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

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

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

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

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

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

Fingerprint Full-Screen Smart Phones Begin to Compete

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<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.

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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.

Japan’s first flexible OLED, finally made its debut

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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

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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.

 

 

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

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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.

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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

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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.”

 

 

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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?

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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?

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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.

In Premium TV market, OLED portion is growing.

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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>

Can BLUE OLED be used for OLED TV?

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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.

Changes in OLED panel market for smartphones

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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.

RGB ink-jet printing, also applied to small and medium-sized OLED?

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At the “Year End Seminar of OLED/Display” held at COEX in Seoul, Korea, on December 7, Kim, Seok-Soon, CEO of Unijet said that ink-jet printing technology can implement over 550 RGB ppi and ink-jet printing can be applied to small and medium-sized OLED process as well.

The currently mass-produced QHD resolution of 5.5-inch mobile device is 550 ppi but it is actually 400 ppi with pentile structure. Moreover the ink-jet printing technology for RGB pixels is currently in the range of 150 to 200 ppi which can achieve 8K resolution on over 55inch OLED, yet inapplicable to the small and medium-sized OLED process. As Kim announced, if the ink-jet printing technology is applicable, implementing 550 ppi in the small and medium-sized OLED process, beyond QHD resolution in 5.5 inches, it is possible to implement UHD resolution in pentile structure.

<ppi by size and resolution>

Kim said, “In 2012, single droplet measurement technology showed 2.5% or less of volume accuracy, which was, however, insufficient for RGB printing.  In 2017, the laser droplet measurement technology enabled the discharge volume control less than 0.1 μm and the real-time internal pressure control reduced the volume accuracy by less than 0.1%.” Kim added that it is possible to form over 550 RGB ppi regardless of the pixel structure.

Lastly, Kim noted that the solvent purity for OLED RGB pixel is very important; “Inkjet printer can be commercialized only if ink materials are fully developed first to satisfy panel makers. He expected that it will be applied to the mass production line in earnest since 2020. ”

LG Electronics, Big step on popularization of OLED TV

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<OLED TV of LG Electronics Source: LG Electronics>

LG Electronics OLED TV is speeding up its popularization with exceeding monthly sales of 10,000 units for the first time in Korea.

‘LG OLED TV’ was sold every four minutes last month. Compared to the beginning of this year, it’s double. LG Electronics expects sales increase of OLED TVs in the future and to rapidly increase market power.

The secret to increasing sales is recognition of outstanding image quality. LG OLED TV, this year, was first in the performance evaluation conducted by nonprofit consumer magazines in 11 advanced markets including the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Portugal and Australia. Unlike LCD TVs, the contrast ratio is high because it emits light without backlight. So it presents perfect black and realizes a lively screen.

Consumers consider picture quality the most when purchasing TV. According to a consumer survey conducted by LG Electronics, over 40% of the respondents cited image quality as the top priority when purchasing TVs. This percentage is the highest of all purchasing considerations.

Reasonable price is also the cause of good sales. LG Electronics has continuously developed technology for more consumer to experience OLED TV image quality so as to reduce the. 55-inch OLED TV prices have fallen to the mid-2 million won. It is no different from premium LCD TVs. In 2013 when LG Electronics first launched OLED TV, it was worth 15 million won.

‘LG OLED TV’ accounted for about 30% of LG Electronics domestic TV sales this year and settled perfectly in the market.

Son, Dae-Gi, LG Electronics Korea HE Marketing FD, emphasized “we will expand sales to allow more customers to enjoy ‘LG OLED TV’ image quality and have a solid profit structure by raising premium market power”.

Merck, presenting OLED materials for future cars at Frankfurt Motor Show

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Merck announced that it will exhibit automotive OLED tail lamp materials for the first time at the IAA (International Motor Show) 2017 in Frankfurt, Germany.

Merck is a manufacturer specialized in electronic materials, supplying key OLED emitter materials to display companies; not content with a display materials supplier, Merck will be able to secure its leading market position of an OLED material manufacturer through this event in the OLED lighting industry which has been drawing attention as the next generation OLED industry.

Merck has exhibited OLED lighting panels using Merck’s luminous materials in L + B 2016, and has shown its ambition to expand into the OLED lighting market by exhibiting various automotive OLED materials at the IMID 2016 exhibition.

Meanwhile, Merck plans to show how the smart chemical materials, including OLED materials, will be applied to the “car of tomorrow” at IAA 2017 (Hall 3.1, stand A21).

“Materials from Merck are already used to provide functionality and aesthetics in many sections of

a vehicle,” said Dieter Schroth, automotive platform manager at Merck. “In times of digitalization and connectivity, however, the potential of our technologies is still far greater than we can show at the IAA”, he added.

Aside from OLED tail lamp materials, Merck plans to showcase a variety of innovative solutions such as smart headlight system, materials to be applied to smart satellite antennas, and pigment for interior and exterior surfaces.

<Merck OLED lighting panels exhibited at Light and Building 2016>

<Merck’s IMID 2016 exhibition booth>

iMiD 2017 Industrial Forum, a networking event to predict the next generation OLED market

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■ “Finding a new OLED market” – Discussing OLED replacement in view of OLED application development

■ Discussing new technologies of future display (LCD, QD-LCD, OLED)

The potential of future OLED development is inexhaustible as OLED can be applicable to all industries including VR / AR, automotive, aerospace, and lighting not content with smart phone and TVs. There has been growing public interest in OLED in many different industries. To meet the market demand, Ubi Research, a market research company co-hosts ‘iMiD2017 Industrial Forum’ with Korea Display Society (KIDS) in BEXCO, Busan on 30th of August.

The forum will proceed with a panel discussion among key specialists and presentation, which will enable people from many different industries to exchange information not only on the display market but also current OLED market status, technology and explore a new market potential generated in the future.
In the first session ‘look for a new OLED market’, OLED replacement will be presented in view of OLED application development. The key players include Dr. Teruo Tohma, WooSeok Jeong, principal research fellow at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Julian K chang, Managing director of Boeing Corporation, Professor TAKUYA KOMODA at Yamagata University, senior researcher, Michi Hisaishi, ALPINE Michihisa Onishi.

The second session, ‘Discussion of New Technologies in Future Display’ will provide insight into the latest products and technology trend of TV manufacturers competing with one another to dominate the next generation display market. Nam-Suk Oh, CEO of Samsung Electronics will present an updated LCD TV using Quantum dots technology under the title of “Quantum Dot and Advance of LCD-TV”.

In the OLED TV camp, under the title of “OLED, Now and Future”, Joon-Young Yang at LG Display will review the current status of OLED TV led by the current market trends, and also address OLED future implemented in a wide range of ‘flexible and rollable’ designs.

Weir Cao, senior researcher at TCL, will present both the technology status of the Colloidal Quantum Dots and TCL products applied to LCD in the market, under the topic of “TCL Display Technology with QDs”. The premium TV strategies are expectedly revealed. Lee Choong-hoon, CEO of Ubi research co-host of this forum, offered a time to summarize the premium TV market on the topic of ‘OLED TV market outlook by premium TV market expansion’ by analyzing the presentations of the companies that presented earlier.

For more information on the 17th iMiD2017 Industrial Forum, please visit iMiD2017 official website (http://imid.or.kr/2017/indi_forum.asp).

 

2Q OLED panel shipments, continued to rise

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■ Panel shipments of smartphones grew 2.6% YoY to 95.3million units

■ TV OLED panel shipments reached 370,000 units, up 165% YoY

 

According to Ubi Research, OLED panel shipments for smartphones in the second quarter of 2017 were 96.3 million units, up 2.6% from 92.9 million units in the same period last year.

Compared to the previous quarter (94.7 million units), it increased by 0.6%.

<OLED panel shipments for smartphones>

Samsung Display has a market share of 96.7% in the second quarter of 2017 and is the number one player in the small and medium sized OLED market. Galaxy S8 and S8 + are showing robust sales, and Samsung Display’s small to medium sized OLED market is expected to continue to remain strong for the time being with OLED adoption of Galaxy Note 8 and some models of the iPhone 8.

OLED panels are also applied to LG Electronics’ V30, which is expected to be released on the 31st, and major smartphone makers in China are also expanding their OLED panels. The OLED panel market for smartphones is expected to grow steadily, and the trend for smartphone displays is expected to gradually shift from LCD to OLED.

<TV OLED panel shipments>

On the other hand, TV OLED panel shipments are growing 370,000 units, up 165.0% from 140,000 units a year earlier. Compared to the previous quarter (306,000 units), it increased 21.2%.

The OLED TV market is expected to expand gradually this year with Sony’s participation in OLED TV camps.

LG Display’s Paju E4 new line is expected to be fully operational from 3Q and TV OLED panel production is expected to increase steadily.

LG OLED TV, Has Won the ‘EISA Awards’ 6 Years Straight

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On August 15th, LG Electronics’ premium TVs including OLED TV received EISA’s most prestigious award in Europe.

<LG OLED TV (model: OLED65E7), Source: LG Electronics>

LG OLED TV (model: OLED65E7) was selected as ‘EISA OLED TV’ by the European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA). LG OLED has once again proven its advanced technology by winning the ‘EISA Award’ for six consecutive years since 2012.

The association commended “LG OLED TV has the ability to deliver perfect black for an incredible picture as well as vivid color expression and wide viewing angle”. “And black expression and brightness has improved compared to last year.” In addition, the judges were also impressed by its diverse HDR such as Dolby Vision and HDR10, ultra-slim design, rich sound of Dolby Atmos, and convenient usage.

<LG Sound Bar (model: : SJ9), Source: LG Electronics>

LG Sound Bar was recognized with the ‘EISA Sound Bar Award’. It was cited as being one of the rare products with both luxury design and sound. The judges also said it is well harmonized with surround sound and rich medium-low sound due to Dolby Atmos technology.

The ‘EISA Award’, held by EISA(European Imaging and Sound Association), is highly recognized worldwide in the field of imaging and sound. EISA is the Europe’s largest multi-media association of AV experts from 20 countries. Since 1982, it has selected the best products in the field of sound, imaging, photography and mobile devices every year. The jury, composed of reporters and external technical experts, selects the winners so it is highly credible.

“We will continue to lead the premium TV market with the products that are recognized for their advanced technology,” said Kwon Bong-suk, vice president of LG’s HE business.

Stretchable OLED commercialization is on the rise

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Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have steadily been releasing smartphones and smart watches using flexible OLED since 2013, and electronics companies in China have begun to put out one of them. In particular, Apple, the leader in the smartphone industry, is also seeing the launch of iPhone with flexible OLED, and the flexible OLED market is expected to grow further.

The shape of the flexible OLED was expected to be changed to foldable and rollable beyond the bendable. Recently, however, the display industry has surpassed this trend and has been focusing on the development of stretchable OLEDs.

<Development Roadmap of OLED, Source: Ubi Research>

A stretchable OLED is a type of a flexible OLED that is finally evolves, which means OLED having elasticity as like rubber band.

 

Samsung Display unveiled this stretchable OLED at SID 2017. Samsung Display’s stretchable OLED is 9.1 inch and implementable both convex and concave shapes. At the time, Samsung Display announced that it realized the world’s first technology to maintain the existing image quality while increasing the screen size to 12 mm in concave mode.

<9.1 inch stretchable OLED displayed by Samsung Display, Source: Samsung Display>

LG Display will also develop the stretchable OLED. LG Display announced on June 6 that it will develop backplane and photoluminescence materials, devices, and process source technologies with elasticity of more than 20% for a total of four years through a consortium with Korea University.

 

In addition, LG Display has developed flexible plastic substrate materials, flexible wiring materials and transparent electrode materials, stretchable organic light emitting materials, and flexible encapsulates, they will also acquire essential process technologies including thin film transistors (TFTs) and process architectures that enable low-temperature processing.

 

At present, stretchable related technology is not yet applied to production, or elongation is only about 5%, and the number of repeated stretching is limited. In addition, most of the source technology is in overseas, it is expected that Samsung Display and LG Display will be able to secure technological gap with latecomers.

Stretchable OLED is free of form restrictions and expected to produce applications in new areas when applied to a variety of applications such as smart phones, tablets clothes and human skin when they are commercialized.

UDC, whose total revenue increases by 59% in Q2 2017 with royalty and license fees

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UDC(Universal Display Corporation) has announced the financial performance of the 2nd quarter of 2017 as of Aug 3rd.

UDC’s total revenues in the second quarter of 2017 has been recorded as US $125millon, increased by 59 percent, compared to that of the previous year, US $ 64.4 million. Material sales has been also increased by 110 percent to $ 46.8 million; the profit from royalties and license fees increased by 28 percent to $ 53.7 million; $ 26.5 million was contributed to the operation profit to make US $ 60.5 million, and net profit for this term has been increased from US $ 2,540 to US $ 47.2 million.

The UDC has seen its total revenue contributed by royalty and license fees and the material revenue by the increase in sales of blue and green phosphorescent materials.

As the OLED market grows, the OLED material market co-prospers, leading to business growth of UDC. According to 2017 OLED Emitting Materials Market Report of UBI search, the global OLED emitting materials market shows great prospects with the market size worth $ 960 million in 2017, and it is anticipated to reach the annual average growth rate 37%, enlarging the market size as $ 3.36 billion by 2021.

<Market Forecast of Emitting Materials>

LG Electronics, watching bigger and clearer on ‘OLED FullVision’

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<Source: LG Electronics>

LG Electronics will have a strategic premium smartphone equipped with OLED in the 2nd half this year.

LG Electronics will apply OLED FullVision, an 18: 9 aspect-ratio OLED display completely filling the entire screen panel to a strategic premium smartphone in the 2nd half. The size of the display is 6inch wide- larger than 5.7 inches of the previous model LG V20, but the size of the product is rather smaller by reducing the size of the bezel.
Based on the display technology obtained from LG OLED TV, which has been recognized as the world’s best premium TV, LG Electronics plans to provide a different level of visual experience of smartphone; “With OLED technology which has been accumulated over the years, we have completed the differentiated high-class design of the subsequent strategic premium smartphone.”
In the LG Electronics’ strategic premium smartphone, the “bezel bending” technology has been embedded in, which makes the circuit and insulating layers at the bottom of the panel bent backwards and the lower bezel reduced by about 50% compared to the previous model V20. Toughened glass on the outer layer of display is curved all around edge and is smoothened along the contour line of the backside to emphasize a sense of unity on the design,

OLED FullVision has a QHD + (1,440×2,880) resolution and an optimized screen quality algorithm equipped with a color gamut of 148% based on sRGB, default color space for photography and internet, and 109% based on digital cinema color standard DCI-P3.

LG Electronics stated that OLED FullVision should present a deep and vibrant screen with excellent contrast ratio and fast response time will provide a full-fledged screen without afterimages for fast-moving video or games.

LG Electronics also said, “The durability of the display has been upgraded as well, considering the portability of smartphone. OLED Full Vision is stronger than glass substrate displays because it is based on P-OLEDs with pixels placed on plastic substrates,”; “Cutting edge technologies are embedded in such as Corning®’s latest tempered glass ‘Gorilla® Glass 5’ and shatter-resistant technology that prevents the glass powder from scattering when the glass breaks. ” LG added.

Additionally LG Electronics said, “We have applied hardware and software technology to enhance durability. Also encapsulation technology that minimizes oxidation by covering the pixels with a protective film to prevent air contact, and pixel scanning program that identifies heavily used pixels and reduces their power consumption. OLED technology has minimized the burn-in phenomenon that can occur on the display. ”

Joon-ho Cho, president of LG’s MC business director emphasized, “We will provide a high end smartphone with a different level of design and screen quality, integrating the world’s best display technologies proven by LG OLED TV.

Truly and FlexEnable sign License Agreement to bring low-cost, scalable flexible display production to China

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31 July 2017 – FlexEnable, the leader in the development and industrialization of organic electronics for flexible displays and sensors, has signed a technology transfer and license agreement with Truly Semiconductors, one of the leading display makers in China. The deal aims to bring FlexEnable’s flexible organic liquid crystal display (OLCD) technology into mass production on Truly’s lines within 2018.

 

Due to its high performance and low cost manufacturing process, OLCD is the only display technology today that can deliver flexible displays with large area, low cost and high brightness with long lifetime. With a bend radius that can go below 20 millimeters, OLCD meets the market needs for a range of applications across consumer electronics, smart home appliances, automotive, digital signage and beyond.

 

OLCD is based upon FlexEnable’s flexible low temperature organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) backplane technology, which can be manufactured on existing TFT LCD production lines using low cost plastic substrates such as TAC and PET. The OTFT backplane has better electrical performance than amorphous silicon, giving plastic LCDs the same display quality and reliability as glass-based LCDs, while making it thinner, lighter, shatterproof and conformable to surfaces.

 

Truly, the first display manufacturer to adopt OLCD, will implement the process into its existing production lines in Shanwei, China. The first product samples will be available to commercial partners in early 2018, with volume production expected in late 2018.

 

Chuck Milligan, CEO of FlexEnable, says, “Truly is a leader in displays manufacturing and a top-level supplier of displays to key market segments to which FlexEnable’s technology can bring great commercial advantages. We are already working with brands who use OLCD in their product concepts and who now need access to a volume supply chain to realize some very exciting new product offerings with designs that simply aren’t possible with other types of display. We are excited that Truly has become the first display manufacturer to implement FlexEnable’s game-changing OLCD platform and meet market demand for flexible displays.”

 

KK Ho, General Manager, R&D center, Truly Semiconductors Ltd, says, ”FlexEnable’s OLCD technology is a breakthrough in the TFT-LCD industry and with its characteristics of thinness, lightweight, and more durability it is going to create lots of possibilities for innovative product design. We have been receiving many enquiries for flexible display from the market, specifically, wearable devices, smart home appliances, electric cars and self-driving cars etc. This is a pretty exciting display technology and we do believe there is a considerable potential market size.”

OLED Encapsulation, TFE is the Top Trend

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  • Expected application of TFE to all edge type and full screen use flexible OLED
  • PECVD manufacturing equipment, 62% of total encapsulation manufacturing equipment market

According to 2017 OLED Encapsulation Annual Report published by UBI Research, of OLED encapsulation technology, TFE (thin film encapsulation) will be applied to approximately 70% of total OLED panel in 2021, and become the key encapsulation technology.

OLED display trend is heading toward minimizing bezel for full screen actualization from edge type, and flexible OLED is being considered as the most optimal display for full screen. As such, Chinese panel companies, as well as Samsung Display and LG Display, are concentrating on flexible OLED mass production line investment rather than rigid.

