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

/in /by

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.

Second quarter OLED emitting materials market grew 41.1% compared to the same quarter last year

/in /by

According to the OLED emitting material market track published by UBI Research (www.ubiresearch.com), the second quarter earnings was $ 329 million, an increase of 16.6% compared with the previous quarter’s $ 228 million, and 41.1% higher than the second quarter’s $ 233 million.

<Source: 3Q2019 UBI Research OLED Emitting Material Market Track>

As a light emitting materials company with high sales in the second quarter, UDC accounted for 22.7% of the total market with US $ 72.7 million, with Idemitsu Kosan 12%, Merck, Dow Chemical, and Novaled more than 10%. None of the Korean emitting material companies exceeded 10% market share.

UDC’s strongest sales were due to the 6-month-long purchase of dopant material from the BOE, which anticipates it will be difficult to purchase phosphorescent dopant materials in the US-China trade dispute. The phosphorescent red host, phosphorescent green host, and p + materials all exceeded $ 30 million.

According to the analysis of the material usage, the total material usage of the second quarter was 21.3 tons, 21% more than the previous quarter, and 49% higher than the same quarter last year. The high usage of materials compared to the amount is interpreted as a result of a slight decrease in prices as Chinese panel makers use more materials.

OLED sales increased to $ 6.9 billion in the second quarter

/in /by

According to the OLED market track published by UBI Research in the third quarter, OLED sales increased to $ 6.9 billion in the second quarter. This is an increase of 9.5% compared to last quarter, an increase of 18.5% from the same quarter last year.

The biggest reason for the increase in sales is the increase in OLED sales to China by Samsung Display, which leads the OLED industry. Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiomi’s OLED usage increased more than 1.5 times compared to last year, and Samsung Display’s sales in the second quarter were $ 5.5 billion. In addition, LG Display’s WRGB OLED sales growth and BOE’s flexible OLED sales boosted the market to $ 6.9 billion.

Samsung Display’s sales share accounted for 79.9% and BOE’s market share increased to 6%.

<Source: 3Q2019 UBI Research OLED Market Track>

In 3Q, sales are expected to increase further. Samsung Display’s flexible OLED shipments will increase further for Apple’s new models and Huawei’s Mate. LG Display will also begin supplying flexible OLEDs to Apple, and BOE has decided to supply flexible OLEDs to LG Electronics.

Samsung and LG fight for 8K TV picture quality

/in /by

In response to 8K LCD TV quality disputes that LG Electronics compared and exhibited at IFA2019, Samsung Electronics raised the problem of burning of OLED TVs.

At the exhibition hall, LG Electronics displayed the same screen on its NanoCell 8K LCD TV and other companies’ 8K LCD TVs, and magnified images taken by precision cameras on the same screen area, allowing 90% reproduction of CM (contrast modulation) of NanoCell TV. However, it emphasized that other companies’ 8K LCD TV is only 12%. The company did not say what kind of company it was, but LG was recently emphasized that LG Electronics disassembled Samsung’s QLED TV after IFA and talked that QD-LCD using QD sheet does not produce good image quality. Thus the other 8K can be estimated as SEC’s QLED TV.

In response, Samsung Electronics publicly reported to the press that 8K OLED TVs disappear due to image sticking.

There is a very confusing dispute for consumers who do not have expertise in picture quality. Putting the two companies together, Samsung’s 8K QLED TV and OLED TV are both less qualified products.

In reality, however, the two products seen by the IFA were among the best of all existing TVs. OLED TVs have very high contrast ratios, so even in two-dimensional flat screens, the perspective is displayed as well as three-dimensional TVs. QLED TVs have very high HDR, which are delicately expressed from bright to dark screens. Also, the two products must be TVs with the highest precision at 8K resolution.

Korean media have expressed a lot of negative views about noise marketing of Samsung and LG, but it seems that the two companies’ TVs have been developed.

In fact, when Apple criticized the Galaxy for its low resolution, Samsung Electronics has grown to the world’s best product by raising the resolution of OLED to QHD level. In addition, Samsung Electronics made a negative offensive by pointing to the burning of OLED TVs, but OLED TVs expanded the market to nearly 50% of the premium TV market of more than $ 2,000. Of course, most of the burning has been eliminated.

Therefore, Samsung Electronics is also expected to be an opportunity to grow 8K QLED TV’s image quality into the world’s best LCD TV.

The two companies have a negative fight because of their own grievances. If OLED TV market share continues to rise in the premium TV market, Samsung Electronics expressed a sense of crisis as the QLED TV market shrank by that much. If 8K QLED TVs lower prices and target the premium TV market, LG Electronics should prevent the expansion of the QLED TV market in order to accelerate the growth of the OLED TV market.

In a strategy battle in which the spear and shield alternate, the TV fight of the two companies will be a good opportunity for Korean TV to maintain the world’s best level.

Fraunhofer FEP shows modular OLED light strips

/in /by

Almost everyone is familiar with light strips for interior design. LED strips are available by the metre in DIY stores around the corner and are just as often found as under-cabinet luminaires or in decorative articles. But also in the automotive industry the demand for light strips is enormous. Customized strips with additional functionalities play an increasingly important role, especially in the area of innovative car designs.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer FEP have now succeeded in producing light strips from individual organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). What is special about this innovation is that the OLED light strips act like a single luminous surface without interruption.

Claudia Keibler-Willner, head of the “Sheet-to-sheet OLED Technologies” department at Fraunhofer FEP, explains this effect in more detail: “We manufacture flexible OLEDs with appropriate control electronics in such a way that any number of OLED modules can be connected without creating visible interruptions to the active surface. This makes it possible to produce infinitely long OLED light strips. An additional highlight is the individual control of the segments. This allows additional lighting effects such as different dimmings or dynamic warnings to be realized.”

But why actually use OLEDs for car interiors or luminous clothing instead of using existing LED technology? The enormous advantage of OLEDs lies in their properties as area light sources. In contrast to LEDs as point light sources, OLEDs illuminate surfaces and are therefore homogeneous. As a result, OLED strips require no reflectors, light guides or additional optics. They also impress with their extremely low installation depth and light weight. This filigree quality of flexible OLEDs, which are manufactured on plastic substrates, for example, can hardly be achieved with conventional LED technology. In addition, the reduction of glare effects contributes to increased road safety, for example in safety clothing with lighting.

The OLED can make particularly good use of these advantages in the developed modular light strips of any length: OLED strips can be flexibly applied to curved surfaces such as car bodies or furniture. They can be transparent when switched off so that the underlying surface remains visible. Thus the OLEDs almost melt into their surroundings. Dynamic control or dimming opens up additional possibilities, such as for welcoming scenarios at the car. Designer dreams for interior design are thus within reach.

The scientists are now looking forward to concrete industry inquiries to develop prototypes or small series of these light strips for innovative designs and applications.

[China OLED Trends] Will US-China Trade Dispute Accelerate Chinese Large-Size OLED Market?

/in /by

Recently, due to the trade dispute between the US and China, a large portion of the budget planned by the Chinese government is flowing into the display industry while the semiconductor industry, which is one of intensive investment promotion industries, foreshadows difficulties. In the display industry, the focus is on OLED, which is a cutting-edge technology, and most of the investment is in the 6G line, a mobile product production line. This year has already been made at Visionox and Tianma on the 6G line, and BOE and CSOT will be invested further this year.

The Chinese government is actively investing in the display sector, which is relatively uncontained due to trade disputes between the United States and China, and it is reported that the mobile OLED production line as well as the large OLED line, 8.5G and 10.5G lines, are being reviewed ahead of time.

Large OLED lines are currently being mass-produced only by LG Display, and are being produced using oxide TFT and white OLED deposition. Samsung Display is also considering mass production by adding QD structures to oxide TFT and blue-based OLED deposition.

Samsung and LG are preparing to mass-produce or mass-produce by applying heat deposition method to organic materials, but Chinese OLED panel makers are oriented to mass production line of RGB Inkjet method (Solution Process OLED). However, as the investment has accelerated recently, experts are concerned about the investment of RGB inkjet method which has not been mass-proven.

This is because LG Display’s white OLED deposition method has already been mass-proven and Samsung Display is also planning to invest in the same deposition method with only the different structure. Indeed, it is necessary to see whether Chinese OLED panel makers will move beyond the second-place strategy to adopt the RGB Inkjet method or change their direction to the deposition method, a proven technology.

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

/in /by

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.

2019 Solution Process OLED Annual Report

/in /by

Solution process using inkjet OLED (sol OLED) has been developed mainly as a large OLED panel for TV, but recently began to attract attention in the monitor display market.

The evaporation method with FMM that produces OLED for smartphones has a bending phenomenon of FMM. Thus, the substrate is used by dividing into two or four. Since smartphone-sized FMMs are used by attaching 10 to 15 sheets to the mask frame, the profitability is very low due to the small number of cells in the production of 20-inch or larger monitors.

In comparison, sol OLED is a highly productive method because OLED can be manufactured from the original substrate regardless of substrate size and display size.

If the 27-inch and 32-inch OLED panels, which are mainly used as gaming monitors, are produced by the FMM method, four can be produced. But sol OLEDs do not divide the substrate, so the 27-inch can make eight, and the 32-inch can make six.

Therefore, in the future, OLED manufacturing technology is expected to be used in combination of three technologies depending on the application and size. Smartphone OLEDs are expected to be divided into FMM and evaporation methods, large OLED panel manufacturing for TVs with open mask and evaporation technology, and sol OLED technology for monitors larger than 25 inches.

There are three types of premium monitor market, LCD, RGB OLED, and sol OLED, but the premium OLED monitor market will be replaced by sol OLED. If 6G-class inkjet lines are invested in large quantities, sol OLED will become the flagship product in the mid-priced monitor market.

The solution process OLED annual report, published by UBI Research (www.ubiresearch.com), expects to create a market of $ 579 million by 2023. This amount represents 85.3% of the OLED monitor market by 2023.

[Press Release] Opening Ceremony of new Novaled Headquarters(Dresden, Germany, June 2019)

/in /by

Investment of 30 million Euros in Novaled Headquarters with state-of-the-art R & D center for OLED cutting-edge technology in Dresden, Germany

After 2 years of construction Novaled GmbH opened its new headquarters in Dresden on June, 12th together with long-standing business partners and supporters. Besides representatives of Samsung SDI, the Prime Minister of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, and the First Mayor of the city of Dresden, Dirk Hilbert, participated in the event.

Core of the 10,200 m² premises in the northern part of the city is a 110 m long R & D center with chemistry laboratories as well as cleanrooms of class ISO5 and ISO7 equipped at highest standards. The new location is an improvement all along the line. Additional space in cleanrooms allowed for investments in cluster tools. This increased the OLED processing capacity by around 40%. The generously planned chemistry laboratories with state-of-the-art equipment and proprietary analytics are a true quantum leap in the development of new materials for high-performance OLEDs.

Novaled is currently the only supplier of organic dopants for OLED display mass production in the industry. Know-how and materials from Dresden enhance therefore most high end smartphones, TVs and smart watches, equipped with OLED displays.

“State-of-the-art cleanrooms, three times more lab space and entirely new facilities offer the best conditions for innovation,” said Novaled CEO Gerd Günther. The company started back in 2003 with five key patents concerning organic electronics. Meanwhile there are nearly 1,000 Novaled patents granted or pending. “Our technologies and materials are established as an industry standard in the OLED display field,” said Gerd Günther. “Novaleds revenues clearly show that we are growing even stronger than the market.”

In addition to the construction of a new technical center, the former mill of the army bakery was extensively renovated and Novaled employees get to work there in loft-like, bright offices. A green outdoor area offers an attractive environment for meetings and relaxation. During the opening ceremony, a birch tree was planted by Novaled CEO Gerd Günther, Samsung SDI Executive Vice President Dr. Hyuk Chang , the Prime Minister of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer and the First Mayor of Dresden, Dirk Hilbert and. “The birch is a known symbol for light and a new beginning, representing what we do in our new premises,” explained Gerd Günther.

About Novaled

Novaled GmbH is a leader in the research, development and commercialization of technologies and materials that enhance the performance of OLEDs (organic light-emitting diodes) and other organic electronics. Novaled offers OLED product manufacturers a unique combination of proprietary technology, materials and expertise, and is currently the only company in the OLED industry licensing and selling organic conductivity doping technology and materials for use in the commercial mass production of display products. Novaled has developed strategic partnerships with key OLED innovators and producers throughout the world and, with a broad portfolio of more than 980 patents granted or pending, has a strong IP position in OLED technologies, structures and materials. Novaled is headquartered in Dresden with some 135 staff and offices in Asia. Since end of 2013 Novaled belongs to Samsung. www.novaled.com

 

About OLEDs

OLEDs (organic light-emitting diodes) are solid-state devices composed of multiple thin layers of organic materials often only a few nanometers thick that emit diffuse light when electricity is applied to them. Because they are an area light source, OLEDs are a key part of fulfilling the dream of the rapidly growing flat panel display market: paper-thin, highly-efficient displays with brilliant colors and excellent design flexibility. OLEDs may also lead to innovative decorative lighting applications and personalized environments. www.novaled.com/oleds/

 

[Press Release] OLED production capacity will increase to double in 2023.

/in /by

UBI Research has published [2019 OLED Equipment Report] that forecasts the OLED equipment market. According to the report, the total substrate area of display companies in 2019 will be 34.9 million square meters, which will be 68.5 million square meters in 2023 and double after four years.

OLED substrate area growth is attributable to investments made by OLED lines for TVs driven by Samsung Display and LG Display. Currently, OLED manufacturing lines for TVs are 8G lines optimized for 55-inch panel production. However, the demand for premium TVs is shifting from 55-inch OLED TVs to 65-inch TVs. By 2021, the 65-inch OLED TV market will account for more than 40%. In response to these market conditions, LG Display is preparing to invest 10.5G lines in the most efficient production of 65-inch panels. In 2023, the substrate area of a large OLED line is expected to occupy 42% of the total substrate area.

<OLED production capacity by generation>

The substrate area of the 6G line is expected to grow to 13 million square meters this year and to 19.3 million square meters in 2023. Most of this is due to investment by Chinese panel makers. In China, the smartphone market accounts for about 40% of the global market, so Chinese smartphone makers have a very high market share based on the domestic market. Huawei has recently become the world’s second-largest shipper based on its domestic market. Chinese panel makers are boldly adding a 6G flexible OLED line to Chinese smartphone makers, with the Chinese government’s huge support.

<OLED production capacity by country>

In 2019, Korea’s OLED production capacity (substrate area) will total 27.9 million square meters, accounting for 80% of its total production capacity and expanding to 54.8 million square meters by 2023. The market share will remain at 80% and lead the OLED industry.

Chinese panel makers are expected to stay at around 20% as they are investing only in OLED production lines for mobile device.

The OLED manufacturing equipment market (excluding logistics equipment) is estimated at $ 28.4 billion for four years from 2019 to 2022 due to investment by Korean and Chinese panel makers. Among them, the sixth-generation equipment market is expected to account for 61% of the total equipment market, at $ 17.2 billion.

<Equipment Market Forecast by Generation (2019 ~ 2022)>

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

/in /by

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.

2019 Chinese OLED panel maker equipment order status

/in /by

As Korean OLED panel makers do not have a lot of investment, the OLED equipment industry is in a low-demand season. When Chinese OLED panel makers confirm the order status of equipment orders in 2019, orders are being made centering on equipment and module line equipment required for new technologies rather than new lines.

In China panel makers BOE and CSOT, some equipment was ordered in March of this year for the development of flexible on-cell touch technology, and Korean equipment makers seem to have received orders from Wonik IPS and Iruja. In addition, since last month, the BOE Chengdu line has begun full-scale mass production and ordering of modular products along with foldable product preparation. Korean equipment makers will also receive equipment orders from BOE and proceed with production.

Starting this month, Visionox Hebei Line, which is set to start full-fledged investment this year, has begun placing orders for long-term delivery equipment and automation equipment. In addition, Wuhan Tianma is making some complementary investments in flexible process equipment, and EDO, Royole, and Truly are expected to invest in the future depending on market conditions.

UBI Research AMOLED process equipment industry report, which is scheduled to be published in May 2019, will be covered in detail in investment situation and equipment supply chain in China panel makers.

[BOE Chengdu Module Line Order Status]

[Press Release] AMOLED components and materials market grew to $ 24.15 billion in 2023

/in , , , , /by

Although Samsung Electronics and Apple’s OLED smartphone market are stalled, Chinese smartphone makers are gradually increasing their use of OLEDs based on the huge smartphone market in China. As a result, BOE and Chinese panel makers have aggressively established a Gen6n flexible OLED plant, which is driving the OLED industry.

As a result of UBI Research’s panel makers’ operation rate analysis due to OLED plant expansion and supply and demand, the market for various component materials (excluding light emitting materials) that make up OLEDs is expected to reach $13.9 billion in 2019 and expand to $ 24.15 billion in 2023.

