, is the price competitive compared to OLED TV?

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“It needs to consider how to resolve the price competitiveness compared to other displays, such as OLED, before Micro LED is to be applied to the big screen TVs of 60 inches and 70 inches in future.”

Moon Dae-Gyu, professor of Soonchunhyang University, mentioned as above while explaining the micro LED technology at the ‘latest OLED technology trends seminar’ organized by UBI Research in Seoul COEX on April 26th, 2018.

“Micro LED is attracting attention as a technology capable of realizing a high resolution display of 1,000 ppi or more. Since micro LEDs are individually obtained from a LED wafer by the photo process, they are not affected by the size and shape of a substrate, and have the merits that the advantages of existing LED such as luminance, lifetime and low power consumption, can be applied as they are.” professor Moon added.

In addition, it is expected to be a good environment to show the advantages of micro LED in the field where power consumption is very important, such as wearable appliances. He also predicted that it is possible to implement display in no tile form in very large display area such as public display and digital wall, which might be easy segments for micro LED to enter.

However, regarding the mass production of micro LED TV, which is becoming a recent issue, Moon said, “In order to implement 4K, 24.8 million LED chips (with a size of 10 μm/chip) are required. At the 4 inch wafer, which is currently being commercialized, 4K panels can be produced twice only. Thus, it is doubtful whether micro LED is competitive compared to LCD and OLED in terms of mass production.”

Commenting about TFT uniformity and pixel uniformity of the micro LED, he mentioned “TFT uniformity can be sufficiently compensated by the compensation circuit that is currently applied to OLED, but it should be considered how to solve the color imbalance problem.”

Micro LED TV, which was introduced by Samsung Electronics in CES 2018, and received a lot of attentions at the time, but it was disagreed about commercialization. In particular, Kang In-Byung, CTO of LG Display, pointed out, “About 25 million LEDs are needed to realize 4K micro LED TV. Even if 1 LED is 1 Korean Won, the cost might be 25 million. And when the circuits and boards are added, it would be a huge price.”

Following OLED, notch design to LCD becomes a marketing trend in 2018?

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At the 6th China Information Technology Expo (CITE 2018) held in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China from April 8 to 11, 2018, a number of panel makers and set makers exhibited notch-designed display panels and smart phones.

In CITE 2018, five panel manufacturers exhibited in CITE 2018; BOE, EDO, GVO, Tianma and CSOT. Among them, BOE, Tianma and CSOT exhibited notch-designed display panels.

First, BOE introduced 6.2-inch OLED panels applied with notched design. The OLED panel exhibited by BOE has a resolution of 2992 x 1440 with 537 ppi and 400 nit brightness.

LCD panels also began to adopt Notch Design. Tianma presented a 6.18-inch LCD panel with a notch design. CSOT also exhibited two 6.25-inch LCD panels and a 6.18-inch LCD panel applied with notched design.

<’Notch design’ display panels exhibited in CITE 2018>

Vivo, a Smartphone maker, also exhibited the X21 with a notch design. The X21, released in March, has a resolution of 1080 x 2280 with 6.28 inch screen.

<Vivo X21, OLED Smartphone with notch design>

Since Apple first unveiled its OLED smart phone with the notch design on iPhone X, a number of smart phone makers such as Vivo, Oppo, and Huawei have begun to release OLED smart phones. In this exhibition, many panel makers presented a large number of LCD panels to which Notch Design is applied. Attention is growing whether Notch Design can become a trend in the small and medium sized display market in 2018.

LG Display 88-inch 8K OLED TV was released to the public through CITE held in Shenzhen, China

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CITE, an electronics trade show held in China on April 10, 2018, had a relatively lukewarm atmosphere with significantly fewer visitors than last year. It seems to have been influenced by the lack of special IT issues, compared to last year when it was crowded with the attention of many general visitors.

Especially, there were no new products on the TV appliance side. Most of the exhibitors displayed the same products as those of last year or 2018 CES. On the other hand, LG Display unveiled its 88-inch 8K OLED TV, which had been hiding in its own booth, at the front of the booth. CSOT also showcased OLED displays made with printing technology that had been publicized several times during several conferences. 8K OLED TV is to be the future of the high-end premium TV as it clearly shows the advantages of OLED display such as contrast ratio, sharp image quality and color reproduction through large screen. CSOT’s 31-inch display is meaningful because it exhibited the results of CSOT’s printing OLED technology development. It is preparing for a new investment of about 20K TV line next year. The exhibited product was manufactured by using top emission Ink-jet printing technology to oxide TFT. The peak brightness is 150 nit at 144 ppi.

<88 inch 8K OLED TV – LG Display>

<31inch Ink-jet printed OLED Display – CSOT>

Vivo, which was the first to unveil the smart phone X21 with a built-in fingerprint sensor, displayed only the X21 model at its booth.  As a result of the actual registration testings, the fingerprint was recognized several times compared to the existing fingerprint registration, and the test recognition rate was not bad, but the response speed was slightly slower than opening the screen with the home button. In addition, most panel makers exhibited displays similar to the notch design of the iPhone X, which created various issues over the past six months, and set makers such as Vivo and Oppo released similar notch type smart phones. According to one official of some panel maker, the response to the design is not positive, but he said the company made it along with Apple. In his personal opinion, he preferred full screen design. Despite the sluggish performance of iPhone X, it still shows Apple’s strong market influence that the smart phones of the similar designs were released.

BOE, which started the operation of its Chengdu factory in 3Q 2017, exhibited various OLED panels made using plastic substrates. One official of BOE expressed confidence that it is only Samsung Display and BOE that can mass produce flexible OLED panels using plastic substrates across the globe.

LG Display, showing next generation OLED technology at ‘CITE 2018’

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LG Display is showing OLEDs applied to various applications in the ‘China Information Technology Expo 2018’ held in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China from April 9 to 11, 2018.

CITE is the largest information/electronic exhibition in Asia hosted by China’s Ministry of Communications and the local government of Shenzhen, held every year recording more than 1,500 exhibitors participating and about 160,000 visitors attending.

Based on the slogan ‘OLED is already in the spotlight’, LG Display is demonstrating not only picture quality, but also the possibilities of OLED products in terms of application range and design.

OLED is widely regarded as the best display in the world in terms of brightness, color accuracy and viewing angle. In particular, large area OLED, has gained popularity in the premium market, which LG Display has developed uniquely and meets various consumer needs with different image quality and new design potential.

LG Display exhibited the world’s first 88-inch 8K OLED, which was unveiled earlier this year, attracting visitors. It is the largest of all existing OLED TV products and delivers four times (7680×4320 resolution) sharper picture quality than UHD (3840×2160 resolution). OLED is a self-luminous display, and is easy to realize high resolution 8K since there is no brightness drop due to the reduction of the aperture ratio. With LG Display’s innovative process/design and compensation technology added, OLEDs are expected to lead the ultra-large/ultra-high-definition market by realizing true 8K.

<The first 8K OLED TV in the world, source: LG Display>

LG Display also exhibited the 65-inch CSO (Crystal Sound OLED) with speakers, and won the CITE 2018 Technology Innovation Gold Award for the most innovative products. It is an innovative product that makes the sound system internal to the panel, bringing sound directly from the screen. Instead of listening to the sound coming from separate speakers, it matches the position of the screen and sound, maximizing the sense of presence and immersion.

<65 inch CSO (Crystal Sound OLED), source: LG Display>

In addition, it introduces various application possibilities while showcasing a 77-inch UHD wallpapers OLED, which can be closely adhered to the wall to enhance the interior effect of the living room, and a round shaped pillar product consisting of six 77-inch UHD OLEDs.

Meanwhile, LG Display showed OLED lighting in China for the first time in this exhibition. OLED lighting is environmentally friendly because it consumes less power and heat than conventional lightings, and is a premium light source that minimizes eye fatigue by being close to natural light. It is free to implement curved surfaces like OLED displays, and provide consistent light as a unique surface light source. OLED lighting panels are available in various shapes: circular, square, rectangular, and others.

Saying “OLEDs with the potential to expand into a variety of applications will provide differentiated value to consumers,” Yeo Sang-Duk, CMO (chief marketing officer) of LG Display commented “We will continue to lead the OLED market with Chinese customers in the Chinese market where the acceptance of new technologies and new products is the fastest in the world.”

