Planar Aims for Transparent OLED Product Mass Production in Feb 2016

On November 30 (local time), a US based display production company Planar held an online presentation titled ‘Planar Look Thru OLED Transparent Display Webinar’, discussing transparent display traits and disclosing specifications for products which are estimated to be mass produced from February 2016.

 

Transparent display is defined as a display with see-through screen showing objects behind the display as well as the display contents. Recently, it is receiving much attention as a technology with high potential for diverse applications expanding existing display industry.

 

Planar explained that unlike the existing display, transparent display pixels are separated into transparent and emitting areas with RGB subpixels located in the emitting area. Planar clarified that what is black on general display becomes see-through and white becomes opaque.

 

Transparent display’s performance is decided by several factors such as transmittance, brightness, and color gamut. Regarding this, Planar revealed that the transmittance of transparent display is not fixed but can be affected by ambient light; brighter the surrounding environment, higher the transmittance. Additionally, viewers have tendency to perceive the display with higher color gamut as brighter than the actual brightness, and transparent display’s color gamut is therefore an important factor.

 

In early 2015, Planar revealed a 55inch transparent OLED display prototype. At present, Planar is receiving pre-order and aiming for mass production in February 2016. The company also reported basic specifications for the panel: 45% of transmittance, 100% color gamut, and Full HD (1,920×1,080) of resolution. The product also has 5 input sources: 4 HDMI terminals, and 1 display port.

 

During the webinar, Planar explained that 32 touch points using IR (infra-red) touch system installation is an option. Although this is less accurate than touch system using touch film, Planar explained that this was an unavoidable choice in order to increase the transmittance. They also added that they are continuing research for new touch system application.

 

The 55inch panel price starts from under USD 15,000 and Planar is currently receiving pre-order. Although there are many factors that affect transparent OLED’s lifetime, it was measured to be 20,000 hours at LT50. Answering the question on whether it is affected by UV light, Planar explained that it can be UV sensitive and the product was designed to be an indoor installation.

 

It is estimated that the transparent OLED panel used in the Planar’s product released is produced by Samsung Display as it has the same 45% transmittance, 1920×1080 resolution, and 400nit brightness.

 

Planar’s Transparent OLED Display to be Mass Produced  Source: Planar

Planar’s Transparent OLED Display to be Mass Produced Source: Planar

Professor Jang-Ung Park of UNIST Discusses Transparent Electrode’s Present and Future

During the International Advanced Materials & Application Technology Expo (November 25-27), Professor Jang-Ung Park of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) gave an in-depth lecture on transparent electrode’s new technology and research results under the presentation title of ‘Technology Trend and Development Direction of High Performance Transparent & Stretchable Electrodes Using Graphene and Ag Nanowire Complex’.

 

Transparent electrode is an electronic component with usually ≥80% transparency, and sheet tension of ≤500Ω/ㅁ of conductivity. This technology is widely used in electronics including LCD front electrode and OLED electrode in display, touchscreen, solar cell, and optoelectronic device.

 

Park explained that the main market for transparent electrode is display and touchscreen, and announced that the transparent electrode market is to grow into US$4,800 million in 2020 from 2015’s US$ 3,400 million.

 

The electrode materials that is mainly being used at present is ITO (indium tin oxide) film produced through evaporation or sputtering. ITO’s merits include good conductivity from the low sheet tension and suitable for mass production. However, China is the main producer of the rare main material, indium, and has a drawback of high processing temperature. As such, research for indium replacement is continuing.

 

Graphene, CNT (carbon nano tube), Ag nanowire, and metal mesh are some of the materials that are in the spotlight as ITO replacement. However, Park emphasized that transparent electrodes that are being developed at present have difficulty in surpassing ITO in terms of electronical and optical properties. Instead, he explained that as the display shape changes, the replacement material can be used for displays where ITO cannot be applied.

 

At present, ITO is being used as the main electrode material for flat display. However, its weakness against mechanical stress and limitation in flexibility led to some views that flexible display application will be difficult. Regarding this Park explained that thickness of substrate is more important than ITO’s traits for display’s curvature radius and therefore if substrate becomes thinner, ITO can be applied even to foldable display as well as flexible. He added that although folding the display is acceptable, stretchable display is impossible as the properties are destroyed when pulled.