Flexible OLED must be thin and bendable; glass using frit encapsulation Is not suitable and TFE (thin film encapsulation) or hybrid encapsulation must be applied. TFE is a structure that is formed via laminating thin inorganic and organic materials. In the early stages of development, it had 11 layers of complex organic and inorganic material deposition with low yield. However, it now has been reduced to 3 layers and greatly improved productivity, yield, and cost and it is being applied to most of flexible OLED.

<Thin film encapsulation development history, 2017 OLED Encapsulation Annual Report>

Hybrid encapsulation, which uses barrier film, is being applied to some flexible OLED. However, due to the high cost of barrier film and relatively thick thickness, recent investment is focused on TFE application.

According to UBI Research analyst Jang Hyunjun, TFE encapsulation is expected to continue to be applied to edge type and full screen type flexible OLED panel, and related manufacturing equipment and material market will carry on their growth.

The report explains that TFE’s key manufacturing equipment are inorganic material forming PECVD and organic material forming ink-jet printer. In particular, PECVD is used in inorganic material film formation of hybrid encapsulation as well as TFE. Therefore, PECVD market is estimated to record US$ 6,820 million in 2017-2021, and occupy approximately 62% of the total encapsulation manufacturing equipment market.

<PECVD manufacturing equipment market volume, 2017, 2017 OLED Encapsulation Annual Report>

The report includes encapsulation related key manufacturing equipment and material market in addition to encapsulation development history and trend, and key panel companies’ trend.

LG Electronics, “Sales of the Premium TV in 2017 would hold 60%”

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LG Electronics spoke that “The portion of premium TVs in total TV sales will be increased from about 40% in 2016 to around 50% in first half of 2017 and up to 60% in the end of this year.” at the conference call in Q2 2017, which was held on 27th.

The performance in Q2 for HE area of LG Electronics showed 4 trillion and 234.9 billion won in sales, and 343 billion won in operating profit. The QOQ on sales was declined to 2.1%, and the demands of the global TV market are continuously reducing, but the sales of the same quarter in last year showed 1.9% growth through the sales expansion of the OLED premium TVs.

Jin-ho, Ha, the HE director of LG Electronics said that “The Q2 performance was slightly decreased in QOQ and same quarter in last year due to the panel cost increase and marketing promotion for the new product launching, but we sustained healthy profit structures through the expansion of the premium TV sales and the improvement of cost structures consistently.” And also expected, “There are concerns on the slowdown in growth of worldwide TV market for the interest rate hikes and the oil price decrease, nevertheless, the premium TV market will steadily grow according to the demand increase on OLED TV and UHD TV.”

Subsequently, he answered on the question of the counterstrategy for the SONY, “It is not just right time to judge the OLED TV of SONY yet, but until now, we think that the OLED TV of us is quite superior regarding the aspect of design of products, image quality, and its lineup and so on.”

On the recent investment for large-sized OLED of LG Display, “LG Display and LG Electronics, both of us, will wisely take and proceed the world best strategy together of premium TVs by strengthening the premium status of OLED TV.”

He explained on the TV business of LG Electronics, “We have been improving the profitability focusing on the premium lines, and also completely avoiding the quantitative competition. We plan to continuously sustain the quality-oriented rather than quantity.” He added, “We will pursue the activities to intensively keep the premium image of OLED.”

They stated to be maintaining the stable profit structures with aiming at continuous sales expansion of premium products through the marketing promotion for the premium TV-oriented to prepare the high-season for the TV market in second half.

Samsung Electronics’ Display Business Recorded Operating Profit of 1.71 Trillion KRW in Q2, 2017

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Samsung Electronics announced that it reached sales of 61 trillion Korean won and operating profit of 14.07 trillion Korean won, and the display business recorded 7.71 trillion won and operating profit of 1.71 trillion won, through the Q2 2017 Earnings Conference Call on 27th. Its display business has recorded more than 1 trillion won in the black, for 4 consecutive quarters since Q3 2016.

 

According to Samsung Electronics, its earnings for Q2 2017 has increased compared to the previous quarter due to the expanded sales of flexible OLED panels and high value-added LCD products.

 

The OLED division saw its earnings improvement on the back of flexible products sales increase due to the expanded sales of major customer flagship models, and accounted for low 60% of sales. The LCD division also improved earnings by expanding the sales of high value-added products, mainly UHD and large TVs.

 

The OLED division is expected to see sales growth for the second quarter of this year due to the expanded supply of flexible products compared to the last quarter. However, there will be fiercer competition with LTPS LCD in the mid to low-end market and a risk of cost increase resulting from ramp-up of new capacity lines. Accordingly, Samsung plans to improve profitability by aggressively responding to major customer demand through stable ramp-up of new lines and improving product mix.

 

The LCD division is anticipated to be in a supply-demand imbalance due to set companies’ stock increase of panels and panel suppliers’ supply expansion, but premium TVs such as high resolution and super-size TVs are expected to continue to grow. Samsung has a plan to increase profitability by promoting yield and cost improvement activities and by expanding the sales of not only high value-added products such as UHD and large-size products but also differentiated design products such as frameless and curved products.

 

Samsung Electronics recorded sales of 93 million mobile phones and 6 million tablets in Q2 2017, and in the third quarter, the sales of mobile phones and tables are likely to increase slightly and remain flat, respectively quarter on quarter. The sales volume of LCD TVs is expected to reach 9 million units and grow at low single in the third quarter.

 

Samsung Electronics invested a total of 12.7 trillion KRW in its facilities in the second quarter, of which 4.5 trillion KRW were invested in the display. This year’s investment plan for facilities is yet to be determined, but investment is expected to increase substantially from last year, especially for semiconductors and displays. The display division plans to invest in production expansion to meet the increasing demand for flexible OLEDs.

 

Director Lee Chang-hoon of Samsung Display said, “The smartphone set makers’ OLED adoption will continue to increase with the constant strong demand for it. The current OLED line is being resiliently operated in line with market and customer needs”. He added “We will continue to use and operate OLED lines strategically in accordance with market demand and customer needs.”, and explained they are not considering the plan to further shift LCD lines into OLED.

LG Display, Expects 40% of OLED out of total sales in 2020.

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LG Display spoke that they plan to change the sales structure by focusing on the OLED sales at the conference call in Q2, 2017 which was held on 26 July, and they expected that the OLED sales portion among the total sales would be from 10% in this year to 40% in 2020.

Sang-don, Kim, the CFO of LG Display said that they will invest about 15 trillion won of production line for the Gen10.5 OLED and the Gen6 POLED(Plastic OLED) at Paju P10 factory against 4 years. He said that “The investment of Paju P10 is a leading task for the mass production and the improvement of efficiency because the demand of OLED TV is rapidly increasing by the forecasting of 2.5 million units in 2018 and 6 million units in 2020. We will take the P10 factory as an OLED hub.”

The CFO also said that “We plan to order and install the necessary equipment from July 2017 to January 2019 for the Gen10.5 OLED line in Paju P10 factory, and through test period for 6~12 months, the 1st target will be to mass-produce the OLED of 30,000 units per month based on single unit. 5 trillion won will be invested to the P10 factory to install new lines of the Gen6 POLED with 30,000 units per month and it would be started to produce it in 2019.”

Accordingly, LG Display announced that E5 in Gumi, which was previously invested, plans to mass-produce the Gen6 POLED with monthly 15,000 units of scale in this year, E6 in Paju plans to mass-produce the Gen6 POLED with monthly 15,000 units of scale in Q2 2018. In addition, they mentioned that at the OLED new line in Guangzhou, China, will mass-produce the Gen8.5 OLED with monthly 60,000 units of scale from the first half of 2019 by the investment of the 5 trillion won. For concerns on the technology leakages about the investment of the Gen8.5 OLED in Guangzhou, the CFO, Sang-don, Kim, said “There was no cases of technology leakages in the LCD line of Guangzhou until now from last 2013 since the OLED is complicated technology to copy, and there would be much benefit by the localized equipment and all investment instead of it.”

Meanwhile, the sales of LG Display for the Q2 this year were reduced QOQ 6% (7,620 billion won) as 6,629 billion won, but, increased 13% versus same quarter of last year (5,855 billion won). The portions by the products are following: 46% for TV panels (QOQ +3%p), 22% for Mobile panels (QOQ -4%p), 17% for Monitor panels (QOQ +2%p), 15% for Laptop/Tablet panels (QOQ -1%p). LG Display explained that the performance in first half declined due to the seasonality impact, but the shipments in second half considered as high-season, will be increased versus first half.

What is the next-generation display poised to outshine OLED?

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The micro LED, QLED and hologram, which are referred to as the next generation displays, were presented at the seminar entitled ‘Recent Trends in Display and Vehicle Display Technology’ hosted by UBI Research on the 14th.

Under the theme ‘Technical Issues of micro LED Display and Market Trend’, professor Moon Dae-gyu of Soonchunhyang University said, “Micro LED can be realized in high resolution and it is easy to implement curved display or flexible display because there is no limit of panel shape and size” He added “When applying micro LED to a display, high resolution is feasible even on a small substrate size, so that it can be applied to VR, etc.” and expected “When applied to a public display, it will be able to escape from the method of tiling many display panels”. However, there remain some technical problems such as the problem of transferring and connecting millions of LED chips quickly and accurately, the deviation problem of color and luminous efficiency between LED chips, and the technical problem of implementing an active matrix for the application of a display.

<Professor Moon Dae-gyu of Soonchunhyang University>

Next, Dr. Hwang Do-Kyung of Korea Institute of Science and Technology(KIST), Dr. Bae Wan-ki, senior researcher of KIST, and Dr. Oh Min-Suk of Korea Electronics Technology Institute(KETI) announced the manufacturing principle of quantum dot and the possibility of self-emitting QLED using it. Dr. Hwang said, “The quantum dot has the advantage of not only color change depending on the size and but also narrow half width.” “Self-emitting QLED can display higher color purity than OLED.” he added.

Dr. Bae expected “If research is carried out on an enterprise scale, the speed of technology development will increase more rapidly.” saying that “At present, the efficiency of quantum dot devices is continuously improving, but the life span is insufficient compared to OLED.”

“We need the next generation display technology to follow the LCD and OLED,” said Dr. Oh Min-Seok of Korea Electronics Technology Institute(KETI). He added “QLED is attracting much attention as a next-generation display, but there remain such issues as too much focus on the development of emitting devices, the lack of solution process-related devices and technologies, and the non-cadmium-based high-efficiency blue light emitting devices”.

<Dr. Oh Min-Seok of Korea Electronics Technology Institute(KETI)>

As the last speaker, Kang, Hoon-Jong, team leader of Korea Electronics Technology Institute(KETI) explained the digital hologram technology and its application, and emphasized that a display panel capable of expressing the hologram is necessary to implement it. He said “We have a holographic printer or a microscope but there is no enough technology to apply it to TV”. Then, he closed his presentation saying “We need to develop a film for hologram first and then a functional design that can implement the screen.”

During the presentation about the next generation display, many of the speakers emphasized the importance of cooperation and participation among schools, research institutes and companies in order to overcome technical problems and realize them as actual displays. The display competition is expected to become even more intense in the future, as R&D in micro OLED, QLED, and hologram, which are considered as the next generation display, is concentrated.

The OLED is the best automotive display

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The seminar on the trend of the up-to-date technology for the next generation display which was themed ‘The technology trend for latest display and the automotive display’ hosted by the UBI Research, was held on July 14th at COEX in Seoul.

In the seminar, Sun-hong, Park, a senior researcher of automotive parts, said that “The attention to the display is increasing due to the importance of the visual intelligence, and its application will also grow because the OLED is able to easily realize the flexible deign and the transparent display.”

In addition, he expected that “The digitalization for the automotive will be lasting, and the China will take 50% and more of the worldwide consumption market for automotive in 2020, and the application of display including OLED will increase in accordance with the attributes of the Chinese who prefer colorful design.”

During the briefing of a car not having a side mirror which became an issue in recent, “The application of the OLED which has rapid response speed and wide viewing angle is highly likely to be employed. If it can just overcome the reliability, the OLED will be the best display for the automotive.”

In the other side, according to the “Automotive Display Report – application & market trend analysis and the market forecast” published by the UBI Research, it expected the OLED panel will be started in earnest applying to the cluster or CID of the automotive from 2018, and the automotive display is expected to grow about 17% annually, reaching around US$ 25,000 million by 2022. The AMOLED panel market among this will be account for about 20%.

<Forecasting of the market share by the automotive display 2017~2022>

AR and VR Market, Active Expansion in 2019 – What Propels the Growth?

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  • Forecast of US$ 58,700 million of total revenue of AR and VR in 2021
  • Active expansion expected in 2019 with UHD contents mass production and fast transfer of large size content for VR through introduction of 5G

 

With recent ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) progress, fourth industrial revolution is receiving attention as the new growth engine. Along with the increased interest in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), products such as Oculus Rift and Gear VR continue to be released.

Released AR products include glass types such as Microsoft’s HoloLens and Google’s Google Glass. HMD (Head Mounted Display) based VR type products include Oculus VR’s Oculus Rift, HTC’s Valve, and Sony’s PlayStation VR, and smartphone based VR types include Samsung Electronics’ Gear VR.

According to AR and VR Display Market Report published by UBI Research on 7th, AR and VR product shipment is expected to record 17 million units in 2017 with US$ 3,900 million revenue. UHD contents mass production and introduction of 5G for fast processing large size VR content are expected from 2019. Accordingly, total shipment of AR and VR products is estimated to increase at approximately 54% CAGR, and show 96.4 million units of shipment and US$ 58,700 million revenue.

The report divided the market by product and display for AR and VR market analysis, which is further categorized into AR and VR product total market, market by VR product, AR and VR use display total market, AR and VR use OLED, and market by other display type.

For immersive virtual reality experience without dizziness, display conditions such as latency, FOV, refresh rate, and high resolution were selected as key issues and were analyzed. AR and VR products released between 2014 and 2016 were arranged by types, categorized by display type and key companies and analyzed.

Furthermore, business status of key IT companies, including Apple and Facebook, is included handling AR and VR product release status, related patent, and related company takeover. With the information on key panel companies’ AR and VR product exhibition status, the report is expected to be conducive to understanding key trends of related companies.

UBI Research estimates AR and VR use OLED shipment to be 2.6 million units in 2017, with 2.4 million units of other displays. OLED is expected to show 52% of market share with 48% of other display. In 2021, AR and VR use OLED is expected to show shipment of 52 million units and occupy 80% of the market.

<Shipment Forecast by AR and VR use Display Type>

LG and Samsung at the International TADF Symposium in Germany

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TADF (Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence) is an exciting new technology to provide highly efficient and stable emitting materials for OLED devices. TADF emitters are poised to contribute to the next material-driven advancement of the OLED industry, making OLEDs ideal for even more applications. Right now, TADF technology is receiving much attention as it will lead to major improvement of OLED displays again. The importance of TADF technology and its impact of the Next-Generation OLEDs will be highlighted at the International TADF Symposium in Frankfurt, Germany. (www.tadf-symposium.com)

Directly after the well-known IFA conference, the world’s leading researchers from European and Korean universities will discuss aspects related to the development of TADF OLED materials from modelling through synthesis to analytics and device fabrication. In addition, the leading OLED manufactures LG and Samsung will reveal some of their views on the OLED industry and what impact high-efficiency TADF materials will have on it. Furthermore, CYNORA, the leading TADF materials provider, will present an update of its status and its finals steps in commercialization of first blue TADF emitters.

The registration for the International TADF Symposium will be open till 15th August. The TADF event is sponsored by Lesker Tool, Schrödinger and CYNORA.

Meet the leading experts from OLED industry and academia on September 7th in Frankfurt, Germany.

Reduce OLED manufacturing time to 1/10

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Manufacturing technology has been developed to quickly fabricate OLED.
The Korea Research Foundation (KFRI) announced the Yun, Hongseok research team at Hanbat National University has developed a high-speed transfer technology that can effectively transfer multiple thin OLED layers to desired locations through high-pressure air jet injection.

The OLED transfer separates multiple layers of thin film from the substrate all at once and combines them with other thin films to produce a device. At this time, the thin film is ripped apart or wrinkled, and the corner is torn off, which make it difficult to mass-produce.

<A conceptual diagram of energy transfer process of polymer OLED multilayer thin film using air jet, Source: Korea Research Foundation>

The team used the principle of effectively controlling the bonding energy between the thin film and substrate by a high-speed peeling technique using the air jet technology,. An air jet close to the sonic speed is injected between the substrate and OLED thin film to effectively reduce the bonding force with the substrate, thereby enabling the transfer without damaging the thin film. The high-speed transfer method through the air jet requires only short time to transfer the OLED; the processing time takes about 1/10 of production time. OLED thin films can be manufactured at low cost by coating them with a solution.

Professor Yoon, Hongseok explained, “This research has developed a technology that can rapidly manufacture OLED device because they can be effectively transferred all at once by using an air jet without damaging the OLED thin film. The unit production cost of OLED can be significantly reduced, which has been used in a wide range of applications such as OLED lighting, advertising and display. It is expected to be applied to basic electronic devices in the future such as solar cells and semiconductor devices. ”

The research was carried out with the support of the Researcher Support Project for the Basic Research Support Program of the Korea Research Foundation and was published in the international journal on nanomaterials applications, Nanoscale.

OLED TV is the competitive TV covering the whole areas such as the design and the sound quality as well as the image quality.

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“While the existing OLED TV is focused on the image quality, the current OLED TV is not only picture quality but also covering any areas including the design and the sound quality.”

In the keynote address for the workshop of ‘the 12th Display National R&D Projects’ held on 5 July in Hoengseong, Gangwon-do, Soo-young, Yoon, a director of LG Display, introduced the advantages of OLED TV such as superior image quality, design freedom, and sound quality improvement including the capacity of the light and shade, and color implementation.

He said, “It is unlike LCD, OLED is the self-emitting, and be able to be controlled by a pixel unit, so that it is capable of expressing the perfect black, and implementing the unlimited contrast range. Therefore, OLED is the best display to express the stars or a bright moon in the darkness.” And also, he emphasized that “OLED TV is free to express the middle gradation through the precise color expressiveness, so that it is able to realize the vivid color as realistic.”

 

Subsequently, he introduced the wallpaper and CSO (crystal sound OLED) which attracted lots of attention in last CES 2017, “If the existing OLED TV is an image quality-oriented, the current OLED TV goes through any areas such as the design, sound quality but also the image quality. Especially, the embedded speaker methods are able to realize the high level of immersion, by agreeing the position of the mouth and the sound along with the effect of design advancement.”

A director, Soo-young, Yoon, also introduced the transparent flexible OLED which can implements the radius of curvature 80R, 40% penetration ratio, and 77-inch UHD, that developed for the commercialization, and mentioned that the transparent and flexible display will be a future display. He also said that they are on-going to develop the devices and materials for solution process, and it needs to be discovered the new application and new form factor.

