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

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

OLED, OS, Si structure/SEL

OLED, OS, Si structure/SEL

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

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

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

5,291ppi Micro OLED display specification/ SEL

5,291ppi Micro OLED display specification/ SEL

Can VR replace TVs and Monitors?

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VR devices have been on the rise since 2016 and were expected to be an important factor in IT business, but have not yet made a big impact. At CES 2016, Intel exhibited applications that enable creative activities such as education and art. In 2017, Samsung presented games and movies that can be felt with the body in 4D form at the IFA VR experiment zone.

VR features excellent immersion and presence. A 1-inch display can look like a 60-inch display. The display that provides information uses micro-display, but LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) has a slow response speed, poor color, and low contrast ratio. So the trend is changing to OLEDoS (OLED on silicon). Sony is making its own micro OLED and Panasonic is working with US Kopin to make VR.
Recently, VR devices are preparing to replace monitors. If it is made in high resolution, about 10 screens can be displayed on each VR monitor screen. In the future, the monitor market will change to the VR market. VR can emerge as the best dark horse in the IT market. VR may possibly also replace TVs. A head speaker with a much better three-dimensional effect is essential. There may also be changes in the movie theaters as a VR device might provide a 60-inch screen and provide a high sense of immersion into the film for movie-goers.
Micro OLED composition consists of TFT designed on a silicon wafer and OLED is formed on it. LGD’s WOLED method is used for OLED. The RGB method requires a fine metal mask, but the AP system is preparing a mask capable of 2000ppi or more using a laser. Because WOLED uses a color filter, there is a loss of about 10%. RGB may be more advantageous in terms of luminance, but for commercialization, WOLED resolution can be much higher. Since it has been developed for a long time, WOLED is expected to be applied. Applications include military, medical, industrial, viewfinder, smart glasses, and the like.

Recently, Apple requested LG Display and Samsung Display to prepare Micro OLED. LG Display placed an order for the Sunic System evaporator in June and is moving quickly.
Samsung Electronics also has a request for VR. In 2025, it can be seen that LG Display and Samsung Display can produce many types of Micro OLED. We expect to see Apple’s VR devices around 2024.

Related Report : 2022 Micro-display REPORT

2020 OLED annual performance analysis

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Total shipments of AMOLED in 2020 were aggregated to 575.78 million units. This is an increase of 20.41 million units compared to the 557.46 million units shipped in 2019.

The first OLED application products released in 2020 are for automobiles and for notebooks. Analysis by application product shows that the market has increased for foldable OLED, TV WRGB OLED, and watch OLED, and the decline is for smartphone and tablet PC.

Sales in 2020 were $32.68 billion, an increase of $2.3 billion from $32.45 billion in 2019. The insignificant increase in sales compared to the increase in shipments in 2020 is due to the decline in OLED unit prices for smartphones. This is because the OLED unit prices of iPhone and Galaxy S20, which are supporting the OLED market for smartphones, have decreased compared to 2019, and OLED shipments by Chinese panel makers have led to a decrease in OLED unit prices of Samsung Display.

In terms of sales by company, Samsung Display was found to be $22.3 billion, a decrease of $4.2 billion from $26.5 billion in 2019. Samsung Display’s smartphone OLED shipments amounted to 390 million units, a decrease of 40 million units compared to 430 million units in 2019, and sales decreased due to a drop in selling prices. As a result, Samsung Display’s market share in 2020 dropped sharply to 68.2%.

On the other hand, LG Display’s OLED sales reached $68.7 billion, and its market share surged to 21%. LG Display’s sales increase is due to increased shipments of POLEDs for iPhone and OLED panels for TVs.

BOE’s 2020 sales were $1.86 billion, up $7.5 billion compared to 2019. The market share was 5.7%, ranking third.

Korea’s market share in 2019 was 89.3%, falling below 90% for the first time.

Kopin’s 2.6K x 2.6K OLED display incorporated in Panasonic’s new VR glasses

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January 19, 2021 – Kopin Corporation announced its Lightning® 2.6K x 2.6K (2560 x 2560 resolution) OLED display on chip (DoCTM) are incorporated in Panasonic’s VR Glasses introduced at the CES 2021 this week.

<Panasonic’s new VR glasses, Source: Panasonic>

The Panasonic VR Glasses are the world’s first high-dynamic-range (HDR) capable, ultra-high-definition VR eyeglasses and offer stunning lifelike images. It comes in a very small form-factor thanks to the 1.3” displays and the slim Pancake® optics. The small, lightweight form factor makes the glasses comfortable to wear for extended periods of time, unlike today’s bulky VR headsets.

The 2.6K x 2.6K OLED DoC is made with Kopin’s patented ColorMaxTM technology for high color fidelity (> 100% sRGB) and a duo-stack OLED structure for high brightness (> 1000 nits). The 10-bit color control, together with the high color fidelity, high brightness and high contrast ratio (> 10,000: 1), enables the much-desired studio-quality, HDR capable VR experience.

“We have worked very closely with Panasonic and Lakeside Optoelectronic Technology on the display and with 3M on the Pancake optics for the Panasonic VR glasses,” said Dr. John C.C. Fan, President and CEO of Kopin.

Wu Di, President of Lakeside Optoelectronic Technology, said, “In the development of 2.6K x 2.6K OLED displays on silicon with Kopin, we optimized the OLED deposition processes, tuned our production line, and delivered the industry-leading products.”

Investment of 43.75 billion yuan, investment of new Micro OLED factory in China

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According to China’s Fujian Daily, a large-scale investment agreement has been recently signed in Quanzhou, China. According to the contents of the agreement, the contents of various agreements including the Micro OLED project, high-purity electronic materials, lithium hexafluorophosphate project, China Datang 5G Southeast Industrial Base project, and integrated circuit start-up investment fund business are included. It consists of high-tech IT industries such as manufacturing, digital economy, and financial services.

It is known that Quanzhou City’s Micro OLED project is planned to divide the total of 4.33 billion yuan into two stages. The first phase of the project is to invest 667 million yuan and build one micro OLED module test production line on a 5000 square meter site. The monthly production capacity is 1 million units (basic size 8 inches), and the production of 100,000 modules is completed on an annual basis. It is estimated that the annual output of the resulting production will reach 350 million yuan. The second phase, which is in progress, is 3.7 billion yuan. One Micro OLED plant is built and the monthly production capacity is 15,000 sheets (12 inches of substrate size), and one Micro OLED plant will be produced to produce 20 million consumer electronics modules.

According to the breaking news reported earlier, the Micro OLED project was also announced at the concentrating cloud contract of Qianzhou City’s major project in 2020, held by the City Hall of Quanzhou on March 19th. At the time, the event was conducted in the form of’meeting site + online linkage of investment destinations’. Vice Minister Wang Yafu of County, Quanzhou City, signed the Huidong Industrial Park Micro OLED business, investing a total of 4.35 billion won with Chairman Wu Wen Tian of 福建恒煦实业有限公司 on behalf of the current government.

Source: Fujian Daily June 5

PMOLED and Micro OLED Stand Out In the Wearable Device Market

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

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

<ColorLink Japan’s Micro OLED VR and AR>

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

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

<Pioneer’s PMOLED Panel and AR>

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

<RiTdisplay’s PMOLED Panels & Applications>

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