Recently, as the production of foldable OLED has started, various kinds of films that are not applied to LCD are emerging as core materials.

In the [2019 OLED Components and Materials Report] published by UBI Research, we examined the foldable OLED structure of Samsung Display, LG Display, and BOE, and analyzed the thickness and characteristics of the films that make up the module.

In the OLED components and materials market, components for TV OLEDs will grow rapidly to reach $ 19.1 billion in 2023 and lead the OLED industry.

OLED Daily Issue, April 25, 2019

/in /by

▶ LGD’s performance is in the doldrums. This year, it will compete with high-value OLEDs. (ZDNet Korea)

(Full text of article: http://www.zdnet.co.kr/view/?no=20190424130827)

While LG Display is recording poor performance in first quarter of this year, it is going to strengthen its competitive edge in OLED display, which is its main business. Because it is expected that Chinese LCD will continue to make inroads into supplies this year, Samsung Display is planning to bring about results through high-value OLEDs that are highly profitable.

“It seems that large OLED business will take up more than 30% of TV business in 2016 through changes in customer and high-end position.” said Seo Dong-hee, chief financial officer of LG Display, during a conference call on the first quarter of 2019.

“Although some fixed expenses are also expected in second half of this year due to preparation of (Guangzhou OLED fab) production infrastructure as planned, we will increase profit contribution starting from 2020.” said a representative for LG Display.

■ It is difficult to rebound in second quarter performance…compete with high-value OLED in second half.

LG Display also expects that its second-quarter earnings will continue to worsen market conditions due to oversupply of LCDs and lack of IT products. Consensus of second quarter’s performance that F& Guide is estimating is $5.58 trillion (5.8181 trillion KRW) in sales and $16 billion (16 billion KRW) in operating loss.

However, it is expecting that it will produce results starting from second half of this year due to operation of OLED production lines that are located in Guangzhou, China, and release effects of transparent and automatic OLEDs.

“We believe that Guangzhou fab will operate successfully during first half of this year. “We are also preparing to apply MMG (Multi Model Glass, which is a method that is produced by combining 55-inch and 65-inch panels) to Guangzhou and Paju fab.” said a representative for LG Display.

Furthermore, transparent OLED products will be released in second half of this year and will expand additional demands. “We are currently working with variety of customers in commercial business.” said a representative for OTO, “Auto is already making more than 1 trillion won in sales through LCD. During this year, you will be able to see vehicles with plastic OLEDs. Although it is difficult to mention exact numbers, South Korea has received a large number of orders for displays for vehicles that employ POLEDs. We believe that orders will also gain considerable momentum when cars with POLED are successfully released this year,” he stressed.

 

▶ FineTec Receives Intent for Purchase of OLED Bonding Equipment from Chinese Firms(NEWSPIM)

(Full text of article: http://www.newspim.com/news/view/20190424000218)

While demands for OLED panels are increasing rapidly due to the resumption of investments in Chinese OLEDs this year, FineTec is trying to expand its supply of bonding equipment to Chinese display-specialized companies.

FineTec made an announcement on the 24th that it recently received orders from Chinese display company BOE for OLED composite bonding equipment and received LOI (Lent of Purchase of OLED bonding equipment) from CSOT.

FineTec is planning to supply CSOT with equipment dedicated to chips on plastic and COP-COF (chip on film) and other composite equipment that can be produced simultaneously. It is predicted that it will sign a contract with CSOT to supply bonding equipment after discussing detailed timing of supply.

In addition, FineTec, which is currently seeking to diversify its suppliers to China, is planning to strengthen its competitive edge in operation such as OLED composite bonding equipment for CSOT starting with this contract.

“Chinese OLED panel manufacturers are increasing their market share thanks to government support and Chinese Smartphone manufacturers’ promotion.” said a representative for this company. “FineTec is planning to focus on improving performance by securing orders from Chinese suppliers as China is actively seeking to increase its market share in OLED.”

It is also expected that FinTec’s combined bonding equipment will expand its competitive edge in markets in China. Although FinTec had about 10% of orders for bonding equipment that was placed in China three years ago, percentage of orders from Chinese display companies such as BOE and Visionox increased to 26% last year due to increased demands for composite equipment.

“We are currently converting variety of display panels from facilities that are targeted at specific types of panels from China and around the world into multi-functional equipment that can be produced at the same time.” said a representative for Samsung Electronics.

OLED Daily Issue, April 24, 2019

/in /by

▶ ‘Other in 6 months’…BOE, 4th time to invest in flexible OLEDs. (Electronic Times Internet)

(Full text of articles: http://www.etnews.com/20190423000190)

BOE is going to start construction of its fourth 6th generation flexible OLED plant soon. It is planning to invest a total of 46.5 billion yuan (approximately 7.9 trillion won) to have a monthly production capacity of 48,000 sheets. Although the display market is slumping and demand for flexible OLEDs for smartphones is falling short of expectations, it is speeding up aggressive investments and expanding production capacity.

According to Chinese media on the 23rd, BOE is going to start constructing its fourth flexible OLED plant called ‘B15’ that will be invested in Fuzhou. It is heard that it will hold an event soon and make official investments.

As BOE is going to carry out its investments in B15, it has become clear that it will have production capacity of world’s largest 6th generation flexible OLEDs by beating Samsung Display.

 

▶ ” LCD TV panel price rebound…accelerates large OLED conversion” (The Korea Economic Daily)

(Full text of articles: https://www.hankyung.com/finance/article/2019042322206)

“The price of LCD TV panels increased +0.7% in second half of April compared to first half.” said KB Securities on 23rd.

“The price of LCD TV panels in the second half of April, which was announced by Witzview, has increased +0.7 percent compared to the first half,” said Dong-won Kim researcher. “The prices of 32-inch and 55-inch LCD panels increased +1.3% compared to the first half of April, and prices of 65-inch and 75-inch panels recorded 0.5% and 1.1% respectively, showing good trend of prices.” said a slight decrease in prices of PC panels compared to the previous quarter.

While positive trend of LCD prices is continuing in second quarter, it is predicted that businesses can convert large OLED panels faster. “If Samsung Display’s QD-OLED conversion investment for 8th generation LCD lines starts in earnest in the second quarter, price of 32-inch TV panels will continue to rebound slightly due to psychological impact on reduction of supply.” said Kim. “For 65-inch, 75-inch TV panel prices, production of Chinese panel manufacturers will expand, operation of 8th generation LCD lines of Samsung Display will slow down.”

OLED Daily Issue, April 23, 2019

/in /by

▶ China also produces war skills… unstable OLEDs(THE DONG-A ILBO)

(Full text of articles: http://news.donga.com/3/all/20190421/95157197/1)

The Chinese companies’ volume offensive raised concerns that the OLED industry, following liquid crystal displays, could face oversupply problems. Analysts say that while South Korean display manufacturers’ performance in the first quarter has deteriorated due to a sharp drop in prices of LCD panels, even OLEDs, which are seen as new growth engines, could be on the verge of oversupply in the near future.

According to a recent report released by Hana Financial Management Research Institute on Monday, the production capacity of OLED plants currently being built by Chinese companies such as BOE, CSOT and TCL is twice that of South Korea.

 

▶ Retirement of OLED business for general lighting… Accelerate selection and focus of ‘New LG’ (The Korea Economic Daily)

(Full text of articles: https://www.hankyung.com/economy/article/2019042211521)

LG Group is speeding up efforts to reorganize its business portfolio for future growth. LG Display’s decision to withdraw from its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) business for general lighting is part of its objection. The “choice and focus” strategy has become a keyword that penetrates LG Group Chairman Kwang-mo Koo “New LG,” who headed the group last year.

According to LG Group and others on the 22nd, LG Display has given up its OLED business for lighting that it has been pushing as a new growth engine. It has been about a year and six months since it started mass-producing products from new OLED production lines.

It is heard that LG Display has decided to withdraw from markets by gradually reducing mass production of OLEDs for lighting that are produced at 5th generation OLED lines (P5) in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province. Instead, it has decided to focus on OLED markets for vehicles that have huge growth potential and can produce synergy with the group’s automotive electric field (electric and electronic devices) business. LG’s acquisition of ZKW, which is a global automotive headlamp manufacturer, also affected LG’s ability to provide lighting for vehicles.

LG Display entered the general lighting market by introducing a new brand called ‘Luplex’ at the end of 2017. However, it is rumored that it has decided to give up its business after losing out on price competition from current LED (light emitting diode) lighting companies.

OLED Daily Issue, April 22, 2019

/in , , , , , , , /by

▶ OLED is also worried about oversupply…” China factory size, twice that of Korea.” (YONHAP NEWS)

(Full text of articles: https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20190419148900003?input=1195m)

Following LCD panels, there are predictions that oversupply can become a reality for OLED panels.

Concerns are growing as South Korean companies plan to grow OLEDs into new “cash cow” instead of LCDs that China has taken the lead.

According to a recent report released by Hana Financial Management Research Institute on 21th, the number of OLED panel factories currently under construction in China is 419,000 sheets per month, about twice the amount of 225,000 sheets per month, which is the size of South Korea’s expansion.

According to the report, China’s BOE, which ranks first in LCD panel market, is going to increase its size to 144,000 panels. In addition, Chinese panel manufacturers such as CSOT, Visionox, and TCL are also scrambling to expand their facilities on a large scale.

Among South Korean companies, LG Display is set to operate its 90,000-unit monthly plant in Guangzhou, China, and it is expected that there will be a total of 45,000 panels per month in Paju.

Industries predict that size of OLED plant that will be built by Samsung Display in Tangjeong, South Chungcheong Province, will reach 90,000 sheets per month.

“As speed of expansion of OLEDs in South Korea and China is much faster than rate of increase in demands, there is a high possibility that oversupply will worsen.” said Joo-wan Lee, a researcher.

 

▶ The screen shield that caused controversy over faulty Galaxy folds…Why do I need it? (Yonhap news)

(Full text of articles: https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20190421010700017?input=1195m)

Samsung Electronics’ first foldable Smartphone was embroiled in controversy over its screen defects even before it was released. Samsung Electronics explains that this happened because early users removed “screen protection film,” which can be misunderstood as screen protection film.

<Samsung Electronics [Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.]>

According to industries on the 21st, current Smartphones are going to protect displays by attaching cover windows with reinforced glass material on top of OLED display panels.

OLED panels themselves are very thin like vinyl and are weak against external shocks. Plastic OLED (Plastic OLED) that is used for foldable Smartphones is more vulnerable to scratch. However, it can’t put glass, which is a material that doesn’t fold, so it is finished by applying film of plastic material.

“Although screen protection films that we already know are additional products that prevent scratching, protective films that are used for flexible displays are very important for displays.” said Professor Hak-seon Kim of UNIST, who is a former vice president of Samsung Display. Ok-hyun Jeong, an electronic engineering professor at Sogang University, also said, “The fact that we took out a protective film from PLED is tantamount to ripping off the display parts themselves.”

OLEDs emit light as organic materials, and due to their characteristics, they are very susceptible to oxygen and moisture components. When a thin panel itself is subjected to strong pressure during a screen’s opening, it can cause the screen itself to become indigestion due to moisture in an empty space.

Plastic has a weaker hardness than glass, making it easier to scratch the surface.

In addition to screen glitches, the media that received Galaxy Folders for review such as Bloomberg and Derverge points out that the protective film is easily dented or scratched. One reviewer said, “I tapped the screen with my fingernails, but there are still permanent marks.”

Some point out that there is a gap between the protective film and the display, which makes it easier for dust and others to get rid of it. One reviewer suggested a photo showing the gap between the screen’s protective screen and bezel, suggesting that it could be misleading.

Due to this reason, Samsung Electronics explained that its screen shield is for ‘replacement’. Since there is a higher chance of damage such as scratch than conventional glass, they were made so that they could be replaced at that time. However, users should not replace them directly and go through a service center.

Experts point out that such precautions should be sufficiently notified to consumers before the launch, and that early users also need to follow basic precautions as they use first-generation products.

Jeong said, “Samsung Electronics seems to have lacked notice of screen protection. “We need to strengthen advance notice when it is officially released.” said a person who dropped it from the company, which is about 100 grams more than normal Smartphones, risks further damage when it is dropped from the same location. This part also requires the user to pay attention,” he pointed out.

“Since the film itself is a plastic material, even if it is attached with protective film, it can be pierced and torn if exposed to sharp needles, unlike glass,” Professor Kim said. “In fact, these precautions should be properly introduced when selling it.”

 

▶ SK is investing in OLED business? (etoday)

(Full text of articles: http://www.etoday.co.kr/news/section/newsview.php?idxno=1747027)

SK Corp. is considering investing into OLED material business. As OLED markets are rapidly growing, industries that are made of OLED materials are also increasing.

According to mid- and long-term management plan data that SK Corp. held a corporate briefing for analysts of securities companies on Wednesday, SK Corp. is also reportedly considering investing in OLED materials to expand its material business.

SK Corp. has set a mid- and long-term strategy for its material business to expand its high-growth area by utilizing its current material platform.

For OLED materials, LG Display is planning to develop its own technologies by linking current SK Trichem’s technologies such as precursors and others while also considering investing in them.

Industries predict that SK Corp. will be able to expand its business through investments as it is an investment-type holding company.

For battery materials, which are planning to enter markets with high-entry barrier materials through partner companies’ cooperation and investment in technology holding companies, it has quickly entered the market by investing 270 billion won into shares of related companies.

SK Corp. previously acquired the stake in Watson, China’s No. 1 company that manufactures the second-order essential part of the battery, in November last year.

A reason why SK is showing interest in OLED markets is because OLED markets are growing rapidly.

According to a market research company called Ubi Research, size of OLED display market was estimated to be $28.31 billion (31.9568 trillion KRW) last year, which is a 7.1% increase year-on-year and is expected to grow to $32.3 billion (36.457 trillion KRW) this year.

It is expected to grow to $59.5 billion by 2023.

As a result, many other companies are working on OLED materials. Earlier this month, LG Chem stepped up its related business by acquiring material technology for “Solid Organic Light Emitting Diodes,” a key platform for next-generation displays, from DuPont in the U.S.

Doosan also established a new company through division of its business sector to strengthen its material businesses such as OLED.

“We have no specific plan to invest in OLED materials yet.” said a representative for SK Corp.

OLED emitting materials market to grow to $ 1.71 billion in 2019

/in /by

OLED light emitting materials market is gradually increasing as Chinese companies enter OLED panel market led by Samsung Display and LG Display.

The 2019 OLED emitting material report, published by UBI Research, predicts that the emitting material market in 2019 will reach $ 1.17 billion. 2021 and 2023 are expected to grow to $ 1.87 billion and $ 2.0 billion, respectively.

The size of light emitting materials consumed by Korean companies will account for 70.2% in 2019 ($ 0.82 billion), and its share will increase to 75.6% in 2023.

Korea’s emitting material market is growing because the consumption of OLED materials for TVs is soaring. In 2019, 21.1% of light emitting materials for TVs are expected to increase to 49.7% in 2023.

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

/in /by

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.

[2019 OLED KOREA] Unveiled the latest performance of TADF and Hyperfluorescence, the next generation blue light emitting material

/in /by

CYNORA and Kyulux have unveiled the latest blue TADF performance and blue hyperfluorescence performance at the 2019 OLED KOREA, which is being held at Novotel Hotel in Gangnam from March 6 to 7, 2019.

Andreas Haldi, chief marketing officer at CYNORA, revealed that the color coordinates of the blue TADF emitter developed by them are 0.13, 20% for EQE and 5 hours for LT95 @ 1,200 nit.

He said, CYNORA in developing deep blue TADF in earnest from 2018, and will find green and red TADF after blue TADF development.

“The maximum EQE of blue hyperfluorescence is 26%, the EQE at 1,000 nit is 22% and the lifetime (LT95 @ 750 nit) is 100 hours,” said Junji Adachi, CEO of Kyulux.

Junji Adachi, CEO, also introduced applications using blue hyperfluorescence and emphasized the potential of hyperfluorescence as a next-generation luminous material.

 

[2019 OLED KOREA] LG Display “8K is not everything. OLED will prove worth it”

/in /by

“8K is not everything. OLEDs will provide new value not only in high resolution, but also in rollable typed and transparent displays ”

said Ko Kyoung Young, senior director of global promotion for LG Display’s TV division.
He emphasized this at the 2019 OLED KOREA held, the Novotel Hotel in Gangnam from March 6 to 7, 2019.

“Currently, 8K TVs are not attractive due to not ready for content and proper pricing” said Goh. However, OLEDs can provide new value, such as rollable and transparent displays, “he said that OLEDs will be the game changers of the future display era.

