Taiwan grows OLED lighting industry

According to CTIMES, a Taiwanese professional electronics industry medium, the OLED Lighting Commercialization Alliance (OLCA) was recently established for the development of the OLED lighting industry in Taiwan. Founding members of the OLCA are the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and Taiwan Lighting Fixture Export Association (TLFEA), and various companies from materials to manufacturing are members of the OLCA. It is consisted of five committees such as lamps, lighting design, materials, fixtures and optical engines.

Chairman of TLFEA, Steve Lin said, “the OLED is ideal for proximity lightings and it is already installed in luxury apartment in Taiwan. Due to the expensive price of the OLED compare to the LED, it is not in mass-production, but it will become a standard lighting in all households within 3 years.” Vice President of ITRI, C.T.Liu, also forecasted the OLED playing an important role in IoT (Internet of Thing) sector and emphasized that Taiwan will be the center of the OLED lighting industry.

“2014 OLED lighting Annual Report” by UBI research forecasted that the OLED lighting market will be about US M$ 4,700 by 2020.

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Samsung leads Flexible OLED, Samsung Display’s investment in A3

As major equipment companies publicly announced their contracts to supply manufacturing equipment for OLED to Samsung Display (SDC), it is expected that SDC will begin its investment in A3 line in full swing.

SDC began its investment with a plan to complete stocking the equipment of A3 line by December. Except encapsulation equipment, PO of the remainder is completed. And order for the encapsulation equipment will be done by August.

A3 Gen6 Phase 1 Line of SDC for this investment is a flexible exclusive line to mainly produce tablet products and a method to divide a 1850x1500mm substrate in to two (1500x925mm) will be used. The investment is expected to consider mass production of 65” OLED TV panel from phase 2.

Currently, the amount that the equipment companies publically announced is about 220 billion won but actual mass production may be possible from 1Q of 2015 if supply of equipment is completed by the end of this year.140718_삼성장비업체공시eng

 

<Equipment Companies’ Supply Contract List announced in June and July>

Sony unveils Head Mounted Display (HMD) for medical care

Sony displayed a system, which enables you to check endoscope video through Head Mounted Display (HMD) at International Modern Hospital Show 2014 held from July 16th to 18th, 2014. For the existing endoscopy surgery, posture restriction exists because the procedure requires external monitoring. With Sony’s new product, surgery, however, can be performed without the posture restriction.

This specialized product for medical purpose weights only about 490g which enables an operator to perform in a standing position. It doesn’t fully cover eyes of an operator by changing the shape of wearable belt so that the operator can visually check surgery device by lowering the eyes without taking it off.

This medical HMD is installed with Sony’s OLED display and shows images on the OLED display individually thus crosstalk is not that large and doesn’t induce dizziness during its use.

 Sony consulted with doctors to develop this system and said that demand for this competitive system will increase as 3D endoscope increases.

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<Sony’s Head Mounted Display(left), Picture of wearing HMD(right), Source : Monoist>

Will Everdisplay be the first small and medium AMOLED panel maker in China?

Everdisplay is expected to start mass-production in the fourth quarter of 2014.

According to OLED info’s interview with the marketing team of Everdisplay, Everdisplay will begin mass production in Q4 of 2014 and be the first AMOLED mass producer in China. An officer of Eerdisplay’s marketing team said, “it focuses on small and medium size display targeting smartphone, wearable device and automotive application and is developing a flexible OLED panel for the next generation production.” It showed that the mass-production will begin soon by releasing pictures of AMOLED panel prototypes in 5 inch (293 ppi), 5.5 inch (267ppi) and 6 inch (244ppi). Currently, Everdisplay plans mass-production in Gen4.5 LTPS line, which is under construction in Shanghai, China and capa. is 15,000 pieces per month based on mother glass.140716_ever

 

<Everdisplay’s 5”(293ppi), 5.5”(267ppi) and 6”(244ppi) AMOLED panel prototype, source : OLED-info>

UBI Research, Hosting International OLED Workshop

An event will be held to exchange information with experts from the world on OLED, which suggests new solutions lighting market and brings positive changes to a staggering display market with introduction of a flexible smartphone and a curved TV.

On 12 th, UBI Research, a market research and consulting firm specialized in the OLED, announced that it will host ‘the 2nd Annual Korea OLED Workshop’ at COEX conference room in Samsung-dong on June 24th.

It is known that the world’s top OLED experts have been invited to cover information valuable to the industry to the upcoming event. Also, commercialization of flexible display, technological roadmap of WRGB OLED TV, and opportunities and challenges of the OLED display and lighting technology will be addressed. Especially technology and opportunity of Chinese OLED display will be covered.

An official of UBI Research said, “this workshop will be a place to check the roles and competitiveness of Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Tawnies companies in the next OLED lighting and flexible areas.”

For more information on the OLED Workshop, where researchers and executives of the OLED industry participate from around the world, refer to www.oldenet.co.kr and www.ubiresearch.co.kr or contact +82-2-577-4391.

 

 

Oculus Rift’s DK2 shipment just begins

Oculus, an American VR business, began shipment of the 2nd generation product, DK2.

According to OLED info, pre-order of DK2, the 2G product of Oculus, began in March, 2013 and 45,000 units were ordered by June, 2014. Ten thousand out of 45,000 units has been shipped on July 1st and the remaining will be shipped in the middle of August.