Finally, he mentioned the P10 factory at Paju, “We expect to ultimately produce new OLED TV at P10 factory which plans to be completed by the end of this year through thorough preparation.”

OLED Highly Polarized OLED, A New Approach to Improve OLED Light Efficiency,

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Professor Kim Jae-Hoon of Hanyang University announced at the seminar, ‘OLED market analysis and latest technology’ for the first half, host by UBI industry research last June that a small amount of chiral molecule added to the polymer OLED emissive layer controls the polarization of light emission to improve light efficiency by 60%.

Two linear polarizers applied in orthogonal form to LCD are used to transmit or block the light from the back light unit through liquid crystal movement while one circular polarizer of OLED prevents reflection of external light, which is applied as a role to increase outdoor visibility

Display companies have focused on development of device structure, optical extraction technology and material, and luminescent mechanism to compensate for more than 50% luminescent light loss due to the polarizer. We need a way to improve the efficiency of OLED using polarized light. Professor Kim, Jae-hoon has presented a method and research results to improve the OLED light efficiency in use of polarized light, emphasizing ‘the need of a new approach in a new perspective’.

<Simulation of chiral molecules-added OLED structure>

Professor Kim, Jae-hoon explained, ‘Polymer materials of OLED generate high linearly polarized light with high liquid crystallinity in general. When this light passes through a light emitting layer inclusive of chiral molecules, it becomes a circularly polarized light’. “Theoretically, the light efficiency can be increased by 100%,” he added. “This way, we can implement brighter OLED with lower power consumption.”

In application of this principle, Professor Kim, Jae – hoon and his team members have developed the OLED with luminous efficiency 60% higher than existing OLED and further research will be continued on circular polarization based on low molecular materials.

Meanwhile, the research was sponsored by the ‘Future Display Core Technology Development’ project, and the research outcomes have been published in the recent issue of an international journal, ‘Advanced Materials’.

How about the future OLED market performance?

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At the seminar titled “OLED market analysis and the latest technology” host by the UBI Research at the FKI last June, the president, Lee Choong Hoon predicted the market through analyzing the OLED industry investment and mass production in the first half of 2017.

President Lee Choong Hoon emphasized that China will lead the OLED equipment market by 2021 due to increase in OLED demand of Chinese set makers. Accordingly, the Chinese equipment market is expected to account for about 48% of the entire equipment market in 2021, investing approx. US $ 40.5 billion.

It is anticipated that such movement of Chinese companies will affect the OLED smartphone market. In 2019, OLED smartphones will reverse the LCD smartphone market, accounting for 80% of the total smartphone market by 2021.

On the other hand, as for the flexible OLED, between 2017 and 2019, Samsung Electronics expects to invest heavily in BOE to be ranked second in the flexible OLED market, which should cope with the increasing demand on flexible OLED of Samsung Electronics and Apple.

President Lee analyzed that the premium TV market will be formed with larger than 65 inches as the 65-inch panels will be mass-produced at BOE’s Gen10.5 LCD plant from 2018. Consequently, panel makers without Gen10.5 will produce 65 inch panels on the Gen8 line in MMG (multi-model on a glass) method. On the other hand, LG Display is expected to continually produce TV OLED panel at Gen8, and since 2020 at Gen10.5 line.

According to ‘2017 OLED Manufacturing Equipment Annual Report’ published by the UBI research, from 2017 to 2021, it is anticipated that TFT equipment will account for 45% of the market share, followed by OLED pixel forming equipment 17%, encapsulation equipment 13%, cell equipment 13% and module equipment 12% respectively. As the demand on flexible OLEDs is expected to increase remarkably in the future, the market share of cell and module equipment will accordingly increase by 25% with high importance.

OLEDON, Find the future of AMOLED in plane source FMM!

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Three years have passed since the first QHD (about 515 ppi) OLED applied to Galaxy Note4 in 2014, but OLED resolution is still in QHD. In order to manufacture high-resolution OLED over UHD, FMM of less than 15 μm is required, but it is not applied to mass production due to various technical issues.

Professor Hwang Chang-Hoon, CEO of OLEDON, a venture business of Dankook University, proposed that the plane source FMM deposition technology is the only solution for a high-resolution OLED manufacturing process over UHD at the 1H semester UBI Research Seminar “OLED Market Analysis and Latest Technology” held on June 30 (Fri) at Yeouido FKI Conference Center.

Professor Hwang Chang-Hoon said, “To improve the resolution of AMOLED, the angle of flight of organic molecules should be reduced to less than 10 degrees and the aspect ratio of TFT devices should be maintained at 1.0 level.” and explained “The evaporation angle (incidence angle) of the currently known linear source is about 40 degrees, and the shadow distance is about 3 um. Therefore, the ratio of the pattern width, the shadow distance, and the aspect ratio can be increased at the SUHD level AMOLED patterning process. Ultimately, the current patterning technology loses the flatness of the film. “.

In addition, Professor Hwang Chang-Hoon said, “Linear deposition technology has limitations in achieving resolution higher than QHD, and development of plane source FMM deposition technology is the only way to manufacture OLED with 2000 ppi or higher.”.

<Professor Hwang Chang-Hoon announced the 2250ppi AMOLED technical problem, Source: the 1H semester UBI Research Seminar>

The shadow distance measured by OLEDON’s plane source FMM deposition technique ranges from 0.68 to 1.05 μm and the angle of incidence is 13 to 19 degrees and converting this result to resolution makes it possible to fabricate a device with a maximum of 1500 ppi. On the other hand, with the newly developed Xplane source, the shadow distance was 0.38 ~ 0.56um and the incident angle was 7.2 ~ 8.0 degrees, it is possible to manufacture up to 3300 ppi device by converting it to the resolution. In the last SID2017, Prof. Jin Byung-Doo and Prof. Hwang Chang-Hoon introduced the world’s first measurement of sub-micron-scale shadow distance using plane source patterning technology, it has been announced that it is possible to manufacture a micro AMOLED device having a Super Ultra (SUHD) resolution of 11K (2250 ppi) or more if scale-up development is applied to large-area OLED display production industry in the future. (Paper title: Plane source evaporation techniques for Super ultra high resolution flexible AMOLED)

Sub-micron Shadow data and incident angle data obtained by plane source FMM deposition technology, Source: the 1H semester UBI Research Seminar

On the other hand, based on the development results, OLEDON announced that it plans to develop and install planar source FMM evaporator for research, which can manufacture ultra-high resolution micro OLED devices using plane source deposition technology, in Dankook University. (Refer to: OLEDON homepage www.oledon.co.kr)

[LED & OLED EXPO 2017] OLED lighting in a broad range of applications

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‘International LED & OLED EXPO 2017’, the largest international lighting exposition in S.Korea, opened for three days in KINTEX, Goyang City, S.Korea on March 27. A large number of OLED lighting companies participated in this event and presented various OLED lightings.

The Korea Institute of Industrial Technology organized a booth for OLED lighting industrial cluster project and displayed many different OLED lightings of Korea Institute of Industrial Technology and Hausand, Vawoodesign and so on, together with Korea Photonics Industry Promotion Association, Korea Photonics Technology Institute, and Korea Institute of Lighting Research.

<Mirror desk OLED lighting of Hausand>

A researcher of Korea Institute of Industrial Technology said, “The average life time of OLED lighting is currently 15,000 hours at LT50 and the target life time will be 40,000 hours. From the lighting point of view, flexible and transparent design and slim thickness can generate an unlimited number of applications”. Also “In Europe, OLED is in the spotlight due to the limit of LED illumination. The lighting market has been already saturated by Chinese LED manufacturers while OLED has much more market potential.” “As the market grows, OLED lighting made in relatively simple manufacturing process will be less expensive than LED, “he anticipated.

“The lifetime of currently commercialized OLED lighting is 40,000 hours at LT50 and sufficient to use on a daily basis,” said a manager of JW M Tech, who introduced various flexible and rigid OLED lightings.”OLED emits less blue light and is superior to LED in different design applications. We will soon develop flexible OLED lighting and be most competitive in the international lighting industry,” he added.

<Flexible OLED mood light of JWM Tech>

Sungkyunkwan University introduced its self manufactured flexible OLED lighting in use of roll-to-roll process. An official of SungKyunKwan University expectantly said, “the roll-to-roll process reduces the production time and because of its thin and flexible design, it will be applied to various lightings.”

In addition, Oclass introduced mirror OLED lighting to draw great attention, and Woori Lighting’s stand-type OLED lighting in application of the wireless charging function of cell phone has been awarded by the Minister of Industry and Commerce, proving its competitiveness of OLED, the next-generation light source.

<Stand type OLED lighting of Woori Lighting>

UBi Research first half year closing seminar ” OLED Market analysis and latest technology”

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■ Review the technical issues & market in the OLED industry in the first half of 2017

■ Market outlook and change points forecast for the 2H of the year thru 1H issue analysis

 

UBI Research will hold an OLED market analysis and latest technology on June 30 (Fri) at the FKI Conference Center in Yeouido, Korea, to finalize the OLED market in the first half of 2017 and forecast the market in the second half of 2017.

 

In this seminar, we will look at the investment trends and future of major panel makers and look at OLED market trends and latest technologies such as development status of luminescent materials of TADF and Iridium phosphorescent materials, technology issues for flexible OLEDs, and surface patterning deposition technology for high resolution so that it will be a place to preview how OLED markets and technologies will change.

 

In this seminar, (Kwon Seong-Ryul, head of Dongbu Securities Industry Analysis team will be presenting on changes in OLED portion in smartphones, TVs, and signage, and polarization of major OLED panel suppliers by country, forecasts of major OLED equipment and materials markets, possibility of foldable display and technical difficulties and etc.

 

Following this, Chang Jung-Hoon, a member of Samsung Securities Tech team is responsible for Samsung’s line expansion, analyzing the current status of OLED panel makers in China, analyzing value chain of OLED equipment makers and material companies, changing supply chain driven by OLED application of Apple iPhone, demand forecast for small and medium-sized OLED panels from investor point of view.

 

Next, Lee Jun-Yeob, professor at SungKyunKwan University will mention the development process of TADF OLED, technical issues of TADF dopant, technical issues of TADF OLED, and current situation of hyperfluorescence.

 

Kim Jae-Hoon, professor at Hanyang University, will disclose the experiment result in which the luminous efficiency is improved by 60% compared to conventional OLED by applying circular dichroism technology to improve the light efficiency of OLED.

 

Lee Choong-Hoon, president of UBi Research, will explain investment prospects and investment trends of major OLED companies, overall equipment market forecast for OLED manufacturing, OLED luminous material market forecast, overall OLED market outlook, available panel shipment to the market and sales forecasts.

 

Jin Sung-Ho, professor at Pusan National University will present the experiment result showing high luminous efficiency while simplifying the OLED structure by introducing a functional substituent having electron transfer property into a red iridium phosphorescent material and developing an iridium-based phosphorescent material for OLED capable of solution process.

 

Lee Ki-Yong, professor at Hanyang University will explain display trends, technical issues of flexible OLED components, and concept design of flexible displays.

 

Lastly, Hwang Chang-Hoon, professor at Dankuk University and a representative of OLEDON, will explain the plane source patterning deposition technology that can improve the OLED resolution by about 8 times by implementing 0.38 um shadow distance (SD).

Convention team (Lee Seul-Ji Assistant Manager)/ Tel: 02-577-4903 /Email: sjlee@ubiresearch.com

LG Display, marking its successful development of the world’s first 77 inch transparent flexible OLED display

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<source : LG Display>

LG Display announced in the “Large-Size Transparent Flexible Display R&D Performance Report on 22nd that it has succeeded in developing the world’s first 77” UHD transparent flexible OLED display under government initiative “. The 77 inch transparent flexible OLED display developed by LG Display is equipped with UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution, implementing 40% transmittance and the radius of curvature 80 mm (transformable into a 80 mm radius cylindrical shape); the product features outstripped the initial development plan of 60” large screen and the curvature of radius 100 mm.

Along with the 77 inch transparent flexible OLED display, LG Display presented a 55 inch transparent display equipped with the optical shutter film to block transparency.

Lee In-ho, the first deputy of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, “With the development of transparent flexible technology in S. Korea’s OLED industry, the top in the world, the potential applications of OLED panel, which had been used only in smartphone and TV, will expectedly expand into the medical, architecture and automobile field. “He emphasized that this will serve as a ground for securing S.Korea’s competitive technological talents and advantages.

Kang In-byoung, LG Display CTO said, “We expect to contribute to the expansion of the OLED camp and new markets by enhancing the large-area OLED technology, operating the government-initiative project”. As a most leading company in the future display market, we will do our best to provide better values and qualities of the advanced technology. ”

Meanwhile, the government initiative project of the transparent flexible display project was organized under the supervision of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology to support continuous development of the display industry and securing the national’s strongest competitiveness. Accordingly, LG Display has developed an 18 inch transparent flexible OLED display in 2014, 18 inch roll-able display with a curvature of 30 mm radius in 2015, and 55 inch display with 40% transparency in 2016.

LG Display, Awarded ‘Achievement Award’ for development of OLED TV at Japan OLED forum

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LG Display announced on the 16th that it received the ‘Achievement Award’ for the first time as a foreign company in recognition of the superiority of WRGB technology that enabled the production of large OLED TV and the pioneering of the large OLED TV market at the 24th Japan OLED forum held at the NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories in Tokyo.

55-inch transparent OLED, LG Display unveiled at CES 2017. Source : LG Display

The Japan OLED forum is an academic society where experts from Japan’s major industries and academia gather together to discuss and discuss solutions for academic, applied research, and practical applications related to OLED, such as Tokyo University, Kyushu University, Sony, JDI and JOLED.

According to the Japan OLED forum, LG Display is recognized for its technological ability to produce large-size OLED TVs and for pioneering large OLED TV market and won the award for achievement for the first time as the overseas company.

The technology that LG Display recognized for its achievements is WRGB technology that builds up R, G, B organic materials on a thin film transistor (TFT) vertically and adds white elements to make four subpixels, not the RGB methods that arrange R, G, B organic materials on a thin film transistor (TFT) horizontally..

LG Display used this technology to mass-produce OLED TV panels for the first time in the world in January 2013 while pioneering the large OLED TV market.

LG-Display emphasized “this award is significant because it acknowledged the technology of LG Display, which produces large-sized OLED panels in Japan, which is the mainstay of flat panel displays”.

Oh Chang-ho, Managing Director of LG Display’s OLED TV Development Group, said, “I am extremely honored that LG Display has been recognized for its OLED technology by industry-leading experts”, and “We will make efforts to contribute to the development of the display industry by developing differentiated OLED products in the future,” .

On the other hand, LG-Display was not only able to realize excellent image quality with 65inch UHD Wallpaper OLED panel in SID 2017 but also received the Display of the Year this year as an innovative product that presents new possibilities for display in terms of application scope and design.

UBI Research , Published the Market Report on OLED Manufacturing Equipment

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■The OLED equipmentmarket is expected to reach $84.9 billion in 5 years.

■Korean and Chinese panel companies will take over 90% of investment in panel equipment.

 

According to ‘2017 OLED Manufacturing Equipment Annual Report’ published by UBI Research, the entire equipment market of OLED is expected to total$84.9 billion(about 93trillion KRW) from 2017 to 2021. In 2017, $16.4 billion(about 18 trillion KRW) will be invested in OLED equipment.

The OLED equipment for the market analysis is largely categorized by process into 5 kinds of equipment; TFT, OLED, encapsulation, cell, and module. The investment costs including distribution equipment and test equipment of each process are calculated, and touch-related equipment is excluded from the market analysis.

Hyun Jun Jang, a senior researcher of UBI Research forecasts that the two countries will lead the OLED market due to the massive investment from both Korean panel companies occupying the OLED industry and latecomers Chinese panel companies.

According to this report, China and Korea will actively invest in OLED equipment from 2017 to 2017, showinga 48% and a 42% OLED market share, respectively. In particular, the two countries are expected to make the largest investment of $32.8 billion(about 36 trillion KRW) in 2017 and 2018.

Samsung Display has been expanding small and medium OLED lines to be applied to Galaxy series and Apple, and LG Display has been investing in both small & medium and large-size OLED lines. China’s BOE and CSOT are likely to invest heavily in OLED line because especially BOE has decided to invest more than 30K in small and medium OLED lines every year since 2017.

<left) OLED Equipment Market Share by Process,    right) OLED Equipment Market Share by Country>

From 2017 to 2021, itis forecast that TFT equipment, OLED pixel patterning equipment, encapsulation equipment, cell equipment, and module equipment will have a 45%, 17%,13%,13%, and 12% market share, respectively. In near future, the demand for flexible OLED will be likely to increase so that cell and module equipment will gain more importance having a 25% market share.

Corner Stone Foundation for Novaled Premises in Dresden

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<Source : Novlaed>

June 12, Novaled celebrates the corner stone foundation for the new company premises at Elisabeth-Boer-Strasse 9 in Dresden. On the 10,200 m² site in the north of Dresden, the Old Mill, which is under monument protection, will be renovated and transformed into a prestigious office building. As a new building, a 110-meter-long R&D plant with the best-equipped research area, clean rooms of class ISO5 and ISO7 as well as laboratories are being built. Works for the floor plate and walls of the R&D plant as well as the partial de-coring of the mill have begun. The new company headquarters offers Novaled enough space for further growth. After completion of the construction measures, the team will be able to use an area of 6,160 m² in the buildings – the best conditions for the development of materials for premium OLEDs and organic electronics.

With the purchase of the property and the decision to invest over 25 million euros in the Dresden location, Samsung SDI as Novaled parent company has made a very clear commitment to the economic region and to Novaled. Together with the city of Dresden and the state of Saxony, this step was successfully launched.

“The advantages of the new company location are obvious: best accessibility for customers, suppliers and employees; a very good infrastructure; state-of-the-art equipment and ample space for our creative team, “says Gerd Günther, CEO of Novaled. “These are the best prerequisites for driving innovation, opening up new markets, winning customers and their applications, and ensuring sustainable growth in Saxony.”

Novaled is currently worldwide the only supplier of organic dopants for OLED display mass production. The doping technology of the Samsung subsidiary Novaled is meanwhile a quasi-industry standard. Dresden’s know-how and materials are thus found in most smartphones, tablets and other devices with OLED displays. Also OLED lighting applications like Audi TT tail lights or applications like organic solar cells use Novaled technologies and materials for being high performant.

Source : Novaled

CYNORA presents record results for high-efficiency blue OLED emitters

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CYNORA, a leader in TADF (thermally activated delayed fluorescence) materials for OLEDs, has reached new performance records with its newest blue emitter material. With the current performance, the company is getting close to commercialization of its first product by the end of 2017.