According to the ‘2018 OLED Display Annual Industry Report’ published by UBI Research in February, the OLED market is predicted to grow at an annual average of 22% from US$35.7 billion in 2018 to US$ 78.2 billion in 2022.

10 OLED related companies in Germany established ‘OLED Licht Forum’

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10 OLED-related companies and research institutes in Germany announced the founding of the ‘OLED Licht Forum’ at Light & Building 2018, the world’s largest lighting and architecture exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany, on 19 March. The ‘OLED Licht Forum’ is established by ten German companies, including: OLEDWorks, OSRAM, Merck, BASF Coatings, EMDE, Fraunhofer, Hema electronic, Irlbacher, APEVA and Walo-TL to develop and promote OLED lighting technology.

The companies that make up this alliance plan to develop new applications of OLED lighting by sharing their expertise on OLED technology in areas such as research and development, supply chain, and OLED lighting panel manufacturing.

The Forum aims to develop and utilize OLEDs as future lighting solutions through exchange of experiences, conferences, lectures and visits to institutions, thereby providing a broad base for utilizing OLED lighting. As the first part of these activities, it will open an OLED showroom for people to experience OLED lighting directly.

“This non-profit alliance aims to leverage their expertise to further develop OLED as a sustainable light source for a variety of applications.” said Michael Grund, Head of OLED & Quantum Materials for the Performance Materials business sector of Merck. The alliance is also dedicated to fostering community within the greater lighting industry by facilitating the exchange of experience and know-how.

OLED lighting for automotive rear lamps, market will be opened in earnest?

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OLED lighting applied to automotive rear lamps was introduced again.

At Light + Building 2018 in Frankfurt, Germany held from March 18 to March 23, 2018, LG Display exhibited the rear lamp to be applied to Mercedes-Benz S-class coupe. The OLED rear lamp, which was first shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show last October, is made up of 33 rigid OLED panels and a combination with LED.

<Mercedes-Benz S-class coupe’s OLED rear lamp introduced by LG Display>

The LG Display official expressed expectations for the OLED tail lights saying that “Rigid OLED lighting panel for rear lamps can meet all the requirements of the automobile manufacturers, including 15 years of life time and temperature testing of -40 to 80 degrees Celsius.” ”Since OLED allows greater design freedom and flexibility which other lights cannot follow, the OLED market for automotive rear lamps will grow significantly if the requirements of automakers are satisfied, by OLED panels inclusive of flexible OLED panels.”

Mercedes-Benz S-class coupe with OLED rear lamp is expected to be released in the first half of this year, and about 20,000 units will be produced in a limited series.

According to UBI Research, the market for OLED lighting for automobiles will grow at a CAGR of 81.1% percent from 2018 to 2023 to reach over 67 million units in 2023.

<Shipment forecast for OLED lighting panels for Automotive>

Meanwhile, LG Display received great attention from visitors at the Light + Building 2018 exhibition, by showcasing the rear lamp proto type with flexible OLED lighting panel, OLED lighting applied with crystal sound for the first time in the world, and various design lights using flexible OLED lighting panels.

<LG Display’s rear lamp proto type applied with flexible OLED lighting panel>

Google-LG Display to show OLED for 1443ppi VR device for the first time in the world

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Google and LG Display are planned to unveil OLED displays for ultra-high-resolution VR devices with the world’s first 1443 ppi at SID 2018 in Los Angeles in May.

<OLED for VR devices, which Google and LG Display will unveil, Source: Android Police>

According to the Verge, the OLED for VR devices released at SID 2018 has a resolution of 5657 x 3182 (1443 ppi) with 4.3 inches in size.

The resolution is 2.4 times higher than Samsung Electronics’ Odyssey (model no. XQ800ZAA-HC1KR), which is currently known to have the highest resolution of 1400 x 1600 (607ppi), among VR devices supporting HMD. Also, it is about 1.9 times higher than the OLED for VR devices (1824 x 1824, 806 ppi) displayed at iMiD 2017 in August, 2017.

Since the distance between the eyes and the display is very short, a VR device has a ‘side door effect’ phenomenon in which the pixel patterns of the display are shown in a lattice form when the resolution is low. In addition, low resolution increases the fatigue of eyes, and it becomes a factor that deteriorates reality due to inaccurate graphic information (image distortion). Accordingly, the related companies are developing panels for VR devices with high resolution that can compensate them.

<VR screen comparison according to resolution, Source: speedvr.co.uk>

OLEDs for VR devices to be exhibited by Google and LG Display are the best in the world at the refresh rate (120Hz), too.

Higher refresh rates can display more screen frames within the same time period to minimize the nausea phenomenon and increase immersion by showing more natural images. Accordingly, Oculus VR, HTC, and Korea Information and Communications Technology Association have prescribed the refresh rate of the VR display as 90 Hz or more, and SONY defined as 120 Hz.

According to the ‘Display Market Report for AR and VR’ published by UBI Research in July 2017, the VR devices launched from 2014 to 2016 have a refresh rate of about 65 Hz for LCDs and about 86 Hz for OLEDs. In order to implement a high refresh rate, OLEDs with higher response speeds and lower power consumption than LCDs are more advantageous.

Next-generation emitting materials, development is under way

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At the 4th OLED KOREA CONFERENCE, Kyulux and CYNORA, the leaders in the development of next generation emitting materials, announced the results of research and future development directions.

Junji Adachi, CEO of Kyulux, said, “We are developing Hyperfluorescence in the form of adding a TADF dopant to the existing fluorescent host and dopant.” He also emphasized that the emission FWHM (full width at half maximum) of Hyperfluorescence is about 35% of that of TADF, and the luminance is about twice as high, and this material can solve the drawbacks of TADF (wide FWHM and low luminance) at the same time.

The latest Hyperfluorescence, which Jundi Arachi introduced, has efficiencies of red 28 cd /A, yellow 43 cd/A, green 81 cd / A, and life span is 10,000 hours, 62,000 hours, and 48,000 hours based on LT50 (1000nit) respectively. The color coordinates are red (0.64, 0.36), yellow (0.46, 0.52), and green (0.28, 0.65).

Andreas Haldi, CYNORA’s Chief Marketing Officer of CYNORA, said that the blue TADF emitter developed by CYNORA now has a color coordinate of 0.16, EQE of 24% and 10-hour lifetime (LT97 @ 700nit).

The performance is more than twice as efficient as the blue material currently used in OLEDs, and the color coordinates (0.10) are similar but the lifespan is short. He added that the Blue TADF emitter is scheduled to be developed within 2018 and will be available for mass production in 2019.

He also mentioned that the manufacturing cost is reduced and the power consumption is reduced, thereby minimizing battery consumption if blue TADF emitters with high efficiency are used instead of conventional low-efficiency blue materials. At the same time, it is expected to be able to improve the resolution of OLEDs and be applied to large-scale vacuum processing lines of major panel makers.
According to CYNORA, next step is to develop green TADF emitters (2019) and red emitters (2020) after finishing the development of blue TADF emitters (2018). Thus, it might be completed ‘RGB TADF emitter development’ by 2020.

OLED display to embroider the blue sky and stars inside the plane

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“OLEDs will be installed on the ceilings and walls of planes to provide customers with a variety of images. It is expected that stars will shine in the ceiling at night and clear blue skies during the day time inside the future airplane.”

Dr. Julian Chang, associate tech fellow of Boeing, presented various advantages of OLED to be applied to the inside of planes in future at the ‘2018 OLED Korea conference’ hosted by UBI Research on March 7~8.

Explaining “OLEDs are capable of full black implementation and excellent color reproduction”, Dr. Julian said that “We can provide customers with realistic blue skies and night skies.” “The planes have a lot of curved surfaces, so easy-to-implement OLEDs have advantages over other displays.”

He also emphasized the advantages of OLED which are helpful to provide information, without limit of viewing angle, to customers and crews who need a lot of information in a narrow space, reduce the blue light that interferes with sleeping, and reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide with lower power consumption than LED.
On the other hand, he commented that it is necessary to improve the maximum luminance, reduce the burn-in phenomenon, satisfy FAA regulations, and facilitate easy installation and repair in order for OLED to enter the airplane industry.
Today, OLEDs are expanding beyond mobile devices and premium TVs into automotive and wearable markets. Attention is growing whether customers are given a new experience to taste the realistic sky as OLED is applied to the interior of the plane.