“The premium TV market which has been downsizing since 2014, started grow again in 2017 due to entering a new market of OLED TVs. In addition, we see OLED TV is leading the market last three years through it has been ranked from top to the 8th in the consumer reports , increase of global growth opportunities”

He also mentioned the OLED approach would overcome the scalability limitations that could be the best communication tool available anywhere in the fourth industry market. In addition, it can be applied to gaming monitors and automotive displays that are becoming bigger and bigger. “Global automobile companies such as BMW and Audi are in discussions with understanding display companies to apply OLED to future vehicles.” Director Ko said, to lead the premium TV market, we will support to boost production for large-scaled OLEDs by 2021, the expansion of the 4K and 8K

OLED TV lineups, and the creation of new platforms such as rollable and transparent displays.  Notably he said, “8K OLED TV is planned to be 88, 77 and 65 inches, and 4Ks will be expanded to 77 inches, 65, 55 and 48 inches.”

Lastly, Ko announced that will continue to study OLED resolution and brightness lifetime through the development of oxide TFT and new materials along with transparent display and solar technology for the future.

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

/in /by

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.

What is the cost of OLED materials for the Galaxy F?

/in /by

What will be the price of foldable phone Galaxy F, which is expected to be on the market this year, is a concern for people around the world. Samsung Display is the only company that can mass-produce Foldable OLEDs with in-folding type used by Galaxy F.

Galaxy F with 7.29-inch OLED is a digital convergence product that can simultaneously target the smartphone and tablet PC market. The initial sale price will be around $ 2,000, and the estimated sales volume is about 1 million units this year.

The OLED industry is interested in how much the Galaxy F’s foldable OLED panels (including modules) will cost.

According to UBI Research’s material cost analysis data, Samsung Display’s foldable OLED material cost is 2.04 times higher than the Galaxy S10 5.8 inch. This is because the display area has increased, and the yield has been reduced.

Galaxy F, Galaxy S10, and iPhone XS’s flexible OLED material cost analysis shows that the module cost of iPhone XS is the highest at 95.2%, Galaxy S10 at 92.2% and Galaxy F at 89.3%.

The largest OLED business conference, OLED KOREA 2019

/in /by

The OLED Korea Conference 2019, organized by UBI Research, will be held on March 6 and 7 at Novotel Ambassador in Gangnam.

The OLED Korea for the fifth consecutive year, the event includes many high profile speakers by having representatives of the industry on board

The conference will feature future forecast of panel market with executives from leading panel makers Samsung and LG Display, another major developers JOLED and TCL, which are pioneering markets for OLED panels with inkjet technologies

In order for OLED industries to grow, not only panel manufacturers but also variety of parts materials, equipment, and technologies need to be developed.

The conference will also include presentations from leading industry analysts from a variety of part and equipment firms.

Particularly, scheduled the session by Nanosys, a company specialized in QD, which will provide an important opportunity to forecast the growth of the QD-OLED business that Samsung Display is discovering as its next-generation business.

The OLED KOREA conference had over 200 attendees at last year.

[Program]

Can the OLED market continue to grow?

OLED Industry and Market Forecast in 2019

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Dr. Choong Hoon YI, UBI Research

How will Korean panel companies attract the OLED industry?

Future Key Technology of OLED

                                                                                                                                                                  Hyein Jeong, Samsung Display

   How to create new value in display industry, LCD or OLED?

                                                                                                                          KY(Stephen) Ko, LG Display

Soluble OLED technology for making large-sized TV market

The Latest Breakthrough of Printing Technology for Next Generation Premium TV Application

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Dr. Jueng-Gil (James) Lee, TCL

   Strategic Market Creation of Printed OLED Display

Dr. Toshiaki Arai, JOLED

   OLEDs state-of-the-art materials: Merck development and latest status

Dr. Remi Anemian, Merck

   Latest Development of Soluble OLED Materials and Application to Mid-to-Large Panel Fabrication

Takeshi Yamada, Sumitomo Chemical

   Inkjet Printing for Flexible and Large-size OLEDs Manufacturing

Kyung-Bin Bae, Kateeva

Next generation OLED application

OLED Micro-displays for VR/AR Applications

Dr. Amal Ghosh, eMagin

   Airborne System & Cabin Integration enhance flight experiences and operations

Dr. Julian Chang, Boeing

Development status of fluorescence and phosphorescent materials

Future Directions for Phosphorescent OLED Displays

Dr. Mike Hack, UDC

   Development history and recent development progress of Blue OLEDs in Idemitsu Kosan

Jisung So, Idemitus Kosan

What level of next generation emitting materials has been developed?

TADF – Recent progress in developing highly efficient blue emitter materials

Dr. Andreas Haldi, Cynora

   Hyperfluorescence™, a Game Changing Technology of OLED Display

Junji Adachi, Kyulux

Film materials essential for OLED module manufacturing

Colorless Polyimides (CPI®) for Flexible Electronics

Dr. Chung-Seock Kang, Kolon

   Optically Clear Adhesives for Future OLED Displays

Sun-Yong Park, 3M

New technology to prepare OLED future

Quantum Dots: Technology Platform for Future Displays

Dr. Nahyoung Kim, Nanosys

   OLED Technologies for AR/VR

 Dr. Hyunkoo Lee, ETRI

   TBD

Dr. Robert Jan Visser, AMAT

   Material Advances for Transparent OLEDs

Dr. Michael Helander, OTI

[Press Release] AMOLED sales to reach USD 32.2 billion in 2019, up 13.8% from 2018

/in /by

UBI Research (CEO, Yi, Choonghoon) published the annual OLED report in 2019.

According to the report, the OLED market is expected to reach $ 32.2 billion in 2019 and 13.8% market growth. The market growth is due to the launch of a variety of applications in 2019. Foldable OLED will accelerate the growth of the flexible OLED market as a convergence product that fuses smartphones and tablet PCs, and 8K OLEDs and rollable OLEDs to be launched from 2H 2019 will further solidly support the premium OLED TV market. In addition, an increase in flexible OLED shipments due to improved yields by Chinese panel makers will support growth in the Chinese OLED market.

AMOLED revenue in the fourth quarter of 2018 was $ 7.9 billion, down 3.7% from $ 8.2 billion in the third quarter and down 10.4% from $ 8.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017. The quarterly OLED market was highly volatile due to sales fluctuations at Samsung Display.

Revenue in 2018 was $ 28.3 billion, up 7.1% from $ 26.4 billion in 2017. The growth slowed suddenly compared to growth of 58.7% in 2017. The sluggish growth is attributable to the sluggish OLED smartphone market, which drove the OLED market up until now. The OLED market for smartphones, which was worth $ 24.2 billion in 2017, was only $ 24.5 billion in 2018.

Flexible OLED panels are not being adopted in mid-end smartphones due to the high cost of manufacturing flexible OLED panels for smartphones. As a result, the oversupply will continue due to lack of demand compared to the 6G flexible OLED investment. In the fourth quarter of 2018, there was an oversupply of 31%. In the first quarter of 2019, oversupply will increase to 39% by overlapping seasonal demand decline.

 

LG Display “OLED TV will account for more than 20% in total TV sales revenue.”

/in /by

LG Display OLED TV maintained sales revenue, it through conference call, stated it recorded annual sales revenue of 24.3 trillion won and 92.9 billion won operating profit in year of 2018.

LG Display despite of heightened global competition and downward panel price made an operating profit thanks to OLED TV, super large size TV and high resolution products.

Especially large size OLED TV maintained stable productivity and enlarged consumer bracket which enabled 2.9 million shipment on a yearly basis. It recorded gross profit within 5 years of product introduction which resulted in more than 20% in total sales revenue.

4th quarter 2018 revenue of LG display marked 6.95 trillion won TV panels accounts for 36%, mobile panels 28%, notebook and tablet panels 22% and 14% for monitor panels.

Operating profit recorded 279 billion won, 528% increase compared to the same quarter last year, 99% hike compared to last quarter thanks to high priced IT products, new introductions of small and medium size products and high added value products. LG Display aims to focus on OLED business reconstruction Seo Donghee CFO of the company said, “the ratio of OLED revenue was almost nothing 5years ago, now it is 30% this year and we estimate it is going to reach 50% of the total business.”

He also said “we will put in all assets to create new values focusing on OLED business.”

He replied to the question of large size QD-OLED of competitor, it will strengthen ecosystem and overall OLED industry. To the question of 8K and over 70inch large size OLED mass production, he replied that 8K technology is already secured as exhibited at CES2019 and said that large size OLED mass production will utilize the existing know-how of LCD production. In 2019, LG Display’s OLED demand outlook question suggests that demand for more than 14% of all flexible OLED smartphones is expected.

Regarding the large-area OLED and p OLED capacity in 2019, LGD said that the large-area OLED capacity will be completed at 70K per month in Paju and 60K in Q3 in Guangzhou, China and the pOLED capacity is expected to add 30K to the domestic 45K in 2020.

He announced that capex is estimated 8trillion won in 2019 and 4trillion won in 2020, a half of this year. 60% will be for large size OLED and 40% for pOLED. And he said pOLED mass production is currently concentrated on smart phone and cars. He expects good news from car pOLED by end of this year. He also targets over 3.8 million units large size OLED production this year.

[OLED KOREA 2019] Early Bird Registration D-4 (until January 31)

/in /by

The year 2018 was the inflection point for new application that had never existed in the OLED industry. Newly introduced OLED applications in 2019 include foldable phone, 8K OLED TV, rollable OLED TV, monitors made of inkjet technology, and automotive side view display.

The speaker of OLED KOREA 2019 consists of companies related to these five applications and presents the market and technology direction in 2019.

[Speaker]

Samsung Display Hyein Jeong

LG Display KY(Stephen) Ko

TCL Dr. Jueng-Gil(James) Lee

JOLED Dr. Toshiaki Arai,

Boeing Dr. Julian Chang

eMagin Dr. Amal Ghosh

UBI Research Dr. Choong Hoon YI

Cynora Dr. Andreas Haldi

Merck Dr. Remi Anemian

Sumitomo Chemical Takeshi Yamada

UDC Dr. Mike Hack

Kyulux Dr. Junji Adachi

Kateeva Kyung-Bin Bae

Idemitus Kosan Jisung So

Kolon Dr. Chung-Seock Kang

3M Sun-Yong Park

Nanosys Dr. Nahyoung Kim

ETRI Dr. Hyunkoo Lee

AMAT Dr. Robert Jan Visser

OTI Dr. Michael Helander

55 inch and 65 inch OLED TV prices proximity to premium LCD TV

/in , , , , , , , , , , , /by

Recently, Sony’s 65 inch OLED TV, XBR65A1E, is price at US$ 300 more than Samsung’s QN65Q7 on the Best Buy basis. Prices of LED TV and LCD TV are becoming increasingly competitiveness in the premium TV market.

As of January 16, Best Buy compares the price of OLED TVs between LG’s C8 series, Sony’s A1E series and Samsung’s Q7F series.

<55 inch premium TV price comparison>

LG’s OLED 55C8 prices dropped 47% from March 2018 to US$ 1,700, which is only US$ 200 higher than Samsung’s QN55Q7.

<65 inch premium TV price comparison>

In the 65 inch TV market, LG’s OLED65C8 price dropped 30% from March 2018 to US$ 2,700, while Sony fell 40% to US$ 2,500, which is higher than Samsung’s QN65Q7 by US$ 500 and US$ 300. The prices gap has been greatly reduced.

In the premium TV market, OLED TVs are rapidly catching up with LCD TV prices because LG Display’s OLED production yield stabilization is the biggest factor.

LG Display is currently constructing Gen8 OLED lines in Guangzhou and Gen10.5 lines in Paju. As a result, the production of large size OLED will increase further, and the OLED TV market will become more prominent in the premium TV market.

CES2019, the Biggest Issue of TV is LG Electronics OLED TV R

/in /by

Reporter : Daejeong Yoon

The CES, held in early January of each year, is the most important event to understand all of the consumer electronics trends of the year. This year, TV makers from all over the world exhibited a variety of products to attract spectators to the event.

When OLED TV occupied more than 50% of the premium TV market with more than $ 2,000, the LCD TV industry sought to prevent the OLED TV market from expanding by exhibiting 8K LCD TVs to CES. However, the attention and admiration of the spectators were poured into OLED TV R.

The 8K TV market began to open slightly from last year, in preparation for the 8K broadcast starting from the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. LCD TV companies displayed 8K LCD TVs of various sizes to preoccupy the market with the keyword of 8K. LCD TV, however, has not been recognized by viewers as a new TV product since Sharp has already exhibited steadily.

Another reason is OLED TV R displayed by LG Electronics. In the main body with built-in speaker, OLED TV rises up and goes down again. A lot of people came to see OLED TV R to shoot.

 <LG Electronics, OLED TV R>

Last year, micro LED TVs became more prominent. In addition to Samsung Electronics, Sony, TCL and Hisense exhibited micro LED TVs this year. It seems that the gap of micro LED TV technology between Korean companies and Chinese companies is only about one year. In the micro LED TV market based on assembly technology that does not require special manufacturing technology, China, which is the world’s best LED industry and infrastructure, is expected to dominate the market soon.

However, as LG Display has a unique OLED TV manufacturing technology, which has a very complicated panel structure and manufacturing process, the technological gap between Korea and China is expected to be more than five years difference. In this situation, OLED TV R, released by LG Electronics, once again realizes that Korea’s OLED technology is the best in the world.

On the other hand, TV companies’ display of OLED TVs, except for LG Electronics, has stagnated. These companies are not yet receiving 8K OLED panels and rollable OLED panels from LG Display. Even Sony does not have any special features, only OLED TVs that are well known so far.

As a result, the CES TV show was notable only for LG Electronics.

It is judged that LCD TV using mini LED that TCL has released can compete with OLED TV in this exhibition. The contrast ratio is displayed as 1,000,000: 1 similar to OLED TV. Black is a very good product that has a vibrant color and contrast ratio similar to OLED TV. However, a holo-effect was found around the bright screen displayed on the black desktop. It is a phenomenon that the surroundings appear to spread brightly. As it is invisible to non-specialists, it is competitive in price and is a product that can compete well with OLED TVs.

< TCL, 8K QLED TV with mini LED>

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

/in /by

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.

What is the Biggest Issue in the Display Industry in 2019?

/in /by

In 2019, 8K OLED TVs and foldable smartphone will be on sale, bring new vitality to the OLED industry. OLED makers are leading the market with high-value-added products in order to maintain the display industry, which is collapsing due to low-cost LCDs pouring from the Gen10.5 line of Chinese panel makers.

Samsung Display is developing QD-OLED panels for the rapidly growing OLED TV market, and LG Display is spurring the development of foldable OLEDs for high-end smartphone market.

TCL and JOLED, which are relatively slower than Samsung and LG, are pioneering the soluble OLED market in response to the large-size OLED TV market.

The 2019 OLED KOREA will be held at the Novotel Hotel in Seoul from March 6 to 7 to enable you to understand the evolving OLED industry and technological development. The 2019 OLED KOREA, which includes Samsung and LG as well as the OLED industry, will provide insights into how and where the OLED industry will go in 2019.

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

/in /by

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] JDI and JOLED, announced Strengthening Cooperation for Mid-sized OLED Market

/in /by

At the 28th FINETECH JAPAN held in Tokyo, Japan from December 5 to 7, 2018, JDI and JOLED announced that they would intensify their cooperation in order to target the middle-sized OLED market.

JDI announced that it will actively promote JOLED’s solution process OLED to medium-sized OLED markets such as industrial display markets or automotive display markets through its own design know-how, production infrastructure, and sales channels,.

In particular, JDI announced that it will provide new value to next-generation automotive fields along with JOLED such as support for safety such as electronic mirrors and displays for A/B pillars, new interface functions, movie appreciation using 4-8K displays, and the displays that are harmonized with interior design such as curved surfaces and big screens.

JDI and JOLED also shared booths for exhibition. JOLED introduced 21.6-inch FHD OLED monitors for e-sports and medical applications. In addition, it introduced a number of medium-sized OLEDs such as 12.3-inch HD OLED for automobiles, 12.2-inch FHD flexible OLED, 27-inch 4K OLED for home interior, and 21.6-inch 4K flexible OLED with cylindrical form. It also showcased large OLEDs such as 54.6 inch 4K OLED.

On the other hand, JOLED announced in July, 2018 that it would open its Nomi office for mass production of solution process OLED. Based on 5.5 generation glass substrates, Nomi has production capacity of 20,000 glass substrates per month and plans to mass-produce in 2020.

[Press Release] Foldable OLED Market Grows Fast to US$ 24.6 Billion by 2023

/in /by

eporter & Analyst : Daejeong Yoon

5G communication technology introduced from next year can process higher image quality and large-capacity contents such as VR more rapidly, besides real-time streaming service. As the communication speed increases, the relevant contents, are expected to be released, which require high resolution and large screen with graphics detailed.