 

Despite urgent requests by the OLED display panel makers for a high-efficiency blue emitter material in the last few years, no material supplier has yet been able to produce such a material. High-efficiency blue emitters are needed to reduce power consumption and increase the display resolution further. At SID 2017, CYNORA presented a blue emitter with a performance that was very close to the requirements of the panel makers. Using TADF technology, the company has achieved 15% EQE at 1000 cd/m² with an emission peak at < 470 nm and a LT97 of > 90 hours (at 700 cd/m²) on a device level.

 

“CYNORA’s latest patent-protected materials show a performance in the range of the customer´s specifications for blue” said Thomas Baumann, CYNORA´s CSO, “This is the best overall performance of a high-efficiency blue emitter so far from what CYNORA has seen. In the finalization of CYNORA’s product development, CYNORA will now focus on moving the emission peak slightly towards 460 nm.”

 

“CYNORA’s progress in the last few months makes us very confident that CYNORA can commercialize CYNORA’s first highly efficient blue emitter by the end of this year, as planned” said Andreas Haldi, CMO at CYNORA. “But CYNORA’s goal is to become a leading OLED material supplier by providing emitters of all display colors. Therefore, CYNORA is planning to follow up on the blue emitter with a green emitter by 2018 and a red emitter by 2019.”

UBI Research holds the 1H Semester Seminar “OLED Market Analysis and Latest Technology Seminar (June 30, 2017 Federation of Korean Industries Head Office Building)

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■ 2017 1H general review of the technical issues and the market of OLED industry.

■ 2H09 market outlook and change point forecast through 1H issue analysis.

UBI Research will hold the 1H semester seminar: OLED market analysis and latest technology seminar which will be able to forecast OLED market issues in the first half of 2017 and predict market outlook and change points in 2H07 on June 30 (Fri) at Yeouido FKI Conference Center.

It will be analyzed the technical issues and market in the OLED industry in the first half of the 17th year under the theme of “OLED Market Analysis and Latest Technologies”. In addition, it seems to forecast the 2H OLED market and change points for 2H through 1H issue analysis.

In this seminar, technology development status and prospects of TADF OLED, Soluble OLED, and Flexible OLED technology that are emerging as next generation OLED technology will be intensively introduced with the key experts in related fields. It will be a place to look at the latest OLED technologies and to see in advance how OLED future technologies will evolve.

▲ Market forecasts by analyzing OLED industry investment and mass production in the first half of 2017(Lee Choong-Hoon, representative of UBI Research), ▲ A new display paradigm ‘OLED'(Kwon Seong-Ryul, team leader of Dongbu Securities), will intensively analyze future display industry with the theme. ▲ Recent trends of TADF OLED luminescent materials(Prof Lee Jun-Yeob of Sungkyunkwan University), ▲ A New approach to improve OLED luminescence efficiency(Prof. Kim Jae-Hoon, Hanyang University), ▲ Development of Highly Efficient Multi-Functional Emitting Materials for Organic Light-Emitting Diode Application(Prof Jin Sung-Ho of Pusan National University), ▲ Flexible Display Technology Development Trends and Challenges(Prof. Lee Ki-Yong, Hanyang University), ▲Plane Source Evaporation for Very High ppi AMOLED (OLEDON/Prof. Hwang Chang-Hoon of Dankook University). With the theme of ‘It is time to challenge’ he will present the latest technology issues and directions for further growth of the display industry.

In this seminar, we will take a comprehensive view of the market and technology from the overall OLED industry, investment perspective, and economic perspective, it is expected to be a place where various high-quality information and networking exchanges will be formed along with domestic core experts, and the status and future of display technology can be forecasted.

The 4th Generation Emitting Material, Hyperfluorescence

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Thermally activated delayed fluorescence(TADF), still under development to complement OLED emitting materials insufficient as both fluorescence and phosphorescent materials, takes time to be commercialized at the present stage. Even Kyulux considered the most advanced company in terms of TADF technology hasn’t yet to commercialized TADF dopant suitable for display.

Adachi, CTO of Kyulux said the unprepared TADF host material is an obstacle to the commercialization of TADF, so the full width at half maximum of emitting peak is too wide to be applied to display. To solve this problem, the 4th generation hyperfluorescence is under development to commercialize the TADF material.

<Kyulux CTO Adachi>

Hyperfluorescence aims at having the effect of a phosphorescent material by adding TADF dopant to existing fluorescence host and dopant.

<Hyperfluorescence Effect>

This effect has a structure that can solve both the full width at half maximum of TADF and the low brightness of fluorescence materials as seen in the above figure, Adachi emphasized.

<Hyperfluorescence vs General fluorescence>

As seen in the above photo, Kyulux’s OLED made of general green fluorescence material and OLED made of hyperfluorescence by adding TADF to this material have a distinct difference on the same substrate.

Kyulux’s goal is to commercialize hyper fluorescence by 2017. Its target is PMOLED.

LG Display’s OLED lighting ‘Medusa’ OLED wins the MIAW awards

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During Euroluce 2017 held in Milan, Italy, LG Display showcased two OLED masterpieces called ‘Medusa’ and ‘Pyrosome’ made by Ross Lovegrove, known as ‘Captain Organic’. The collaboration with flexible LG OLED light panels attracted the attention of many visitors and many designers, architects, and lighting experts were inspired by the unique and aesthetic design.

‘Medusa’, one of the most outstanding collaboration masterpieces made with flexible LG OLED light panels, has won the MIAW (Muuuz International Awards) organized by the ArchiDesignClub in partnership with Muuuz magazine.

The awards intend to identify every year the most outstanding new products for Construction & Architecture Layout, Coatings & Materials, Home furniture, Lighting, Kitchen & Bath, and Outdoor, and Lovegrove’s ‘Medusa’ has proudly won the Lighting category.

LG Display said that by winning the award, LG OLED light will be promoted through an extensive communications distribution package and flexible LG OLED light panels will have a greater chance to develop the OLED market and provide massive benefits to future OLED design features.

<LG Display’s flexible OLED lighting ’Medusa’>

The award ceremony will be held in June, 2017 at the Grand Hotel Intercontinental Paris Opera.

OLEDON with Dankook University succeeding in developing next-generation ultra high resolution patterning deposition technology

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Chin Byung-Doo, professor at Dankook University and Hwang Chang-Hoon, professor at Dankook University and CEO of OLEDON announced that they have succeeded in developing evaporation pattern deposition technology which can realize 0.38um shadow distance (SD) at SID 2017.

Mr. Hwang, CEO of OLEDON announced at 2016 IMID Business forum that he succeeded in implementing plane source evaporation and 1.1um shadow distance with 100um-thick shadow mask. At that time, Mr. Hwang said, ‘If we reduce the step height to 3μm, theoretically, we can implement the shadow distance down to 0.38 um, so the OLED panel resolution will be possibly more than 2250ppi.’

At the SID 2017, OLEDON’s solid result of implementing SD 0.38um in application of actual plane source drew great attention from people in relevant industries regarding the possibility of mass production.

Current OLED panel production technology has the limits on implementing the resolution higher than QHD (about 600ppi) for about 3 um thick shadow which causes overlapping micro patterns in the UHD (over 800ppi) AMOLED patterning process to degrade the fine pattern density. Consequently, OLED panels are produced only at QHD level.

If OLEDON’s surface source patterning deposition technology is applied to mass production, the shadow distance can be reduced to 0.38 ~ 0.56um, which can improve the resolution about 8 times higher. In addition, if scale-up development is applied to a large size OLED display production in the future, it is possible to manufacture a micro AMOLED device equipped with super ultra resolution (SUHD) resolution higher than 3300ppi.

<Shadow data from the surface source deposition technology>

Hwang Chang-hoon, CEO of OLEDON said, ‘using the idea of primarily evaporating the organic material and its deposition on the metal surface in the vacuum environment to form organic molecular film and re-evaporate it for the second coating deposition, we have found a condition to minimize the evaporation angle of the organic molecular beam. ”

<The principle of film source presented by Mr. Hwan at the SID>

With the recent focus on display resolution, OLEDON’s research results are expected to bring significant impact on the relevant industry.

Meanwhile, Prof. Hwang Chang-hoon has been developing new deposition technology for 25 years via a deposition specialist company. He holds the original patent of surface source deposition technology (Linear organic device mass production equipment with top-down thermal induction deposition: Registration No. 101206162000).

OLED, the mainstream of HMD devices for VR

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The ‘PlayX4’ opening ceremony, a next-generation augmented game show, was held at Kintex exhibition hall 2, Ilsan, Goyang, Gyeonggi-do on the 25th. During the event, a number of companies presented VR contents, using HMD (head mounted display) devices in application of OLED, such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Gear VR to improve immersion and reduce motion sickness.

Realitymagiq, a professional of VR game developer, introduced a multiplay game. In reply to a question on immersion into VR, “Device performance is essential for immersive in VR, and to reduce latency, the major culprit for sickness, OLED is more than enough,” said Kim Sung-kyun, the CEO of Realitymagiq. “However, resolution needs to be further developed and so does GPU performance.”

Motionhouse Co., Ltd. has introduced MotionGear for users to experience tilting and engine vibration during actual driving. Oculus Rift OLED-applied headset, was used; “Oculus Rift was the one that could minimize the motion sickness most”, said a participant.

Latency refers to the time length for the CPU to receive information from the tracker and output, which is related to the response time of the display and the information processing of the graphics card. The response time of the display required in VR is known to be less than 3ms. Samsung Display compares the response time between OLED and LCD on the blog and emphasizes that OLED is the optimal display for VR HMD device.

The Response time between OLED and LCD, Source: blog.samsungdisplay.com

In fact, many VR content companies used OLED-applied HMD devices such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Gear VR, and users seemed to enjoy VR game, not suffering from dizziness

Recently, aside from Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, many HMD makers such as recently launched Sony’s PS VR and Royole’s Royole Moon are OLED-based, not LCD, and surely the OLED application is expected to expand further.

[SID 2017] BOE, Unveiled the World’s First True QLED

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BOE attracted the big attention of visitors by unveiling the world’s first 2 types of QLEDs(5 inch, 14 inch) based on electroluminescence quantum dot technology.

BOE’s 5 inch QLED has a resolution of 320 x 240 (80ppi) with LTPS TFT. On the other hands, 14 inch QLED has a resolution of 960 x 540 (80ppi) with oxide TFT.

<BOE’s 5 inch (left) & 14 inch (right) QLED display>

BOE’s QLED display this time is special because it is an ‘electroluminescence quantum dot technology’-based display without backlight, unlike Samsung Electronics’ SUHD TV based on ‘photoluminescence quantum dot’.

In general, quantum dot-based displays are categorized into two types of mechanisms: photoluminescence quantum dot and electroluminescence quantum dot.

Photoluminescence quantum dot technology has a mechanism where the material stimulated by external luminescence emits light again. Samsung Electronics applies this technology to its LCD TV by using the QD sheet attached on blue light emitting from backlight.

On the other hands, electroluminescence quantum dot technology has a mechanism that emits itself when electricity is put, and its material is inorganic and structure is similar to OLED.

Choong Hoon Yi, president of UBI Research said in analyst column that “photoluminescence quantum dot technology is applied to current LCD TVs to improve color reproduction of display. It must be the best product as LCD TV, but electroluminescence quantum dot-based display is a true QLED display”

A BOE employee explained “QLED display improves its reliability by using inorganic matters for existing OLED structure instead of organic matters, featuring better color gamut than OLED. 100% inkjet printing-based QLED is better in terms of manufacturing cost saving and large scale, compared to deposition-based OLED”.

The industry has expected that it will take more than 5 years to mass-produce QLED display, so according to BOE’s research, there’s a keen interest on how much the commercialization of electroluminescence quantum dot-based QLED is moved up or how much it influences the display industry.

2017 Q1 AMOLED Performance Analysis

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According to UBI Research, sales of AMOLED in the first quarter of 2017 were US$ 4.31 billion, up 15% from the same quarter last year (Q1 2016). Shipments amounted to 99.1 million units, up 9% from the same period last year.

AMOLED accounted for 88% of smartphone sales and 7% of TV sales. Especially, TV sales market share grew by 5% YoY and it shows big growth of OLED TV market.

With Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S8 and S8+ launches and mass production of AMOLED panels for Apple, and joining OLED TV market of Japanese companies such as Sony, Toshiba and Panasonic, the AMOLED market will continue to grow even after Q2. Mobile AMOLEDs are expected to ship more than 100 million units each quarter, and TV AMOLEDs are expected to ship more than 300,000 units per quarter.

UBI Research estimates that the total AMOLED market will grow to a CAGR of 33% by 2020, reaching US$ 59.3 billion.

<Total AMOLED market sales forecast>

JOLED, Production of 21.6 inch OLED by the world’s first inkjet printing process

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JOLED announced on last 17th that it developed the world’s first 21.6 inch 4K OLED panel with RGB inkjet printing process and shipped the prototype from April.

Developed by JOLED’s RGB inkjet printing process, the thickness of the panel is 1.3mm, weighs 500g, brightness is 350cd/m2, and contrast ratio is 1,000,000: 1. According to JOLED, this panel was applied to medical monitors.

<21.6 inch OLED and its specifications developed by JOLED, source: JOLED>

JOLED said ‘Ink-jet printing is a technology for printing by applying a light emitting material, which the production process is simple and easy to expand to diverse screen size, so it has been put into practical use. The top emission, viewing angle and color reproducibility of OLED panels will be improved.’

 

In addition, JOLED has announced its plans for the future ‘to expand its inkjet printing-type small and medium-sized OLED applications (such as gaming monitors, automotive applications, etc.) or suppliers continuously.’

JOLED is a company established by INCJ, JDI, Sony and Panasonic, and is actively developing inkjet printing process. Among the panel makers, JOLED is the only company that has released a product developed by inkjet printing process in 2016.

<55inch 4K flexible AMOLED panel unveiled by JOLED in 2016>

According to Ubi research’s ‘ Market Entry Analysis for Solution Process OLED -The Possibilities and Opportunities‘, ink-jet printing is one of the process methods of the solution process, in which the ink-jet head is used to drop ink onto each pixel. Major panel makers are developing a solution process using this process, and JOLED is expected to take a lead in the future.

The solution process is capable of realizing large-area OLED panel with RGB pixel structure in Gen8 and above, has high material utilization efficiency, and is developed as a simple layer, which is advantageous in cost reduction in mass production success.

Meanwhile, Lee Choong-hoon, CEO of UBI Research, said, “Although the large-area OLED market is targeting the premium market with the WRGB method, the solution process will be the core technology since low-cost and high-production technology is key to replacing LCDs with OLEDs.”

[SID 2017] Samsung Display, Unveil the world’s first 9.1inch Stretchable AMOLED

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Samsung Display unveiled the world’s first 9.1inch stretchable AMOLED, including touch, on SID 2017, boasting the world’s best AMOLED technology.

In addition to presenting a paper entitled “9.1-in-stretchable AMOLED display based on LTPS technology” at SID 2017 symposium, Samsung Display has attracted great interest in visitors by exhibiting real objects in the future display zone at Samsung Display’s.

In this 9.1 inch stretchable AMOLED, the PI is formed on the shrinkable film substrate, and then the stretchable region is patterned. And it is structured that TFT and OLED are formed on the patterned PI, and multi-touch sensor is realized at the same time.

<9.1inch stretchable AMOLED structure of Samsung Display>

In addition, stretchable AMOLEDs can be implemented in both convex and concave shapes, and up to 12 mm in concave shapes.

Stretchable display is the final technology of flexible display, so it is expected to be applied to various fields such as clothing and human skin because it does not receive any form restrictions and it is expected to create applications for new areas.

Samsung Display, which is leading the AMOLED market for mobile devices with flexible AMOLED, is expected to maintain its technological gap with latecomers once again, and also is expected how would it stimulate latecomers who are pursuing AMOLED technology at high speed.

<Samsung Display’s exhibition booth with 9.1inch stretchable AMOLED>

<9.1inch stretchable AMOLED specification of Samsung Display>

<9.1inch stretchable AMOLED displayed by Samsung Display, Source: Samsung Display>

[SID 2017] Premium TV market, LCD vs OLED war re-ignition

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In the premium TV market in 2017 OLEDs seemed to catch up early with LG Electronics’ OLED TV sales volume growth and Sony’s OLED TV market gains. However, with the announcement of AUO, Taiwan’s leading LCD maker, that LCDs are more advantageous in the premium TV market than OLEDs, once again, competition between OLED TVs and LCD TVs is expected to intensify.

In the keynote session of SID 2017 held in Los Angeles, USA from May 22, AUO CEO Paul Peng made a presentation with the theme of “The warring states of display technologies” that LCDs would continue to outperform OLEDs in the premium TV market.

Paul Peng has three major claims that LCD is more dominant.

First is the performance that LCD is superior to OLED in terms of maximum size, peak brightness, ambient contrast ratio, color gamut, image sticking, and lifetime.

Second is the cost. In the black Friday in 2016, 65-inch HDR 4K narrow bezel LCD TV was US $ 1,099, while OLED was more than double with US $ 2,800.

Lastly, eco friendly. The industrial water used in the manufacturing process is used more for OLED manufacturing than LCD, and the power consumption of OLED is about twice that of LCD. The replacement cycle is 2 to 4 years for OLED, but LCD is 5 to 8 years which is more than twice as high as LCD, so is more environmentally friendly than OLED.

Since the launch of OLED TVs, there has been intense competition between LCD and OLED camps, but OLED market share continues to rise in the premium mobile market, and even in the premium TV market OLED seemed to be ahead of LCD. However, with AUO’s announcement in the keynote of SID 2017, the world’s largest display society, it is expected to intensify the fierce battle between OLED and LCD in the display industry.

 

LG Display, Will Unveil Its Next-generation Displays at’ SID 2017’

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LG Display will unveil future displays at ‘SID 2017’ to be held at Los Angeles Convention Center, USA from May 23 to 26. LG Display will prepare its own booth under the theme of “Our Technology, Your Innovation” and showcase its unique displays at three Zones of OLED TV, IT & Mobile, and Automotive.

First of all, LG will display its paper-like ultrathin 77-inch UHD Wallpaper TV. Due to OLED Technology, this TV has an excellent resolution and is so thin and light that it can be tightly attached to the wall, thereby maximizing the design effect. LG’s 65-inch UHD Wallpaper TV panel which will be unveiled was selected as ‘the Best Display of This Year’ for its highest technology at the SID.

<LG Display’s 65” UHD Resolution CSO(Crystal Sound OLED), Source : LG Display>

In addition, LG Display will showcase its 65-inch UHDCSO(Crystal Sound OLED) with a new function of display producing sound and 55-inch FHD transparent display making natural and transparent screen, which can show at a glance future displays that are being developed by LG Display.

