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This thread is for news about technological advancements in and commercial production of OLED TVs and OLED technology in general. It will be regularly updated with relevant news about leading-edge advancements.

Currently, it is the largest single repository in the world for OLED display news, device information and imagery.

Other threads in this group on the AVS Forum:

▪ LCD TVs: Fab News Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7715141#post7715141)
▪ LCD TVs: Market Price Stats Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=681034)
▪ LCD TVs: Technology Advancements Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7714625#post7714625)
▪ Plasma TVs: Market Price Stats Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10272649)
Background:

▪ Wikipedia: OLEDs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oled)
▪ History of OLED Technology (http://www.oled-info.com/history.html)
Video:

▪ Sony Moves a Step Closer to OEL TV (11" & 27") [ Stream (http://movie.diginfo.tv/2007/08/23/07-0253-r.php) / AVI (http://sharebee.com/0d0b425d) / MKV (http://sharebee.com/7df4f6c4) : 6.6 MB ]
▪ Epson 40" OLED Display [ MKV (http://sharebee.com/c5a0000f) : 0.8 MB ]
▪ Wil Wheaton praises Sony's 1,000,000:1 Contrast OLED TVs [ Stream (http://www.lemaroc.org/videos/video-3Ufs9Wx0VXQ.html) / AVI (http://sharebee.com/b998f334) / MKV (http://sharebee.com/d3bc262d) : 5.2 MB ]

▪ lemaroc.org: OLED Videos (http://www.lemaroc.org/videos/recherche-OLED.html)
▪ takatv.com: OLED Videos (http://www.takatv.com/recherche-page0-OLED.html)

To start off, some recent and (surprisingly), not-so-recent news:
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Universal Display Corporation and Sony Corporation Announce Joint Development Agreement Aimed at Organic LED Television Monitors (http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press_Archive/200104/01-0418E/)
18 April 2001

Universal Display Corporation (UDC) (Nasdaq: PANL PHLX: PNL) and Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) have announced a joint development agreement for high efficiency active matrix Organic LED (OLED) display devices for use in large area monitor applications. Under the Agreement, the parties will develop active matrix OLED displays with extremely high power efficiency combining UDC's proprietary high efficiency electrophosphorescent materials and Sony's proprietary low temperature poly silicon active matrix OLED technology (TAC: Top emission Adaptive Current drive).

Sony has developed a 13-inch active matrix OLED display using its novel TAC technology. That display is a little thicker than a credit card and has the potential to replace the bulky TV tube. UDC's portfolio of innovative OLED technologies include its world record high efficiency electrophosphorescent material system, which can be up to four times more power efficient than conventional OLED systems; transparent cathodes, and flexible plastic display technologies. It has the sole and exclusive licensing rights to over 380 issued and pending OLED patents worldwide.

"The opportunity to work with the Sony team is a very exciting event. We believe that their vision of a thin, lightweight OLED television monitor is a dramatic confirmation of the essential attributes of OLED technology and their position as a premier developer of high quality large area consumer electronic display products," stated Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Operating Officer of UDC.

Tetsuo Urabe, General Manager of Sony's OLED development department stated "UDC and their research partners have been developing extraordinary and innovative OLED technologies for more than 7 years and the combination of Sony's advanced AM-OLED technology and UDC's high expertise in OLED research and development will accelerate the realization of this revolutionary flat panel display technology for large area applications."

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Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology introduces world's largest polymer organic light-emitting diode display (http://www.tmdisplay.com/tm_dsp/press/2002/04-16a.htm)
16 April 2002


http://www.tmdisplay.com/tm_dsp/press/img/17OLED.jpg

Display: Polymer Organic Light-Emitting Diode DisplaySize: 17” diagonal
Pixel count: 1280 x 768 (XGA wide)
Grayscale/Color: 64 grayscale (6-bit RGB) / 262,144 colors
Brightness: 100-300 cd/m2
Contrast: 200:1 (dark room)

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd. (TMD) today announced the world's first full-color 17-inch XGA wide polymer organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, a breakthrough display achieved forming a light-emitting polymer film on low temperature polysilicon thin film transistor (TFT).

OLED display data via an organic light-emitting diode in pixels formed on a TFT array. The display itself emits light and has no need of the backlight required by LCDs, opening the way to thinner, lighter display panels that consume less power. OLED displays also offer the faster response time required for motion pictures and support a wider viewing angle.

The newly developed 17-inch XGA wide OLED display was made possible by breakthroughs in ink-jet printing and solvent-material technologies for depositing a polymer film. Both advances can be applied to the achievement of large size, high resolution displays and efficient mass production without any need for a vacuum environment. The resulting display is the largest OLED display yet achieved and offers the highest resolution, 1280 x 768 pixels.

TMD expects OLED displays to find their initial market in cellular phones and small- and medium-sized PDAs, but development of a 17-inch wide OLED confirms application as larger displays for audio-visual equipment, including TVs.