The current smart phone is getting bigger up to 6 inches, but it is not enough for 4K resolution of 5G communication age. Since 4K resolution is to be possible at 7-inch and larger displays, they might be the most suitable product for the 5G communication era. Foldable smart phones are digital convergence products that can function as smart phones and tablet PCs as the next generation mobile devices that use 7 inch or more displays but maximize portability.

Owing to foldable OLED, foldable smart phones are likely to be available. Several companies have rushed to produce various prototype foldable OLED displays at exhibitions and conferences. A few panel makers even pledged to mass-produce foldable OLED displays competitively. OLED display companies worldwide including Samsung Display have invested enormous development costs in order to preempt the next generation product market, and now foldable OLEDs are starting to appear.

Samsung Electronics, which is leading the OLED smart phone market, is planned to launch the in-folding type foldable phone for the first time in the world next year. Accordingly, Samsung Display has prepared 1.5R foldable OLED. For Samsung Electronics, which has suffered sluggish sales of the Galaxy S series, Foldable Phone is a super premium product that needs to be succeeded.

<Expected structure of Samsung Electronics’ in-folding type foldable phone>

Source: Foldable OLED Report, UBI research

UBI Research (CEO: Yi, Choong-hoon), an OLED research institute, has published Foldable OLED Report. According to the report, the market for foldable OLED in 2019 is only US$ 480 million, but it is expected to grow to US $ 24.6 billion in 2023.

Yi said, “The rapid growth of the foldable OLED market is due to the fact that 7-inch and larger smartphones, which can support 4K resolution, become required products in the 5G communication era. Accordingly, the value of OLED panel makers will be determined by the success of foldable OLED production.”

<Foldable OLED Market Forecast>
Source: Foldable OLED Report, UBI Research

However, foldable OLED is not a product that anyone can produce. Since foldable OLED has a more complex module structure than conventional flexible OLED, it is necessary to overcome the changes in various panel characteristics caused by folding. Especially in in-folding type foldable OLED, compensation circuit technology to overcome TFT resistance change and resilience required when folding and unfolding screen are typical technical difficulties. In order to realize this technology, the key challenges of reducing stress at the area of folding, selecting a proper substrate, determining the ideal stack structure, and optimizing the liftoff process, need to be overcome. Even when folding over 200,000 times, it is required to have reliability that there will be no abnormality on display image quality and surface.

“Foldable OLED Report” published by UBI Research analyzes the development trends of panel makers together with the development issues of major films that determine the reliability of foldable OLED.

JOLED, Introduced Many Inkjet OLED Technologies

/in /by

This was the first time for JOLED to demonstrate its products and technologies at FINETECH Japan 2018.

JOLED, which received the inkjet OLED technology from Panasonic and is doing OLED panel business, has been selling medical monitors since early this year. Next year, Asus is also scheduled to sell inkjet OLED TVs made by JOLED.

Its exhibited products include medical OLED monitor, OLED monitor for games, automotive OLED and 3 kinds of OLED TVs.

JOLED’s Inkjet OLEDs have a peak intensity of 350 nit. In case of full white, it is 140 nits, but has sufficient brightness for monitor applications.

JOLED will build mass production lines next year to produce OLEDs for 20-inch monitors and TVs as a full-scale. It also plans to start OLED business for automobiles after 2020.

JOLED is the only company producing OLED panels manufactured by inkjet technology. JOLED is also promoting the license business by providing this technology to Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese panel makers.

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

/in /by

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.

Fingerprint Full-Screen Smart Phones Begin to Compete

/in /by

<Vivo’s full screen smart phone with in-display fingerprint scanner, Android authority>

The competition for front fingerprint recognition of smart phones is expected to become hot.

In the smart phone with the existing home button, the front fingerprint sensor was installed on the home button. Fingerprint security enhances security, but recently, full screen Smartphone without home button has been released and fingerprint sensor has been moved to the back of Smartphone. This has caused disadvantages such as an uncomfortable hand shape when touching a finger to the fingerprint sensor and fingerprints on the camera lens.

In order to improve these points and to implement a complete full-screen Smartphone, the development of integrating full-screen fingerprint recognition with display is continuing.

The method of full-screen fingerprint recognition is largely examined by both optical and ultrasonic methods. The optics are inexpensive and easy to mass-produce, but the OLED substrate must be transparent because the sensor is to be located below the OLED panel. Therefore, it is applicable to rigid OLED using glass as a substrate, but it is difficult to apply to flexible OLED using colored PI as a substrate. The ultrasonic method is most stable in accuracy and durability, but it has a disadvantage of high manufacturing cost.

Currently, Chinese set makers have begun to launch smart phones with optical front fingerprint recognition. The Galaxy S10, which will be released next year by Samsung Electronics, is being watched for the adoption of ultrasonic full-screen fingerprint recognition. LG Display is also developing a display with front fingerprint recognition.

As such, the sales for full-screen smart phones with front fingerprint recognition are expected to be started in earnest. Competition in the smartphone market is expected to become more intense in the second half.

OLEDWorks, Released LumiCurve Wave, a Flexible OLED Lighting.

/in /by

OLEDWorks recently announced the release of ‘Wave’, the first commercially available OLED (organic light-emitting diode) lighting platform on flexible glass.

<OLEDWorks’ Wave lighting, source: oledworks.com>

As part of the new LumiCurve product family, the Wave is processed on 0.1mm thin Corning’s ‘Willow Glass’. OLEDWorks says that the Wave panels are extremely thin and light and deliver the superb light quality and excellent color rendering that is uniquely achievable with OLED.

The Wave is available in a warm white (3000K) model and a neutral white (4000 K) model. Warm white offers up to 300 lumens of brightness. Its efficacy is up to 62 lm/W (at 100 lumens), the temperature is 3000 K, and the CRI is 90. Neutral white has a maximum brightness of 250 lumens, efficacy of 47 lm/W (at 100 lumens), color temperature of 4000 K and CRI of 90. Both products offer a lifetime of up to 50,000 hours with a minimum bending radius of 10cm.
OLED, which is actively being adopted by the display of current mobile devices and TVs, is also being applied to a wide variety of applications including indoor lighting, automotive lighting, and display lighting in the lighting market due to its unique surface emitting characteristics.
In addition to OLEDWorks, which is launching new products, LG Display, which can mass produce OLED panels for lighting, is also expected to showcase various OLED lightings at CES 2019. Industries are focusing on whether OLED lighting market will be expanded in earnest.

The Meaning of ‘Flexpai’, the World’s First Foldable Mobile Phone

/in /by

Reporter : Daejeong Yoon

Having a Gen5.5 7.5K line in Shenzhen, Royole is known as a head mount display (HMD) company rather than a display company. After completing installation of equipment in the second quarter of this year, Royole has been developing panels for the target of 7.8-inch tablet PC.
RoYole has two peculiarities in OLED field. One is the world’s first mass-production of foldable OLEDs and the other is the first use of oxide TFTs in mobile displays.

Source: Royole Homepage

Because plastic film is used for the cover window of foldable phone, the display of out folding foldable phone is very likely to be damaged due to the external environment.

In fact, Samsung Display already developed a QHD resolution outfolding foldable OLED with a bending radius of 5 mm a few years ago, but the company plans to mass produce infolding foldable OLED to minimize damage to the screen from December.

Since Royole has not yet produced products with oxide TFT, the company has not achieved complete TFT reliability. Because of very low yield for the time, the available supply volume is expected to be limited even if the sales begin.

Apple adopts LTPO TFT to extend battery life time to Apple Watch Series 4

/in /by

Reporter & Analyst : Daejeong Yoon

Apple released its Apple Watch Series 4 with enhanced healthcare features on a larger screen than before, in the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park in California, USA on September 12.

<Apple Watch Series 4, Source: Apple.com>

In this announcement, Apple brought Apple watch series 4 with a new technology called LTPO to improve power efficiency.

LTPO stands for low temperature polycrystalline oxide. It is a kind of TFT using only the advantages of poly-Si with good charge mobility and IGZO with low power driving. LTPO TFTs have low leakage current and good on / off characteristics, which lowers power consumption and increases battery life.

<Apple’s LTPO TFT patent>

In addition, Apple increased the size of its Apple Watch 4 to 40mm and 44mm. The edge-to-edge screen is 35% and 32% larger than previous models by narrowing the bezel compared to previous models. The screen resolution was 368×448 pixels for the 44mm model and 324×394 pixels for the 40mm model. The display of Apple Watch4 is a plastic OLED made by LG Display with a maximum brightness of 1,000 nit. The Apple Watch Series 4 starts at US$399 for GPS model, while the cellular model starts at US$499. The Apple Watch Series 4 is available for pre-order from Septmber14 in the U.S. with the availability beginning September 21.

Japan’s first flexible OLED, finally made its debut

/in /by

Reporter & Analyst : Daejeong Yoon

Japan, which used to be the strongest country in display industry in the past, gradually declined through the era of CRT, PDP and LCD, and has fallen to the third-largest producer in OLED industry after China.
Currently, Japanese companies that produce AMOLEDs are Sony and JOLED. Both companies are producing OLED for special monitors at 500 ~ 1,000 units per month. Although JDI has developed flexile OLED, it has not commercialized yet.

Sharp has challenged the OLED market for smartphones in the current Japanese manufacturing environment, which was passive in production. The production of flexible OLED is to be started at the 4.5 generation production equipment of Sakai plant. The flexible OLED is scheduled to be adopted on AQUOS zero model for Soft Bank.

The product was exhibited at the Sharp booth of CEATEC 2018, which is a QHD+ 6.2-inch dual edge type. Sharp
Officials said that the sales have not started yet.

In addition, Sharp also exhibited two types of flexible OLEDs which are under development.

 

OLEDON, is to announce belt-plane source deposition technology for manufacturing ultra-high resolution and ultra-area OLED

/in , , , , , , /by

Plane source technology, which was first developed by OLEDON in the world, has the principle of depositing the first organic material on the metal surface and evaporating it upwards to produce fine pattern of 2250 ppi, which is ultrahigh resolution. In this plane source process, three processes such as the first deposition, the plane source inversion, and the second evaporation are necessary, and the number of the high vacuum chambers is increased when the mass production is applied. The belt plane source FMM deposition technology introduced by OLEDON has a concept of carrying out the above processes at a time in one evaporation equipment. This is a continuous plane source supplying deposition technology in which the metal surface is formed in a belt shape.

Hwang added, “Using vertical plane source enables smooth deposition process for the 12th generation class area substrate for QD-OLED TV without sagging problem. Vertical belt-plane source evaporation equipment adopts the concept of depositing the substrate in a standing-up position so that the load on the framed glass chuck and the open mask is very low. Thus, easy transportation of the substrate, and uniform deposition process of thin film over a very large area in the static state are possible.” This technology is expected to be applicable not only to the 8th generation but also to the cluster type mass-production evaporator with substrate sizes more than 10 generations in the future.

<Vertical belt plane source evaporator for QD-OLED, Source: OLEDON>

Commenting finally that the company has successfully completed the material denaturation test for blue materials and the blue dopant deposition test, Hwang expected the plane source deposition technology to be applied to both small & medium sized OLED and large area OLED manufacturing in future.

On the other hand, OLEDON holds more than 30 related patents including original patents of plane source and belt plane source evaporator. Also, the company recently filed a patent related to a vertical belt plane source evaporator for mass production.

 

Quarterly OLED sales was increased significantly

/in /by

According to the 3Q AMOLED Market Track issued by UBI Research, the second quarter OLED market was sluggish, affected by the lower utilization rate of Samsung Display. However, in the third quarter, the market rebounded rapidly, forming a market of US$ 8.3 billion.
The performance of the third quarter is up 43.9% from the US$ 5.77 billion in the second quarter, and up 16.6% from the same period of last year.

Samsung Display, which drove sales growth, posted sales of US$ 7 billion, while OLED sales for Smartphone accounted for US $ 7.2 billion as its major application.
By country, Korea achieved sales of US$ 7.9 billion, accounting for 95.5% of the total market. China occupied 4.3% of total sales with US $ 360 million.
Yi Choong-hoon, CEO of UBI Research, explained that 3Q sales growth was attributable to Samsung Display’s production of Galaxy Note and Flexible OLED for Apple’s iPhone XS.

[IMID 2018] Samsung Display, The display that will lead 5G is OLED

/in /by

At the IMID 2018 exhibition held in COEX, Seoul from Oct. 24 to 26, Samsung Display presented various OLED products under the theme of ‘optimized OLED for 5G era’.
First, Samsung Display emphasized the advantages of OLED by introducing the transition process of full screen OLED and HDR & true black under the theme of ‘realistic multimedia’. Currently, the smartphone market is dominated by full-screen smartphones applied with OLED, and OLEDs are able to display a completely black color compared to LCDs, resulting in a clearer picture quality.

The company also introduced the next generation touch technology such as HoD (Haptic on Display; when you touch the screen, you can feel the physical vibration by hand. Thus, you can enjoy the contents realistically.), FoD (Fingerprint on Display) and SoD (Sound on Display) together with full screen technology.

In addition, the front of the booth is equipped with a space to experience the durability of the flexible OLED with a plastic cover window, so that visitors can try to hit the panel with a hammer or drop the ball. Various advantages of flexible OLED have been shown.

Moreover, OLED for VR, which implemented 1200ppi ultra-high resolution, automotive rollable display (CID) and 5.9 type transparent HUD were displayed, raising expectations for future development of display technologies.

LG Display unveiled its 8K OLED TV for the first time in Korea, which had been showcased at CES 2018 in Las Vegas earlier this year. This product is the biggest OLED TV that is currently in existence and provides 4 times clearer picture quality than UHD resolution.

Furthermore, LG Display showed the possibility of various OLED applications while the company showcased its 65-inch CSO (Crystal Sound OLED), a sound system built into the panel, and 77-inch UHD wallpaper OLED product that can be closely adhered to the wall to enhance interior effects in the living room.

OLEDON unveils plane source deposition technology for ‘super-gap’ OLED manufacturing.

/in , , , , , , , /by

Attention is growing since OLEDON, a venture company developing OLED deposition equipment, unveiled plane source deposition technology for OLED manufacturing to maintain ‘a superb gap with the competing countries’, at IMID2018, held in COEX, Seoul, Oct. 24, 2018.

Hwang Chang-Hoon, CEO of OLEDON, said, “Korea should actively invest in the development of creative deposition technology to maintain the first place in the current OLED producing countries.” He expects that plane source deposition technology is to be used both for small and medium size OLED and large area OLED manufacturing in future.
OLEDON is developing the world’s first curved plane source FMM deposition technology, which is an ultra-high-resolution OLED deposition technology capable of manufacturing 2250ppi AMOLED. The shadow distance of fine pattern can be up to 0.18um, enabling 11K high-resolution AMOLED pattern process.

<Existing FMM deposition pattern (left) and plane source FMM deposition pattern (right), Source: OLEDON>

According to Hwang, this process was confirmed with 800 ppi shadow mask, and the emission area of the pattern deposited with plane source was 1.7 times higher than the conventional deposition method.
On the other hand, OLEDON holds the original patent for the FMM deposition technology of plane source, and has recently applied for a patent for vertical plane source deposition for large area OLED TV manufacturing.

<Vertical plane source deposition for OLED TV manufacturing, Source: OLEDON>

Room mirror and side mirrors of Smart Car will be replaced by OLED

/in /by

Japan Electronics Show, CEATEC2018, was held at Makuhari Messe last week. CEATEC JAPAN 2018 is a global showcase for Japan’s growth strategies and vision of the future. Various Japanese companies exhibited products centered on IoT robots and AI. It is recognized that the electronics industry in Japan is gradually shifting from large hardware to small advanced parts and software industries.

In the exhibition, the core technology of smart car was introduced for self driving. Kyocera introduced cockpit technology that can anticipate and prevent various accidents that may occur in blind spots as advanced sensing technology and image processing technology to enhance the safety of automobiles.

For automotive display business, the company also exhibited advanced concept cars with clusters, CIDs, room mirror displays and side view displays.

According to Kyocera officials, room-mirror and side-view displays that show the external environment might have limitations and need to be converted into OLED displays since all of the concept car’s displays use LCDs.
When LCDs are used for room mirror display and side view display that show rapid changes while driving at high speed, the location of surrounding cars is to be expressed as being behind the actual location, which can result in an accident. In particular, LCDs with low contrast ratio are not able to accurately represent external objects at night.
OLEDs with high-speed response and high contrast ratio are expected to dominate the future automotive room mirror and side view mirror market.

 

 

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

/in /by

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?

/in /by

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.

CYNORA announced that it has extended its joint development agreement for TADF commercialization with LG Display.

/in /by

TADF developer CYNORA has announced that it has extended its joint-development agreement with LG Display. The two companies have been co-developing deep-blue TADF OLED emitters for two years, and have now decided to continue the cooperation towards the commercialization of TADF emitters in OLED displays.

