OLED-Info - OLED TVs, displays and monitors information and news

GE to start printing OLED light panels next year

oled — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:29:14 +0000

EEtimes says that GE will start volume production of flexible OLED light panels in 2010. GE will print the OLEDs on polymer substrate, and use their ultra-high barrier coating. GE says that they managed to lower production cost by using roll-to-roll printing, and inexpensive substrates (the polymer ones).

GE are also thinking about possible new designs, and have released this video a month ago, which includes several flexible OLED light designs by art students, including wearable OLEDs for emergency safety gear, illuminated stairs, walls and signs in stores and a nice "wall peel" OLED lamp:

UDC awarded US Air Force project for ejection-safe, 6" flexible OLED display prototypes

oled — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:46:18 +0000

UDC has been awarded a 750K$ contract from the US Air Force, to work on a non-glass, ejection-safe, flexible OLED display prototype for prospective use by pilots in tactical cockpit settings.

The idea is to provide pilots with a replacement for printed maps and checklists typically held on their knees. The pilots will be able to 'wrap' the OLED around a cylinder for easy storage during flight.

UDC are working on their flexible OLED together with L3 and LG Display, and have already shown some wearable (bracelet) prototypes before. The displays are energy efficient, offer full-color video rate and have wireless communications capabilities.

UDC, LG and L3 will deliver four prototypes based on a bright 6” diagonal, full-color, low power consumption PHOLED display on flexible metal foil. These displays will then be wrapped around cylinders containing power supplies and wireless communications electronics.

A new Japanese company formed to work on white OLED technology

oled — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:58:09 +0000

Junji Kido, a professor from the Yamagata University in Japan has formed a new company, called Organic Lighting, to work on white OLEDs. The company's capital is only about 130,000$ currently, and it was setup in the Yamagata Universit'yes Venture Business Laboratory.

Organic Lighting plans to have equipment on the market by the beginning of 2010. It will not have its own factory. They also have plans for OLED emergency lights for public places. They hope to reach several tens of millions of US$ in revenue by 2014.

Professor Junji Kido is the inventor of the first white OLED.

Via iStockAnalyst

Samsung Haptic

oled — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:01:04 +0000

Samsung infra-red video SCH-W760 is now official

oled — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:08:54 +0000

Samsung has officially announced the SCH-W760, as reported/leaked in May. The phone is able to record infra-red video (Samsung calls it Infrared Video Telephony - IRVT), has a 2.8" WQVGA AMOLED, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 3Mp camera and a microSD slot.

Via SamsungHub

AnalogicTech to start making drivers for small AMOLEDs

oled — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:57:51 +0000

AnalogicTech says it will start making drivers for small AMOLEDs. They claim that they have an innovative power supply waiting in the wings. "An AMOLED needs a positive supply and a negative supply. These need a positive boost converter and a negative boost converter," CEO Richard Williams said. "That's two coils but we are privately sampling a PSU that independently regulates the plus and minus rails from a single coil with a measured efficiency comparable with dual converters."

Gamma correction - this time to compensate for the different characteristics of red, green and blue OLED materials, is another target.

Via ElectronicsWeekly

Comprehensive review of 4D Systems OLED panels

oled — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:48:01 +0000

Metku.net has posted a comprehensive review of a couple of OLED modules (including a touch one) from 4D Systems. They like the panels, think they are very easy to use, but also notes that these are not the cheapest modules, of course, being OLED.

4D systems OLED touch panel

Metku tested two modules - a 0.96" OLED (µOLED-96-G1), and a 2.4" with Touch (µOLED-32024-P1T), and provide a lot of photos, code example, videos and explanations.

4D Systems launches new serial graphics controller for OLEDs and LCDs

oled — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:40:36 +0000

4D Systems has announced a new serial graphic controller designed for their µOLED and µLCD display panel. The controller provides a simple, flexible and effective, low-cost graphics user interface solution for rapid application development and time-to-market.