 

Park emphasized that in order for the wearable display market, including the smartwatch market, to grow, the comfort of the user is important. He reported as a human body does not conform to a specific curvature radius, to improve the user comfort, stretchable panel that can bend in diverse directions is a necessity. For this to be possible, transparent electrode that can replace ITO is required.

 

For example, watch shaped application can be replaced with stretchable display up to the strap part that wraps around the wrist. Glasses shaped application can have stretchable display for curved areas such as lenses. Also, within textiles industry, research into smart textiles through electronic circuit application is continuing.

 

As the transparent electrode that can replace ITO, Park suggested graphene and Ag nanowire complex. Ag nanowire reduces high sheet tension of graphene, and graphene prevents Ag nanowire’s oxidization, complementing each other. Park revealed that ≥90% transmittance and ≤30Ω/ㅁ was achieved through research. He emphasized as stretchability increased to 100%, it is suitable for stretchable display.

 

According to Park, transparent electrode can be applied to transparent stretchable sensor and transparent TFT as well as display. With confirmation of continued research regarding this issue, Park concluded his presentation.

The Opening of OLED TV Market, Starts Now

On November 25, LG Electronics and LG Display announced that they are planning to reveal OLED sculptures in various shapes such as tunnel, waves, cylinder, and others using 250 units of 55inch OLED panels at N Seoul Tower in South Korea. The sculptures will screen diverse contents with artistic merit and provide extraordinary spectacle while advertising OLED’s astonishing picture quality.

 

This N Seoul Tower OLED sculpture installation is the second OLED signage that LG Electronics revealed to the public; on November 19, LG Electronics installed ‘OLED Moment’, a supersize OLED signage, in 2 locations in Incheon International Airport and held a completion ceremony.

 

LG Electronics is aiming to lead the OLED TV market through 2 track strategy of OLED TV price reduction and OLED promotion. At the Q2 performance announcement, they revealed their plan for aggressive marketing through OLED promotion. The successive OLED sculpture installation can be seen as a part of LG Electronics’ OLED promotion strategy.

 

This strategy is analyzed to be fairly effective. On November 3, LG electronics revealed that the October sales figure was 4,500 units which is more than twice the amount sold in the beginning of the year. At the same time, OLED TV is continually falling down. 55inch UHD OLED TV, which was priced around US$ 3,000 on amazon.com in September, fell to the current around US$ 2,000.

 

Japan’s Panasonic revealed their plan to actively sell UHD OLED TV from 2016. China’s companies including Skyworth, Changhong, Hisense, and Konka are intending to present or release OLED TV.

 

With LG’s aggressive OLED TV marketing and the increase of OLED TV selling companies, the industry’s attention is on the future OLED TV market’s growth. According to UBI Research, OLED TV market is estimated to grow and record approximately 17 million units in 2020.

 

LG's OLED Tunnel to be Installed in N Seoul Tower, LG Electronics

LG’s OLED Tunnel to be Installed in N Seoul Tower, LG Electronics

Korea’s Survival Hangs on OLED; Government Support is Urgently Needed

The last 5 years of budget for Korean semiconductor, which is a key industry for the nation, and display related industry’s original technology development expenses was researched and analyzed.

 

Electronic information device sector’s expenses can be categorized into semiconductor, display, LED/lighting, and evaluation maintenance fee.

 
In 2011, 130,000 million KRW was provided as technology development expense, but since then the amount annually decreased. In 2015, the amount was 95,000 million KRW, but in 2016, it is estimated to decrease further 42% and only 55,000 million KRW is expected to be provided.

 

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Semiconductor funding for 2015 occupies 58% of the total budget with 54,800 million KRW. Although that amount will be reduced to 35,600 million KRW in 2016, it is expected to occupy 65% of the total funding.

 

For display section, the 2015 funding is only 19,500 million KRW, a 21% of the total budge. In 2016, this is estimated to fall to 17%.

 

The government funding for display sector, which is the core of Korean electronic information industry, is around the same level as LED/Lighting sector.

 

The rapid reduction of government funding for display industry is expected to cause much difficulty in future display business.