The performance of CYNORA’s latest deep-blue material was presented at IMID 2018 held in August of the year. Among the performance introduced, the CIEy is 0.13, the EQE is 20% based on 1000 nits, and the LT97 is 15 hours at 700 nits.

CYNORA CEO Gildas Sorin commented, “Currently, CYNORA focuses on the development of deep blue TADFs for OLED TVs. Through the accumulated know-how to develop deep blue TADF, it also has plans to develop a light blue TADF for lighting applications and a green TADF for displays.”

The golden market for Automotive OLED Displays is approaching.

/in /by

The display of connected cars is getting bigger and bigger to for the convenience of providing various information. The displays used in general vehicles include the cluster, CID (center information display), RSE (rear seat entertainment), and RMD (room mirror display). In connected cars, various buttons of the center fascia are displayed, and a display is attached to the door using a camera instead of a side mirror. The Audi e-tron®, all-new electric Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) feature a small side-view OLED display instead of the existing side mirrors. According to Choong-Hoon Yi, CEO of UBI Research, the reason why automobile manufacturers are actively trying to use OLED displays is because OLED can be a good resolution in various aspects such as design, visibility and thickness. Since the side view camera is attached to the door, the viewing angle should be very good for the driver’s eyes. Especially in nighttime driving, black should be accurately represented on the display to make things clearer. In addition, OLEDs with fast response must be used for the mirror of car because the screen needs to be changed rapidly depending on speed of the car (if it is running at a high speed). In winter season when temperatures are low, LCDs with slow response times are not recommendable to be used.

Flexible OLEDs should also be used to mount the cockpit display on the dashboard that maximizes driver’s convenience.

<BenzのF015 cockpit displayとAudiのe-tron side view display>

In contrast, LG Display, the strongest player in the market for OLED TVs, is looking for the display market for clusters and CIDs as flexible OLED with two layers of RGB OLED. Visteon, the second-largest supplier of automotive displays, is preparing for the cluster market with LG Display’s pOLED. Since 12.3-inch p OLED is made of LTPS substrate and its OLED process is more complicated than that of OLED for smartphone, panel prices including module are expected to be equal to 55-inch WRGB OLED, which can create a premium market even if the quantity is small.

<Visteon, 12.3 inches pOLED>

According to “Automotive OLED Display Report” published by UBI Research, the market for automotive OLED displays led by Samsung Display and LG Display is expected to grow to US$ 540million in 2023.

Samsung Display, supplies 7-inch OLED for Virtual Exterior Mirror to Audi

/in /by

Samsung Display announced on October 3 that the company will be supplying a 7-inch OLED display for Audi’s all-new electric Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV), the Audi e-tron®. The Audi e-tron has attracted attention throughout the automotive industry. One of its highlights are optional* ‘virtual exterior mirrors’ – a ‘first’ for a volume-production car.

Audi’s virtual exterior mirrors feature a small side-view camera instead of the existing side mirrors. The driver can view the images captured by the camera in real time through the OLED display installed between the vehicle’s A pillar (the column next to the front glass) and the door.

<Virtual exterior mirror applied to e-Tron, Audi, Source: news.samsungdisplay.com>

The OLED display supplied by Samsung Display is equipped with one camera on each side of the vehicle dashboard, replacing the existing side mirror function, and the built-in touch sensor allows people to zoom in or out on the screen as if to manipulate a smartphone. Audi said the Virtual Exterior Mirror offers a wider field of view without blind spots, compared to a typical side mirror. It provides better visibility even on cloudy days and in dark places, and it provides a ‘view mode’ suitable for each driving situation such as highway driving, rotation, parking, etc for more convenient and safe driving. By eliminating the side mirrors that protrude out of the vehicle, it reduces air resistance and wind noise. Also, slim and beautiful design is possible, reducing the body width by 5.9 inches.

The images seen on the Samsung display that covers each virtual exterior mirror appear natural and distinct with none of the drag effects typically triggered by a slow response rate at low temperatures, while exhibiting outstanding color reproducibility. The Samsung 7-inch OLED display provides Audi e-tron drivers with an ideal visual solution, thanks to its low power consumption and innovatively thin, lightweight design, in addition to its superior imaging.

Jeeho Baek, Senior Vice President of Samsung Display, said “It is inspiring to many that our OLED display is used in Audi’s virtual exterior mirror, demonstrating that Samsung OLED technology is being optimized for cutting-edge automobile systems around the world. We will continue to actively support leading automotive manufacturers in helping them to advance the future automotive market through the use of our OLED display technology with its high resolution, advanced designs and low power consumption.”

 

 

OLEDON develops vertical plane source deposition technology for large OLED TV manufacturing

/in /by

Hwang Chang-Hoon, CEO of OLEDON, which has developed plane-source deposition technology for small & medium-sized OLED and large area OLED, said that it is under development of vertical plane source deposition technology capable of manufacturing ultra-large OLED TVs of 77 inches or larger. Hwang introduced the related technology that it is possible to mass produce OLED TVs of 77 inches or more without the sagging problem of large substrate such as 12th generation (3300 x 4000 mm) substrate when using vertical plane source deposition technology.

According to Hwang, the production yield for 75 inch TVs or larger with the conventional inline type evaporator might be very low due to severe sagging of the substrate and difficult control of many linear sources. To solve this problem, Hwang said that a new 12-generation large-area cluster-type deposition technology is needed, and that vertical plane source deposition technology will be an appropriate alternative.

On the other hand, OLEDON holds the original patents for plane source deposition technology. It also filed a patent related to the curved plane source FMM deposition for high-resolution AMOLED manufacturing, and a patent related to the vertical plane source deposition technology for manufacturing large-area OLED TV.

 

[IMID 2018] Can Blue TADF and Hyperfluorescence meet both efficiency and lifetime?

/in /by

At IMID 2018 in Busan, BEXCO on August 31, Junji Adachi, CEO of Kyulux disclosed the performance of hyperfluorescence, which adds TADF dopant to the existing fluorescent host and dopant.

The color coordinates of the yellow hyperfluorescence revealed by Junji Adachi are (0.49, 0.50), the FWHM (Full Width at Half Maximum) is 76 nm, the EQE is 15.7% on 1000 nit basis, and the LT50 is 62,000 hours by 1000 nit. And the color coordinates of the green hyperfluorescence are (0.28, 0.65), the FWHM (Full Width at Half Maximum) is 31 nm, the EQE is 20.6% on 1000 nit basis, and the LT50 of 1,000 nit is 48,000 hours.

Junji Adachi also revealed the performance of Blue hyperfluorescence, which is currently under development. The maximum emission wavelength of the blue hyperfluorescence is 470 nm, the EQE at 1000 nit is 22%, and the LT50 at 750 nit is 100 hours. In particular, he predicted that the performance of Blue hyperfluorescence would be further improved in the future, saying that it began to improve rapidly in the first half of 2018.

In the following announcement, Dr. Georgios Liaptsis of CYNORA explained about the deep Blue under development, emphasizing that the wavelength should be 460 nm and the CIEy should be within 0.15. He revealed its performance, adding that CYNORA has been carrying out the necessary research to make the lifetime of deep Blue as long as that of sky Blue even with phenomenon that the life span is getting longer as the Blue goes closer to the sky Blue

Fluorescent blue is currently used for the Blue of all OLED applications. Attention is growing whether Blue TADF or Blue Fluorescence can be commercialized to realize better efficiency and lifetime than existing fluorescent blue.

[IMID 2018] Samsung Display, The key material that will connect the smart world and the individual in the future is the display

/in /by

At IMID 2018 held in BEXCO, Busan, Korea on August 29, Kwak Jin-Oh, vice president of Samsung Display, delivered a keynote speech on the theme of ‘The Infinite Evolution with Display’. He emphasized “Display will be the key material to link to the smart world and the creation of a new world and environment will be accelerated.”

Comparing the evolution of living things with the evolution of displays, Kwak pointed out the direction of the next-generation displays such as ‘size diversity from small to large size, adaption in design inclusive of full screen and flexible, and convergence with other technologies’.

In terms of size diversity, Kwak said, “High-resolution displays that can feel realism in small and medium-sized area, and displays that can be immersed like a big screen in a movie theater in large area, are required.”

The design adaptation then was referred to design autonomy as one of the values of next-generation displays. He further emphasized the value of rollable and stretchable displays as well as foldable displays in small and medium sized displays.

Kwak said that Samsung is developing rollable displays as well as foldable displays that are currently attracting great interest. Unlike foldable display, rollable display requires consideration of the stress on the front of the panel. He commented “Because there are many things to consider such as the time when it is rolled up, and the number of times it is rolled and unrolled, the company is conducting research to solve them.”

He also introduced a stretchable display that can implement patterns freely, and explained that it is developing various structures using RGB pixel unit and stretchable unit to implement displays that have high reliability with low stress.

Mentioning about biotechnology at the convergence area, he pointed out that new fusion technologies need to be considered such as measurement of oxygen saturation by transmitting light to hemoglobin or changes in the wake up mode and sleep mode of the display depending on the melatonin change.

Finally, Kwak concluded that display is evolving to create a new society and environment, emphasizing that display is the key material to link between the individual and the smart world in the forthcoming 5G era.

[IMID 2018] LG Display, showcased 2-stack RGB OLED for automobile OLED with improved life span.

/in , , , , , , /by

At IMID 2018 held in BEXCO, Busan on August 29, Kim Kwan-Soo, research fellow of LG Display presented about a new OLED technology for automotive displays.

Kim said that RGB OLEDs applied to mobile devices and WRGB OLEDs applied to TVs do not satisfy customers’ needs in terms of life span. To solve this issue, he introduced 2 stack RGB OLED in which RGB OLED has the same tandem structure as WRGB.

Because 2 stack RGB OLED can be thick due to adding a layer of CCL (charge generation layer) to the multi-layer structure, HTL is made thinner than before and the charge balance of the emitting layer is optimized.

As a result, the 2-stack RGB OLED shows 1.5 ~ 2 times higher emitting efficiency than the 1-stack RGB OLED. Its lifetime is increased by 4 times on T80 basis.

However, the 2-stack structure has a disadvantage in that it has higher power consumption than the general structure. Thus, it is necessary to make efforts to solve this disadvantage.

[IMID 2018] LG Display and Samsung Display exhibited a large number of large, and small & medium sized OLED applications.

/in /by

LG Display and Samsung Display introduced a number of applications using OLED at IMID 2018 held in BEXCO, Busan, drawing attention from many visitors. In particular, LG Display displayed its strategies mostly for large OLED applications such as 77-inch transparent OLED and 55-inch video wall OLED, while Samsung Display introduced the small and medium sized OLED applications mainly for automotive and virtual reality devices.

First, the panel thickness of the 77 inch transparent flexible OLED introduced by LG Display is 400 μm, the bending radius is 80 mm, and the luminance is 200 nit based on full white.

LG Display explained that it would improve the required transmittance and durability. Also, it commented that the goal is to reduce bezel to 0.5 mm at its display of 4 FHD OLEDs with 3.8 mm bezel.

In addition, LG Display presented a 1200ppi 4.3-inch WRGB OLED for virtual reality devices. One official explained that WRGB OLED, which represents the resolution by etching the color filter, would be advantageous for higher resolution than RGB using the deposition method.

Meanwhile, Samsung Display exhibited a number of automotive OLEDs, including unbreakable OLED for 6.22 inch steering wheel, 1000R curved OLED for passenger monitor, transparent OLED for HUD, S-curved OLED for CIO and rollable OLED. The concerned official expects the OLED to be widely applied to inside automobiles because it has excellent design autonomy, compared to LCD.

He added “Although there are many things to be improved, such as brightness and reliability, it is continuously improving the required performance through the feedback from European customers”.

Furthermore, Samsung Display showcased light field display and 2,000ppi resolution RGB OLED for virtual reality devices.

[IMID 2018] OLEDON, developed ‘curved plane source FMM deposition technology’ for 2250ppi AMOLED for the first time in the world

/in /by

OLEDON is a company which develops plane source deposition technology for high resolution AMOLED manufacturing. Hwang Chang-Hoon, CEO of  OLEDON announced in IMID 2018 that it developed ‘curved plane source FMM deposition technology’ that can be adopted to 2250ppi AMOLED pixels, for the first time in the world.

Conventional linear source FMM deposition technology has a shadow distance of 3um. The available production range is 570ppi AMOLED resolution. On the other hand, the plane source deposition technology already demonstrated in OLEDON can achieve a resolution of 800 to 1200 ppi of AMOLED with a shadow distance of 0.8 to 1.5 μm. Meanwhile, the newly developed ‘curved plane source FMM deposition technology’ is an upgraded technology of the plane source deposition technology which can realize the maximum resolution of AMOLED to 2250ppi with a shadow distance of 0.18 ~ 0.6μm.

The principle is that light is gathered through a concave mirror, a curved surface is applied to the conventional flat plane source, and the light emitting material does not spread, but is precisely deposited at a desired position, thereby reducing the shadow distance.

If this technology is commercialized, it is expected that it can be widely applied not only to mobile devices but also to virtual reality devices.

JOLED raised 47 billion yen to spur solution process OLED business for automobiles.

/in /by

JOLED, the world’s first to successfully commercialize solution process OLED products, announced that it had raised a total of 47 billion yen as a third-party capital increase.

According to JOLED, Denso will invest 30 billion yen, Toyota Tsusho 10 billion yen, Sumitomo chemical 5 billion yen and SCREEN Finetech Solutions 2 billion yen. JOLED is known to cooperate with Denso to develop automotive displays and Sumitomo chemical to develop OLED materials for solution process.

In particular, Denso has been mainly using TFT-LCD for automotive displays, but it is expected to lead the development for applying lightweight and easy-to-shape OLED to automobile interior through this investment.

It is expected that this funding will accelerate the establishment of production system for the mass-production of JOLED’s solution process OLED. JOLED announced on July 1 that it would set up a “JOLED Nomi Office” in Nomi-city, Ishikawa, and aim to operate in 2020.

Major production products are medium-sized (10 to 32-inch) solution process OLEDs that will be used for cars or high-end monitors. Also, Toshiaki Arai, chief technologist of JOLED announced that they would target the middle-sized OLED market with solution process OLED, at the 2018 OLED Korea conference hosted by UBI Research in March.

 

Fingerprint full-screen smart phones begin to compete

/in /by

<Vivo’s full screen smart phone with in-display fingerprint scanner, Android authority>

The competition for front fingerprint recognition of smart phones is expected to become hot.

In the smart phone with the existing home button, the front fingerprint sensor was installed on the home button. Fingerprint security enhances security, but recently, full screen Smartphone without home button has been released and fingerprint sensor has been moved to the back of Smartphone. This has caused disadvantages such as an uncomfortable hand shape when touching a finger to the fingerprint sensor and fingerprints on the camera lens.

In order to improve these points and to implement a complete full-screen Smartphone, the development of integrating full-screen fingerprint recognition with display is continuing.

The method of full-screen fingerprint recognition is largely examined by both optical and ultrasonic methods. The optics are inexpensive and easy to mass-produce, but the OLED substrate must be transparent because the sensor is to be located below the OLED panel. Therefore, it is applicable to rigid OLED using glass as a substrate, but it is difficult to apply to flexible OLED using colored PI as a substrate. The ultrasonic method is most stable in accuracy and durability, but it has a disadvantage of high manufacturing cost.

Currently, Chinese set makers have begun to launch smart phones with optical front fingerprint recognition. The Galaxy S10, which will be released next year by Samsung Electronics, is being watched for the adoption of ultrasonic full-screen fingerprint recognition. LG Display is also developing a display with front fingerprint recognition.

As such, the sales for full-screen smart phones with front fingerprint recognition are expected to be started in earnest. Competition in the smartphone market is expected to become more intense in the second half.

Samsung Electronics, Display Business division’s operating profit in the second quarter of 2018 was KRW 140 billion.

/in /by

Samsung Electronics announced its sales of KRW 58.48 trillion and operating profit of KRW 14.87 trillion through the earnings conference call of the second quarter, 2018 on July 31. Its sales decreased by 4% YoY and the operating profit increased by KRW 800 billion. Sales decreased 3% QoQ and operating profit fell by KRW 800 billion QoQ.

According to Samsung Electronics, the display panel business recorded sales of KRW 5.67 trillion and operating profit of KRW 140 billion, due to slowing demand for flexible OLED panels and declining sales of LCD TV panels. Despite improved utilization of rigid OLED, OLED division’s earnings declined QoQ due to continued weak demand for flexible products.

Competition with LTPS LCD is expected to intensify at rigid OLED in the second half of 2019, but earnings are to improve on increased sales following the recovery of flexible product demand. Sales and operating profit are projected to improve in the second half on the back of production of flexible OLED for Apple’s new iPhone models from 2Q.