OLED TV continuing to evolve

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At the ‘4th 2018 OLED Korea Conference’ hosted by UBI research on March 7-8, Dr. Han Chang-Wook, Chief Research Fellow of LG Display, made a presentation for the development process of OLED TVs and emphasized the image quality of OLED, design flexibility and expandability.

At first, Dr. Han introduced three core technologies including TFT technology, OLED stack technology, and compensation circuit design applied to OLED TVs. He said, “We changed the TFT as top gate coplanar structure for UHD implementation in bottom gate TFT applied to FHD.” He also mentioned “We changed the WRGB OLED pixel structure from 2 stack structure to 3 stack structure to improve the luminance and color reproduction ratio, and designed the compensation circuit so that it does not affect the OLED even on 8K large screen.”

He commented, “Unlike LCDs that control pixels with local dimming, OLEDs have pixel dimming controls, which allows for full black representation and less halo effects”

Explaining that OLED allows greater design flexibility and expandability because of the self-illuminating properties that does not require backlight, he referred to the mirror display and transparent display applicable to indoors, and the world’s first 88 inch 8K OLED TV and 65 inch rollable OLED TV exhibited at CES 2018.

Dr. Han said “We expect large OLED panel production to be tripled, compared to 2016, with the expansion of production lines and yield improvement in 2018. In addition, the company will be able to ship over 6 million large area OLED panels by 2020 through the expansion of its Paju and Guangzhou plants.” He also announced that the company will increase continuously the production for OLED panels, which were 5% of the total display panels in 2016, by 40% by 2020.

Inkjet might take advantageous position for Gen11 super large OLED mass production line!

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Toshiaki Arai, chief technologist of JOLED and James Lee, deputy chief engineer of TCL made presentations for the solution processed OLED on March 7 at the ‘4th OLED Korea conference’ held at Novotel Ambassador Hotel in Gangnam, Seoul, hosted by UBI Research.

Toshiaki Arai, chief technologist of JOLED announced that JOLED will focus on the medium-size OLED market for 10 ~ 30 inch tablets with solution processed OLED. He explained “OLEDs for mobile devices are currently targeting over 500 ppi and at least 800 ppi, which is hard for today’s printing technology. However, current printing technology is competitive enough since the medium-size OLED for tablets is 300 ppi level”.

He also added, “While it is required to divide the mother glass with the deposition technology currently in use, JOLED’s oxide TFT and solution process OLED can be adopted to Gen 8.5 as well as Gen 11 without cutting the mother glass. Thus, we expect panel production to be increased significantly.

James Lee, deputy chief engineer of TCL commented that the next-generation premium TVs are to implement 70-inch or larger screen, full black representation, high-definition at 8K resolution, and design differentiation such as slim & flexible. He said “solution process technology enables large RGB OLED implementation, which can improve image quality and reduce cost by using less material. TCL is currently developing solution process technology, which might be expected to be applied to its planned Gen 11 factory. ”

He commented “OLED TV prices are now approaching the price of LCD TVs based on 65-inch standards. In 2021, OLED TVs and LCD TVs will not differ in price, and OLED TVs will become the mainstream of the premium TV market. ”

2018 MWC- Release of LG Electronics’ V30S model, postponing announcement of new smart phone

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LG Electronics released some of its stance, through 2018 MWC, on upgrading the entire mobile lineup, which led to lots of curiosities by the various related articles.

According to the exhibitors, the company will try various strategies from this year and will not necessarily follow its competitors in launching new models. In terms of the overall model reorganization of the G series and the V series, it has decided to concentrate on the essence of the phone for the time being rather than making a big change. With regard to the V30S’s release, it is said that V30S is different from V30 in terms of taking bright and clear pictures in the dark place by improving the illumination including AI application to the camera modules, and the enhancement of the stereo system. Also, V30 users might be able to experience soon the same performance as V30S through software upgrade.

Though it was not revealed at this MWC exhibition, the new premium mobile model to be launched this year will adopt the ‘ ThinQ AI’. It was announced that the new model was released after the V30 in a separate private booth; however, the release time has not yet been confirmed.

Regarding 5G, which is one of the biggest trends in this exhibition, North America and other regions are rapidly moving, and LG Electronics has also been working hard on this inclusive of the development of foldable smart phone.

Unlike last year’s show with various watch models, LG Electronics’ MWC booth is a little reduced as it seems to prepare for the next. The V30S is the only OLED display product, and most of the exhibits highlighted the enhanced performances of the V30S, such as the experience of a Hi-Fi QUAD stereo system through wearing a headset and the experience of a camera’s Bright Mode in the darkroom. In addition, the K10 (K10, K10 + – 5.3 inch HD) series, which are entry level models, has been released through this exhibition.

2018 MWC – Sharing Samsung’s market retention strategy with S9 introduction

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The Mobile World Congress (MWC), which takes place every year in Barcelona, Spain, is well known for releasing new models of smart phone brands that year. This year, however, Samsung Electronics and most of the smart phone makers exhibited new line-ups that did not change much or were hard to change dramatically.

In particular, through a press conference held on Monday, February 26, 2018, Samsung Electronics shared some strategies about concerns that the smart phone market will be experiencing an overall shift in replacement cycles and that the growth rate will slow down gradually.

According to the company, the company will concentrate its strategy in three major directions. It plans to set up a global trading system that will compensate for the remaining price by returning the Galaxy S7 within two years of an implicit average replacement cycle or by returning a competitor’s phone, which might be helpful to secure new customers while preventing current customers escape. This is already done by Apple in a system called recycling.

Another strategy is to secure customer loyalty through experiential marketing that enables users to experience various functions of Galaxy Studios and Galaxy by inducing them to shorten replacement cycles through targeted marketing using customer data. Note 8 sales were slightly lower than originally target at 11 million units, but note series have steady B2B demand and fixed customers. Note 9 is largely defined and can only be described as trying to differentiate itself from other customers at this time. The S9, which was unveiled at the show, said it expects better results than the S8 with its timely sales plan.

The S9, a new model released through the MWC, focuses on camera functions, better Infiniti 5.8-inch displays, stereo sound and IoT-centered mobile phones, redesigned with a new dual aperture lens that powers an innovative low light camera, Super Slow-mo video capabilities and personalized AR Emoji. The exhibition response to date has been evaluated to be a better level than expected, and visitors at the exhibition hall were enjoying the experience of emoticonizing themselves.

In addition, a variety of OLED models including the A8 model (5.6-inch FHD +), A8 + (6.0-inch FHD +), Galaxy Fit 2 Pro and Gear sports, were exhibited.

UBI Research, ‘2018 OLED KOREA Conference’ to be held during March 7~8

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Main Contents

– Presentations from major panel makers in Korea, China and Japan: Samsung Display, LG Display, Visionox, JOLED and TCL.

– Future display market forecast and confirmation through announcements of various display application companies such as Sony, Boeing and Microsoft. 

OLED KOREA CONFERENCE, the high-profile global OLED conference, will be held at Novotel Ambassador Gangnam, Seoul, Korea, on March 7-8, 2018.

The 4th OLED Korea Conference is to be proceeded on the theme of ‘OLED with opportunity & adding value to your business’ for two days, and is expected to become a wonderful forum for exchanging various information and opinions together with the presentations about key technology development, issues, overall OLED market and investment status.

The OLED industry, which is continuing to grow, is expected to surpass the LCD market share in the small and medium sized market this year. According to UBI Research, specialized in OLED research, the shipments for small and medium sized OLED panels for mobile devices are projected to grow by 53.2% YoY to 630 million units this year and the shipments of OLED panels for TV to about 2.4 million units, up 47.2% YoY.

In particular, as OLED market growth has become clear, the investment of major companies is increasing remarkably. Recently, LG Display plans to invest about 9 trillion won in OLED facilities this year, followed by about 6.7 trillion won last year. According to industry sources, “OLED investment in China’s display panel makers is also aggressively progressing.” Since major panel makers such as Samsung Display, LG Display, Visionox, TCL and JOLED will gather together to present major business issues in the conference, 2018 OLED KOREA is getting a lot of attentions from industry people.