 

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The Korean display panel market that is being maintained by 2 companies, Samsung Display and LG Display, recorded 62 billion KRW in 2012. However, it fell to 52 billion KRW in 2014, and the market power is gradually weakening. As Chinese companies are becoming more active in LCD market, Korean companies’ price competitiveness is waning in low-priced panel market.

 

If BOE’s Gen10.5 line begins operation in 2018, Korean display companies’ market power is analyzed to rapidly fall in LCD market. In order for the Korean display business to take-off again, now is the time for the government to fund OLED panel which has high added value.

ETRI Reveals Graphene Applied OLED Lighting

At R&D Korea 2015 (November 19-21), ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) revealed OLED lighting and graphene related research results.

 

Since 2013, ETRI has been participating in ‘Graphene Applied OLED Device/Panel Technology Development’ project as a supervising organization. This project is a part of ‘Graphene Device/Component Commercialization Technology Business’, which is a Korean national project. This project’s ultimate aims include development of graphene electrode material with ≥15Ω sheet resistance, ≥90% transmittance, 3nm thickness, ≤5% sheet resistance uniformity, ≤5nm surface profile, and ≥5.5 generation area, graphene based protection layer that can be used for 5.5 generation 55inch OLED panel with ≤10-6 g/m2 WVTR, graphene anode OLED with ≥90% external quantum efficiency compared to ITO anode OLED, and diagonally 1300mm OLED panel prototype.

 

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In this exhibition, ETRI presented OLED lighting that used graphene as the electrode. ETRI’s Dr. Jeong-Ik Lee explained that recently interest in graphene electrode is increasing to replace ITO electrode and to apply graphene electrode, optical, electrical, and process issues have to be considered. When graphene is used as OLED electrode instead of ITO, thickness and refractive index change optically and electrically energy levels change, and these have to be considered when designing. He also emphasized that in terms of process, it has to be designed keeping in mind of before and after process of electrode procedure. Dr. Lee revealed that at present optical and electrical issues are solved while the process issues are in research stage, and they are planning to present the results of this research within this year.

 

Graphene, with its high resistivity, is known as next generation electrode material favorable to flexible and foldable. Dr. Lee pointed out that graphene has wider viewing angle than ITO when used as transparent electrode is another important advantage, and particularly as white light source’s spectrum cannot change according to the viewing angle, graphene is suitable for application.

 

Graphene is a key material with a wide arrange of applications, it is being developed in diverse areas such as OLED encapsulation as well as in electrode sector. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning of Korea estimated that domestic graphene market will record 19 billion KRW until 2025. Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology, the organization in charge of this national project, gave their target as developing 9 top technology through graphene and achieve 17 billion KRW sales. Regarding this, Dr. Lee emphasized compared to other countries, Korean investment in graphene is relatively low and that now is the time for the Korean corporations and government agencies to pay more attention higher value-added businesses.

AMOLED Smartphone to Exceed 200 Million Units This Year

It is anticipated that AMOLED display equipped smartphone will exceed 200 million units this year.

 

According to a market research company UBI Research, AMOLED equipped smartphone recorded 60 million units in Q3 2015, and estimated the total shipment of this year to be above 220 million units. This is approximately a 40% increase compared to last year’s result of 160 million units.

 

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This increase of shipment for AMOLED applied smartphone in 2015 is analyzed to be due to AMOLED panel application to low-to-mid priced smartphone and increase in the number of models produced.

 

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Q3 2015 performance of 60 million units is a 26% QoQ, and 80% YoY, and analyzed to be showing a rapid growth.

 

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[Automotive Display Seminar] Automotive Display, Urgent Transparent Display Technology Development Needed

By Choong Hoon Yi

 

On November 13, Automotive Display Development Technology and Commercialization Planning seminar was hosted by Educational Center of Future Technology in Yeouido, South Korea.