Samsung Electronics plans to expand its share of OLEDs for mobile devices by strengthening its differentiated technology and cost competitiveness, and to strengthen its capacity for new products such as foldable OLEDs. Samsung official said that foldable OLED will contribute to growth from next year rather than immediate performance in the second half of the year.

IT • Mobile (IM) division posted sales of KRW 24 trillion and operating profit of KRW 2.67 trillion. Operating profit fell 34.2 percent from KRW 4.06 trillion in the same period a year ago, and also fell sharply from the previous quarter (KRW 3.77 trillion). In 2Q, handset sales reached 78 million units, of which 90% are smart phones. 5 million units of tablet were sold. The average selling price (ASP) of the handsets is in the second half of US$ 220. The Consumer Electronics (CE) division posted sales of KRW 10.4 trillion and operating profit of KRW 510 billion in the second quarter of the year. Overall sales and operating profit of the first half of the year were KR W 20.14 trillion and KRW 0.79 trillion, respectively. TV profits improved thanks to robust sales of high value-added products such as QLED TVs amid the global sports events. On the other hand, SEC’s facility investment in the second quarter was KRW 8 trillion. By business, semiconductor area accounted for KRW 6.1 trillion and KRW 1.1 trillion was invested for display area. In the first half, a total of KRW 16.6 trillion was invested; including KRW 13.3 trillion in semiconductors and KRW 1.9 trillion in display.

LG Display, Showed OLED lighting for unmarried mothers

/in , , , /by

LG Display delivered 30 OLED lighting units, made by its employee volunteers, and baby products to 30 unmarried mothers.

This volunteer activity was carried out by the talent services of OLED lighting employees. OLED lighting business division donated 30 flexible OLED lighting panels, and the product planning team customized the lightings for breastfeeding for unwed mothers.

On July 27, the employee volunteers assembled light fixtures, which were customized by woodworking parts through social enterprises, and panels as finished products. In addition, various items needed for a baby and cheer letters for the unwed mothers were packed together. The packaged gift sets were delivered to 30 unmarried mothers living at the unmarried mothers’ facilities through the Eastern Social Welfare Society on July 30.

OLED lighting reduces light flickering and blue light, which affect eye health. And its mild light protects you from eye fatigue. It is also regarded as an eco-friendly product because it generates less heat and has no harmful substances. Since it is the organization that best knows the characteristics of OLED lighting, it suggested the service of delivering the OLED lighting for breastfeeding, made by its members, suitable for the baby-care environment.

Kim Yong-Jin, manager of the OLED lighting sales team who participated in the volunteer service, said “I feel it was worthwhile to deliver the OLED lighting directly to the necessary neighbors although I have dealt with it for business. When I see the neighbors who were delighted with little help, I have to think once again that service activity is so much fun.

<Source: LG Display>

How much will be the investment cost for 8Generation QD-OLED TV?

/in /by

In the “2018 OLED Equipment Report” recently published by UBI Research, the required investment cost was analyzed for the QD-OLED that Samsung Display started to develop.

QD-OLED, which is being developed by Samsung Display, is a method of displaying three colors of RGB by separating green and red from the light emitted from blue OLED through QD (quantum dot) material. The light passing through the QD material once again passes through the color filter and displays a richer color.

QD-OLED is similar to the manufacturing method of WDRGB OLED produced by LG Display. First, both companies use oxide TFTs. At WRGB OLED, blue is applied twice and red and green are deposited between them. In contrast, QD-OLED is fabricated by depositing only blue material twice. Both methods use the open mask with an empty center.

For both QD-OLED and WRGB OLED, the color filter manufacturing cost is assumed to be same; however, QD-OLED should be equipped with additional equipment to coat QD materials.

According to the report, it is expected that the investment cost is to be equal because the similar equipment can be used for module, cell, encapsulation and evaporator. Since WRGB OLED is bottom emission type, it is formed together when backplane is formed including TFT. However, QD-OLED adopts top emission method. A color filter is separately formed on the top glass substrate and the QD layer is patterned thereon. Therefore, QD-OLED requires higher investment cost than WRGB OLED.

The report describes that based on 8Generation 26K, the investment cost for QD-OLED is estimated to be US$ 1.1 billion, which is 1.03 times higher than WRGB OLED (US$ 1.07 billion). In contrast, the required investment cost to manufacture OLED by inkjet method, which JOLED is promoting commercialization, is projected as US$ 0.88 billion, which is to be about 80% of QD-OLED.

UBI research just issued 2018 2Q AMOLED Display Market Tracks

/in /by

UBI Research recently published “2Q18 AMOLED Display Market Tracks”, which includes market updates of the second quarter of 2018. The report covers OLED display panel makers’ investment status, OLED display market forecasts from 2018 to 2022, OLED demand and supply trends, and competitiveness analysis of OLED Smartphone business for Samsung Display and other OLED display panel makers.

The market update, published with the Excel spreadsheet, describes the production line status and the added line status through future investments of the 15 OLED display panel makers worldwide. Also, it describes not only the major OLED application market such as smart phones and TVs, but also the market forecast by country.

The demand for OLED mobile sets (including smart phones and smart watches) in the first quarter of 2018 dropped to 98 million units from 130 million units in the fourth quarter of last year, due to the lower-than-expected performance of the premium smartphone market, where Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S series and Apple’s iPhone occupy most of the market. OLED mobile set market is to recover gradually until 3Q, when Apple’s new smartphone model is launched, and by the end of 2018, the demand is expected to recover as to the similar level of the same period of last year. In addition, Samsung Display is anticipated to have a positive impact on the recovery of the Smartphone market in the second half of the year by securing competitiveness by lowering the sales price of rigid OLED panel for mobile phone to about US$ 25 to compete with LCD in China.

Consumers' smartphone replacement cycle is getting longer due to the reason that there is no revolutionary change in the new model compared to the past, and the Smartphone penetration in most of the countries except for India, South America and Africa is reaching the limit. Accordingly, the outlook for the downturn is mostly forecasted in the recent smartphone market. There is a growing interest in technology and design to apply a different form factor to revive the market. In this regard, Samsung Electronics' foldable OLED smartphone, which is scheduled to be released later this year or early next year, is expected to create a new momentum. Attention is focused on whether a folding- type flexible display (Dynamic Flexible Display) will be succeeded as a new type of smartphone from the existing edge-type flexible display (Static Flexible Display).

 

UBI Research predicts that the OLED Smartphone market will grow from 430 million units in 2018 to 900 million units in 2022, and the market for foldable OLED Smartphone is to be from about 1million units in 2019 to 18million units in 2022. This reflects the expansion of OLED panel production lines by panel makers such as LG Display and BOE, besides Samsung Display. It will be updated as new applications are developed in future and the Smartphone market moves forward.

In OLED panel market, OLED panel for Smartphone still occupies 91% of the whole market. Samsung Display has accounted for 90% of total OLED panel market performance and LG Display is followed with about 7.8% share.

OLED TVs, which are continuously increasing in demand worldwide compared to the Smartphone market, are expected to be in short supply this year. LG Display, the only OLED TV panel supplier, will continue to invest in production for the next five years. With the recent approval of new production facility for OLED TV panel in Guangzhou, the full-scale equipment move-in is expected this year. In Paju P10 investment plan, it was confirmed that LG Display will invest in OLED TV panel production line instead of LCD line investment which was examined before. Thus, the OLED TV market is projected to grow to US $ 5.6 billion.

LG Display “Strategic direction is OLED. Uncompetitive LCD lines are planned to be switched.”

/in /by

In the 2Q earnings release conference call hosted on the 25th July, Kim Sang-don, LG Display CFO, said, “Looking back at the first half of 2018, the market was in a difficult situation due to the slump in prices, the traditional off-peak season and increased display supply from China. We expected the market conditions to be stabilized in the first half of this year from the bad market condition of the second half of last year, but it has continued to decline more rapidly and steeply. However, with starting the second half of 2018, it has been observing that the price is rising since July owing to upcoming favorable seasonality and customer restocking.”

“Although the market situation has changed favorably in the second half of the year, it is different from the past supply and demand cycle because of the uncertainty of forecasts. Moreover, the oversupply and asymmetric competition in the display market are unavoidable.” LG Display announced that it will maintain its conservative strategy in the second half of the year as the unpredictability is still high.

LG Display’s sales revenue in the second quarter of 2018 was KRW 5,611 billion, decreased by 15% compared to the second quarter of 2017. Operating loss in the second quarter of 2018 recorded KRW 228 billion. This compares with the operating loss of KRW 98 billion in the first quarter of 2018 and the operating profit of KRW 804 billion in the second quarter of 2017. The company suffered a large deficit due to a continued and steep decline in panel prices and lower demand in panels following the previous quarter. Although the shipment was increased by 2% QoQ, the selling price per area (m2) was decreased by 4%.

As a positive indicator, the TV panel price fell sharply, but the overall panel price decline was only 1% due to the competitive position of OLED panels. The market is anticipated to turn into positive situation in the third quarter, compared to the first half of the year, since panel shipments are expected to increase with the orders to restock the inventory.

LG Display, which is currently conducting both LCD and OLED business with small and medium sized panels and large area panels, mentioned clearly about its future strategic direction including the direction for the second half of the year as “concentrating on OLED business and focusing on high value of LCD business” in this conference call.

LG Display announced that it will focus more on differentiated LCD features and technologies in the IT sector such as narrow bezel, IPS borderless, and oxide technology, as well as high-value-added products such as larger-size TV panels and commercial displays, considering that a structural oversupply in panels and fierce competition among display makers are expected to continue down the road.

In addition, LG Display will achieve a turnaround to profit in the OLED TV sector in the third quarter of 2018. By making its final decision to invest in its Gen 10.5 OLED panel production line in Paju, Korea, and by starting mass production in the latter half of 2019 at its Gen 8.5 OLED production line now under construction in Guangzhou, China, LG Display will accelerate the expansion of the global large-size OLED market. Furthermore, additional production facilities for OLED 8.5 generation are known to be considered with the plan that the rationalization of LCDs during the year is also to be implemented although there was no direct mention of the timing and specific lines. For the plastic small and medium-sized OLED panel business, which is experiencing difficult times, compared to large area OLED, for which LG is expanding the production capacity in response to increasing demand, it said that they are preparing for future markets with the necessary strategic technologies with the emphasis of mobile and automotive markets. The E6-1 line, which has been mentioned as a production plant for Apple, is expected to begin mass production in the fourth quarter of this year, revealing the possibility of a possible supply of display to the iPhone OLED model in 2018. In addition, demand for OLED panels is increasing in the automobile market, and it is expected that full-scale business will start in the second half of next year. At the current order backlog, it is confirmed that OLED panels are in the late stage of about 10%. This means that much of the work has already been done. Finally, LG Display is well aware of the lack of funding and funding shortfalls over its competitors in relation to its future preparations. The company plans to reduce its capex by about 3trillion won by 2020, with a substantial portion of depreciation and amortization It is possible through internal working capital management and it plans to borrow the rest. LG Display confirmed that it has not reviewed the rights issue several times in the market, and LG Display has thoroughly prepared a variety of OLED portfolios, revealing its commitment to success by differentiating it from its competitors in the area of latecomers.

FlexiGO, developed the durability test equipment capable of accurate evaluation for foldable materials

/0 Comments/in /by

With the recent announcement that Samsung Electronics and Huawei are aiming to launch smart phones with foldable OLED, folder-type smartphones are drawing attention.

 Display companies are converting glass materials used in the existing substrates and cover windows into plastic materials. Consequently, the durability of plastic materials is becoming an important issue.

There are various types of durability tests, but the most typical durability inspection is the folding test. The folding test is an experiment that repeatedly bends and unfolds the foldable materials including plastic. Typically, a mechanical device is used for pivoting the rotating plate after fixing some part of the foldable material to the fixed plate and fixing the other remaining part to the rotating plate. However, in the conventional devices, the axis of foldable material is different with that of the rotating plate, the foldable material moves along the rotation path of the rotating plate, not the original rotation path of the material. Thus, there is a possibility that a tensile force acts on the folder material. To solve this problem, FlexiGO recently developed Foldy series, new durability test equipment to test foldable materials.

<FlexiGO’s folding test equipment, Source: flexigo.co.kr>

In addition to the conventional fixed plate and rotating plate, the Foldy series adds a motion controller that supports the fixed plate to move forward and backward for the foldable to be moved only through the original rotation path, so that no other stress is applied to the material. As a sliding device is mounted on the motion controller, the fixed plate moves forward and backward, and the rotating plate performs a rotary motion so that the foldable material can slide on the rotating plate.

The Foldy series includes micro vision, surface profiling, and colorimeter. Foldy-10 and Foldy-100 products can be adopted for the durability test in different test environments. In addition, it is possible to mount an additional inspection system, so it is expected that the accurate durability test of various accurate foldable materials is to be possible.

'>

8K OLED TV, Can we see it in the second half of the year?

/0 Comments/in /by

 

Competition in the premium TV market is expected to be cutthroat.

The market share of OLED TV is on the rise in the premium TV market due to Sony’s entry into the OLED TV market and LG Electronics’ aggressive price cuts. However, LCD camp is responding with 8K high-resolution strategy, and attention is focused on whether it can prevent the rise of OLED in the premium TV market.

Sharp has already started selling 8K LCD TVs for the first time in the world since last year. Samsung Electronics showcased 8K TV at CES earlier this year, and will launch 8 K QLED (QD-LCD) products in the second half of the year. In the OLED camp, LG Display exhibited 88inch 8K OLED TV at CES, but the launch of 8K OLED TV in the second half is still unknown.

OLED TVs, which are currently in mass production, are based on bottom emission type. Thus, the light is emitted from the remaining portion of the pixel except the TFT region since the light is emitted through the TFT. Therefore, in the same size TV, as the resolution increases, the pixel size becomes smaller, but the area where the size of the TFT is reduced is limited, so that the area where the light is emitted becomes narrower. Consequently, in order to realize a high resolution at the same size, it is necessary to broaden the aperture ratio as much as possible or improve the performance of the emitting materials.

 

As a way of increasing the aperture ratio, there is a method of applying a top emission structure. Since the top emission structure emits light in the encapsulation direction, not the TFT direction, it can secure a wider aperture ratio than the bottom emission. However, there are pending problems that the encapsulation using opaque metal sheet should be changed to a transparent material and the color filter should be formed above the encapsulation with the change of the process.

The development of TADF blue and new blue materials is actively underway in the emitting material side.

The 88inch 8K OLED TV released by LG Display is made with a bottom emission structure and its ppi is about 100, which is about 20% higher than 80 ppi of the 55inch 4K currently being sold. When the pixel size is compared with the whole display size, the 55 inch 4K pixel is calculated to be about 40% wider than the 88inch 8k pixel.

In order to achieve the same level of brightness and lifetime as 55inch 4K, it is necessary to optimize the TFT design and improve the performance of the emitting materials to make up for the 40% decrease in pixel size. The industry is paying attention to whether the 8K OLED TV will be launched, with resolving above-mentioned issues, against the 8K LCD TV, which is expected to be released in the second half of the year.

The second half of 2018 just started, Chinese OLED panel makers are chasing Korea. Where are they?

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by


작성자: 오하나 (Analyst, hanaoh@ubiresearch.com)
The display industry has been in a state of confusion by the recent leaking of OLED display panel production technology into China.

As of 2018, five companies (BOE, Everdisplay, Tianma, Truly, and Visionox) have OLED production lines in China, among which only BOE has a line that can produce OLED displays (“Plastic OLED”) using plastic substrates, applied to the premium smart phones such as Samsung Galaxy and Apple’s iPhone. Other panel makers are building lines to produce plastic OLED displays targeting mass production this year and next year.

Monthly production capacity planned by Chinese panel makers by the end of 2020 is about 250K, which is more than the monthly production capacity of Samsung Display (about 180K). If China produces a similar level of panels through mass production, it is clear that Korea cannot defeat China in terms of production costs. The main application of the 6G plastic OLED display is a smart phone; however, the global Smartphone market has slowed down since 2015, especially in the premium Smartphone market, there seem no new markets. If mass applications such as smartphones are not developed, panel makers that do not have cost competitiveness will be hard to survive due to a large oversupply in the near-term and falling panel prices.

Korea is evaluated to have a considerable technical advantage since the production of plastic OLED displays requires a high level of technology and process know-how for the time. However, the industry expects that Chinese government’s support for the panel makers with the background of capital as part of the “China Manufacturing 2025” strategy, will shorten the technology gap quickly.