The announcements of display application companies under the subject of ‘Vision and Idea about Future Applications’are anticipated to confirm the present and future of the display market. Particularly, Yoshihiro Ono, Division Chief of Sony TV, is scheduled to make a presentation for Sony OLED TV, which was a major issue of OLED industry in 2017, on the background of adopting OLED, history of development of BRAVIA OLED TV, and differentiating points from other OLED TVs. In addition, Dr. Joel S. Kollin, head of Microsoft hardware & display, will be presenting HMD for the first time in Korea, and it is expected to see how it will affect the future display market.

Moreover, representatives from global companies such as 3M, Applied Materials, Corning and Cynora, and 28 specialists from OLED panel makers, set makers, material/equipment companies and research institutes across the globe will make presentations with subjects of ▲ View from Panel Makers about OLED Market  ▲ Solution Process Technology, yet to come  ▲ New Performance Development from Major SCMs  ▲ New Technology Discussions for Next Generation Display or Better Process. Also, lectures are planned under the title of ‘Opinion from Business and Industry Analysts’from UBI Research, Japan Mizuho Securities, and Yole development, market research organization in France. More than 200 major domestic and international experts and industry leaders are anticipated to attend the 4th OLED KOREA Conference, which can identify trends and development directions in OLED industry. Attentions are growing because the conference is planned to provide opportunities for networking and continuous exchange of information and know-how.  For more information, please visit www.oledkoreaconference.com .

– End – ※ 【2018 OLED Conference】 → http://www.oledkoreaconference.com/

At the 10th CAR-ELE JAPAN, Many Companies Unveiled Automotive OLED Display and Lighting

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By Hana Oh (hanaoh@ubiresearch.com)

OLED display and lighting are expected to become increasingly applied to the interior and exterior of automobiles.

At CES 2018, Samsung Electronics introduced the OLED-applied dashboard. LG Electronics unveiled the center fascia with 14-inch OLED, and OLED set makers continue to exhibit their OLED applications for automobiles.

At the 10th CAR-ELE JAPAN held in TOKYO BIG SIGHT(Tokyo International Exhibition Center) on 17th, several companies including Tianma and Truly exhibited automotive OLED displays and lighting.

Tianma exhibited 4.2-inch, 5.46-inch and 5.99-inch OLED panels. The 5.99-inch OLED was a full-screen OLED, and the company official said “The full screen will be applied not only to mobile devices but also to automobiles such as CIDs and navigation systems due to the nature of automotive displays sensitive to visual impacts.” It is said they produced the OLED Panel with high luminance, including 5.46-inch and 4.2-inch OLED with luminance of 650 cd/m2, ensuring good high visibility under sunlight. In addition, they announced that they will manufacture unbreakable flexible type of OLED even though the exhibited OLEDs were all rigid type.

<Tianma’s Automotive OLED Panel>

Truly exhibited 5.5-inch OLED panel. The company’s official mentioned that although they can not disclose detailed specifications, it should be further developed in terms of reliability for the application to the current automotive displays. In addition, they announced that automotive potentials such as autonomous vehicles are so huge that the importance of displays that can provide visual information will become even more important, and therefore they will invest in it.

Lastly, Nippon Electric Glass introduced OLED lighting which was created in collaboration with OLEDWorks. “This was created as interior lights and taillights for vehicles.” and “The OLED lighting substrate uses IEL(internal extraction layer) to improve more efficiency when applied to indoor lights, and better visibility when applied to taillights,” explained the company’s official.”

<OLED Lighting exhibited by Nippon Electric Glass>

Meanwhile, in relation to OLED lighting, OLED light source companies such as LG Display and Osram supplied the OLED lights for tail lights to finished car makers such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW. In particular, it is expected to start the OLED lighting market in earnest, for example LG Display’s announcement of full-scale operation of the Gen5 OLED light source production line in December.

PMOLED and Micro OLED Stand Out In the Wearable Device Market

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At the 4th wearable expo being held from January 17th in TOKYO BIG SIGHT -Tokyo International Exhibition Center, many companies attracted the attention of participants by exhibiting OLED wearable devices and OLED panels. Particularly, at this exhibition, many wearable devices with PMOLED and micro OLED were displayed, which proved once again infinite possibilities of OLED.

First, ColorLink Japan unveiled its VR and AR devices with micro OLED. Micro OLED is a panel that can realize high resolution in small size by reducing OLED panel to micro size. “The micro OLED applied to ColorLink Japan’s VR equipment is 0.7-inch in size with FHD resolution, and we were able to manufacture more compact and scarce VR device by applying micro OLED”, said an official from ColorLink Japan.

<ColorLink Japan’s Micro OLED VR and AR>

In addition, Fitbit and iWOWNfit exhibited smart bands with PMOLED. PMOLED refers to a passive matrix OLED that does not use TFT, which is a switching device, and is mainly applied to low resolution devices that display numbers or characters rather than high resolution-required devices. In relation to the reason for the application of PMOLED, both companies explained that they have been able to significantly reduce power consumption by applying PMOLED, and the OLED prices have fallen considerably so that they have sufficient price competitiveness.

Meanwhile, OLED panel makers also exhibited a number of OLED panels for wearable devices. Pioneer, which firstly produced mono color PMOLED for FM character broadcast in 1997, attracted participants by introducing a number of PMOLEDs and devices using this. Pioneer announced its goal to diversify its business centering on PMOLED, introducing PMOLED-applied Bluetooth speakers, smart watches, and AR devices.

<Pioneer’s PMOLED Panel and AR>

RiTdisplay also attracted attention by exhibiting a number of wearable appliances and panels with many PMOLEDs. RiTdisplay said, “Since the AMOLED market is already occupied by Korea, it is inevitably lagging behind its productivity and price competitiveness”. “Instead, PMOLED enables easy customization with less production cost than AMOLED so it is competitive in the wearable device market.” Also, they announced that since smart bands will be more aggressive in this market due to lower ppi than smart watches and mobile devices, they will actively target the market.

<RiTdisplay’s PMOLED Panels & Applications>

In addition to AMOLED which is leading the mobile device and TV market, various methods of OLEDs such as PMOLED and micro OLED are being actively applied to wearable devices, thereby expanding its influence. The future of OLED, which is being increasingly utilized, is expected.

[CES 2018] OLED TV in 17 Types to be Displayed Compared to 2017, and OLED Manufacturers to be Expanded Further

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By Hana Oh (hanaoh@ubiresearch.com)

The number of OLED TVs exhibited at CES 2018 increased to 31, which was a significant increase of 17 from CES 2017. The number of OLED TV companies that exhibited at CES 2018 were 7 including LG Electronics, Sony, Panasonic and Skyworth.

At CES 2018, OLED TVs were exhibited with 6 for 55-inch, 19 for 65-inch, and 6 for 77-inch. 65-inch OLED TVs were most on display, and it was noticeable that many companies were focusing on 65-inch OLED TV products. 77-inch OLED TVs in 6 types same as 55-inch were exhibited so that it was found to be included in the main lineup.

In addition, the display resolution of all OLED TVs was UHD because UHD products were mainly displayed according to consumers’ demand for high-definition TV. OLED TVs with FHD resolution had been exhibited until 2015, and only OLED TVs with UHD resolution have been on display since 2016.

Meanwhile, LG Display’s Vice Chairman Han Sang-beom said, “We will raise the sales portion of OLEDs to 40% of total sales by 2020” in a press conference on 8th local time, which implied that OLED TV market will be more expanded.

In addition, Vice Chairman Han Sang-beom said that two major Chinese companies will join the OLED market. As a result, the number of OLED manufacturers will grow from 13 to 15, including LG Electronics, Sony and Panasonic so that the OLED companies are expected to be expanded further.

OLED TV, which is currently leading the premium TV market, is expected to see a bigger rise.

UBI Research, ‘2018 OLED KOREA Conference’ will be held on 7th to 8th of March

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OLED Korea Conference, the global OLED conference, will be held on 7th(Wed) to 8th(Thu) of March.

The 4th OLED Korea Conference will be held on the theme of ‘OLED with opportunity & adding value to your business’ at the Novotel Ambassador Hotel in Seoul, Korea for two days. It is expected to provide a platform for various information and exchange of opinions regarding presentation of each theme.