 

KATECH (Korea Automotive Technology Institute)’s Dr. Sun-Hong Park explained that “as the automotive display market grows, display market’s domain is expanding” and announced “market for CID (Central Information Display) that mainly functions as navigation device and HUD (Head Up Display) that can show mileage and speed is steadily growing since 2008 and it is anticipated to grow considerably in future”. He added that particularly, 7inch or larger CID is increasing its market share in display market and that CID is becoming larger. He also mentioned that with the increase of traffic accidents from driver’s lack of attention to the road, HUD that can show information on the front window is necessary. However, legibility issues due to brightness and reflectiveness and technological issues such as integration with other display device need to be solved.

 

Dr. Sun-Hong Park of KATECH (Korea Automotive Technology Institute)

Dr. Sun-Hong Park of KATECH (Korea Automotive Technology Institute)

 

Dr. Chi-Sun Hwang of ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) compared display technology that can actualize transparent display, and technological issues to be solved in order for it to be applied to automotive. Hwang explained that although display technology that can produce transparent display include LCD, OLED TFEL (thin film EL), HUD (projection) among others, AMOLED is the most suitable considering resolution and transmittance. Although LCD technology level is at commercialization stage, as the transmittance is not high it can interfere with the driver’s viewing field. He also added that “poly Si TFT technology performance is good, transmittance is limited. However, oxide TFT technology’s transmittance is high and performance is continuing to improve, it needs to be more actively developed”. To be used as an automotive display, it has to meet certain conditions such as temperature, production cost, and brightness to be an automotive component as well as being placed in the suitable location in the driver’s viewing field; compared to other general display, automotive display is facing higher number of technical issues.

 

Dr. Chi-Sun Hwang of ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute)

Dr. Chi-Sun Hwang of ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute)

 

Source: Dr. Chi-Sun Hwang of ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute)

Source: Dr. Chi-Sun Hwang of ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute)

 

With the focus on the transparent display from automotive display industry, the interest in the technology needed for the application to automotive is also increasing. In order to lead the automotive display market, understanding of automotive components’ characteristics and effort to solve the diverse issues facing the optimized driving condition are required as well as knowledge of display itself.

[Expert Talk] Dr. Mauro Riva, SAES Group’s OLED/OLET Business Developer, on Encapsulation

Dr. Mauro Riva, SAES Group’s OLED/OLET business developer, discussed his views on OLED in general as well as SAES Group’s technology through his interview with the OLEDNET and presentation at the OLEDs World Summit (October 27-29) titled ‘The Encapsulation Question’.

 

Encapsulation is required to prevent the oxidation of emitting and electrode materials by blocking moisture and oxygen. It also protects the device from mechanical and physical shocks. The basic configurations of encapsulation can be divided into 3: glass-to-glass, barrier film lamination, and thin film encapsulation methods. Glass-to-glass configuration is applied to rigid AMOLED for mass produced mobile, barrier film lamination and thin film encapsulation methods are used for flexible AMOLED, and barrier film lamination is used for large area AMOLED panel for TV.

 

Source: SAES Group, OLEDs World Summit 2015

Source: SAES Group, OLEDs World Summit 2015

 

According to Dr. Riva OLED encapsulation is still facing the same issues it had since the beginning: OLED materials’ extreme sensitivity to oxidizing agents and moisture in particular. He added that OLED materials can also be very sensitive to heat or radiations, generating many process constraints. Encapsulation technology is directly related to the lifetime of the OLED device and Dr. Riva raised several questions regarding the current issues surrounding the technology including the appropriate target lifetime, best definition of “lifetime”, and reliability of the “accelerated tests”. He emphasized that while much progress have been made, a “single optimal, universal solution” does not exist yet to meet various encapsulation requirements depending on OLED architecture, materials, environment, applications, etc. As such, encapsulation materials have to be specifically engineered to meet different types of OLED devices while having “exceptionally high barrier properties, and active fillers or getters, capable of absorbing water on a single molecule basis”. Thus, perfecting this technology is a very challenging task, and, according to Dr. Riva, something that requires in depth collaboration between advance encapsulation materials providers and OLED makers.

 

For their part in this technology progression, Dr. Riva reported that SAES Group provides a very large portfolio of active edge sealants, active transparent fillers, and dispensable getters. He explained that the portfolio is the results of deep know-how in functional polymer composites (FPC), “specially tailored to address customers’ specific OLED designs and processes”. Discussing the FPC during his talk in OLEDs World Summit, Dr. Riva emphasized the versatility of this approach.