LG Display applies in-TOUCH technology with a touch sensor embedded in panel to 24-inch monitor as well, while providing differentiated values to the IT market through its large and high-resolution displays. in-TOUCH technology doesn’t need Touch Cover Glass, so it features not only a light and excellent touch function but also a more sophisticated design by reducing the thickness of panels and bezel.

LG Display will also unveil state-of-the-art IT products such as the world’s largest 37.5-inch 21:9 curved monitor that maximizes immersion and 31.5-inch 8K monitor with high-resolution like reality.

<LG Display’s 12.3-inch automotive front display (Down), Transparent(Up), Source : LG Display>

LG Display suggests the future of automobiles, with its sophisticated design and excellent resolution in the rapidly growing automotive display field. By featuring multi-layers of 12.3-inch front display and transparent display, LG’s automotive display provides a sense of three-dimensions similar to existing analog Cluster. Also, LG Display will prepare a display booth for visitors to experience various displays in car such as mirror display that can replace Room Mirror due to its high reflectivity of more than 75%.

LG Display’s CTO(Chief Technology Officer), Kang, In Byeong said, “LG Display has made the world’s first display’ including IPS and OLED TV, and “LG Display will lead the next-generation display market with its continued technology development”.

Samsung Display, shows advanced product such as stretchable display in SID 2017

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Samsung Display participates in ‘SID 2017’ exhibition hosted by the world-renowned Society for Display Experts ‘SID (The Society for Information Display)’ to show advanced future display products.

Samsung Display will exhibit advanced display products that have never been revealed before, such as a stretchable display and a non-eyewear 3D OLED at the LA Convention Center in Los Angeles on 23rd (local time).

Samsung Display participates in this SID 2017, and is showing the unrivaled display technology leadership and confidence by showing high-tech products and publishing outstanding papers.

Samsung Display unveiled a 9.1 inch stretchable OLED product with stretching screen.  The stretchable display is the next generation display technology that extends the screen flexibly, and it is considered to be the most suitable technology for wearable, Internet (IoT), AI (AI), and car display.

<source : Samsung Display>

Compared to the existing flexible OLEDs that can be deformed in only one direction, such as bending, folding, or rolling a screen, a stretchable OLED can be deformed in more than two directions.  This is a much higher level of implementation difficulty and is often referred to as the end point of flexible display technology in the industry.

The product displayed this time, when the screen is pressed from above, the screen is dented like a rubber balloon, and then returns to its original flat shape.  On the contrary, when pressed from below, the screen stretched up and had the elasticity to recover.  Samsung Display has developed a high level of stretchable technology that maintains the original picture quality while increasing the screen to a depth of up to 12mm when the display is pressed through steady research and development.

In addition, Samsung Display will exhibit ‘non-eyewear 3D OLED’ products. This 5.09-inch product realizes a real-life image that looks a bit different depending on the viewer’s position on the display, and expresses a more realistic 3-D image.

Especially, due to the contrast ratio close to infinity of OLED, it shows more natural stereoscopic image than LCD product. This technology is expected to be utilized in various fields requiring 3D image technology such as 3D pop-up book, 3D game, VR and etc.

 

On the other hand, this exhibition will have booths that enable users to experience the OLED technologies of Samsung Display. Including 3.5-inch size, 858ppi optimized for VR devices, 120Hz for wearable and tablet OLED products for smooth picture quality are exhibited.

In addition, much improved image quality of OLED, HDR (High Dynamic Range) and low power consumption technology can be confirmed.  Samsung Display also offers a ‘Design Innovation’ corner that introduces the development of smartphone display design, a unique flexible OLED technology.

From round OLEDs applied to mobile phones for the first time in the world after the successful production of flexible OLEDs in 2013, to recent full-screen OLEDs with the highest picture quality rating of ‘Excellent A +’ from DisplayMate, an image quality evaluation agency, it is able to show the flexible OLED technology accumulated by Samsung Display at a glance.

In addition, a high-resolution 65-type frameless LCD curved TV that minimizes screen reflections by applying ultra-low reflection POL (polarizer) and achieves 100% color expression power (DCI-P3 standard), 34-inch QHD + (3440X1440) LCD curved monitor with 21: 9 aspect ratio maximizes information transfer efficiency and 27-inch FHD (1920X1080) LCD curved monitor capable of 144 Hz high-speed screen operation are exhibited as a product that embodies innovative technology

Meanwhile, a paper entitled “Extendable Screen with Stretchable OLED Display” of Hong Jong-ho, researcher of Samsung Display Research Institute selected as SID 2017 Distinguished Paper.

Meet Prof. Adachi, the initiator of ‘Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence’

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We visited Adachi’s laboratory at Kyushu university that published the TADF (abbr., Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence) thesis firstly to ‘Nature’ in 2010. He looked like a naive graduate student rather than a professor.

<Prof. Adachi , source : OLEDNET>

The reason that Prof. Adachi’s showing a full of enthusiasm for the TADF materials is that he convinces it is the best materials to lower manufacturing costs of OLED panel. Luminescence materials used in present are divided like fluorescence materials as 1st generation, and phosphorescence materials as 2nd generation. Fluorescence materials as 1st generation have a cost-effective and a low-efficiency, whereas phosphorescence materials as 2nd generation have both high-efficiency and also high-costs. This is because it utilizes the rare-earth metal, iridium. TADF as 3rd generation which Prof. Adachi has been driving, is as a structure of 1st generation materials and it has the merit of achieving the efficiency of 2nd generation materials.

TADF materials have special features that are theoretically capable of reaching 100% inter-efficiency and being free to plan molecular. It means that TADF can raise external light-efficiency up to 40%, because it is possible to form oriented materials by rod-shaped molecular planning.

About the question of the timing of commercialization of TADF materials, Prof. Adachi said that it is still insufficient to apply to OLED of Galaxy, while it’ll be possible to utilize it for products with somehow low specification from next year. It is especially expected that green or red dopant may be available. However, he also emphasized that it is essential to increase the electron transfer speed by reducing the band gap of T1 and S1 in order to be the ultimate TADF for use in displays. The electron transfer speed is currently around 1μsec, but if its speed goes up to 10-1 ~ 10-2 μsec, the lifetime would be secured due to reducing molecular degradation. He expressed about that it is necessary to actively attend by manufacturers of luminescence materials, because there are no dedicated host materials that can sufficiently demonstrate the efficiency of TADF dopant due to difficulties in developing TADF materials.

He recently put a thesis, deep blue TADF with a color coordinate of (0.148, 0.098) and external light-efficiency of more than 19.2% at German journal Angewandte.

Chinese panel makers BOE and Tianma started small and medium sized AMOLED production, acceleratedly chasing Samsung.

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It is the first time for China to produce Gen6 flexible AMOLED; it is expected that BOE’s mass production not significantly affected by yield due to the tremendous support from the Chinese government will cause such impact on the small and medium-sized AMOLED market where Samsung has monopolized so far.

B7 line, which was built in May 2015 with the investment of approx. 465 yuan, is expectedly used in high-end mobile display in China, with 48K- large monthly capacity based on Gen6. In Dec last year, 45K investment was confirmed in Mianyang’s Gen6 flexible AMOLED production line B11 and mass production is expected to operate in 2019.

<5.5 inch FHDfoldable AMOLED launched at CIDC 2016>

In addition, Tianma successfully lighted up the rigid AMOLED panel manufactured in Gen6 LTPS AMOLED production line in Wuhan for the first time in China on April 20th. Tianma has first built the Gen 4.5 AMOLED pilot line in China as well as Gen 5.5 AMOLED production line in Shanghai for mass producing small-medium AMOLED display.

Also CSOT aims to mass-produce in the fourth quarter of 2018 as the investment in Gen6 rigid and flexible AMOLED production lines at Wuhan’s T4 plant has been proceeding. Visionox plans to additionally expand Kunshan’s Gen5.5 line (V1, presently 4K) phase1 11K and Phase2 15K investment is being proceeded. ROYOLE also invested in the Gen 5.5 flexible AMOLED mass production line, and LOI of the SFA deposition equipment was announced last January. The expected capacity is 15K.

In the Korea-dominated AMOLED market, Chinese panel makers are taking up the market share rapidly through the Chinese government support and their huge domestic market. Lee Choong-hoon (chief analyst) at UBI Research specialized in AMOLED market predicts that by 2021, Chinese AMOLED panel makers will record their second largest shipment volume with approx. 16% of the entire market share via full-fledged shipment from 2018, followed by Korea by 2021 “.

<forecast of AMOLED panel shipment by country>

OLED of Samsung•LG Display, Selected as the Display of the year

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Samsung Display and LG Display announced on the 18th that their technology were recognized as OLED respectively in the Society for Information Display (SID), the world’s largest Display society.

 

According to the two companies, in SID awards, Samsung Display’s quad-edge flexible OLED is selected for ‘DIA, Display Industry Awards’ and LG Display’s 65inch UHD Wallpaper OLED TV panel is selected for ‘Display of the Year’

 

SID awards the prize to promising innovative display products, components, and applications that unveil the future of the global display industry among the products launched last year.

<Samsung Display’s quad-edge flexible OLED, source: Samsung Display>

According to SID, Samsung Display’s quad-edge flexible OLED in Galaxy S7 Edge was the first in the industry to display the top, bottom, left, and right sides of the display in a curved shape, and won the Display Industry Awards for its outstanding technology.

 

This product uses a BM (black matrix) area minimization design technology to further reduce the bezel by 0.2mm, the upper and lower end portions (curvature radius 25R) were finely changed to realize a gentle curved shape. In addition, for the aesthetics and comfortable grip, the left and right edge portions of the panel were subjected to four different curvatures (curvature radius 35R → 9.4R → 5.4R → 3.8R).

For this award, Jeon, Seok-jin, marketing director of Samsung Display mentioned “Samsung Display has introduced differentiated products in the market through the state-of-the-art flexible OLED technology,” and said “We are pleased to continue to lead the display market with quad-edge flexible OLEDs.”

<LG Display’s 65inch UHD Wallpaper OLED panel, source: LG Display>

On the other hand, LG Display’s 65-inch UHD Wallpaper OLED panel, which was selected as the display of the year, was evaluated as an innovative product that not only realizes excellent image quality by adopting OLED technology but also presents new potential of display in terms of application range and design.

 

The OLED TV with this panel has already won numerous awards from the world’s leading media such as ENGAGET and SINET as well as CES 2017, On the 16th, it received 89 points (TV evaluation part) which is the highest point from the consumer report, American consumer media.

 

OLED panel applied to 65inch UHD Wallpaper OLED TV is less than 1mm thick and when it is made in TV set, thickness is less than 3.55mm and weighs only 7.4kg so that it can be brought into close contact with the wall like a frame. In addition, maximizing the design effect increases the immersion feeling when watching TV.

 

Yoon, Soo-Young, managing director of LG Display Research mentioned “LG Display has been innovating differentiated products, technologies and core competencies and providing new value to customers and consumers,” and said “As a company representing the global display industry, we will continue to do our best to lead the next generation of technology.”

2017, Will be the Year of OLED TV?

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On 16th, Consumer Reports, an American consumer magazine rated LG Signature TV W 89 scores in the TV quality category. It was an all-time high, overtaking LG OLED TV(OLED65C7P) that ranked number 1 with 88 scores in the ‘4K TV(Best 4K TVs to Buy Right Now)’ category in April.

 
LG Signature TV W features not only the thinnest display(4mm including a wall-mounted TV stand) by applying OLED panel and specially-designed finishing materials, but also the greatest immersion by eliminating unnecessary factors. Due to that reason, LG Signature TV W won ‘Best of the Best’ and ‘Best TV Product’ awards at CES 2017 and was once acclaimed as ‘a beautiful TV like a work of art’ from Engadget.

<LG Signature TV W, Source : mybroadband>

Meanwhile, LG Ultra OLED TV and Sony OLED TV came in second. Among the 11 TV models from top 1 to 10 selected from Consumer Reports, 10 out of 11 were OLED panel-based TVs, whereas a LCD-based TV was only Sony’s BRAVIA.

 
OLED TV is receiving lots of attention of consumers due to its great picture. In last March, Director Yoon Soo-young of LG Display said at the 3rd OLED Korea Conference hosted by UBI Research that “OLED TV on display has been moved from the corner to the center of the Best Buy LG store”, and OLED TV is becoming the mainstream of the premium TV market. Accordingly, many second movers are joining the trend of OLED TV and have released OLED TVs or announced a plan to release.

 
Toshiba launched 55 and 65-inch OLED TV Regza last march, and German luxury AV brand Loewe lunched its new flagship Bild 9 series, 55 and 65-inch 4K OLED TV on May 1, beginning to release OLED TVs in the premium TV market in earnest.

 
In addition, Sony, which attracted big attention for its OLED TV unveiled for the first time at CES 2017, officially announced on May 8th that they will firstly sell 55 and 65-inch sizes of 4K BRAVIA OLED TV A1E series. Panasonic also announced on May 14th that they will firstly sell EZ900, 950, and 1000 among 4K OLED TV in Japan from June.

<Sony’s 4K BRAVIA OLED TV A1E,  Source : Sony blog>

Meanwhile, Choong Hoon Yi, president of UBI Research(senior analyst) analyzed at the Topic seminar in April that Sony’s OLED TV is expected to sell about 400,000 in 2017. Accordingly, he expected Sony’s OLED TV will have about 27% market share in the OLED TV market and about 38% in 2021.

International TADF Workshop Opening

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<Source : 2nd International TADF Workshop>

The International Workshop on the third generation of light emitting material technology, TADF (Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence) technology, which links first-generation fluorescent material technology and second-generation phosphorescent material technology, will be held at Kyushu University from July 19 to 21, 2017

In order to push the LCD, which is now the flagship product of the display market replacing the cathode-ray tube completely in the market, it is necessary to have a high-efficiency, low-cost OLED that can be used in mid/low-priced products. A solution to solve both high efficiency and low cost depends on the commercialization of retarded fluorescent materials.

Currently, the light emitting materials are classified into red, green, and blue host materials and dopant materials of respective colors. Among these materials, red and green use phosphorescent materials that internal efficiency is theoretically 100%, but blue materials still use fluorescent materials that internal efficiency is only 25%. Due to the limit of blue material efficiency, large OLED panels for TV have a structure in which blue layers are laminated twice, so material cost is very high.

TADF is the material that is being developed to overcome the limitations of current OLED emissive materials.

In the International TADF Workshop, headed by Professor Adachi of Kyushu University, who brought TADF technology to the world for the first time, worldwide experts of third-generation OLED lighting material development gather. Professor Adachi implied that the interest in TADF is getting hotter around the world looking from that 3 years later he published a TADF thesis for the first time in 2012 at Kyushu university approximately 120 papers published worldwide in 2015 and there are more than 200 papers published in 2016.

Professor Adachi said that the meaning of the TADF Workshop this time is to discuss with experts about the current TADF reach and future development.

Merck, introducing future-oriented material for the display in SID 2017

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Merck said new display technologies and upcoming projects will be presented at SID Display Week 2017

In addition, Merck will exhibit a broad portfolio of products and services under the theme of ‘The Perfect Pixel – Advanced materials for display and beyond’.

“We are gradually improving not only display technologies but also quality, reliability and service through our close relationship with our clients,” said Michael Heckmeier, General Manager of Display Materials Business at Merck.

He also revealed the future plan, saying “continuous development will further solidify our market position as a leading company. We will provide a better product experience for end-user by developing eco-friendly and efficient production processes. ”

To this end, Merck added, “apart from unrestricted designing, flexibility, or color gamut, contrast and energy efficiency, we can focus on innovative products such as liquid crystal window (LCW) module.”

<OLED Display, source: Merck>

At the SID conference, Merck will present the development status of soluble materials for ink-jet printing.

According to Merck, red and green layers made with ink-jet printing have shown efficiency similar to those made with vacuum deposition technology.
Ink-jet printing approach can realize a large-sized OLED panel bigger than Gen8 with RGB pixel structure; it is developed as a simple layer with high material utilization efficiency, which is cost effective in mass production.

At the OLED Korea Conference, Merck said, “Red shows a 16.4% luminescence efficiency and LT95 2,000h long life expectancy; for green 18.7% and LT95 8,000h; blue 7.5% LT95 500h (based on 1,000cd/m2). He once said that the corporate goal is to develop a fluorescent blue dopant with  luminous efficiency higher than 11%, a phosphorescent deep red dopant improving from 20 cd/A brightness to 80 cd/A and phosphorescent green dopant with improved roll off.”

Sony’s OLED TV, its full-fledged sales operation to start from June 10th

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Sony announced on the 8th May that two models (55” and 65”) of the 4K BRAVIA OLED TV A1E series shown last Jan at CES 2017 will be launched in Japan as from June 10. Sony’s BRAVIA OLED TV is equipped with LG Display’s WRGB OLED, 4K high-definition processor X1 Extreme and acoustic surface technology which directly generates sound with the screen vibrating. A ball park price for 55-inch is 500,000 yen and for 65-inch, 800,000 yen. Sony is also planning to release 77-inch wide TV which will be expectedly launched this autumn.

The CEO of Ichiro Takagi Sony Visual products talked about the OLED TV strategies, saying ” OLED panels as well as premium models using the X1 Extreme will offer the best screen quality, sound and immersive experience”.

The Sony’s OLED TV launch is expected to bring great impact on the premium TV market currently predominated by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. LG Electronics, expected to compete directly with Sony, is planning to introduce new OLED TVs at a lower price than last year; the focal point is how Sony’s OLED TV will affect the commercialization of OLED TV and display industry.

In line with it, Mr. Lee, Choong Hoon, the CEO of UBI research has foreseen at the Topic seminar last April held in the conference center of Yeouido JeonKyungYeon Hall on 21st April 2017 that Sony’s OLED TV will account for about 27% of the total OLED TV market with approx. 400,000 sets to be sold in 2017, and 38% of the total OLED TV market with 3.4 million sets in 2021.

<OLED TV market prospect>

Fraunhofer FEP develops OLED microdisplays as high-precision optical fingerprint sensors

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Reporter : Hana Oh(HanaOh@ubiresearch.com)

Fraunhofer FEP has been developing various application-specific OLED microdisplays based on OLED-on-silicon technology successfully for many years. This unique technology enables the high-precision integration of an OLED as light source on a microchip. Moreover this microchip can be designed with further sensor elements, e.g. photodiodes. By this, objects can be illuminated and at the same time the reflected light detected and analyzed. Such microdisplays can be integrated into interactive data eyeglasses as a “bi-directional microdisplay”: the tiny display projects the information for augmented-reality applications whereas the camera function detects the viewing direction – thus the content can be controlled by eye-movements.

The fingerprint sensor uses this bidirectional functionality of light-emission and –detection as well: the finger gets illuminated and the reflected light will be detected and analyzed.