OLED industry, which is continuing to grow at a high rate is expected to surpass the LCD market share in the small and mid-sized market of this year.

According to UBI Research, the OLED research organization, small and medium-sized OLED panel shipments for mobile devices are expected to grow up to 6.3 billion won in this year, which is 53.2% growth compared to last year. On the other side, OLED panel shipments for TV is expected to grow up to about 2.4 million won which is 47.2% growth compared to last year.

In this conference, there will be presentations on the topic; ▲ View from Panel Makers about OLED Market ▲ Solution Process Technology, yet to come ▲ New Performance Development from Major SCMs ▲ New Technology Discussions for Next Generation Display or Better Process from global companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, Sony and leading companies such as 3M, Applied Materials, Corning, Cynora and OLED panel company, set company, material/device company, university/research institute as well as domestic and foreign experts of OLED display.

Also, UBI Research, Japan Mizuho Security and French market research institute ‘Yole development’ planned a lecture about the title of “Opinion from Business and Industry Analysts.”

Especially, Yoshihiro Ono, TV business manager from Sony will present about OLED TV launch for the first time in Sony, which was one of the biggest issues in OLED industry of 2017. The title is ‘Designs for BRAVIA OLED TV and Expectations for large screen OLED devices’ and contents are about adoption background, BRAVIA OLED TV development history and different points of OLED TV from other companies.

In the 4th OLED KOREA Conference which will show trends and developments of OLED industry, it is expected that more than 200 major domestic and foreign experts and industry workers will participate. This conference has received much attention as it is planned to provide opportunities for networking and continuous exchanges of relevant information and know-how. For more information, please visit www.oledkoreaconference.com.

[CES 2018] This is the era of “Connected”

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By Hana Oh (hanaoh@ubiresearch.com)

“Connected” is the theme of largest number of exhibitors participating in 2018 CES. In the future, home appliances and electronic goods such as TV, washing machine, refrigerator, and automobiles will be connected to people and operated with artificial intelligence (AI).

CES 2018 is a chance for many set-makers, including LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics, to highlight both that electronic goods are connected with users as it is connected and converged going beyond single primary function and using electronic good equals to the user’s “life style”. “Connect” and “Expansion” is a way for many companies to show how they communicate with the upcoming new era: LG electronics launches new brand of Thin Q, Samsung Electronics suggests connected city phone and life style through connection of phones with consumer electronics, and Intel displays AI-applied applications, and autonomous cars.

<“ThinQ” of LG Electonics >

Now, display is changing in order to facilitate and enable the “Connectedness” of these electronic devices. If display was simply recognized as image projection in the past, now it becomes a tool of “Communications”. “Connected” without display seems incomplete as it recognizes the user through display and extend from information output to information selection and recognition of correct information.

OLED is expected to apply to 5G and AI favorably as it is applied to diverse electronic products including TV, mobile devices and automobiles thanks to flexibility of product design and superior color presentation.

<’AI’ of Intel>

< ‘connected city’ of Samsung Electronics>

[CES 2018] OLED TV exhibition from major set manufacturers

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On 8 January 2018, the largest electronic show is held at Enclave Convention Center in Las Vegas, United States.

Major electronic companies such as LG Electronics, Sony, Vestel, Changhong, Skyworth presented OLED TV as main exhibition. In particular, Samsung Electronics’ “Micro LED” exhibition received a great deal of attention.  Samsung Electronics unveiled the world’s first “micro LED” technology-applied 146-inch modular TV, “The Wall.” People came to see the product and it was heated up in a hot issue. Samsung Electronics emphasized that this product is a future screen that is unlimited in image quality, size and form. Through the implementation of the local dimming 3000, “The Wall”, which was unveiled at the exhibition show is developed by brightness, contrast ratio, color reproduction and black display compared to the existing display.

<‘Micro LED TV ‘The Wall’ of Samsung Electronics’>

Especially, the existing “Mini LED” products were exhibited along with “The Wall” for comparison of exhibition. And the excellence of “Micro LED” was outstanding. “Mini LED” products was little far from the large display as pixels and the lines of each module were shown on the screen.

LG Electronics, Sony, Changhong and other companies presented 65-inch and 77-inch OLED TV display products including Sound Acoustic OLED TV products. In particular, Konka reflected the trend that TV is a part of furniture, not just electronic products and it consists of a set design that took advantages of Chinese traditional atmosphere.

In addition, many set manufacturers have demonstrated the advantages of OLED TV, which is the lightest and thinnest through “Wall Paper TV” and “Slim” concepts.

<A8F Bravia OLED TV of Sony>

<OLED TV of Kongka>

‘TCL’, which occupies a side of QLED TV showed more advanced QLED TV in image quality and color reproduction range. According to the person in charge of TCL, QD dominated the portion of the current market therefore, many manufacturers are producing Quantum dot LCD, and also considering OLED TV launches. The person in charge emphasized that they are building factories in China that produce only OLED.

LG Electronics is a leading OLED TV company and showed OLED which is being developed continuously through making tunnels of OLED TV. They revealed that LG Electronics is the world’s first OLED TV set manufacturer. People look forward to seeing OLED growth in the future through CES the first electronic exhibition show in 2018.

LG Display to Showcase Next-Generation OLED Products at CES 2018

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LG Display will showcase its distinctive technologies during the ‘Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018’ exhibition held in Las Vegas from January 9th to 12th, and aggressively engage in marketing.

In this exhibition, LG Display displays distinctive OLED products in various aspects such as image quality, application range and design for customers to directly experience the value of OLED.

LG Display unveils products that have realized unique and distinctive values of OLED, such as 65 inch UHD rollable display and 55-inch transparent display.

In particular, the 65 inch UHD rollable display proposes the future of display, offering a new look and experience. It is a rollable display with 65 inch ultra-high resolution (UHD, 3,840 x 2,160).  When not in use of the display, the screen can be rolled in to be hidden away to increase space utilization, providing a new value that existing displays cannot realize. In addition, it is easy to move and install the screen when it is rolled up and also possible to adjust the screen size and the ratio optimized for the purpose of use- the user can enjoy the desired content anytime and anywhere. LG Display has demonstrated the unlimited potential of OLED to create a new market through introduction of the rollable display.

In addition, LG Display has implemented an 88 inch 8K TV as an OLED display, and Crystal Sound OLED TV also upgraded its audio function from the existing 2.1 channel sound to 3.1 channel sound. LG display will deliver the confidence in OLED to customers, exhibiting products that emphasize the benefits of OLED, including 55 inch transparent displays and 77 inch wallpapers.

<LG Display’s rollable display, Source: LG Display>

 

OLED TVs which are driving forces of both LG Electronics and Sony′ performance

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The director, So, Hyun-cheol, mentioned during the ′Closing seminar of OLED/Display′ held at COEX in Seoul on December, 7th about that OLED TV has made 9.9% of operating profits for LG Electronics in Q3, 2017. He forecasted there, Sony and LG Electronics who are producing OLED TV now will lead the premium TV market in the future also, in particular, while explaining about that the demands have highly increased as OLED TV entered into under $3,000.

The director, especially, explained that Sony took No.1 player in the premium TV market in 12 years, moreover, one of the driving forces for stock price rise of them at 445% in 2013 was OLED TV. He evaluated them such followings that “Sony has starting to improve the structure of operating profit by focusing on 55-inch and 65-inch TV, and “They built the TV business structure in stable through launching OLED TV in 2017”.

He also expected that the investment for 10th generation OLED producing line of LG Electronics will be moved sooner than expected. He also forecasted that demands on large-sized OLED TVs will rise due to the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeong-chang and World Cup in Russia next year, especially, its investment of OLED line will be accelerated, because Sony would also want it.

Subsequently, while the director mentioned that the cost savings will be accelerated by improvement of yield of OLED TV panel, he said, “Although, 55-inch LCD panel is difficult to improve the production cost more since it is already reached to enough yield as 232$, but, the price competitiveness in the 55-inch OLED production cost will be intensified more, because, there is still able to reduce it from current 545$ up to 378$ by the yield improvement”.

Lastly, Mr. So, expected that the sales volume of OLED TV panel will reach to 2.9 million units in 2018 by operating E4-2 line of LG Display in full. The panel business will be turned into profit-making, and operating profits of OLED TV business shall meet 17.3% in 2019.