Chinese panel makers ahead of their mass production by 2019 are also reported to be more aggressively scouting Korea’s major OLED engineers. There are about 100 Korean OLED engineers in Chengdu (B7) plant that produces plastic OLED display of BOE. GVO is also known to have recently hired some important OLED engineers with high salaries. CSOT, which has been known to suffer difficulties from the initial research stage, seems to be expediting the construction of mobile OLED production line, employing Korean OLED engineers at major processes from last year. In addition, HKC, which is not a panel maker, is reported to have hired OLED engineers. This is interpreted as a work for investing in the OLED production line of HKC which has only LCD line, and HKC has recently been named as the merger of TIANMA OLED division.
As of 2018, there are no panel makers in China that can produce OLED display panels at the level produced by Korean panel makers. Although the production capacity and sales structure of Chinese panel makers are different from those of Korea, it is difficult to define yields on the same basis. However, the yield of BOE’s Chengdu (B7) plant, known as the mass production line, is still investigated as a single digit. Other panel makers also expect the product quality and yield problems to be difficult to be resolved by the first half of 2019 even if the mass production lines are launched within the year.

In order for the display industry, which contributes significantly to the Korean economy, to maintain its dominant position in the global display industry, it must maintain its competitiveness through various product development, production and sales strategies. Meanwhile, the size of the display industry needs to grow for the growth of the worldwide OLED industry. In order for Chinese panel makers to supply OLED panels with diverse applications, securing the yield might be the key.

LCD Smartphone is 4K era, what about OLED Smartphone?

/in /by

In the past MWC 2017, Sony unveiled the world’s first Smartphone with 4K LCD and it is scheduled to release the Xperia XZ2 Premium with 4K LCD on July 4. Attention is growing whether 4K resolution market is to be launched in earnest in smartphones.

<Xperia XZ2 Premium of Sony, Source: theverge.com>

TV market is already moving beyond the 4K to the 8K. Samsung Electronics and Sharp released new TVs with 8K resolution in the first half and Sony plans to release 8K TVs in the second half. LG Display also exhibited 88inch 8K OLED TV at CES 2018. As such, 8K TV is entering the premium TV market, and smart phones are expected to increase the number of products with 4K resolution in response to the higher resolution of TVs.

In the Smartphone, 4K has been implemented in LCD; however, in the case of OLED, QHD resolution is still dominant for the 4 consecutive years.

<Resolution change of Samsung Galaxy series, Source: UBI Research DB>

This is because there are many restrictions on the fine metal mask (FMM) technology that is being applied to OLED manufacturing. The thickness of FMM applied to the current production is about 20 ~ 30um. For 4K fabrication, the thickness should be as thin as 10um, but it is difficult for existing FMM manufacturing method.

As a result, FMM replacement technologies are being developed for high resolution implementation. Typical technologies under developing, include laser FMM patterning with laser, electroforming manufactured by electroplating method, a fine hybrid mask that is used to form a frame by electroplating on a film and pattern the film with a laser, and a surface source that realizes a high resolution by vertically setting the deposition incident angle.

Deposition technologies for high-resolution manufacturing at various exhibitions and conferences are being introduced. Depending on the availability for securing mass production, it is expected to see not only 4K OLED Smartphone, but also high-resolution AR and VR devices of RGB method.

Vivo released OLED smart phone with more than 90% display area.

/0 Comments/in /by

Vivo, a Chinese Smartphone maker, announced on June 12 that it will launch a new full-screen OLED Smartphone ‘NEX’ as its flagship line.

NEX is the mass production model of ‘APEX’ which Vivo showed in MWC 2018 held in February. By hiding the camera at the top of the Smartphone and embedding fingerprint recognition in the display, Vivo accomplished D.A (display area) up to 91.2%.

The camera is provided in a pop-up form only when the picture is taken with the interfaced application. The speaker is built into the OLED display, and the display carries sound.

<Vivo’s new flagship model ‘NEX’, Source: netmag.pk>

Meanwhile, NEX is to be the first OLED Smartphone with over 90% D.A. Galaxy S8, the first full-screen OLED Smartphone with removing a home button, is 83.6% of D.A. D.A of the Vivo X20 Plus UD, the Smartphone that had the largest D.A to date, is 85.8%. According to GSMARENA, the NEX S, the high-end model of NEX, is equipped with a Snapdragon 845 processor, 8GB RAM, 128/256GB storage and 4000mAh battery in a 6.59 inch FHD OLED. The entry-level model NEX A is applied with Snapdragon 710 Processor, 6GB RAM and 128GB of storage on the same OLED display.

In Premium TV market, OLED portion is growing.

/in /by

Following Bang & Olufsen and SONY, Philips’ OLED TV was launched in Korea on June 11, 2018.

Philips’ OLED TV, applied with LG Display’s OLED panel, is available in two models; 55 – inch and 65 – inch. It features a quad – core CPU, HDR 10, Dolby Vision and DTS surround.

<Philips OLED TV, Source: Philips>

In coming September, Germany’s Loewe plans to launch three (bild5, bild7, bild7 edition) 65-inch OLED TVs using LG Display’s panel, and also Hisense is scheduled to release OLED TV this month.

Especially, when Hisense, which is the leader in the Chinese TV market, releases OLED TVs, it is expected to enhance the awareness about OLED TV in China as well as increase the portion of OLED in the premium TV market.

In April, Kim Sang-don, CFO of LG Display, said in the conference call “The number of existing OLED camps was expanded to 15 from 13, adding two. LG Display will actively respond to increasing market demand by expanding productivity through the reduction of tack time and by converting Chinese fab and, if necessary, domestic LCD fab to OLED fab.”

In the ‘OLED/Display comprehensive seminar’ held by UBI Research, So Hyun-chul, director of Shinhan Financial Investment, said that Sony ranked the first in the premium TV market in 12 years and Sony’s share price rose 445% with its main driving force of OLED TV.

In addition, LG Electronics’ HE division achieved an operating margin of 8.1% last year. In the major set makers, OLED seems to be the Key factor that increases the company’s sales and improves the market share in the premium TV market. As such, OLED portion is anticipated to expand further in the premium TV market.

Meanwhile, UBI Research predicts that OLED TV sales will be increased by about 30% annually and the revenue is projected as about US$ 5.7 billion in 2022 through the ‘2018 OLED Panel Industry Report’, which was published in February.

Market for OLED materials and components is forecast to grow to US$37 billion in 2022.

/in /by

In the 2018 OLED material and component report and Market Track published by UBI Research, the entire market for OLED materials and components market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 29% by 2022, forming a market of US$ 37 billion in 2022.

<Market forecast for OLED materials and components>

The overall OLED material and component market forecasted in this report is calculated based on the panel makers’ available capacity and includes all the materials and components for OLED production.

The total OLED material and component market is counted as US$ 9,794 million in 2017 and is expected to grow by 35% to US$ 13,264 million in 2018.

Major growth drivers are mentioned as capacity expansion of Samsung Display and LG Display inclusive of Gen6 flexible OLED mass production lines of Chinese panel makers.

UBI Research commented “Utilization of Samsung Display in the first quarter of 2018 was poor, but it is turning to normal from the second quarter, and LG Display and Chinese panel makers are also aiming to mass-produce this year. In particular, it will have a major impact on the growth of the materials and components market in 2018 whether Samsung Display’s A4, LG Display’s E5, E6 and BOE’s B7 lines will be in full operation.”

In the 2018 OLED material and component report, the market is forecast for 20 kinds of major materials and components used in OLED for mobile devices and large-area OLED, including substrate glass, carrier glass, PI and organic materials for TFT. In addition, the report covers industry trends and key issues related to the core materials, while Market Track forecasts the expected purchase volume and purchase amount by panel makers.

Xiaomi re-adopts OLED in two years.

/in /by

After two years of the launch of Redmi Pro and Mi Note2 in 2016, Xiaomi adopted OLED again.

On May 31, Xiaomi unveiled its flagship smartphones such as Mi8, Mi8 Explorer Edition, Mi8 SE, and its smart watch Mi band3, to mark the eighth anniversary of its founding.

Xiaomi implemented the full-screen by applying a notch design to the Mi8. The size of the OLED applied to the Mi8 is 6.21 inch and the resolution is 2248×1080 (402ppi). The display area, which represents the percentage of display to smartphone, is 83.8%.

Compared with the iPhoneX, it features the same notch design, OLED application, and vertical dual camera. However, the size of the display is about 0.4 inch bigger, and the display area is about 0.9% wider. Unlike iPhoneX, there is a difference that there is a bezel at the bottom.

<Comparison between iPhoneX and Mi8, source: GSMARENA>

Compared to the Redmi Pro launched in 2016, the display increased by about 21%, DA by about 16%. In comparison with the Mi Note2, the display was widened by about 9% and DA by about 13%.

<Comparison of display size and display area for the smartphones applied with OLED>

The display of the Mi8 Explorer Edition has the same specifications as the Mi8. However, you can see the parts of the smart phone directly by eye because the back side is transparent. Like the VivoX21, fingerprint recognition is possible from the front of the display.

Xiaomi’s Mi8 SE applies with a 5.88-inch OLED with a resolution of 1080×2244 (423ppi), and Mi band3, the successor to Mi band2, has a 0.78-inch OLED.

The Mi8 and Mi8 SE is to be released on June 5 and 8 and will be sold for RMB 2,699 (about Korean Won 450,000) and RMB 1,799 yuan (about Korean Won 300,000 won) respectively. The release date of Mi8 explorer is not yet fixed and its supply price is expected to be RMB 3,699 (about Korean Won 620,000).

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

/in /by

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)

Sony, announced the commercialization of 0.5-inch micro OLED with UXGA resolution

/in /by

Sony announced the upcoming release of the ‘ECX339A’, a 0.5-inch OLED micro-display with UXGA resolution. According to Sony, it has achieved the world’s smallest pixel pitch of 6.3 μm, enabling a resolution 1.6 times higher than its predecessor, “ECX337A “(0.5-inch QVGA (1280 × 960)).

<Sony’s 0.5 inch micro OLED ‘ECX339A’, Source: sony.co.jp>

By employing newly-designed peripheral circuits that operate on half the voltage of previous model, it supports a high frame rate of up to 240 fps, with dual line progressive driving technique and low power operation.

<Comparison of OLED resolution between new product(left) and previous product(right), Source: sony.co.jp>

According to Sony, the high resolution of the existing micro display had problems such as deterioration in picture quality and deterioration in viewing angle due to pixel pitch reduction; however, they have been improved by Sony’s transistor layout, process optimization, and compensation circuit. In addition, the color filter is deposited directly on the silicon substrate, reducing its distance from the light emitting layer, and the filter’s color array has been modified to secure the viewing angle properties while achieving high resolution.

<Structure and viewing angle image, new product (left) and previous product (right), Source: sony.co.jp>

The mass production schedule for the ECX339A is November 2018, and the sample price is set at JPY 50,000 (Tax not included). Sony expects this product to be applied to high-end cameras and head-mounted displays for virtual reality, which require the highest picture quality.

<ECX339A, key specifications, Source: sony.co.jp>

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

/in /by

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.

TCL announced “Establishing large-area OLED panel production plant”, is solution processed RGB OLED mass production accelerated?

/in /by

China TCL will invest RMB 42.8 billion (US$ 6.71 billion) in Shenzhen to establish a factory for large-area OLED panel production. According to South China Morning Post, TCL recently announced that it will produce 90,000 units on the basis of 70-inch panel in the new production line of Gen 11 (3370 mm x 2940 mm) with the goal of mass production in March 2021 in the data submitted to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The main products are to be known as 65-inch and 75-inch OLED panels, and 65-inch, 70-inch and 75-inch display panels with 8K resolution.

TCL will form a partnership with the China Development Fund for the necessary financing and will set up a new production line at TCL’s semiconductor subsidiary with RMB 20.3 billion.

Large-area OLED to be produced by TCL is expected to adopt solution process RGB. At the ‘4th OLED Korea conference’ hosted by UBI Research in March, James Lee, deputy chief engineer of TCL mentioned about the development of next-generation premium TV with the screen size of 70-inch or more and 8K resolution, based on the solution process.

Lee said, “The price difference between OLED TV and premium LCD TV is estimated to be reduced to 1.4 times when the price of large-area OLED panel is lowered by the operation of LG Display’s Gen 10.5 plant in 2020. We are developing solution process technology for large area OLED and it will be applicable to Gen11 factory. ”

Gen 11 production line is capable of producing six sheets of 75-inch OLED panels, being able to achieve a yield three times higher than Gen 8.5 production line and a cutting efficiency of over 95%. In addition, it is possible to produce large-area OLED panels with a real RGB structure instead of the WRGB structure when solution process is applied. Based on this, TCL emphasized that the construction of the Gen 11 solution process OLED mass production line is essential. Meanwhile, TCL has jointly established JUHUA Printing Display Technology with Tianma, a Chinese company, in 2016 through CSOT, which is a subsidiary of TCL, and is continuously developing the inkjet printing process by a Gen 4.5 R&D pilot plant.

 

Foldable OLED device is nearing commercialization. What are the technical challenges to be solved?

/in /by

Attentions are growing for the foldable smartphone since it can provide a wider screen and higher resolution than the display of conventional smartphones, while maintaining the portability of the smartphone. The foldable smartphone is a smartphone when folded, and it becomes a tablet PC when it is unfolded. Following Samsung Electronics, Huawei is also aiming to launch a smartphone with a foldable display this year.

Yi Choong-Hoon, president of UBI Research, said, “Ideal foldable displays require such kind of reliability that there is no problem even with more than 300,000 times folding at the bending radius of 1R or less. For this, some changes or innovations are needed in the material and structure of the display.

In the ‘2018 OLED Component & Material Report’ published by UBI Research on May 21, 2018, the key issues and development trends for foldable OLED display with a bending radius of 1R are described together with the classified contents of structural change to secure reliability at thickness reduction and alternative material development.

<Change in OLED panel thickness accoding to bending radius, 2018 OLED component & material report, UBI Research>

In addition, the report covers the application status, development trends, and market forecast of key components and materials for rigid OLED and flexible OLED for mobile device, and large-area OLED for TV. Thus, it is helpful for the related part and material companies to develop their future directions, establish business strategies, and analyze technology and market trends.

Samsung Electronics, is increasing full screen rigid OLED adoption

/in /by

Samsung Electronics is expected to launch next-generation smartphones with full-screen rigid OLEDs, next to the popular Galaxy A8 (2018) series. Accordingly, attention is focused whether the sluggish rigid OLED market will revive.

In early May, Samsung Electronics unveiled ‘Galaxy A6 (2018)’ and ‘Galaxy A6 + (2018)’ with full screen rigid OLED, eliminating the home button. The Galaxy A6 (2018) adopts rigid OLED with HD + (1480 x 720) resolution at 5.6 inch, and the Galaxy A6 + (2018) is applied with rigid OLED with FHD + (2220 x 1080) resolution at 6.0 inch.

<Samsung Galaxy A6(2018), Source: GSM-specs.com>

On the other hand, the official rendering image of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy J6 (2018), another entry-level smartphone, was leaked through WinFuture, the German media on May 16.

<Samsung Galaxy J6(2018), Source: WinFuture>

The Galaxy J6 (2018) is expected to have 5.6-inch rigid OLED with FHD + (2220 x 1080) resolution. Both the Galaxy A6 series and the Galaxy J6 are expected to be launched around the end of May.

Recently, the demand for rigid OLED for smartphone market has decreased due to the introduction of full screen LCD as well as LCD adoption in low-priced smartphones. Consequently, the utilization rate of rigid OLED mass production line has also decreased. According to UBI Research, rigid OLED shipments rose steadily from 2014 to 2016, but 290 million units were shipped in 2017, 8% down from the previous year.

However, the full screen rigid OLED, which was launched in the second half of 2017, started to be adopted in the VIVO X20 and Galaxy A8, and has been expanded to be applied to a number of smartphones such as the Galaxy A6 series and Galaxy J6. As the utilization rate of rigid OLED mass production lines is expected to normalize from the second half of this year, attention is growing whether rigid OLED market will be rebounded again.

LG OLED TV was selected as the best TV for 3 consecutive years

/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by

At the best 2018 TV released recently by Consumer Reports, US consumer magazine, LG Electronics’ 65-inch OLED TV ‘OLED65C8PUA’ was selected as the best product among all the products.

<LG Electronics’ OLED65C8PUA, Source: lg.com>

Consumer Reports notes that the OLED65C8 has a good balance of price and performance. With the excellent quality of images including excellent high definition, UHD performance, and infinite viewing angles, it mentions that ThinQ AI platform, an artificial intelligence platform, is also excellent.

LG Electronics’ OLED TV series has remained in the first place for three consecutive years since being selected as the best product in 2016. In particular, the OLED TV released this year was upgraded to higher quality by installing ‘Alpha 9′, a proprietary image quality chip developed by LG Electronics, to reduce noise to half compared with previous models, and to achieve accurate colors with more sophisticated color coordinates.