Bernd Richter, deputy division manager for OLED microdisplays and sensors at Fraunhofer FEP explains: “We have used an extra-thin encapsulation for the chip of this fingerprint sensor. Thereby the distance between finger and image sensor has been minimized and the fingerprint can be captured excellently. Thus, an additional imaging optics is not necessary for this application.”

The first prototype has a native resolution of 1600 dpi – this is three times more than typically required by the FBI. This high spatial resolution enables the identification even of smallest sweat pores beside the typical papillary lines, which can be used to increase the security.

One of the most promising applications of this new kind of sensor is the user verification in mobile devices. Because of the particularly high resolution in comparison to the typically used capacitive fingerprint sensors these devices are much less vulnerable to so-called spoofing (the manipulation by “false fingers”).

Another nice side effect is the opportunity for using the active area as a normal display e.g. for branding, displaying logos or notifications.

<High resolution OLED-on-silicon fingerprint sensor, Source: Fraunhofer FEP>

Competitiveness of AMOLED emitting materials companies

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UBI Research analyzed the competitiveness of major 9 emitting materials companies based on their sales figures of 2016, the number of applied or registered patents in Korea, the number of the materials being supplied to the products of display companies, and 2017 forecast revenue. (Source: 2017 AMOLED Emitting Material Market Report, UBI Research)

<Graph of the Analysis on the Competitiveness of Major Emitting Material Companies>

The result showed that the highest competitive company was Doosan. The reason for this is that it has the greatest sales performance and the highest number of manufactured products, and its patent activity is second largest after LG Chemical. Doosan has straightly increased 7 steps, in comparison with the order analyzed last year.

The second highest competitive company is Samsung SDI, followed by UDC. By adopting flexible AMOLED for Galaxy S8 red phosphorescence host, Duksan Neolux has increased 3 steps from the last year to rank number 4.

Expect to hit 1 trillion won in AMOLED emitting material market

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Following the success of Galaxy S Series using AMOLED, Apple’s iPhone has started to use flexible AMOLED as its basic display, resulting in the spike in demand for Chinese smartphone companies’ AMOLED.

At MWC2017, 13 companies showcased AMOLED-based smartphones. The companies whose market share is expanding in China, the world’s biggest smartphone market, such as Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE are active to adopt AMOLED smartphone.

<The Number of AMOLED Smartphone Companies at MWC>

With this market trend, the emitting material market for AMOLED is expected to reach 1 trillion won this year.

Hyun Jun Jang, senior researcher of UBI Research forecast that the emitting material market will reach $960 million in 2017 and increase to $33.6 billion in 2021.

<Emitting Material Market Forecast>

According to Hyun Jun Jang, senior researcher, Apple’s AMOLED emitting material market is expected to account for $560 million among $33.6 billion of total emitting material market, and Korea will capture 70% as it is leading the AMOLED panel market while creating a 23.8 billion-dollar market.

Consumer reports, being dissent from an evaluation of premium TV launched in this year

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Consumer reports picked OLED TV of LG Electronics as the best 4K TV to buy right now, while gave QLED TV of Samsung Electronics 10th place.

<THE BEST 4K TV LG OLED65C7P selected by Consumer Reports, Source: Consumer reports>

Consumer Reports which is a consumer magazine in US, selected OLED TV OLED65C7P of LG Electronics launched in this year as the ‘Best 4K TVs to Buy Right Now’ on 16th, since ‘OLED TV is the best for expressing black, so it can provide entirely different image quality’.

Consumer Reports evaluated that OLED65C7P has high resolution, excellent image quality and outstanding sound performance. It has the best HDR performance among the products tested this year and it will be hard to find a better TV than it.” Consumer Reports gave 88 points, the highest score ever. This is higher score than 86 points that OLED65G6P of LG Electronics received in November.

 

In addition, OLED65G6P of OLED TV model in 2016 of LG’s got 86 points and OLED65E6P was followed as 85 points. OLED55E6P and OLED55B6P jointly received 83 points.

<Samsung Electronics’ QN65Q8C, Source: Consumer Reports>

QLED TV QN65Q8C of Samsung Electronics launched in this year gained 79 points. Consumer Reports explained that it is excellent in resolution, image quality, and sound quality, however there was black mark for the high price in spite of backlighting existence, limit of expression for black due to backlighting and cloud phenomenon. And Consumer Reports quoted the words of industry source that it would take more than three years for launching of true self-emitting QLED TV.

In the ‘Solution process OLED annual report’, UBi research expected that QLED deposition materials have issues on a short life-span compared to phosphorescence OLED deposition materials that are currently being commercialized, efficiency problem, development of eco-friendly devices, lack of infrastructure compared to OLED. In case of not establishing infrastructure and aggressive investment such as manpower recruitment and expansion of the development investment, the time of commercialization will be far from here.

LG Electronics concentrates on ‘product competitiveness not price competitiveness’ in the premium TV market

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LG Electronics reported that they plan to focus on product competitiveness rather than price competitiveness in the premium TV market in future through the conference call in Q1 of 2017 which was held on 27th, April. During the Q&A session on ‘the sales strategy of OLED and premium TV’, Jin-ho, Ha, the director of HE (Home Entertainment) said that “we will continue to expand OLED position in the premium TV market and also in future what the competitiveness we need in the premium TV market is product competitiveness rather than price’s.”

The performance in Q1 of HE in LG Electronics was 4 trillion 3261 billion won of sales volume and 3822 billion won of sales profit. It has been reduced 4600 billion won versus previous quarter under the influence of off-season. Nonetheless, YOY (Year on Year) has been kept at the same level. The sales volume was grown up in the area of North America, South Korea and Latin America for the reason of sales expansion of premium TV, though the market in Asia was decreased versus QoQ for the lack of sufficient demand.

Jin-ho, Ha, the director of HE in LG Electronics said that “We improved the profitability versus previous quarter by expansion of premium product sales, improvement of cost structure and flexible management for the panel price rise.” He also expected that the stagnant demand in whole TV market would be continued, but the demand would be increased in the area of North America, Latin America and Asia where are holding relatively high sales ratio.” In addition, “We would maintain sound profit structure and strengthen premium position by diverse global launching of products which leads the market such as ‘LG Signature OLED TV W’.”

He answered the questioning of in future panel price expectation and OLED TV line-up idea, “The panel has been significantly rising from in Q4 of 2016, and it has reached up over 60% versus June where is the lowest point last year”, and “We will design completive line-up composed of ‘premium, best, middle and low’ to aim the premium market within OLED TV group.”

For the question of the strategy in TV market in future, “In present which panel cost is increasing, we would operate the strategy based on the profitability by avoiding a simple volume competition, and we think that the market share in low price TV market is not meaningful. So that we plan to go forward the improvement of quality as a response based on the premium TV market having over 2000~2500 dollars.”

The strategy in TV market of LG Electronics announced at the conference call in Q1 2017 is consistent development of premium TV lineup which brings better profitability with high value-added product. They also expressed that will firmly build their position in the premium TV market with product competitiveness by image quality and technology rather than price competitiveness related to panel price.

Samsung Electronics, OLED catches 60% of whole display sales

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Myeong-jin, Lee, the executive director of IR in Samsung Electronics announced that “sales volume in Q1 was recorded as 50.5 trillion won.” in the conference call of Q1, 2017 which was held on 27th, April. And “Samsung Electronics recorded 7 trillion 2900 billion won at the display area among total sales volume in the first quarter and the sales profit was 1 trillion 3000 billion won. OLED volume occupied over 60% in the total display sales volume in Q1 of Samsung Electronics.”

Chang-hoon, Lee, the director of Samsung Display expected that “The employment of OLED panel from set manufacturers in Q2 would be consistently increasing and Samsung Electronics will maintain stable performance with response for external customers and supply flexible products to core customers.” As an expectation of OLED market in 2017, it forecasts sales growth compared to previous year by expansion of flexible product supply, however there are risks due to intensifying competition of LTPS-LCD within middle-low price market.”

Yoon, Lee, the director of image-strategy marketing team, expected that “the performance in Q1 of TV market has been decreased versus previous quarter due to off-season after peak at the end of the year, and it would show degrowth compared to previous year’s same quarter for the influence of reduced demand in the area of Europe and Latin America.” Furthermore, “It expected the performance in Q2 in TV market would slightly grow versus previous quarter as accelerating the launching of new product by company, but it will show degrowth compared to previous year’s same quarter for the effect of reduced consumption in Europe.” He also expressed that they intend to concentrate on profitability by expansion of high value-added product lineup with curved and extra-large TV along with complete sales of quantum dot QLED TV products.

During the following Q&A session, at the response of inquiry of whole OLED production line in future, “LCD 7-1 line is under switching to OLED production line from the end of 2016 and OLED A3 line is in line with plan. The investment of OLED will be progressed according to customer’s needs in the future market.”

The answer for responding question of the OLED TV, “QLED TV overcomes shortcomings of OLED TV, and it is a perfectly different product for design, image quality, and life-style of consumers with the world’s first and metal-added quantum dot material. We ended the disputes over image quality by implementing 100% color volume which maintains own color without any influence by brightness.”

For a question of delay for part supply of Galaxy S8 and S8+, “We are trying to prevent problems for the initial supply through pre-contract with involved companies and it is smoothly progressing without any difficulties. Other parts will be also supplied without any troubles through dualized operation.”

At the last question for the OLED TV development of Samsung Electronics, “We are developing a diverse technology to apply for the TV as well as OLED and now, we are concentrating upon technology development for the next generation including Quantum dot. We will strengthen the market control at the field of differentiating products, extra-large and high value-added products through a diverse new technology as well as OLED TV and catch the securement of profitability.”

LG Display, 70% of facility investment focused on large-sized OLED and POLED in this year

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LG Display announced that it will concentrate 70% of CAPEX(investment cost for future profits) on large-sized OLED and POLED, and among them, the proportion of POLED will be higher than that of large OLED through the 2017 Q1 conference call held on April 26.

Kim, Sang Don, CFO of LG Display said “The specific size and timing of the investment is under review, but investing more than 70% of the investment in OLED remains unchanged.” Also revealed LG Display’s future investment direction by adding “Since OLED investment costs are high, we will deeply examine the confidence of our customers and the certainty of market demand, and will invest in a conservative position.”

LG Display said it will continue to secure LTPS-LCD competitiveness. Kim, Sang Don, CFO said ”We plan to switch the Gumi E5 line to POLED instead of LTPS-LCD in the second half of this year, but we think there still is demand for LTPS-LCD and opportunity for high-resolution smartphone manufacturing.”

For the LG Display’s plan for OLED Lighting business and OLED panel shipment, mentioned “OLED lighting will be produced about 15,000 sheets in the second half of 2017, and POLED will be mass-produced in Gumi E5 at the end of 2Q 2017.

For a plan for OLED TV production expansion, said “The reaction for OLED wall paper TV and Crystal Sound OLED released at CES 2017 in January this year, is better than expected in the TV market.” and mentioned “We expect OLED TV shipments to reach 300,000 units in 1Q and 500,000 units level in each quarter of the second half of this year.”

The forecast for ultra-large TV market in 2017, it is forecasted “LG OLED TV occupies an overwhelming share in ultra-large OLED TVs of 60 inches and above, and the ultra-large TV market is expected to grow continuously and record more than 30% of growth rate in the future.”

For the LG Display’s counterplan forward for the Chinese panel makers’ LCD technology, mentioned “Until 2020, it is concerned that the Chinese LCD panel makers are expected to improve their LCD technology and invest in Gen 10, however, LG Display’s IPS technology, consistent quality of mass production and stable supply chain are enough to overcome.”

Meanwhile, said that the sale proportion by product based on LG Display’s sales amount in Q1 this year were 43% for TV panels, 26% for mobile panels, 16% for notebooks and tablets, and 15% for monitors. Also, quarterly operating profit reached a record profit of 1.269 trillion won through continuous overall price increase trend of panel and the mix operation of profit-oriented products of high-resolution, high-end IT products and etc.

Tianma Unveiled the China’s First Panel Produced in a Gen6 LTPS AMOLED Production Line

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On April 20, 2017, Tianma successfully turned on the China’s first panel produced in a Gen6 LTPS AMOLED production line in Wuhan, China. The investment in Tianma’s Gen6 was made starting from January 2016.

<AMOLED Panel produced in Tianma’s Gen6 LTPS AMOLED production line, Source: mp.weixin.qq.com>

Tianma built a Gen4.5 AMOLED pilot line for the first time in China, and is planning to produce small-medium sized AMOLED displays. Based on this, it unveiled a 5.5-inch HD on-cell rigid AMOLED panel for smartphone, a 5.5-inch FHD AMOLED rigid panel, a 5-inch FHD AMOLED panel, and a 5.46-inch flexible AMOLED at MWC 2016.
Tianma’s Gen6 LTPS AMOLED constructed this time will produce LTPS AMOLED for rigid OLED and flexible OLED to apply it to VR, AR-related devices, wearable devices, and foldable devices. Tianma expects to become a leading company in the AMOLED display field, thanks to this newly built Gen6 LTPS AMOLED production line.

<Tianma’s Gen6 LTPS AMOLED Production Line, Source: mp.weixin.qq.com>

Meanwhile, according to ‘2017 OLED Display Annual Report – Samsung Display’s Share in the Smartphone AMOLED Panel Market Will Reach 70% by 2020’ published in February 2017 by UBI Research, Tianma ordered 30K equipment for a Gen6 flexible AMOLED panel production line in Wuhan and will produce in the second quarter of 2018.

OLED Display Embellished CITE 2017

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CITE 2017(China Information Technology Expo) was held in Shenzhen, China from April 9 to 11. As the Asia’s largest electronic and information exhibition hosted by the ministry of industry and information technology of the people’s republic of China and the local government of Shenzhen, the 5th CITE 2017 is the international IT event in which 1,600 companies participate annually, with 160,000 visitors.

At this expo, LG Display, BOE, CSOT, and Tianma exhibited OLED panel on one hand, and Changhong, Hisense, Konka, and Skyworth unveiled OLED-applied products on the other hand. Besides, many companies including Jilin OLED operated a shared exhibition hall under the name of China OLED Industry Alliance(COIA).

<Different Companies’ OLED Products at CITE 2017>

LG Display, the only large-area OLED panel manufacture unveiled its flagship 65-inch UHD Wall Paper OLED with an ultrathin and ultralight design of 3mm thickness and 7Kg weight, and Crystal Sound OLED displaying itself as a speaker. LG has received CES 2017 Innovation Award for its technology of Wallpaper TV OLED panel.

<LG Display’s Wall paper OLED(Left) & Crystal Sound OLED(Right)>

Besides, LG Display showcased various products applying OLED including OLED Pillar with six 77-inch UHD OLED panels and Dual-view flat with two 77-inich UHD OLED panels, while unveiling a 12.3-inch curved OLED for automobiles, two kinds of smartphones, and two kinds of plastic OLEDs for watches.

<LG Display’s OLED Pillar>

A Chinese OLED panel company, BOE boasted of its technology, demonstrating a 7.9-inch foldable OLED, a 5.5-inch edge bended OLED, and a 1.39-inch rounded OLED.

<BOE’s Foldable OLED(Left), Edge Bended OLED(Middle), Round OLED(Right)>

The other OLED TV set companies are all Chinese companies such as Changhong, Hisense, and Skyworth. They exhibited its flagship 65-inch OLED TV, a key size of premium TVs. Hisense exhibited the smartphone with OLED panel and e-ink panel on its both sides as well as OLED TV.

<Changhong(Left), Hisense(Middle), Skyworth’s OLED TV(Right)>

Merck, EU Horizon 2020 project ‘HyperOLED’ launched

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Merck, a leading science and technology company, announced the successful launch of the HyperOLED project in April 12, a € 4million project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. Within the scope of this project, Merck, as the project coordinator, will be in close collaboration with an excellent consortium of four European partners: Microoled (France), Fraunhofer-IOF (Germany), Durham University (UK) and Intelligentsia Consultants (Luxembourg). Over a three-year period, the HyperOLED project will develop materials and device architectures for high-performance, hyperfluorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) for use in display applications and solid state lighting.

The main objective of the HyperOLED project is to develop innovative high performance OLEDs by combining thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) molecular hosts with novel, specifically adapted shielded fluorescence emitters. The HyperOLED project will directly contribute to the development of thin, organic and large area Electronics (TOLAE), which is an emerging technology with high growth potential. The project will help to create reliable TOLAE-enabled devices with increased functionality, improved performance and longer lifetimes.

The new OLEDs promise to be more cost-efficient to manufacture because they are based on white OLED stacks that are easier to produce compared to current solutions. By reducing the number of layers in the OLED stacks, around 20-40% of organic materials can be saved, tact times can be reduced and less manufacturing equipment will be required. This will lead to considerable savings throughout the whole value chain, including solvents, educts, catalysts in material synthesis, energy saving in purification by sublimation as well as energy saving in OLED production.

Furthermore, thanks to the special properties of TADF molecular hosts and novel shielded fluorescence emitters, the improvement in OLED performance is expected to eliminate the need for expensive and rare metals (e.g. iridium and platinum), creating additional environmental and cost-saving impacts.

With the broad expertise of the consortium spanning the development and production of hyperfluorescence OLEDs, the HyperOLED project will directly target high-growth potential applications. Overall, this project is expected to stimulate exciting new business opportunities and economic output for Europe and beyond.

Is Samsung Display Moving To the Gen 7 for A4 Line?

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Samsung Display’s ongoing extension of flexible OLED line is highly expected to move to the gen 7 production line.

An OLED specialized research company, UBI Research CEO Choong Hoon Yi(senior analysis) analyzed the names of Samsung Display’s plants have changed by generation so A4 line will be able to increase to the gen 7.

The OLED plants owned by Samsung Display consist of A1, A2, and A3. A1 line is the gen 4 plant, A2 is the gen 5.5, and A3 is the gen 6 plant. LCD’s 7-1 line that is being recently converted is reportedly named A3E which is the follow-up of A3.

Therefore, the CEO Choong Hoon Yi forecast A4 will become the gen 7 line, in light of this trend.

To this end, he looks squarely at some issues to overcome. Firstly, it needs to secure excimer laser, the prerequisite for LTPS-TFT and doping apparatus because production equipment still remains the gen 6. But, Yi thought there is no problem in securing equipment and developing process up to the gen 7, as Samsung Display has been operating the gen 8 LTPS-TFT to produce 55-inch OLED panels for TV.

In addition, he analyzed it would be also possible to manufacture the FMM of the gen 7 half, required for the OLED deposition process. Samsung Display’s sole supplier of FMM, DNP made an investment in manufacturing facilities last year. Although the details of investment haven’t been well-known, it already has a stepper that can manufacture a mask of gen 7 half.