The strategy of LG Display’s OLED TV, Source: Shinhaninvest

IoT Era – Smart interface focused on display

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With the Google’s comments in 2015 that the new IoT era is coming, the 13th China International Display Conference started with the presentation of BOE, a large Chinese display company, with the topic of the era of smart interfaces to be developed in the future.

Randy Chen (BOE, Sales Marketing Executive) shared the overall IT market trend as the first presentation and delivered the BOE’s strategy within it. At the heart of the IOT industry, which is expected to account for around $ 10 trillion in 2050, smart interfaces that link 5G communications and electronics to displays will play a big role and emphasized 8K and flexible display as BOE’s survival strategy. For this, he announced that they are working to build the 8K Industry Alliance and continuing to invest in the production of flexible displays starting with Chendu’s G6 Flexible Line. OLED panels produced in the Chendu B7 line, which began operating in the second half of this year, will be supplied to a smartphone maker in Shenzhen and expected to be seen in the market early next year.

Next, Xiuqi Huang (GVO, Vice President) of Visionox, who first started producing OLEDs starting with PMOLED, mentioned the change of smartphone trend and said that a mobile device with a foldable and rollable type using a flexible panel will be introduced in the future. He said that the technological development is required not only in design but also in related equipment and materials and Visionox has also been actively developing its technology.

CSOT, which produces QD-LCDs together with Samsung Display, mentioned the development potential of QLED and OLED TV and said that it was spurring technological development and investment as a latecomer. Especially, it was developing large-area inkjet printing technology that has advantages of relatively high material utilization rate and price competitiveness, on the other hand, it shared the goal of developing a smartphone panel that minimizes Bezel.

Following the presentation of representative panel companies in China, Lee Choong-hoon of Ubi Research, a global OLED research company, forecasted the market size of the OLED market, which is already leading the small-medium-sized panel market and the premium TV panel market and discussed why OLEDs have grown rapidly as a next-generation display. Ubi Research, as an OLED professional research company, is suggesting directions for future growth of OLED based on years of data and research experience.

In current display industry, major global smartphone makers such as Apple, Samsung and Huawei already have plans to apply OLED to all flagship models and TV companies such as LG Electronics and Sony have also shown that OLED TVs can only succeed in the premium market. This is why we expect the development of various types of panels and various applications that maximize the advantages of OLED forward.

IT Industry in China is still hot, OLED is center on that

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News about when, where, what size of new investments emerge from Samsung display who leads Recent Small and Medium-sized OLED Market and LG display who leads large OLED market should come true are continuously main news in Display industry. In the middle, Maybe, publics who are invovled in industry, are interested in watching when will China’s panel companies who are processing on construction of flexible OLED line supported by government between Korea narrows the technology gaps.

The Hi-Tech Fair, which celebrates its 19th anniversary this year, is a representative event showing how much China is interested in the IT industry.
Hi-Tech Fair held in Shenzhen, China from November 16th to 19th exhibits almost all fields relevant to IT industry. Communication with Display is a key point to increase importance of IT industry and these two field is developing by complex connecting with another field.

Exhibition include total 9 hall and the newest technology such as Smart cities, robots, aviation, telecommunications, home appliances, games, and other technologies that connect with IT can be seen in that area. Among them,  one that stick out in 1 Hall is Visionox which is large panel company in China, many people are gather together to watch China’s Display Panel technology.

Current smart phone display’s trends are a bezel-less design that maximizes the screen by minimizing the bezel and a curved design represented by the Galaxy Edge series. In this exhibition, Visionox showed a the bezel-less design smartphone which applied rigid OLED and a curved design smartphone which applied flexible OLED having 8R bending radius.

According to officials, disclosed curved display is going to apply to smartphone which will launched in market earlier in 2018. So, this process is currently making decision about supplying with china’s smartphone company. In addition, a variety of flexible displays being developed for future foldable and rollable applications have been on display.

On the other side in Hall, Royole, who manufactures and sells VR devices for China’s leading OLED applications, exhibited flexible sensors with VR device “Noon” Also, they did not exhibit their technology, they disclose a very thin flexible display of 0.01mm through wathcing a video and keep delivering message about continous Display technology development. Also, we can see the various forms and functions of display panel is applied to electrical instruments such as car, robot in many booths. Among them, OLED is expected to continue to grow in significance of IT industry in the future due to its wide range of applications and its technical strengths such as design excellence, thin panel and high resolution.

OLED leading the virtual reality; Olympus also to sell smart glasses in application of OLED

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OLED is advantageous for miniaturization and light weight because it is a self-emitting display with no need of back light; it is applied to various HMD devices such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Sony PS VR for its fast response.

Olympus announced that ‘EyeTrek INSIGHT El-10’ using OLED will be released in the end of November to show the virtual reality to one eye only. Olympus smart glasses to be released this month are a developer version, priced at about US$ 1,500, and will be available on the Olympus website and Amazon.

In the meantime, Olympus has developed and presented smart glasses in application of constantly displaying on only one eye, but this is the first time to launch in the commercial market. According to Olympus, visual information is displayed on only one eye, so it does not interfere with the user’s view, advantageously showing the view when it’s needed.

<Olympus의 ‘EyeTrek INSIGHT El-10’, Source: petapixel.com>

Olympus applied OLED to smart glasses to achieve realistic image quality, miniaturization and weight reduction. The resolution of OLED in application of ‘EyeTrek INSIGHT El-10’ is 640x 400, the FOV is 13°, and weight is 66g including battery. The OLED brightness and manufacturer were not disclosed.

Meanwhile UBi Research market report on the display type of AR and VR forecast that the OLED would lead the virtual reality market with fast response speed and perfect screen quality, and will take up 80% market share with 52 million shipment in 2021.

[IMID 2017] Opening solution for next generation high-resolution OLED implementation

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Various solutions for high resolution OLED implementation were released at iMiD 2017 held in COEX from October 18th to 19th. As the resolution of small and mid-sized OLEDs, which are currently being commercialized, is staying at the QHD level, the solutions released at this time have attracted a great deal of attention from display members.

First, Hwang Chang-hoon, CEO of OLEDON, who is developing plane source FMM deposition technology, announced at the business forum, “The plane source FMM deposition technology currently being developed is the only alternative for ultra-high resolution OLED manufacturing at 2,250 ppi”. Hwang Chang-hoon CEO said, “We measured the shadow distance using a-step, and it was 0.38 μm. We can fabricate OLED device with 2,250 ppi only if we have this shadow distance.” “We are currently looking for shadow-free process conditions”

<Difference in shadow distance between point source and plane source>

In addition, Hwang Chang-hoon said, “We first co-deposited the host material and the dopant material on the metal plate to evaporate the deposited green donor thin film and measure the green target thin film with the same PL wavelength for the first time” and “Color control of target thin films made with plate sources can be controlled by the amount of dopant molecules in the donor film, so color control is expected to be easy”.

<OLEDON plane evaporation co-deposition material>

AP Systems, which recently announced the successful development of 1,000 ppi FMM using ultra-short pulse laser (USPL), exhibited 5.28 inch FMM of 825 ppi and 4.72 inch FMM of 677 ppi at this exhibition. A company official said, “By developing a burr-free laser process to solve the burr problem caused by the heat generated during the fabrication process, it is possible to fabricate not only FMM of 1170 ppi but also FMM of various shapes”.

<5.28 inch 825ppi FMM of AP Systems>

Finally, Philoptics unveiled FMMs fabricated using electro forming, especially, FMM of 1,200 ppi, which attracted attention this time, was displayed separately in the VIP room. A company official said “We have secured the stability of the process for the production of 1,200 ppi FMM,” and mentioned “We plan to deliver it to panel makers for testing in the first half of next year, and aim to develop FMM at 2,000 ppi later.”

<FMM of Philoptics manufactured by electro forming method>

As such, in this iMiD 2017, various solutions for high-resolution patterning of OLEDs has been released. Recently, as the number of contents requiring high-resolution OLED such as virtual reality contents increases, interest of smartphone users are increasingly interested. It is worth noting which solution will enable the small to medium-sized UHD OLED era.