Oculus used LCD display for the first prototype but OLED display was used for the new product on the market. A video clip uploaded on Oculus’ homepage (http://www.oculusvr.com/) explicitly shows why Oculus used the OLED rather the LCD for faster response speed. Also replacing the LCD with the OLED greatly reduced motion sickness due to 3D while adding a positional tracking feature by mapping you movements with a camera and infrared light.

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LG Display successfully developed world’s first flexible and also transparent OLED.

LG Display succeeded in developing world’s first flexible and transparent OLED.
LG Display announced the technological development of world’s first 18-inch flexible OLED and transparent OLED of same size, disclosing at the ‘national project workshop for transparent flexible display development’ to be held from July 10 till July 11.
It is considered that LG Display secured the foundation technology for developing a large screen transparent flexible display through the simultaneous development of flexible and transparent OLED this time.
The flexible OLED that LG Display developed is 18-inch in size with HD resolution (1200 X 810) nearly 1 mega pixel quality, and this is the largest OLED in the world, realizing the radius of curvature of 30R. This means it can be rolled up to a radius of 3cm with no operational complications and implies that it is possible to implement a large panel rollable TV over 50 inches in the future.
In order to realize maximum radius of curvature even on 18-inch screen, LG Display used Polymide film of polymer materials on a substrate that TFT and organic matters are deposited, reducing the thickness and increasing flexibility drastically.
Furthermore, this concurrently developed transparent OLED is of same size and resolution as flexible OLED and the transparency is 30% or higher realized by self-developed transparent pixel design technology. It is a radical increase of transparency, given that transparency of existing LCD based transparent display is about 10% or so.
LG Display maximized the degree of completion by lowering the haze caused by circuit element and film down to 2%.
The transparent flexible display is a national project of the future industry-leading technology development program promoted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy and the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology, and LG Display is the leading participants of total 36 organizations of industries, academies, and institutes, aiming to develop a large 60-inch transparent and flexible display by 2017.
According to In-Byung Kang, Senior Vice President and Head of the R&D Center at LG Display, “Pioneered OLED TV market, LG Display is leading future applied technology of OLED,” and “Though there still are many challenges to be resolved, we are confident in developing transparent flexible display of over the 60-inch screen UHD (Ultra High Definition) screen with transparency of 40% and a curvature radius of 100R by 2017.”

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<source : LG Display>

Merger between COMEDD and Fraunhofer FEP

Fraunhofer FEP announced its merger with COMEDD, a research institute of Fraunhofer on July 5th.

The beginning of COMEDD was a research agency of Fraunhofer IPMS focusing on organic materials and electronic devices. It became an independent research institute of Fraunhofer in July, 2012. It is known that the merger with Fraunhofer FEP is to gain competitiveness for OLED by naming itself as COMEDD FEP.

Director of COMEDD FEP, Prof. Volker Kirchhoff, is hopping that the merger will contribute to development of barrier film for flexible organic components and the OLED based micro-display sector. It will focus on developing large area flexible sheet and the OLED lighting sheet by combining electron beam tech. and plasma tech. of Fraunhofer FEP and organic semiconductors tech. of COMEDD.

Automobile Industry, will it be the foundation of OLED industry?

By Choong Hoon Yi

 

The use of OLED is now expected to be extended from interior light and rear lamp to display of automobiles.

According to the display industry, LG Display (LGD) is negotiating with German automakers for plastic OLED panel supply. LGD ranked 4th in auto display market following Taiwanese Innolux, Japan Display and Sharp of Japan. It aims to take over the global market by reaching 1 billion dollars in sales based on the OLED display by 2016.

Most of major panel makers are currently focusing on leading the auto display market. At SID 2014, the major panel makers including Japan Display, Sharp, AUO and Tianma mainly showed displays for vehicles. LGD also reinforces targeting auto display market by integrating future technologies including transparent display. A fierce competition is ahead among major display companies.

The flexibility and durability; shock- and vibration-resistant, of the OLED as well as the fact that transparent display can be realized with it will accelerate its entry to the auto display market.

For auto rear lamp and interior light, the major OLED lighting panel makers including LG Chem. and Osram are developing the OLED and a new market is within the reach. If the OLED rapidly forms the auto display market, it will become a great cornerstone of the OLED industry along with mobile, TV and general lighting.140704_자동차산업

 

<Major OLED panel makers’ auto display, at SID2014>

LG Electronics’ 77” Curved OLED TV for£20,000

LG Electronics’ 77” UHD curved OLED TV displayed at CES 2014 attracted attention of many foreign visitors. According to a Chinese medium, Shanghai Hotline, LG Electronics (LGE) officially launched the 77” UHD curved OLED TV, for £20,000 (about 34.6 million Kwon) in the British market. Official from LGE says, however, we are just planning to sales 77” UHD curved OLED TV.

With 4K UHD resolution (3840×2160), the 77” OLED TV offers a high picture quality, providing close to nature images, and comfortable viewing experience. Its unique design of curved screen and ellipse shape stand also allows you to enjoy high-contrast colorful pictures from any angle. This 77” UHD OLED TV won ‘Best of Innovations” award at CES 2014, and moves 7.5cm to bend so it moves 8cm to bend from flat and its angle is also adjustable.

LGE plans to launch 65” UHD curved OLED TV for £6,000 (about 10.3 million Kwon) with the same features as the 77” TV in this October.140704_LGCES201477inchamoled

 

<LG Electronics’ 77” UHD flexible OLED TV at CES 2014>