Lastly, when it comes to the validity of investment in Samsung Display’s gen 7, a differentiated production strategy is a key issue, according to Yi. Recently, companies that got into the business late are investing in the gen 6 OLED line, and in a few years their equipment productivity will be as good as Samsung Display’s. In his point of view, it is very meaningful to invest in the gen 7 line in order to stand out from new comers once again.

Samsung Display is already building various portfolios such as foldable OLED, COP(chip on plastic)OLED, and OLED with 800ppi high-resolution even at the R&D stage. The addition of the gen 7 production strategy to its R&D strategy incomparable with late comers will further raise its competitiveness.

Automaker’s fierce competition for pre-occupying OLED for automobiles

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In 2017, automakers are fiercely competing to pre-occupy OLED displays and lighting for automobiles. OLED display has good visibility and possible to design a curved surface, so it has advantages of design differentiation. Lighting is not irritating to the eyes and the surface emission is possible so that the frequency of adoption of OLED is expected to increase even more.

HYUNDAI Mobis actively promoted curved OLED for brand differentiation at 2017 Seoul Motor Show held in Ilsan KINTEX from March 31 to April 9. HYUNDAI Mobis official said “the display has a 12.3-inch flexible OLED with advantages of true black and fast response at all temperatures” also revealed “this product is under development for mass production in 2020 for cluster or CID”.

<Curved OLED Display unveiled by HYUNDAI Mobis>

British automaker Bentley also introduced the key features of the ‘EXP 12 Speed 6e’, a pure electric concept car at the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland on March 9, and announced that it would be equipped with a high-quality OLED display near the CID. Bentley official said “a curved glass OLED screen is applied near CID, it allows the occupants to operate navigation and to control the temperature freely,” in addition, “Access to social media, e-mail and entertainment will be easy”.

<OLED Display used near CID of EXP 12 Speed 6e, Source: Bentleymotos.com>

In addition, Audi Japan announced on March 28 that it decided to officially launch a small sports car “TT” applied an OLED tail lamp on some motels from mid of May. This is the first time that Audi has applied OLED tail lamps to mass-produced vehicles, allowed it to be optionally mounted on TT’s top models, the TT RS Coupe and TT RS Roadster. According to Audi Japan corporate, the option price is about 120,000 yen. The tail lamps commercialized by Audi this time are made up of 4 OLED panels and are known to have thicknesses of 1 to 2 mm per panel. Total 4 light-emitting areas are 49cm2 and brightness is 1000cd/m2, and German OSRAM supplies OLED panel.

<OLED rear lamp used for TT, Source: Audi.co.jp>

As such, the number of cars using OLED displays and lighting is increasing. According to “2017 Automotive Display Report – Application & Market Trend Analysis and The Market Forecast” published by UBI Research, market research company, demand for displays for automobiles is projected to grow at a CAGR(compound annual growth rate) of 17% from 2017 to 2022, reaching US $ 25,000 million by 2022. Also, OLED displays for automobiles are expected to grow rapidly from 2018 to 2022, reaching US $ 5 million in 2022, accounting for about 20% of the total automotive display market.

Hyun Jun Jang, senior researcher of UBI Research, mentioned that “OLED has the advantage of providing various convenience to the driver such as infinite contrast ratio and fast response speed above all, it can be applied in various forms inside and outside the car based on the flexibility so that it can be a great merit for premium cars that emphasize design and differentiation.”

[Finetech Japan 2017] SEL, 81inch 8K OLED Multi display unveiled

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SEL unveiled the 81inch 8K OLED multidisplay at Finetech JAPAN 2017 held in Tokyo, Japan from April 5th to 7th. The SEL 81inch 8K OLED multidisplay is implemented with 36 (6×6) panels of 13.5 inch wide display.

<SEL’s 81inch 8K OLED multidisplay>

<13.5inch-wide display panel applied to SEL’s 81inch 8K OLED multidisplay>

A SEL manager said, “When multiple displays are attached to one another, it is hard to look a single layer screen due to difference between layers and brightness of the joint parts.”

“For resolving the problem and implementing the seamless image, transparent treatment around the edge and deep learning technology are applied to the 81inch 8K OLED multi display. Deep learning technology compensates for grayscale curves by comparing the brightness of joint parts and partial images excluding the joint parts. ” Additionally SEL unveiled a curved OLED multidisplay that is transparent around edges equal to the 81inch 8K OLED multidisplay.

<SEL’s 13inch curved OLED panel>

“A curved OLED panel is as thin as 100 μm, so it has excellent resistance to bending (inward and outward bending) even at 100,000 bends in the curvature radius of the 5R.” The curved OLED multidisplay design can offer a variety of applications to use displays such as car-mounted and digital signage. “said the SEL manager.

In this Finetech Japan 2017, SEL presented curved OLED multidisplay in the form of car-mounted (CID + cluster). The car-mounted display has three –layer 13.5-inch panels and HD (720 x 1028) resolution.

<Car-mounted display>

SEL also showed full-spec 8K OLED display and hybrid display with improved visibility to gain positive response from the audience.

Seminar, “OLED(panel) market analysis by increasing demand for mobile phone and premium TV set”

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April Topic Seminar

Date: Friday, April 21st 2017 from 1:30pm to 5:10pm

Venue: Emerald Hall 3rd floor at the FKI (Federation of Korean Industries) Conference Center

Host: UBI Research

Topic: OLED(panel) market analysis by increasing demand for mobile phone and premium TV set

 

UBI Research will hold a seminar at the Yeouido FKI Conference Center on Friday April 21st regarding OLED’s potential growth with technological advance through CES2017 and MWC2017,.

With the topic ‘OLED(panel) market analysis by increasing demand for mobile phone and premium TV set’, we will discuss the movement of OLED industry and market prospects by supply chain, analyzing built in OLED product launch plans of leading set manufacturers.

We will take a look at the latest OLED TV market, particularly focusing on the technological competition in CES 2017 between Samsung and LG on QLED and OLED TV, and new OLED TV launch of Chinese TV makers-Hisense and TCL as well as Japanese Sony and Panasonic. Anticipating that Apple’s iphone will be equipped with flexible OLED to celebrate its 10th anniversary with product launch this year, participants can have a chance to review major issues of OLED market in the first half via the summery of MWC 2017 and the latest trend of smartphone in application of AMOLED.

Lee, Choong-hoon, CEO of UBI Research, OLED-specialized research firm and Jang, HyunJun, senior researcher will present four following topics of OLED market.

▲ OLED evolution – full-fledged OLED application to evolve technology: foldable Phone, acoustic screen
▲ OLED market growth analysis based on mobile phone market demand
▲ Analysis of OELD premium TV (supply / panel) market growth following the OLED application
▲Analysis of material and equipment market forecast based on OLED panel market growth, and summary of OLED market by increasing demand for OLED panel

In this seminar, for the entire OLED market forecast, we will look at the current commercialization status and key issues of full screen OLED smartphones and acoustic screen OLED TV. Also we will forecast not just the panel but the OLED key materials and equipment market.

This UBI Research seminar will provide those who have belonged to OLED and its application industry as well as other related industry with valuable time to illuminate the OLED potential in the perspective of OLED market opportunity.

ETRI’s Development of OLED Display With A Graphene Transparent Electrode

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Reporter : Hana Oh(HanaOh@ubiresearch.com)

Researchers from Korea’s ETRI Institute developed a graphene transparent electrode for OLED display. Especially, they developed the process of patterning a graphene transparent electrode in exact size and shape on a large-sized substrate. Its application to smart watch requiring flexibility will be available.

ETRI(Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) has succeeded in developing a display with the electrode using graphene, a dream new-material, rather than using ITO(Indium Tin Oxide) that has been often used as existing electrodes for OLED display.

The successful display substrate is the current world’s largest one of 370mm x 470mm, a 19-inch monitor in size. The thickness of graphene electrodes is less than 5nm.

ETRI expects that if the graphene is deposited on flexible substrate, thin and flexible display will be feasible. Furthermore, it will become the source technology that can be used for manufacturing wearable devices applicable to clothing or skin.

In general, OLED is stacked with substrate, ITO transparent electrode, light-emitting organic layer, and anodized aluminum. The researches replaced typical ITO with grapheme.

In particular, ITO that has been used as existing electrode has a disadvantage of being made of fragile glass. Therefore, the display manufactured with this technology will clear up the problem of fragile transparent electrode.

ETRI developed graphene growth technology and oxide technology to be applied as an OLED transparent electrode by making a large-scale substrate in collaboration with Hanwha Techwin Co.,Ltd, and secured the grapheme transparent electrode fabricating and process technology with the sheet resistance of 60Ω/m² and the transmittance of 85% applicable to OLED. Especially, ETRI developed the world’s first micro-patterning process that is absolutely required for the display process.

Using this technology, ETRI successfully lighted the world’s largest grapheme electrode OLED panel of 370mm x 470mm. The finding of this study, which was published and demonstrated at 『Graphene 2017』, the world’s largest graphene conference held in Barcelona, Spain in early April, 2016, was highly acclaimed.

The researchers started to research grapheme transparent electrodes for OLED, based on the 4-year support of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy(MOTIE) and Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology(KEIT) from 2012. They successfully developed a 100mm x 100mm OLED panel last year through the recent world’s largest demonstration, starting with a 7mm x 10mm coin-sized one, at the end of 2015, leading to the higher applicability of a grapheme-based display.

They said they will develop the display with a plastic substrate instead of a glass substrate. It is possible to manufacture a wearable OLED device if grapene is attached to plastic substrate, ETRI added.

ETRI’s Flexible Device Research Head Cho, Nam-sung said “The realization of a general expectation that grapheme would be applied to OLED display is very significant. We expect it will be successfully deployed on an commercial scale through large-scale grapheme film, OLED panel technology, and flexible OLED panel technology.”

This technology is expected to edge ahead from the later competitors including China as the core technology that can further increase the level of flexible OLED displays.

[Finetech Japan 2017] V-technology, Disclosure of FHM, feasible UHD of 738ppi

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Reporter : Hana Oh(HanaOh@ubiresearch.com)

 

V-technology has released of FHM(Fine Hybrid Mask) which can realize UHD of 738ppi in Finetech Japan 2017 held on 5th.

 

The existing FMM is made by braiding and welding. However, this method is not only difficult to manufacture, but also has difficulty in realizing a high resolution due to the structural limitations of mask such as pattern (hole) and deflection due to its own weight.

 

In Finetech Japan 2015, V-technology had released the concept of FMM which had improved these disadvantages. Two years later, however, it has released mass-producible a prototype of FHM (Fine Hybrid Mask) beyond the concept in 2017.

<Non-tension structured fine hybrid mask of V-technology>

FHM of V-technology adopted a different electroforming and non-tension structure than the existing FMM manufacturing method. The person concerned mentioned that this reduced the weight of the FMM to 1/10 level of that of the existing one, and solved the problem of the mask bending due to its own weight and shadow interference caused by it. Also, added that by changing the manufacturing process, the accuracy of the FMM could be increased and enabled a 738ppi UHD implementation.

 

V-technology has introduced the concept of Vertical deposition system which can utilize FHM in addition to FHM. This system can transport the glass substrate and FHM vertically, simultaneous deposition is possible by putting up to 2 pieces of glass substrate and FHM respectively.

Also, a V-technology official noted that the vertical deposition system reduced the spacing between source and FHM and improved step coverage and uniformity degradation due to diffuse light, and said that yield improvement is possible since it is difficult to attach the particles to the FHM or glass substrate due to the vertical type of deposition equipment.

<Concept of Vertical deposition system of V-technology>

Recently, consumers’ needs for high resolution is increasing, and as the industry is actively moving to meet this demand, attention on how FHM of V-technology will work as a solution is paid for future moves.

Capture the Rapidly Emerging OLED Parts & Materials Market

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With the joining of Apple in the growing OLED market this year which is manufactured by Samsung Display and applied in Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy, the OLED parts & materials market is increasingly developing.

 

An OLED specialized research company, UBI Research CEO Choong Hoon Yi(senior analysis) said the various parts & materials market needed for manufacturing smartphone OLED is expected to reach US$ 8.7billion this year and more than quadruple to US$ 38billion in 2021.

<M2017 Mobile Phone OLED Parts & Materials Report, UBI Research>

The biggest reason for the rapid growth in the smartphone OLED parts & materials market is attributed to the stable success of Samsung’s Galaxy, the Apple’s effect, the Chinese set companies’ demand boom. Just like reflecting this trend, leading display companies such as LG Display, BOE, CSOT, and Visionox following Samsung Display are struggling to introduce the 6th generation flexible OLED manufacturing line. This trend will lead LCD to disappear almost in the smartphone market by 2021.

<2017 Mobile Phone OLED Parts & Materials Report, UBI Research>

As the OLED parts & materials market for smartphone is classified by country, the Korean market predominates. The Korean OLED parts & materials market accounts for 95% of the total market and is likely to keep 72% in 2021.

 

As the OLED industry is led by Samsung Display, the Korean parts & materials market is also expected to rapidly grow. UBI Research CEO Choong Hoon Yi forecasted the ecosystem made by Samsung Display is held by the majority of Korean SMEs or the foreign companies with a factory in Korea, OLED growth will be directly related to the development of Korean SMEs.

Ink-jet printing OLED, Next-generation large-area display

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Ink-jet printing OLED is attracting public attention once again as a next-generation large-area display.

At the keynote session of Finetech Japan 2017 held at Tokyo Big Sight as from May 5, CSOT in China prospected that next-generation large-area display would be ink-jet printing. York Zhao, the CTO of CSOT said that when the price of a new product is 1.2 to 1.3 times that of an existing product, it is the right time for the existing product to be replaced with new one. This principle has been applied when the CRT and PDP market was replaced by LCD. He added, “The price of large-area OLEDs should drop 1.2 to 1.3 times lower than LCDs to lead to a full-fledged OLED era, and ink-jet printing technology is the best way to assist the drop in price of OLED.”

<CSOT, York Zhao CTO>

In 2016, CSOT established the printing display alliance called “Guangdong Juhua printing display technology” together with Tianma, and has been participated by kateeva, DuPont, ULVAC, Merck and Jusung Engeering.

Following the announcement of CSOT, JOLED introduced various OLED panels in direct application of ink-jet printing. One of the most interesting devices was the ink-jet printing 21.6 inch 4K (3840 x 2160, 204 ppi) AMOLED panel produced in Gen 4.5 line. Yoneharu Takubo, the CTO of JDI said, “Since the establishment of JOLED, we have been improving ppi, and developed a technology to stably produce up to 204 ppi resolution. We are targeting 350 ppi and expand its product range from small and medium to large area to secure a variety of applications with ink-jet printing AMOLED. ”

<JOLED, Yoneharu Takubo CTO>

Ink-jet printing process is a technology under continuous development of major panel makers as AMOLED panel of RGB structure can be manufactured without dividing the ledger in the mass production line higher than Gen8. Also, material utilization efficiency is theoretically close to 100% to save the OLED unit cost. However, some issues arise that mass production has yet to be fully verified, and the efficiency and life span of soluble light emitting materials are inferior to those of deposition materials; hence, there has been undergoing active development in the manufacturers of light emitting materials, equipment and panels.

Ink-jet printing OLED becomes the center of public attention as a next-generation display technology, and when it will be commercialized is a matter of a question.

[Finetech Japan 2017] LG Display OLED, more than 50% of the total revenue in 2020

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At the keynote session of Finetech Japan 2017 held in Tokyo Big Sight as from May 5, LG Display’s CTO, Kang, In Byeong said, “LG Display OLED accounted for 10% of the total sales revenue in 2016, but is expected to increase more than 50% in 2020.”

<LG Display, Kang In Byeong CTO>

Currently, large OLED accounts for the majority of LG Display OLED sales. OLED TVs in application of LG Display’s large OLED are positioning as in the premium TV market leader, with approx 80% market share of the 65-inch large TVs priced higher than$ 3,000, and nearly 100% of the 55 inch large TVs higher than $ 2,000.

He said, “While 10 years taken for LCD to achieve more than 80% of market share, two years for large OLED, whose price is falling much faster than LCD. On top of it, OLED attempts to generate a premium markets with high-value-added products such as wall paper, crystal sound OLED, roll-able, transparency and signage. Also OLED for mobile device has been equipped with high competitiveness in application of a flexible design, and market demand has been significantly increased. Consequently LG Display is undergoing active development and investment.” He emphasized that the ongoing challenges will bring the LG Display’s OLED sales result in 2020 up to more than 50% of the total.

LG Display is investing in both the Gen8 large OLED mass production line and the Gen6 plastic OLED mass production line to meet the growing demand for large OLED and plastic OLED (flexible OLED). Regarding future mass production capacity, CTO, Kang said, “In 2020, large OLED production line capacity will be 6 times as big as that of 2016, and for plastic OLED 14 times.”

CTO Kang lastly addressed that the future OLED strategy of LG display is to produce large OLED wider than 77 inches, implement 8K and develop application for high-value-added product market. As for mobile device OLED, UHD resolution, DHK power consumption improvement and distinctive design are the key elements as well as flexibility that can increase the OLED performance and investment efficiency to differentiate from LCD and domineer the next generation display market.

Through the Finetech Japan 2017 keynote, LG Display once again emphasized that OLED is the key instrument to lead the display market in the future. Based on the large OLED technology, LG Display will continue to lead the display market by expanding its scope to mobile device OLED.

[Euroluce 2017] OLED, a new leader in the lighting market

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On April 4 (local time), the world’s largest lighting exhibition Euroluce 2017 was held in Milan, Italy, where lighting company participants employing OLED all agreed that OLED will become a new leader in the lighting market.

“OLED is a very unique and distinctive light source offering a new opportunity to us to pioneer the lighting market,” said a manager of Arditi spa, a company specialized in OLED drivers. “As thin and light, OLED is a special light source which can be randomly applied to any purpose for such as architecture and vehicle. Particularly, OLED is not constrained to space, and its flexible properties are distinctive from other light sources. The price of OLED lighting has been addressed in some cases but at the end of the day it is the end user’s decision, and the current OLED is competitive enough,” he said.

<OLED driver of Arditi spa>

“OLED can be freely used on a low shelf,” said a manager of Manumeta, a company specialized in OLED furniture lighting. “We will employ OLED in many different applications as OLED is light and heat-resistant, which shows the potential and competitiveness of OLED.”

<OLED funiture lighting of Manumeta>

A manager of Astel said, “OLED lighting has a great deal of potential and will expand its scope in the lighting market.”

Lastly, Ross Lovegrove, a world famous industrial designer who unveiled a new OLED light called ‘Medusa’ and ‘Pyrosome’ in cooperation with LG Display, said, “OLED technology is fundamentally different from the existing lightings. It is a unique design that cannot possibly copied by any type of lighting source.”, stressing on the OLED’s strong competitiveness.