Goldelox SGC

Universal Display and Seiko Epson achieves new efficient red and green inkjet printable OLEDs

oled — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:43:47 +0000

Universal Display and Seiko Epson have been working on their inkjet printable, phosphorescent OLED technology and materials for quite some time... They have now announced new advances in performace:

A red P²OLED with CIE (0.67, 0.33), an efficiency of 10 candela per ampere (cd/A) and an operating lifetime of 20,000 hours, to 50% of initial luminance of 1,000 nits
A green P²OLED with CIE (0.33, 0.62), an efficiency of 34 cd/A and an operating lifetime of 25,000 hours.

Just a few days ago we talked to Seiko-Epson on their new inkjet OLED technology. They hope to have OLED TVs with this new tech in the market at around 2012.

NKK Switches OLED Rocker

oled — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:30:16 +0000

Introduction to Quantum Dots, interview with QD Vision's CTO

oled — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:02:19 +0000

Quantum Dots are getting a lot of attention lately, especially as a new SSL lighting technology. One of the companies that is working on this new tech is QD Vision. Their co-founder and CTO, Seth Coe-Sullivan has agreed to explain the technology, introduce the company, and answer a few questions.

Seth received his Ph.D in electrical engineering from MIT in 2005, writing a thesis on incorporating quantum dots in hybrid organic/inorganic LED structure. That's the technology basis of QD Vision. Seth was chosen as one of the top young entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by BusinessWeek.

QD Vision is a quantum-dot product company that delivers highly differentiated lighting solutions to major industries where color, power and design matter - these include lighting, displays, signage and defense. QD Vision’s Quantum Light™ platform enables step-change advances over other display and lighting solutions such as LCDs, plasma displays, LEDs and even organic LEDs (OLEDs). QD Vision is privately held, based in MA, US, and has several first-tier patents originating at MIT.

Q: Hello Seth, and thanks for agreeing to do this interview. Can you explain your technology? What exactly *are* quantum dots?
Quantum dots are tiny bits of semiconductor crystals with amazing optical properties that are determined not only by their material composition, but their size. QD Vision synthesizes these materials in solution, and formulates them into inks and films that we sell to our customers, enabling step-change performance and cost benefits. Our first products are Quantum Light^TM optics for solid state lighting devices, and our customers offer the most efficient, highest color quality LED lighting solutions on the market today.

MicroOLED to mass produce OLED microdisplays by the end of 2009

oled — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:53:32 +0000

MicroOLED says they will mass production their OLED microdisplay by the end of 2009. The MicroOLED microdisplays boast 25µm sub-pixel area, 25mW power consumption and good video-imaging quality, all that with 'TV resolution'.

MicroOLED OLED microdisplay

MicroOLED are also working on HDTV resolution displays with even smaller pixel pitch.

Via EETimes

Breathing patchwork OLED concept

oled — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:14:50 +0000

Yankodesign is showing the ultimate “stained glass” mosaic concept... It features tiles made from transparent OLEDs, and a sheet of clear acrylic on top. So you can paint using standard water based acrylic.

The OLEDs can stay transparent, and then it looks like regular stained glass window pane. They can also be turned on, to create a backlit mosaic...The white tile at the bottom right in this photo is the power tile, which drives the OLEDs and contains the light dimmer.

I usually do not post about 'design concepts', but I really like this one!

LG Display to buy OLED materials from Idemitsu Kosan

oled — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:48:02 +0000

LG Display says they have signed an agreement with Japan's Idemitsu Kosan for OLED materials. LG sees OLEDs growing rapidly, and they want a stable soruce for materials.

Idemitsu Kosan are also working with Sony and UDC on OLED display materials.

LG display plans to start making larger panels towards the end of 2009, and to sell OLED TVs in December 2009 or January 2010 in Korea. They expect the market to reach over 3B$ in 2010 (citing DisplaySearch numbers).