On the other hand, LG Electronics’ OLED TV continues to secure its position in the premium TV market. LG Electronics announced at the conference call held on April, 26th that the sales revenue and operating profit of its HE (Home Entertainment) business division were recorded KRW 4.12 trillion and KRW W577.3 billion, respectively in the first quarter of 2018. In particular, OLED TVs and UHD TVs led the growth. The operating margin reached 14.0%.

According to LG Electronics, it will continue to operate TV business with profitability. The proportion of OLED TV sales is expected to grow from 10 percent last year to mid 10% ~20% of the total TV sales this year.

OLEDWorks announces ‘OLEDSurface Light Module’ which integrates OLED light and driver

/in /by

OLEDWorks, specialized in OLED lighting, recently announced the launch of ‘OLEDSurface Light Module’, which integrates OLED lighting, driver and frame.

The OLEDSurface, 8.1m in thickness and 90grams, has a color temperature of 3000K or 4000K and brightness of up to 300 lm. It can be easily mounted to any flat surface such as walls or ceilings, and does not require an additional heat dissipation system. The module also includes a low voltage constant current driver and a 0-10V dimming-compatible driver.

“The beauty of the OLEDSurface Light Module allows designers of all skill levels to effortlessly install elegant light tiles for the pure, direct view light experience that is uniquely OLED. In addition, developers will realize cost savings for low voltage wiring, optional elimination of junction boxes, and no need for a plenum that hides bulky heat sinks and drivers.” explained Giana Phelan, OLEDWorks’ director of business development.

Applied with Brite OLED lighting panel, the OLEDSurface runs from any low voltage power source (28-48VDC) with typical power consumption of 5.4W.

Brite OLED lighting panel is one of OLEDWorks’ flagship products and the new Brite 3 series was unveiled at Light + Building 2018. The Brite3 products consist of square, rectangular and round type of rigid OLED lighting and bendOLED type of flexible OLED lighting. Rigid OLED lighting panel has a lifetime of 100,000 hours and efficiency of 80 lm/w and bendable OLED lighting panel provides an efficacy of up to 63lm/W with a lifetime of up to 50,000 hours.

<Brite 3 series OLED lighting panel introduced at Light+Building 2018>

BLUE OLED, is rapidly emerging as a competitor of WRGB OLED

/in /by

In the premium TV market, the share of OLED TVs is steadily increasing, and the price gap with LCD is gradually decreasing. As a result, LCD TV (QD-LCD TV) companies using quantum dot technology are sluggish in the premium TV market.

OLED TV uses white OLED and OLED panel with color filter (hereafter referred to as WRGB OLED), which is mass-produced only by LG Display.

Samsung Display is known to actively develop blue OLED + QDCF (blue OLED), which is one of the technologies to compete with WRGB OLED in the premium TV market.

UBI Research predicted that Samsung Display would implement blue OLED + QDCF with top emission method and it would be more advantageous to implement 8K and BT 2020 than WRGB in its ‘2018 OLED Material Industry Report’ published on April 18.

<Expected stack structure for Blue OLED, 2stack (left), 3stack (right), 2018 AMOLED emitting materials Report, UBI Research>

8K and BT2020 are to be adopted for the premium TVs. Also, the development of blue materials is expected to be aggressively progressed according to Samsung Display’s development of blue OLED. The blue material currently used in OLED is a fluorescent material that is insufficient in the efficiency and lifetime than phosphorescent material used in red and green. Blue phosphorescent materials have been developed continuously but they have not been applied to mass production due to the scarcity of materials and technical barriers. Therefore, blue fluorescent materials are stacked two or more times to improve efficiency and lifetime for large area OLED, and blue OLED is expected to use more than 2 stack structure.

 

With this trend, the market for blue emitting materials is expected to continue to grow. In 2017, blue materials (host and dopant) formed market of US$ 70 million.  According to the 2018 AMOLED emitting material market track published by UBI Research, blue material is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 32% by 2022 and reach US $ 272 million sales.

<Blue material (host and dopant) market forecast, 2018 AMOLED emitting materials Market track>

Foldable smart phone, can it absorb tablet PC market?

/in /by

“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.

In order to accelerate the mass production of solution processed OLED?

/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by

At the latest OLED technology trends seminar organized by UBI Research in Seoul COEX on April 26th, professor Seo presented about the status of solution processed OLED for large-area TV production.

Professor Seo emphasized that there are four technical challenges to advance the mass production of solution processed OLED.

The first challenge is the development of materials that can form stable and flat thin films. When the emitting material for solution process is applied, the solvent causes a convection phenomenon due to solubility and boiling point. Therefore, it is difficult to make a flat film because the speed at which the solvent flows is different for each region.

The second is the development of cross linked HTL materials. Emitting material companies are mixing cross-linking agents into HTL materials for solution process to solve intermixing problems between layers. However, a pinhole is formed due to a cross linking reaction with the surrounding small molecular materials when crosslinked materials in small molecule type are used. This kind of pinhole lowers the uniformity of the thin film, and therefore it is necessary to develop crosslinked HTL materials that can improve the reproducibility and lifetime of OLED in solution process.

The third is the jetting condition. He proposed a jetting condition that can minimize the volume deviation of the emitting material for solution process every head since it is necessary to drop the emitting material for solution process of less than 4 pl to the desired position in the size of 20-50 um to realize 8K. Lastly, he commented that it is required to optimize the drying process of solvent. UBI Research described that the solution OLED process has a simple (5 layer) structure and high material utilization efficiency compared to the conventional deposition process. In addition, it is possible to manufacture large-area OLED with RGB structure without the division of mother glass at Gen8 or higher. When major panel makers adopt solution process, it is available to reduce the manufacturing cost of OLED due to the decrease of equipment and equipment scale as well as material cost and labor cost reduction. According to the 2018 Annual OLED Display Industry Report and 2018 Emitting material Industry Report published by UBI research, solution processed OLED is to be mass produced from 2019 in earnest, and the shipment is expected to be 0.2 million units in 2019 and 9.2 million units in 2022. Accordingly, the emitting material market for solution process is estimated to grow to US$ 110 million in 2022 from US$ 9 million in 2019.

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

/in /by

“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.”

Samsung Electronics’ Display Business Operating Profit in 1Q 2018 slowed down to KRW 410 billion

/in /by

Samsung Electronics reported sales of KRW 60.56 trillion and operating profit of KRW 15.64 trillion in the first quarter of 2018 at the conference held on April 26. Its display division generated sales of KRW7.54 trillion with the operating profit of KRW410 billion. Display sales QoQ and YoY are -32.6% and 3.4%, respectively, and operating profit QoQ and YoY are -70.9% and -68.5%, respectively. OLED sales accounted for 70% of its total display sales. According to Samsung Electronics, the profitability of OLED segment in the first quarter of 2018 declined due to a decrease in demand from major customers and intensified competition with LTPS LCD for rigid OLED. In spite of the downturn in sales due to seasonal weakness and the decline in panel prices, LCD division achieved similar profitability as the previous quarter, thanks to the increased sales portion of high value-added products such as large-size and UHD and continuous cost reductions.

 

OLED demand is expected to continue to decline in the second quarter of 2018, and Samsung Electronics plans to expand its customer base while striving to secure competitiveness through cost reduction and production efficiency improvement. Although LCD segment is also expected to continue to show oversupply in 2Q 2018 due to the launch of new LCD lines, Samsung Electronics plans to secure profitability through timely development of high value-added and differentiated products, and cost reduction activities. Samsung Electronics said the demand of OLED panels for mobile devices is anticipated to gradually recover in the second half of 2018, while flexible products are expected to be the main focus of premium products. Also it emphasized that Samsung will expand its market share by expanding customer base through new technologies and new products, and strengthening cost competitiveness, together with technology differentiation with LCD and enhancement of new applications capacity. For the LCD segment, uncertainties are to be increased as Chinese panel makers continue to expand production volumes with the fierce competitions competition among companies. Samsung mentioned that it will continue to focus on differentiating with the large and high-end premium products and strengthening strategic partnerships with major customers to secure profitability.  In the first quarter of 2018, Samsung Electronics sold 86 million mobile phones and 5 million tablets. The sales for mobile phone sales in Q2 2018 are expected to decline compared to the previous quarter, and tablet sales are expected to maintain the level of the previous quarter.

Total investment of Samsung Electronics in the first quarter of 2018 was 8.6 trillion won, of which 0.8 trillion won was invested in the display. Although the investment plan for this year has not been finalized yet, it is expected to decline from 2017 due to the rapid expansion of flexible OLED production, new technology development, and facility investment to prepare for market growth last year. Choi Kwon-Young, Vice President of Samsung Display said, “Currently, the mass production of A4 line is ready for operation in accordance with the agreed schedule with the customer. And A3 line is trying to minimize the drop in operation rate.” He continued “We are under development by focusing on Quantum dot and 8K technologies to meet customer needs for big screen TV market. Also we are interested in various next-generation display technologies including micro LED.”

Samsung Electronics has continued research and development for the commercialization of foldable phone, and now it is working with various companies to improve the product’s completeness.” Samsung said. Further, it added “We are focusing on improving the completeness of the product so that it can give real value to the consumers rather than simply launching it for the first time in the world. If the parts performance and durability for the implementation of the foldable phone are more stabilized, and various use cases are found with the emergence of new form factor, we will disclose separately the timing of its commercialization.”

Can BLUE OLED be used for OLED TV?

/in /by

Samsung Display selected blue OLED + QDCF (blue OLED) as next generation display technology following LCD TV, and started the necessary development.

Blue OLED is a technology, in which blue light emitted from blue OLED passes through a quantum dot color filter to represent red and green colors (b). The WRGB OLED used in OLED TV is a method in which white light passes through a color filter and implements RGB colors (a).

The ‘2018 OLED Materials Industry Report’ published by UBI Research on April 18 describes whether blue OLED, which Samsung Display has started to develop, can become TV OLED panels. The expected development direction and performance (efficiency and lifetime) of blue OLED + QDCF are analyzed. In particular, current status and development trends (fluorescence, phosphorescence, TADF) of blue emitting material, which is the core material of blue OLED, are covered.

Since blue OLED of Samsung Display is top emission type, the aperture ratio is increased by about 70% compared to the bottom emission, which emits light in the TFT direction, so that 8K resolution and high brightness are realized better than the conventional WRGB OLED. In addition, it is expected to reach BT. 2020, the UHD color standard, which was established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2012, using QD material with high color reproduction rate as color filter.

In the future premium TV market, 8K and BT. 2020 are necessary conditions for display. WRGB OLED is also being actively developed to implement 8K and BT2020. Attention is focused on the impact of the development of blue OLED in the premium TV market led by WRGB OLED.

In addition, the report analyzes the market status and development trends of the related companies, including overall technology development directions and key issues for new materials such as soluble OLED materials and near IR materials.

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

/in /by

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

/in /by

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.

OLED smartphones of the notch design type, will become trends in 2018?

/in /by

Since Apple first unveiled its OLED smartphone in the notch design type on iPhone X, lots of smartphone makers are to release OLED smartphones in succession. Attention is focused whether notch-type OLED smartphones will be become trends in the smartphone market in 2018.

Apple, which introduced notch-type OLED smartphones for the first time, is expected to launch notch-type smartphones for all three iPhone models in 2018. According to Mac Rumors, Apple will release an iPhone X successor with 5.8-inch OLED, a 6.5-inch OLED iPhone X Plus (tentative name) and a 6.1-inch LCD iPhone 9 (tentative name) in the second half of 2018.

<iPhone series expected to be released in 2018, Source: appleinsider.com>

In addition, there have been announcements for OLED smartphones of the notch design type such as Oppo R15, Vivo X21 and Huawei P20 Pro. Recently, it has been reported that the notch-type OLED are to be applied to Xiaomi Mi 7 and LG G7.

Huawei unveiled the flagship smartphone Huawei P20 and Huawei P20 Pro through a public event on March 27 in Paris, France. Both models also have a notch at the top of the displays, with a 5.8- inch LCD on the P20 and a 6.1-inch OLED on the P20 Pro, and support AOD (always on display) feature. Huawei also gives you the option to hide the notch. In the display settings for the devices, you can opt to flank the notch with black, so it practically disappears.

<Huawei P20 Pro, Source: bgr.com>

On the other hand, the Xiaomi Mi 7 is expected to adopt a notch design type OLED. According to China Focus, the evidence for a display notch was found since XDA developers noticed the notch related phrase in the Xiaomi operating system ‘MIJU 9’ setting wording while analyzing the leaked firmware file. The Xiaomi Mi 7 is said to support the AOD function along with the notch-type OLED.

The LG G7 is also expected to adopt a notch. Only, it’s incorporating a software trick to make the notch optional. According to the rendering image of xda-developers and the concept rendering video of Science and Knowledge, YouTube channel, LG G7 features a 6-inch OLED with a 19-to-9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1440 x 3120. The LG G7 launch date will be towards the end of April or beginning of May according to the latest release date rumors.

<Rendering image of LG G7, Source: xda-developers.com>

The notch design is a type of full screen display that is applied to maximize the screen size on a limited smartphone size. Attention is focused whether OLED smartphones of the notch design type are expected to become a new trend in the smartphone market in 2018.

Changes in OLED panel market for smartphones

/in /by

According to the ‘2018 1Q AMOLED Display Market Track’ published by UBI Research, OLED panel shipments for smartphones are projected to grow at an annual average growth rate of 15.8%, from 450 million units in 2018 to 850 million units by 2022. This is a 9.6% decline from the CAGR 25.4% expected in the fourth quarter of 2017.

<Shipment forecast of OLED panel for smartphones >

The reason shipment forecast of OLED panels for smartphones is declined compared with 4Q,2017 is because smartphone trends have been reflected recently. The smartphone market is sluggish due to the prolonged replacement period of smartphones and the lack of new technology. In addition, the average size of smartphones has enlarged faster than expected, and the size of smartphones is expected to increase gradually with the anticipation for the launch of foldable OLEDs, leading to a slowdown in the shipment growth.

For flexible OLED, ASPs have risen due to the lack of supply, caused by mainly dependent on Samsung Display, and Chinese set makers are burdened by its high prices. As low-priced full-screen LCDs are emerging, it is forecasted that demand for rigid OLEDs will decline since Chinese set makers are adopting more LCDs than OLEDs in rigid smartphones.

Panel makers in Korea and China have aggressively invested in the Gen6 OLED line in 2016 and 2017. Starting this year, however, they are reviewing the investment and operation time frame of mass production lines, with looking into the smartphone demand. As OLED panels for smartphones account for more than 90% of the total OLED panel market, it is an important factor for the investment flow of panel makers.

Meanwhile, ‘2018 1Q AMOLED Display Market Track’ is based on the market performance data and projected system that UBI Research has accumulated over 15 years. It consists of 8 (eight) modules in total: Panel cost analysis, Market forecast, Supply and demand analysis, Market performance (sales), Competitiveness analysis of panel makers, ASP, Supply chain analysis and investment & Mass production line status.

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

/in /by

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.

QD-OLED TV, is it to be the next generation premium TV?

/in /by

Samsung Electronics is currently occupying the premium TV market with QD-LCD TVs, which use ‘PL-QD (photoluminescence quantum dot) technology’. This technology has a mechanism in which the material stimulated by external light re-emits light.

The operating profit of the consumer electronics division (CE), which controls QD-LCD TVs, fell more than Korean won 1 trillion in last year and the operating profit ratio was only 3.6%.

On the other hand, LG Electronics’ HE business division achieved a record operating profit of Korean won 1,566.7 billion and an operating margin of 8.1% through OLED TV. Sony also turned its operating profit into a surplus by quickly taking over the premium TV market with OLED TV.

OLED TV has had a positive effect in driving corporate sales growth.

Samsung Electronics has been developing EL-QLED, with EL-QD (electroluminescence quantum dot) technology, to increase its market share in the premium TV market. However, efficacy, lifetime and mass production technology of quantum dot, which is the material of QLED, is not yet secured.

Recently, QD-OLED TV technology, which uses blue OLED as a light source and that implements red and green colors through a quantum dot color filter (QDCF), is attracting attention.

<Expected structure for QD-OLED, Source: Samsung Display Blog>

By using QDCF, it is possible to easily make desired colors by adjusting the size of the QD material and improve the color reproduction rate. This is because the color gamut is enlarged to BT2020, so it is close to natural color and it is possible to deliver vivid picture quality more clearly. In addition, QD-OLED TV has a top emission structure, which makes it easy to secure the aperture ratio, thereby improving resolution and screen uniformity.

However, in QD-OLED TV, there are various problems to be solved such as lifetime and efficiency of blue OLED, and technology of ink-jet printing process. Given that the industry is still in the early stages of reviewing the business possibility, QD-OLED TVs are expected to go into mass production after 2020.

Attention is focused on the QD-OLED TV’s entry into the premium TV market and its impact.

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

/in /by

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?

/in /by

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

/in /by

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

/in /by

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

/in /by

“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

/in /by

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!

/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by

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

/in /by

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.