<flexible OLED lighting of LG Display>

[Euroluce 2017] LG Display, shows two new unique and novel lightings available only for OLED

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LG Display had attracted great attention by showing two new unique and novel lightings available only for OLED based on the theme of ‘The Light of Inspiration’ in Euroluce 2017, the world largest lighting exhibition held in Milano, Italy from April 4 to 9 in local time.

LG Display had showed two types of new OLED lightings similar to underwater creature in collaboration with Ross Lovegrove who is an industrial designer with world-class authority.

 

The first introduced ‘Medusa’ is from jellyfish, it consists of eight flexible OLED panels connected to the center ring, they can flex freely in different shapes. Ross Lovegrove said, “I wanted to express the natural gravity that the strip takes a natural shape by gravity”.

<‘Medusa’ of LG Display>

The second introduced ‘Pyrosome’ is a combination of 3D printed body and flexible OLED panel, Ross Lovegrove called it “it is a hybrid technology that combines a linear structure with a planar OLED panel”, also said, “very complex forms and technologies have met, so nobody can easily imitate it”.

<‘Pyrosome’ of LG Display>

In addition, LG Display had introduced a variety of household products such as mirror type and transparent shelf type lighting as well as diamond-shaped, round-shaped, cylinder-shaped, square-shaped industrial lighting.

<Mirror type lighting and Diamond-shaped lighting of LG Display>

Meanwhile, LG Display is under construction of Gen5 OLED lighting fab (1,100 mm x 1,250 mm) in Paju with the aim of mass production in Q3-Q4 2017, and aims to produce monthly 15,000 sheets. A person related to LG Display said “If mass production is started and increased production quantity, production cost and panel price would be lowered so that it will have sufficient price competitiveness”, and mentioned that OLED lighting would have sufficient competitiveness in not only the design but the price in the lighting market.

<‘Medusa’ installed in the middle of LG Display booth>

[New OLED report] Market report on AMOLED Component and Material for mobile devices

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UBI Research published AMOLED component and material report for mobile devices. The report forecasted the future market by selecting 16 key component and material among the various component and material required for producing rigid AMOLED and flexible AMOLED for mobile devices.

According to the report, first, it is classified that the glass required for producing AMOLED for mobile is for substrate, encapsulation and carrier which is supporting PI substrate for producing flexible AMOLED essentially and the market is expected to reach US$ 92 million in 2017. In 2021, it is expected to grow up to US$ 185 million which is 2 times more than current.

The report also forecasted about the cover window market attached to outermost of AMOLED through a detailed analysis. The cover window market is expected not only for the 2D cover window for rigid AMOLED and the 3D cover window for flexible AMOLED currently used but for the plastic cover window market which is essential for a foldable smart phone in the future.

The cover window market of these 3 types is expected to grow rapidly with the growth of the flexible AMOLED market and to reach US$ 11.9 billion in 2021.

Softly bending OLED lighting like a paper, Development of Roll-to-Roll manufacturing technology

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<Shin Kwon, Senior researcher of Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) & OLED production Roll-to-Roll production equipment, source: KIMM>

Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM hereafter, Cheon-Hong Park, the president of KIMM), the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning-affiliated developed the 300mm grade of Roll-to-Roll manufacturing technology that allows to produce flexible OLED* by simple process with GJM Co., Ltd (Mun-Yong Lee, CEO) for the first time in Korea.

 

The Printed electronics research laboratory of advanced production equipment research center in KIMM succeeded in applying traditional Roll-to-Roll printed electronics technology to the OLED production process. Using Roll-to-Roll vacuum evaporation equipment, it is possible to produce flexible OLED products inside a single chamber as evaporating OLED light emitting organic layer and metallic electrode to roll type film in order. Available OLED products consist of many organic, inorganic layers of 1~hundreds nanometer (nm) level of thin and each layers are manufactured through vacuum thermal evaporation process.

 

Producing the flexible OLED display must go through complicated processes until now. The method that has been used so far is that attaching a film on the glass plate and passing it over the evaporation process to produce OLED, and then separating a film from the plate. The one-side curved display of smart phone screen which was launched by Korea conglomerate was made in the same manner of process which is attaching a film on a glass plate or coating and then circulating evaporation equipment to produce OLED and separating OLED from the glass plate. There were demerits of the need for adding additional process of attaching and detaching a film as well as for various additional evaporation equipment upon necessary steps.

 

Applying the currently developed technology, it is possible to produce OLED with ‘multi-layer evaporation’ process that evaporates organic layer and inorganic layer sequentially on top of a film after letting a roll type film which is rolled inside a vacuum chamber flow. The time and facilities required for production are greatly reduced, therefore, not only large companies but also small and medium-sized enterprises can produce flexible OLED.

 

This OLED producing method is expected to be used in the lighting industry first since it can be produced by surface unit unlike point unit of the existing LED, and be possibly made in any desired shape due to its flexibility.

 

Shin Kwon, senior researcher of KIMM explained “With Roll-to-Roll vacuum evaporation equipment, it can be used for continuous production of flexible OLED which is notable display for the next generation. Especially in the display industry, it is a key technology to secure the technology gap feasible to contribute to gain supremacy over China from its rapid pursuit while Korean R&D is stagnant.

 

Also added “we are under development of fine pattern mask align technology which allows to produce individual pixels Red/Green/Blue used in actual display product. When it’s completed, it can be applied to the high resolution display and is a strong technology differentiated from Fraunhofer in Germany and Konica Minolta in Japan developing similar technologies.

 

This task was conducted for the leading study sponsored by the ACE*** program which is a technical business support program of KIMM, and has been conducting with GJM Co., Ltd. with a support of the economic cooperation business of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy since Oct. 2015. GJM Co., Ltd. as a hidden champion holding core technology in OLED, recently made a delivery performance in Taiwan, Japan, and China and is pushing ahead with full-scale equipment commercialization.

Galaxy S8, 83.6% Display area implementation, 11.5% improvement over the previous model

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<Samsung Galaxy S8, Source: Samsung Electronics>

Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S8 and S8 + were unveiled on March 29th (local time) at the UnPacked 2017 event in New York, United States. No doubt Galaxy S8 ans S8+ have received a lot of attention before the event.
Size-wise of the Galaxy S8 is not much different from the previous Galaxy S7. But the Galaxy S8 minimizes the bezel and removes the home button for the wider display. This way, Samsung Electronics meets consumers’ needs, offering stability of using a smart phone with one hand as well as high visibility.
The Infinity Display applies to the Galaxy S8 accounts for 83.6% of smartphones. The size of display has enlarged by 0.7 inches while the display area (the ratio of display to smart phone) has been increased by 11.5%. Additionally, Samsung applied black color and edge shape to bezel, causing an optical illusion with far wider view to consumers as if the entire smartphone solely composes of a display set.
Samsung has also expanded the screen ratio of the Galaxy S8 from 16: 9 to 18.5: 9 to immerse consumers maximally in virtual experience while viewing an image on the screen. In some cases, 16: 9 image contents are produced in 21: 9 (for a wide view) and have been gradually increased. Such contents on the smartphone may cause the users to feel confined and distracted by the top and bottom margin. However, the Infinite display fills the screen with full 21: 9 image contents to further enhance the mesmeric feel.

Resolution of Infinite display has been upgraded from QHD to QHD + as good as the screen ratio; Infinite Display has been certified as the first HDR premium for the first time in mobile devices.
Samsung revealed Galaxy S7 with 72.1% DA in 2016 as well as Galaxy S8 in 2017 with 83.6%, 11.5% increase in DA to the previous year. Samsung Electronics is gradually reaching DA 90% in the future smart phones; Market will pay more attention to the Samsung’s future product development.

Meanwhile, both Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 + are equipped with Bixby-intelligent interface, the world first 10 Nano processor, and 4GB RAM; S8 has a 3000mAh battery and S8 + has a 3500mAH battery, with biometrics and multi-window function.

<Specification of Samsung GalaxyS8 and GalaxyS8+, Source: Samsung Electronics>

The OLED Component and Material Market for Mobile Phones Is Expanding Rapidly

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The component and material necessary for manufacturing OLED include not only board but also TFT, OLED, encapsulation, touch screen, cover window, and drive IC.

With the joining of Apple and Chinese companies into the OLED mobile phones market which has been led by Samsung’s Smartphone Galaxy, Samsung Display and Chinese Display companies are increasing their investment in Gen 6.

Accordingly, component and material market needed for manufacturing OLED is also rapidly expanding.

 

According to the UBI Research report, the OLED component and material market for mobile phones is expected to grow to US$ 38.2 billion in 2021 as against US$ 8.72 billion in 2017.

In terms of nation, the Korean OLED component and material market holds 94.9% market share(US$ 8.27 billion) in 2017, but the Chinese one is forecast to increase up to 22.3% in 2021, whereas the Korean one will decrease to 72.2%.

From bezel-less to full-screen, Full-screen smartphone’s era has come closer.

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The area of display for a smartphone is getting wider.

The display area (hereinafter as D.A.) indicates the display size versus a set size. At the IMID 2016 business forum, the chief of Samsung Display, Park, Won-sang said that “The D.A. may be a core element to overcome the limit of its size through the portability of a smartphone.” and, “henceforth, the full-screen smartphone with more than 90% of D.A. will be released and take the lead the market.

<Samsung Display’s New Product>

The D.A. of an existing smartphone has been about 60-70%.

However, Samsung Electronics has enlarged D.A. over 75% by launching of Galaxy S7 Edge and Note 7 applied flexible AMOLED in 2016. Several companies in China have similarly started the enlargement of the D.A. through Nubia Z11 with 75.2% by ZTE and Mi Mix with 83.6% by Xiaomi.

As LG Electronics has applied full vision 5.7 inch QHD+ display by 18:9 at their G6, its D.A. reached to 80.4%. It was increased 0.4 inch compared to the former G5’s display size, but the bezel was decreased by 1mm from each side to side. It brings the enlargement about 10% of D.A. as a result.

Additionally, Galaxy S8 and iPhone S8(tentative name) planned to launch in 2017 will be more than 91% of D.A. according to reducing the bezel through up and down as well as side to side, since the models will not have a plan for the home button.

According to this, the smartphone market for full-screen maximized D.A. may lead a market trend for high-end smartphone, and the flexible AMOLED may be expected to take the market of full-screen smartphone forward.

Flexible AMOLED takes the high-flexibility through the plastic panel, it makes easy to realize the full-screen by arranging efficiently diverse modules to a smartphone.

By the “Key issue and Market Analysis for Foldable OLED” report published by Ubi Research in October, it looks forward that a smartphone with full-screen AMOLED type (a type which is minimized bezel area for up and down as well as side to side) will exceed the market share of OLED panel for bezel-less type as about 60% in 2020 from about 17% in 2017.

<A smartphone market share by display type, Source: Ubi Research>

Who is the winner of premium TV set in 2017 between Samsung, LG and Sony?

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Sony’s presale of XBR-A1E OLED TV series at CES 2017 early this year ignites a full-fledged competition in the premium TV market between Sony, LG and Samsung. Consumer’s attentions are drawn to this price war between existing versus new products and among major competitors.

Sony’s XBR-A1E series consists of three different size of models such as 55-inch at US $ 4,999.99, 65-inch at US $ 6,499.99 and 77-inch at a price remaining unknown, yet presumably twice as high as that of existing models XBR-55X850D and XBR-65X850D. This premium pricing strategy is interpreted as building up brand differentiation of the OLED TV equipped with better screen quality and acoustic surface technology. Compared to LG Signature OLED65G7P and OLED65W7P, the price is US$500 and US$ 1,500 lower respectively as it was launched later than LG, intending to dominate the market with a more competitive price.

LG electronics has also launched a premium OLED TV set last February; LG plans to launch 10 models (77/65W7, 77/65G7, 65/55E7, 65/55C7, 65/55B7) in five Ultra OLED TV series this year. The price of LG’s major model, OLED65C7 is US$ 4,499.00 on Amazon.com, 25% lower than OLED65C6 and a similar price to Samsung’s 65Q7C. But both the Signature OLED TV, OLED65G7P and the wall paper OLED TV, OLED65W7 are US$ 1,000 and US$ 2,000 higher respectively than Samsung’s most expensive 65” QLED TV, QN65Q9F. The premium market is divided by two categories of entry and high-end: low-priced entry model to compete with Samsung’ QLEDTV and premium-priced high end model to pioneer a niche market.

Unlike LG and Sony, Samsung has been focusing on QLED TV, launching super premium product lines (Q7,Q8,Q9) at the Louvre exhibition in Paris on March 14th The product lines consist of 11 models (88/75/65Q9F, 75/65/55Q8C, 75/65/55Q7F, 65/55Q7C) in 4series- the initial F means flat and C means curved. Q9 far more luxurious model than Q7and Q8 will be launched in April this year.

The price of 65Q8C will be US$ 4,799.99, and 65Q9F for US$ 5,999.99 as of March 14th at Best Buy, both of which are 20% higher than ‘SUHD TV’, one of premium TV line ups launched in 2016. Their high price range as Sony and better screen quality with 100% proved color volume are major attributes to establish luxury brand image of the premium TV set.

The premium TV market in 2017 is expecting a neck and neck competition again between the three major market leaders- Samsung, LG and Sony. LG, still the best market leader with OLED TV in the premium TV market versus Sony recently advanced in OLED TV market, and Samsung’s QLED TV marketing: How significantly would the three major players affect the premium TV market in 2017? That’s the focal point for consumers and stakeholders.

What is the future of OLED?

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Choong Hoon Yi, president of UBI Research made a keynote speech with a theme “The Future of OLED” at ‘The 3rd OLED Korea Conference’ hosted by UBI Research for two days from March 8 to 9.

Choong Hoon Yi, president of UBI Research stated “100-inch rollable wall TV is the future of OLED”. “human eyes have a wide viewing angle so even if display covers the whole wall, there is no discomfort. Glass substrate OLED may be difficult to carry, and accordingly rollable display can be rolled up and delivered like a carpet.” he added.

He also predicted “plastic substrates and printing process for price cut will be suitable for rollable display. TFT and pixel production techniques made by Solution process will be a key to future technology”. If a speaker is built in rollable display, and a correspondence between the person and sound on the screen will represent a perfect display.

Choong Hoon Yi said the reasons for the success of OLED can be found out in the mobile market.
Firstly, 4K contents to be used for future TVs will be used in smartphones, and smartphones will also use 4K resolution.

Second, Apple will release the OLED iPhone this year, and there will be an Apple effect because Samsung Display is building the A3 line for Apple to produce 200 million 5.5-inch OLED displays.

Third, Chinese market accounts for 40% of the global smartphone market, and Chinese set companies have been rapidly increasing the release of smartphones.

Lastly, a flexible OLED to cover the full screen smartphone will have no home button and feature wide screen to satisfy visual functions, and its strengthened security system that reads fingerprint and pattern can be applied.

For the four reasons above, he expected OLED will be key in the future mobile market.

Meanwhile, he expected the shipments of OLED panel will be 1.7 billion in 2021, and the sales will amount to US$ 75 billion. Korean display companies will represent more than 80% of the total market in 2021, and China will take up 10~15%. In addition, he forecast that display panel companies will make a new investment in flexible OLED which will account for 70% of the total OLED market.

Visionox Announced OLED’s Own Innovative Technology is Flexible Display

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Visionox’s principle researcher Li Lin gave a keynote speech with a theme “Development of Foldable AMOLED Display” at the 3rd OLED Korea Conference held for two days from March 8 to 9 by UBI Research.

Principle researcher Li Lin explained the development trend of flexible display, saying “Initial CRT was originally developed as an oscilloscope, but due to the development of full-color technology, it has been used commonly in our lives. LCD was also developed as a segment display, but due to the development of semiconductor technology, TFT black plane was applied to LCD so that LCD could be able to be used for smartphone and large-screen TV as well. The combination of the latest electronic technology and material technology enables display innovation, and the most innovative technology of OLED different from existing displays is a flexible display, Visionox is intensively developing now”.

In addition, he introduced the development history of Visionox’s flexible display, unveiled touch sensor 7-inch foldable AMOLED display that was developed in November 2016, and announced this module featuring 180° out-folding passed a folding test.

<Flexible AMOLED display with the touch-sensor featuring 180° out-folding, Source: Visionox.com>

He added that in order to develop foldable display, it is very essential to improve reliability of TFT, use durable materials such as strong OCA, scratch-resistant and durable cover window film, thinner circular polarizer layer, and panel-combined touch panel, and decrease module thickness.

Meanwhile, principle researcher Li Lin said “The mass production of Flexible OLED panel finally depends on the yield improvement. But, skills and experience for mass production are still insufficient.” Regarding the question about the development of circular polarizer layer, he answered “Reducing thickness is a key. And, we are considering the way to combine with another layer.” Lastly, regarding the development of Touch panel, “Among various technologies, especially on-cell technology is now under examination”, and regarding materials, “Metal mesh seems to be a good alternative, but there is no specific plan yet” he announced.

UDC Introduced Organic Vapor Jet Printing That Keeps the Life time and Efficiency of OLED Emitting Material

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Mike Hack, vice president of UDC introduced solution process technology, OVJP (Organic Vapor Jet Printing) technology during the COLOR IS UNIVERSAL Session of “The 3rd OLED KOREA CONFERENCE” hosted by UBI Research.

Mike Hack emphasized “OVJP technology can still use OLED materials used for the deposition process unlike the existing ink-jet solution process, and FMM and solvent are unnecessary”.

Besides, he introduced UDC’s Novel BY Display Architecture. According to his announcement, this structure has increased the mask opening size for one-time 2 pixel deposition. Also, Novel BY Display Architecture features the alternate deposition of blue and yellow sub pixels instead of existing RGB, and red and green CF in half of yellow sub pixel is arranged in a vertical symmetrical fashion.

Mike Hack said “This structure maximized not only the fill factor of blue and yellow sub pixel but also the color reproduction rate, efficiency and life time of OLED panel”. He also mentioned it can reduce manufacturing costs due to the use of less than 3data per pixel and 2-step EML deposition(FMM).
Lastly, UDC closed its announcement adding that they aim at the development and commercialization of PH emitter and host.

Meanwhile, according to “Market Entry Analysis for Solution Process OLED” by UBI Research, the emitting material used for the ink-jet solution process employs a method of mixing various solvents in an emitting material used for the deposition process. It lowered the purity of a materials, thereby reducing emitting efficiency and life time. Despite this advantage, solution process can increase the usage efficiency of emitting materials without using color filter and manufacture large-screen OLED panels via RGB pixel structure without panel split through over Gen8 equipment. Due to this advantage, major panel companies are actively developing it and trying to achieve the preoccupancy of commercialization.