Seiko Epson sees 37" (and larger) inkjet-printed OLED TVs in 2012

oled — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:20:54 +0000

Last month Seiko Epson has unveiled a new inkjet-printing technology for OLEDs, suitable for large sized panels. We have talked to Satoru Miyashita, General Manager of Seiko Epson's Core Technology Development Center about this new technology and their plans for OLED production.

Q: You have shown a new ink-jet based OLED technology. You say it will enable 37" or larger HD-OLED TVs. Do you have any plans to actually make such TVs? When do you think products can be made with this new tech?
Epson is currently considering a variety of options regarding the commercialization of this technology, but at this point no specific announcements have been made about plans. We see 2012 as being the year that 37"+ OLED TVs will be launched by various makers, and 2015 as the year that sales will really take off for this market.

Espon 14-inch Inkjet processed OLED

GPEG announces largest PMOLED to date, 5.5" made by Univision

oled — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:47:33 +0000

GPEG (a UK based display reseller) has released a new green-monochrome 5.5" (ultra-wide) PMOLED module, the FD025664. The display features 256x64 resolution, 2000:1 contrast, 160 degrees viewing angle and 120 cd/m2 brightness.

The display is aimed towards DAB radios, and GPEG says they can change the color to yellow or white for high volume applications.

Lenovo will consider a slim 15" OLED laptop if they'll have demand for it

oled — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:13:24 +0000

David Critchley, a marketing manager for Lenovo, says that Lenovo will consider releasing a slim model of its T500 with 15" OLED screen "if demand is there". Lenovo are also considering multi-touch screens.

It's not a huge commitment by Lenovo (I'm sure most laptop makers will be happy to have an OLED "if they see demand") - but it's good to see that Lenovo is aware of OLEDs. I'm also guessing that LG are starting to talk to laptop makers about their upcoming 15" OLED TV panels, that can also be used in laptops.

Samsung says they got more than 2M pre-orders for the JET phone

oled — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:03:19 +0000

Samsung says that they have got more than 2M pre-orders for their new Jet phone - that's the best pre-order sales for any Samsung phone. The phone has impressive features, but it's not exactly a smartphone (it uses the TouchWiz 2.0 OS). Besides a 3.1" touch OLED, it's got a 800Mhz processor, 5Mp camera, browser and DivX support.

It is available now in the UK, for 350pound (570US$) unlocked, and will be released next month in 50 countries.

Samsung Jet

Samsung says that the Samsung Ultra Touch has sold over 1.8M units, before its worldwide release. The Ultra Touch has a smaller touch OLED (2.8" WQVGA), and is available in the US for 500$ unlocked.

Via Telecom Korea

IGNIS shows new AMOLED prototype using its MaxLife backlane tech

oled — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:58:44 +0000

IGNIS Innovation unveiled a prototype display using its backplane technology called MaxLife. The MaxLife solution compensates not only for the thin film transistor (TFT) degradation, but also for OLED as well.

IGNIS showed its prototype of a cutout of a 32” 1080p HDTV, with an operating device lifetime of 75,000 hrs and no image burn-in over that period, which is equivalent to 20 years when watching for 10hrs/day.

“The growth of the AMOLED industry has been constrained due to the technological hurdles associated with achieving a truly reliable, uniform and scalable TFT backplane. Our MaxLife platform now enables our customers, the display manufacturers, to accelerate their market introduction of large, visually stunning and affordable AMOLED HDTVs and other large area applications in the very near future”, said Paul Arsenault, President and CEO of IGNIS.

More details on Samsung's OLED e-passort prototype

oled — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:46:38 +0000

Samsung has been showing their OLED e-passport (or ID card) prototype for a long time, and now we found this nice video which gives some more details.

It turns out that the flexible OLED is 2" QVGA 240x320, 260K colors and 10,000: contrast ratio. The display is so low on power it uses just the RF power - it automatically powers up when closed to the RFID reader.

There's still no details on when this will become a real product...