 

Source: SAES Group, OLEDs World Summit 2015

Source: SAES Group, OLEDs World Summit 2015

 

Regarding application methods for SAES Group’s FPC products, Dr. Riva explained that they can be dispensed via screen printing, blading, syringe, ink-jetting, ODF (one drop filling), and even be employed in thin film encapsulation structures, to make them simpler and more reliable. Furthermore, Dr. Riva reported that while SAES Group considers syringe dispensing as one of the main methods for applying their FPC, “ink-jetting is also becoming more and more widespread, together with ODF, especially for active fillers”.

 

Dr. Riva believes the FPC could play an important role in making the encapsulation more effective, and that SAES Group can “leverage on its advanced materials expertise” and in-depth getter/purification knowledge, to “perfect FPC based encapsulation solutions for OLEDs”. 11% of SAES Group’s net sales is allocated to Research and Innovation every year with strong cooperation with universities and R&D centers. The company is collaborating with many companies in diverse areas of interest such as OLED lighting, manufacturing equipment, specialized food packaging, and gas barrier films. This proactive and collaborating approach will enable the SAES Group to play a key role in developing more marketable OLED devices.

 

Visionox Reveals 604PPI High Resolution AMOLED

On November 12, Visionox announced that they recently developed 604ppi (approximately 4.85inch) high resolution full color OLED panel through FMM (fine metal mask) using evaporation technology.

 

Visionox Z-Type(Source : OLED-info)

Visionox Z-Type(Source : OLED-info)

 

In 2014, Visionox developed 570ppi RGB AMOLED panel with newly developed pixel structure, Z-Type. This Z-Type arrangement had larger blue sub-pixel with green and red sub-pixels beside it. The new panel has resolution of 604ppi which is a 35ppi increase from the 2014 panel. With this new reveal, Visionox displayed their high resolution OLED technology improvement.

 

The 604ppi panel combined the self-developed pixel layout under proprietary intellectual property rights and co-developed Chinese FMM. The resolution is 2,560 × 1,440, manufactured using real RGB method and not pentile.

 

Chinese companies are developing their high resolution AMOLED panel technology at a fast pace. In August, EverDisplay presented 734ppi 6inch panel, and the technology difference with Korean panel companies is rapidly decreasing.

 

Visionox revealed that this OLED panel shows Visionox’s research development for high resolution OLED is continuing and aptly demonstrated the current results.

 

604 PPI High Resolution Display Panel (real RGB) (Source: Visionox)

604 PPI High Resolution Display Panel (real RGB) (Source: Visionox)

[IWFPE 2015] What Will Replace ITO?

2015 IWFPE (International Workshop on Flexible & Printable Electronics) was held at Le Win Hotel in Jeonju, South Korea (November 4-6). During the workshop, many OLED display related presentations commented on ITO’s replacement material.

 

Dr. Jennifer Colegrove, CEO of US research company Touch Display Research, discussed hot trends of 2015-2016. Dr. Colegrove included high resolution, transparent display, wearable device, and flexible display in the hot trends. Of these she pointed out ITO replacement material regarding touch panel. She mentioning metal mesh, silver nanowire, CNT, and graphene as materials that could replace ITO. Dr. Colegrove added that the material has to be flexible in order to be applicable to flexible display and needs to have high efficiency.

 

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Hanwha Techwin’s Dr. Seungmin Cho announced that graphene, which has higher uniformity compared to ITO, will be the material of future. With lower resistance than ITO, graphene shows good characteristics, but Dr. Cho explained that high cost and particles produced are issues that need to be solved. He also commented that China selected graphene related national projects and is striving to develop the technology.

 

Dr. Hyunkoo Lee of ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) presented that the multi-layered graphene that ETRI, Sungkyunkwan University, and KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) co-developed will become the material that can replace ITO. He also introduced the results that as the transmittance is particularly high, it is suitable for transparent display, and compared to silver nanowire material in high resolution top emission structure, the display’s brightness is higher.

 

ITO replacement development is an issue for the future of display industry’s progress. It is estimated that research development on graphene as one of the ITO replacement electrodes will be actively carried out.

 

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