Fraunhofer Institute will introduce automotive flexible OLED lighting at ISAL 2017

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Specialized in development and manufacturing OLED module, Fraunhofer Institute will introduce Automotive flexible OLED lighting with adjusted color at ISAL 2017 which will be held in Darmstadt, Germany from 25th to 27th September. Fraunhofer Institute had released previously OLED which the color can be adjusted by rigid substrate in 2015.

Fraunhofer Institute has continued to develop flexible OLED lighting since then. Flexible OLED lighting which will be shown at ISAL 2017 is known to be changed to yellow and blue color. It can be shown as white light by making of yellow and blue color at the same time.

Fraunhofer Institute predicts that flexible OLED lighting will be replaced for car interior lights and it could also be used on the ceiling or winding parts where lights cannot be built easily. Commercial lighting is required to have heatsink and unfortunately it can not be easily built with lack of flexibility in design. However flexible OLED lighting is very light and thin which means it is expected to be widely used for Automotives interior with its flexible design. Fraunhofer Institute also made a comment that they may produce flexible OLED substrate glass, metal and plastic film as well.

OLED lighting has been recently used for Automotives interior and it is expected to be used more in the next generation. Customized Automotive service company, Changscustom showed OLED lighting built in the car at Seoul Auto 2016. Furthermore lighting companies including LG Display and Osram supplied OLED tail light with Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

Meanwhile, according to 2017 OLED Lighting Annual Report which was recently published by UBi Research, using of Automotive OLED Lighting will be increased to $2.11 billion in 2025 from $6.4 million in 2017 with 107% of growth rate. Especially flexible OLED Lighting is expected to capture a higher market share more than 95% and flexible OLED Lighting will be widely used instead of rigid OLED lighting.

Starting to have mass production process in Gen5 OLED of LG Display from end of September, lighting market is expected to reach full growth. The growth of OLED lighting market is being watched with keen interest to compare with strong growth of OLED display market.

UBi Research, Lee Choong-Hoon, CEO, announce OLED market and forecast

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Mr. Choong-Hoon Lee, the CEO of UBi Research, OLED specialist presented the market trend and prospects of the OLED industry following last year at the Japan Conference, host by Merrill Lynch Japan Securities, from 5th to 7th of September in Tokyo, Japan. The annual conference was held for Merrill Lynch Securities customers, consisting of a forum-type presentation on major industry trends in Japan and small meetings with presenters.

The fact that Mr. Lee, the CEO of UBi Research was invited to the event indicates the importance of the display market, not just in the IT industry but also in the global market industry. Among investors in recent years, display is in the spotlight at as an emerging industry and participants have shown their interest in the latest OLED technology trend as well as current and future production scale of OLED panel manufacturers.

Mr. Lee was also had an interview with Nikkei Business Publication regarding “Global OLED Market Trend and Forecast” during the conference. The main interview question is focused on “OLED industry trend and future OLED TV market development”. According to Naoki Tanaka, editor of Ronny Keikyo Newspaper, Japanese electronics industry is expecting to revive the old glory of display industry, showing its interest in the OLED industry and OLED TV.

In the interview, Mr. Lee stressed, referring to the market data in the UBi Research OLED display report, that Japanese display manufacturers who still believe perpetuation of LCD need more reliable OLED market analysis.

In addition, he said that through the exhibition trend of OLED TV at 2017 IFA held in Berlin, Germany it is worthwhile paying continuous attention to the premium OLED TV market in the future. At the end of the interview, he emphasized how important OLED production by Japanese panel manufacturers would be to Japan’s entire display and set industry.

UBi Research publishes a monthly report on a variety of topics of OLED industry, market, and technology trend, and draws more and more attention along with the recent OLED market expansion. For more information, please contact UBi Research (info@ubiresearch.com); useful sample reports and information are provided.

[iMiD 2017] Samsung Display, Huge release of application using OLED

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Samsung Display has received great attention by releasing a large number of applications using OLED such as VR and light field display in iMiD 2017 held in BEXCO, Busan from 28th to 31st August.

<Samsung Display booth>

First, Samsung Display comparatively exhibited a 3.5-inch OLED with 460ppi resolution for virtual reality and an 806ppi 3.2-inch OLED. A company official said “The higher the ppi, the better the experience of realism and immersion,” and mentioned “We are currently developing higher resolution OLEDs.”

<Comparison of 3.5 inch 460 ppi OLED and 3.2 inch 806 ppi>

In addition, Samsung Display exhibited OLED light field displays in the future display zone, and in the AMOLED zone, visitors can directly compare LCD and OLED.

A company official explained that “light field display is a technology that implements 3D by applying an optical lens on a panel, which is a little different from hologram using light interference effect.” And he said “We are developing a viewing angle that is wider than 30 °,” revealed “We now have pixel and lens alignment issues and optical design issues.”

<OLED light field display description and specification>

In the AMOLED zone, panels were displayed to directly compare the contrast ratio of LCD and OLED. The contrast ratio and color expressiveness of the OLEDs were clearly different from those of the LCDs, and a company official said, “These differences are the reasons why OLEDs are used in the Galaxy series.”

<Comparison of OLED (Left) and LCD (right) image quality>

Samsung Display has also introduced 1.3 inch circle OLED and 12 inch FHD OLED, which led to the great interest of the visitors during the exhibition.

[iMiD 2017] LG Display, Spur Development of 77 inch transparent flexible OLED

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LG Display’s Kwon Se-Yeol senior researcher introduced the 77-inch transparent flexible OLED which had been introduced in June at IMID 2017 held in BEXCO, Busan on Aug. 30, and announced the applied technologies to realize this.

Kwon Se-Yeol senior researcher mentioned, “OLED is self-luminous, so it can be manufactured with a thin thickness because it does not need a back light unit. The thinner the thickness, the more flexible the OLED can be so that it is easy to implement flexible displays with OLEDs.” and forecasted. “It can be used in various fields such as signage and smart desk.”

The 77-inch transparent flexible OLED which is released this time is a top emission type for improved luminance. The transparent thin film encapsulation layer is applied, different from the conventional OLED TV or large flexible OLED, and two polyimide substrates are used.

Kwon Se-Yeol senior researcher said “We applied a transparent thin-film encapsulation layer instead of the existing metal encapsulation layer for the top emission method ” and explained “A white OLED light emitting layer and a color filter layer were formed on two polyimide substrates and cemented together. A barrier film and a multi-barrier were applied to the top and bottom of the polyimide substrates to prevent moisture and oxygen penetration.”

The Kwon Se-Yeol senior researcher then states that “flexural rigidity of the panel is mainly affected by the thickness of the polarizer and the encapsulant layer, so it is necessary to reduce the thickness in order to improve the flexibility”, and emphasized “By reducing the thickness of the encapsulant layer from 100 μm to 20 μm, we can reduce the strain on the OLED module from 0.36% to 0.21%, along with improved flexibility”.

In addition, he mentioned that surface reflection due to polyimide birefringence phenomenon, laser wavelength selection according to polyimide properties in LLO (laser lift off) process, and use of flexible OLED module are all covered, and technical development is continuing.

Meanwhile, LG Display has developed the world’s first 77-inch transparent flexible OLED with UHD (3840 × 2160) resolution, transmittance of 40%, and radius of curvature of 80R as part of the national project.

[iMiD 2017] OLEDON, Disclose plane source FMM deposition principle for 2250ppi OLED manufacturing

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Prof. Hwang Chang-Hoon, CEO of OLEDON, a venture laboratory of Dankook University, presented a plane source FMM deposition technology capable of implementing 2250 ppi at iMiD 2017 held on the 28th.

According to Prof. Hwang Chang-Hoon’s presentation, the plane source deposition technology developed by OLEDON differs from the existing organic material deposition method. The plane source FMM deposition technique is that the organic material is first deposited on the metal surface to form a donor film and then re-evaporate it to form an organic thin film on the substrate. Applying this technique, organic matter forms a vertical gas beam due to plane evaporation. (Source patent: 1012061620000 Republic of Korea)

The shadow distance when organics are deposited with a plane source developed by OLEDON is 0.38 μm – 0.59 μm. This is a level at which a 2250ppi device having a pattern size of 4 um can be manufactured.

Prof. Hwang Chang-Hoon explained ‘applying the plane source deposition technique reduces the incidence angle of the organic material and dramatically reduces the shadow caused by the mask’. In addition, ‘using a plane source, the perpendicular organic gas beam can form a completely zero incident angle, so theoretically, the shadow distance can be zero um’.

