Flexible OLEDs

GE to start printing OLED light panels next year

oled — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:29:14 -0400

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 — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:46:18 -0400

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.

More details on Samsung's OLED e-passort prototype

oled — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:46:38 -0400

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...

Interview with LG Display's OLED sales and marketing VP

oled — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:46:47 -0400

LG Display is one of the leaders in OLEDs, but they have recently sent some mixed messages - great OLED TV prototypes, promises of new OLED TV products soon, no AMOLED phones plans... Mr Won Kim, Vice Presideont of OLED Sales and Marketing from LG Display has agreed to answer a few questions we had, and set things straight.

Mr Won Kim ha sas BA in business management from Korea University, and has been working for LG since 1984. Now he's VP of OLED sales and marketing (since 2005).

Q: What kind of OLED products are LG currently selling? What is your current capacity for OLED production?
Mobile phone only. Current capacity is 7k sheets(365 x 460) per month, which is equivalent to 200k pcs of 3" size.

Q: Can you name some products that use your OLED displays?
So far two mobile phones tailored to SKT in Korea.

Q: You have been showing a 15" OLED TV prototype since the beginning of 2009... and you said it can begin production by June 2009. Which is now.. will you start making these panels? Or are you still waiting for a customer?
During the period of Dec 2009-Jan 2010, our customer will launch 15" OLED TV in Korean market. Thereafter global roll-out follows.

Samsung shows S shaped flexible OLED display

oled — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:30:59 -0400

Samsung is showing a new S-shaped flexible OLED display:

The display is 2" QVGA (240x320), supports 260K colors, has 200cd/m2 luminance and 10,000:1 contrast ratio. It's only 0.05mm thick...

This is a nice demo, and actually I can see this being a unique photo frame product... I'd be happy to have one myself...

Bayer AG license Add-Vision's Flexible Polymer OLEDs

oled — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:33:27 -0400

Bayer MaterialScience AG, a unit of Bayer AG, signed a technology and patent license agreement with Add-Vision. Bayer will be able to manufacture and sell flexible Polymer based printable OLEDs.

Bayer says that the technology is an important component for many applications in the coming years - such as active packaging and labels, gift cards, electronic toys and games, promotional products or point-of-sale signage.

Financial details have not been disclosed.

UDC and LG give more info on the 4" flexible OLED bracelet

oled — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:51:10 -0400

UDC and LG has been showing a wrist-worn flexible OLED prototype for a long time now. They have released some new information on the display today.

The display is 4", supporting 320x240 pixels at 100ppi. The luminance is 100cd/m2, contrast 1,000:1. The whole panel is 0.3mm thick, with a steel plate as substrate, using amorphous Si TFT. It weights 8g.

Via TechOn

FDC and UDC achieve a breakthrough in flexible OLEDs

oled — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:45:17 -0400

Universal Display and the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University has announced a significant milestone towards a manufacturable flexible OLEDs. The new display is the first a-Si:H active matrix flexible OLED display to be manufactured directly on DuPont Teijin’s polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrate.

The companies will be showing a 4.1" monochrome QVGA flexible OLED at SID. This display has the same brightness as normal displays with extremely low power consumption. The flexible backplane display was manufactured at the Flexible Display Center utilizing a 180°C thin film transistor process. The FDC’s facility implements traditional flat panel and semiconductor tools and processes to achieve flexible displays, enabled by its proprietary bond-debond technology to secure the plastic substrate to a rigid carrier during manufacture.

Samsung shows a flexible 6.5" OLED Prototype

oled — Wed, 27 May 2009 06:48:38 -0400

Samsung mobile display are showing a new 6.5" flexible OLED panel prototype. They say it's more flexible than any previous model by Samsung (and there have been a few...).

Samsung flexible OLED prototype

Samsung will demo this new panel at SID in a couple of days, so hopefully we'll get more details on the prototype.

The Holst centre releases a nice flexible OLED Lighting video

oled — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:54:20 -0400

The Holst centre has released a nice video about flexible OLED lighting. They show some nice concepts, and an interesting idea that you can 'cut your own OLED shape' - buy a square-panel OLED, and then cut it... as it will still work. They show this in the video.

Follow this link to the video.

Just last month, the Holst centre has shown an ITO-free, Printed Flexible OLED lighting, paving the way to low-cost large-size OLEDs.