The new display is on exhibit at Electronic Display Forum 2002 held at Tokyo Big Site, Tokyo, Japan from April 16-18, 2002.

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At the Society for Information Display (SID) show in Baltimore, two manufacturers claim to have built the largest organic LED display ever seen (http://optics.org/articles/news/9/5/23/1)
29 May 2003


http://optics.org/objects/news/9/5/23/OLED.jpg

20-inch OLED

Organic LED displays were much in evidence at last week’s Society for Information Display (http://www.sid.org/) (SID) show in Baltimore, US, with two companies claiming to have built the largest yet.

International Display Technology (http://www.idtech.co.jp/) (IDTech), a joint venture between Chi Mei Optoelectronics (http://www.cmo.com.tw/) of Taiwan and IBM Japan (http://www.ibm.com/jp/), demonstrated a 20 inch display driven by what it calls ‘super amorphous silicon’ technology. Meanwhile, Sony showed off its 24 inch screen, which consists of a 2 x 2 tiled array of OLED displays.

Unlike most OLED displays, the device developed by IDTech is based on amorphous silicon transistors. According to the company, this enables much lower fabrication costs than the polycrystalline transistors generally used in OLED technology.

Amorphous silicon is already used in liquid-crystal display (LCD) manufacture, and IDTech says that its development makes commercial production of OLED displays with existing TFT-LCD manufacturing facilities possible.

“TFT-LCD companies can easily transform their products into OLED without massive investment in new facilities. This will result in a very competitive production cost for OLED displays,” said the company.

IDTech also claims that its display consumes half the power of a typical high-end LCD, has better color saturation and a wider viewing angle. It features WXGA resolution (1280x768 pixels) and draws 25W power at 300 cd/m2.

Although substantially bigger at 24.2 inches, the active-matrix OLED display developed by Sony is actually four separate displays. However, the company says that its tiling technology makes the join between each display appear seamless. However, the resolution of the Sony display is slightly less at 1024 x 768 pixels.

Both companies say that their developments open the door to OLED displays being used in televisions.

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Epson Creates World's First Large Full-Color OLED Display Using Original Inkjet Technology (http://www.epson.co.jp/e/newsroom/news_2004_05_18.htm)
PDF (http://www.epson.co.jp/e/newsroom/tech_news/tnl0408single.pdf)
18 May 2004


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http://www.epson.co.jp/e/newsroom/img/2004/040518_1.jpg


Seiko Epson Corporation ("Epson") today announced that it has used its original inkjet printing technology to successfully develop the world's first large-screen (40-inch) full-color organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display prototype.

Self-luminescent OLED displays, which offer outstanding viewing characteristics, including high contrast, wide viewing angle, and fast response times, are widely seen as the leading candidate for the next generation of thin, lightweight displays. One of the major obstacles to their realization, however, has been the perceived difficulty of forming organic layers on large-sized TFT (thin film transistor) substrates. Thus the question of when fabrication processes for large-sized OLED flat panel displays would become technically feasible had been anyone's guess.

Epson has been actively working to develop and commercialize next-generation OLED displays. The company, long a leader in inkjet printers, has developed an original inkjet process for depositing organic layers on large-size TFT substrates. Using this adapted inkjet technology to form organic layers on large-size substrates in a simple process, Epson has now developed the world's largest (40-inch diagonal) full-color OLED display prototype.

By establishing an OLED display manufacturing system and process that can handle oversized substrates, Epson has beaten a path to large-size OLED displays, as well as to lower cost small- and medium-sized panels cut from larger TFT substrates.

Epson believes that the characteristics of OLED displays make them the ideal device for entertainment applications, whether in equipment for the road or living room. The company is thus gearing up towards commercialization in 2007.

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LG Philips lays claim to biggest OLED (http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5418175.html)
19 October 2004


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The company, which manufactures thin-film-transistor, or TFT, LCD screens in South Korea, unveiled a prototype 20.1-inch active matrix OLED display at the FPD International trade show in Japan on Tuesday.

It is based on "low-temperature polysilicon," a technique also used in TFT-LCD production, where active components are integrated across the display glass. This lets the OLED display be made using modifications of existing techniques and production lines. Because OLED displays do not need a separate backlight, the power consumption of the finished unit should be lower than that of an LCD counterpart.

LG Philips, a joint venture between LG Electronics and Royal Philips Electronics, wasn't able to provide full technical details of the device at the time of writing. According to reports, the OLED display contains 3 million pixels, suggesting that it has a resolution of 2,028 pixels by 1,536 pixels.

Until now, Samsung had the honor of having created the largest OLED display. In May it announced a 17-inch active matrix OLED display with a resolution of 1,600 pixels by 1,200 pixels.