<Principle of plane source deposition technology developed by OLEDON>

In addition, Prof. Hwang Chang-Hoon emphasized that ‘plane source deposition technology is essential for high-resolution shadow masks’.

For linear source FMMs currently in production, the shadow mask opening distance is 80 μm. As a result, the incidence angle of the organic material gas is inevitably large, making it difficult to produce a shadow mask having a high density pattern.

Prof. Hwang Chang-Hoon explained, ‘Using plane source deposition technology, shadow mask taping angle is 80 ° level’, and the distance between openings can be reduced to less than 20 μm so that plane source deposition techniques can solve the mask pattern density problems of linear sources’.

OLEDON is challenging fully shadow-free patterning conditions with plane source deposition technology, and plan to develop and install a plane source FMM evaporator capable of manufacturing 11K class micro OLED devices in cooperation with Prof. Jin Byung-Doo in Dankook University. (Reference: Homepage of OLEDON www.oledon.co.kr)

<The opening density change of the shadow mask when the plane source FMM deposition technique is used>

Meanwhile, OLEDON has 13 registered patents for plane source FMM deposition for mass production. Based on recent research results, they filed 7 new patents for mass production equipment in Korea and 3 applications are filed for PCT international application.

[iMiD 2017] AP Systems, Find FMM answers through USPL

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At iMiD 2017 in BEXCO, Busan on 28th, AP Systems announced that it succeeded in developing 1000ppi FMM with USPL (ultra-short pulse laser).

Since FMM plays a role of depositing pixels and RGB organic materials, FMM serves as a factor that determines resolution and yield of OLED. At present, FMM is mainly manufactured by etching method. This method has a problem that a shadow phenomenon due to the precision, thickness, and weight of the fine pattern occurs, in order to solve this problem, various FMM manufacturing processes such as laser processing and electro-forming have been developed.

Among these, laser processing method has an issue of forming burrs around pin-holes due to the thermal effect caused by laser irradiation. These burrs increase the shadow interval of the FMM, which causes overlapping of patterns during RGB organic deposition, thereby degrading the resolution of the OLED.

AP Systems has developed a burr-free laser process that does not have burr phenomenon and further controls the taper angle.

The Burr-free laser process is a short-time irradiation of unidirectional pulses at a constant number of times, since the laser is not continuously irradiated, it minimizes accumulated heat energy and prevents burr formation. In addition, by controlling energy of the laser, it accumulates energy and forms taper.

In this way, AP Systems explained ‘they produced FMM with various shapes of fine pin-holes such as square, diamond, and polygonal shapes, as well as 1170ppi FMM’, and ‘’We also developed large-area FMM manufacturing equipment with USPL method’.

AP Systems also added ‘multi-beam and USPL is equipped for FMM manufacturing equipment so that it can improve productivity and realize UHD’.

Since the launch of the Galaxy Note4 in 2014, the OLED resolution has remained at the QHD level yet. In order to manufacture an OLED having a high resolution (UHD level or higher), it is necessary to solve various technical problems faced by FMM. Accordingly, it is noteworthy how USPL technology of AP Systems will affect the future OLED market.

<1000ppi FMM produced by AP Systems>

<various type of FMM produced by AP Systems>

[iMiD 2017] TCL, Development focusing on Solution process OLED and QLED

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TCL’s Xiaolin Yan CTO addressed solution process OLED TV and self-emitting QLED TV as premium TV after white OLED TV at iMiD 2017 keynote address in BEXCO, Busan on 29th.

Yan CTO noted that white OLED TV, which is currently leading the premium TV market, meets all the requirements of premium TV due to its superior image quality, design differentiation, high resolution realization and nature-friendly characteristics compared to QD LCD TV.

In addition, the price that is higher than the current QD LCD TV is expected to be overcome by applying the solution process, and mass production is also expected in 2019.

Yan CTO predicted that the “solution process would be easy to produce 75-inch panels at Gen 10.5 because the process can be performed without splitting the ledger,” and “it is also possible to produce full-emission RGB OLED TVs.” However, he emphasized that the compatibility of materials and equipment and the development of ink forming process technology should be done.

Following to that, “QLED structure is very similar to OLED structure, so it is easy to apply the technology because of the low entry barriers,” he said. “The lifetime and efficiency of the blue light emitting layer compared to the current OLED is very low, and performance must be ensured without the use of cadmium.”

Lastly, He mentioned the establishment of printing technology in Guangdong JUHUA to promote the commercialization of solution process OLED TV and self-luminous QLED TV, and emphasized the cooperation of material, equipment and panel makers to develop next-generation premium TV.

[iMiD 2017] You Dream, We OLED

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LG Display is expanding in earnest in OLED market.

In the keynote session of IMID 2017 held in Busan on 29th, LG Display’s CTO Kang In-byeong pointed out the future plan of LG Display as “OLED is a strong candidate to lead the future display industry”.

Kang In-byeong, CTO, said that by 2020, large-area OLED will increase its production capacity by 7 times to 2020, thereby reducing the cost cap with LCD and leading the market on the basis of technology such as wall paper, sound integration, rollable and transparent flexible. LG Display recently invested in Gen8.5 in China and is expected to invest in Gen10.5 OLED mass production line at Paju P10 plant.

On the other hand, for small and medium-sized OLEDs, they have announced that they will use a fast follower strategy based on plastic OLED. LG Display is in mass production of plastic OLED panel to be applied for LG Display’s next smartphone, V30, next smartphone, and is ready for the mass production in the E5 line of Gumi. In addition, they plan to invest 10trn won additionally to Gen6 line, which is expected to increase 13 times the current capacity by 2020.

Based on this aggressive OLED investment, LG Display plans to raise its portion of OLED sales up to 40% in 2020 from current 5% in large-area OLEDs and small- and medium-sized OLEDs.

Currently, large-area OLEDs continue to increase capacity and yield and LG Display is likely to expand sales in the future, as it is dominating the premium TV market as it is expanding the camps of Sony, Philips and Panasonic as well as LG Electronics. The success of mass production in small- and mid-sized OLEDs will determine whether or not LG Display plans to achieve its plan.

LG Electronics leading OLED TV camp to premium sensation

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<LG OLED TV exhibited at IFA2016>

LG Electronics is expanding its OLED TV camp to dominate the premium market. LG Electronics decided to supply OLED TV since September to Danish prestigious audio company B & O (Bang & Olufsen), making a fruitful result of OLED TV expansion.

‘B & O’ held an OLED TV public event in Berlin on Aug 30th in local time. ‘LG OLED TV is equipped with its own sound technology and will be shown to visitors at ‘IFA 2017’ from September 1 to 6.

LG Electronics also emphasized that the OLED TV camp is on the constant rise. It is expected that there will be 13 manufacturers exhibiting OLED TV at ‘IFA 2017’. As the number of companies increased from 11 last year, it is said that these companies are planning to execute their premium marketing strategies by bringing OLED TV in front.

LG Electronics analyzed that mushrooming OLED TV sales among many companies are attributed to securing a stable profit structure. As Chinese and Taiwanese makers are investing heavily in LCD panel production, the price competition is likely to be intensified in the future and LCD technology has already reached the maturity phase, difficult to be differentiated with LCD. Taken the market environment into consideration, TV makers have been targeting a premium market with differentiated OLED TV.

LG Electronics announced that OLED TV makes the profit structure of LG Electronics stable and secure. The HE division in charge of TV business stated that it achieved 8.5% of operating profit (sales 8,561 billion KRW, operating profit 725.2 billion KRW) in the first half of this year. LG Electronics mentioned the premium OLED TV has brought the high profitability and noted that OLED TV sales accounted for 15% of sales in the first half of LG Electronics’ business operation.

The LG OLED TV currently being commercialized has swept the various awards by media and experts all over the world, and is ranking number one in the performance evaluation. The screen quality, sound quality and design have been complimented in the TV’s key elements.

Particularly, at ‘IFA 2017 in Berlin Germany, LG Electronics will aggressively approach and further strengthen the premium TV market from September 1 to 6, introducing the advanced screen quality technology of ‘LG OLED TV’. “We will enhance our leadership in the global market by bringing OLED TV presently reorganizing the premium market in front.”