Other companies have announced OLED displays that are larger than 20.1 inches, but these have actually contained a number of smaller units stuck together.

Kodak and Sony have also shown interest in OLED production.

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Samsung Develops World's Largest 21" OLED Panel for Digital TV (http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200501/200501040025.html)
4 January 2005


http://www.hazi-mozi.hu/cfiles/398/SAMSUNG_21-inch_600px.jpg


Competition is heating up as companies accelerate their moves to develop the next generation of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays.

OLED display responses are 1,000 times faster than liquid crystal displays (LCDs), thus enabling greater resolution. The display's ability to function perfectly without a backlight means that monitors can be produced with one-third the depth of their LCD rivals.

Samsung Electronics announced Tuesday that it has developed the world's largest active matrix-based (AM) OLED display panel for digital televisions. Souk Jun-hyung, senior vice president of the LCD research and development center, said that the 21-inch OLED display features the highest resolution at 6.22 million pixels.

Last October, LG Philips LDC developed a 20.1-inch OLED television in conjunction with LG Electronics, and last May, Samsung SDI released its own 17-inch OLED product. The two companies adopted low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) for their products to ensure they have longer life spans and higher resolution.

At present, OLED displays are largely restricted to mobile phone use, but it is likely that large OLED-paneled televisions will replace PDP and LCD TVs in a few years.

According to a survey by Display Search, the global OLED market is expected to grow in scale from US$330 million (W343.8 billion) last year to $830 million in 2005 and $2.2 billion by 2008.

10" and bigger with no top end listed implies to me that the biggest size intended will not be greater than 32" or so. Just a feeling. No inside info - just a surmise.

Also, could you please change your font, many folks including myself use a different background.

i liked his font it was easy on the eyes to read.

I had to highlight the font color to read it.

I realize that small OLED displays are used in some cell phones, PDAs, video cameras, etc., but I understand that lifetime for the blue organics is pretty short (~1000 hrs). I think OLED displays would make the ultimate TV or monitor if they can overcome that problem and the high cost of manufacture.

"How Stuff Works" has a good article on OLED displays.

why should he change his font
Try setting to AVS White mode and try to read it.

I realize that small OLED displays are used in some cell phones, PDAs, video cameras, etc., but I understand that lifetime for the blue organics is pretty short (~1000 hrs). I think OLED displays would make the ultimate TV or monitor if they can overcome that problem and the high cost of manufacture.

Of course, it was only a few years ago that the lifetimes were measured in seconds -- not years.

Still, even with all the recent progress, there is no certanty that OLED (or SED for that matter) will ever overcome their technical and manufacturing problems.

SAMSUNG Electronics Develops World’s First 40-inch a-Si-based OLED for Ultra-slim, Ultra-sharp Large TVs (http://samsung.com/PressCenter/PressRelease/PressRelease.asp?seq=20050519_0000123644)
19 May 2005


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Samsung Electronics, the leader in TFT-LCD technology, today announced that it has successfully developed the world's first single-sheet, 40-inch active matrix (AM) OLED (organic light-emitting diode) for emissive flat panel TV applications. The high-definition-compatible OLED prototype has a wide screen pixel format of 1280x800 (WXGA) driven by an amorphous silicon (a-Si) AM backplane to permit faster video response times with low power consumption.

Samsung's 40-inch OLED panel will be demonstrated for the first time at the world's largest display industry event, Society for Information Display (SID) 2005 International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition in Boston, May 24– 27. .

Manufactured on Samsung's fourth generation (4G) production line with a mother-glass size of 730mm x 920mm, the new OLED prototype combines all of the traditional features of emissive OLED technology, including wide viewing angle, thin package size, no color filter and no backlight, with the enormous production infrastructure advantages of standard a-Si techniques. To date, AM OLED prototypes have used costly polysilicon approaches, which have limited production sizes.

Shattering traditional AM OLED size limitations, the new prototype offers a maximum screen brightness of 600 nits; a black-and-white contrast ratio of 5,000:1; and, a color gamut of 80 percent. Motion pictures with ultra-high quality images can be impeccably reproduced by skillfully employing OLED's rapid video response capabilities for image processing of HD-class resolution. The ultra-thin shape of the panels will allow future TV set designers to create televisions with a total thickness of only 3cm or less.

After launching its OLED development initiative in 2001 to secure leadership in next-generation display technologies, Samsung developed a 14.1” WXGA (1280x768) OLED panel in 2004, followed by the world's first 21” HD-class (1920x1080) OLED panel in January, 2005. This ambitious pace of innovation accelerated development of today's unusually large 40-inch OLED prototype, paving the way for large-size OLED TVs.

“Our development of a 40-inch OLED will provide a firm basis from which we can become the unassailable market leader in the flat panel display market of the future,” said Dr. Kyuha Chung, vice president of Samsung Electronics LCD R&D Center . “We're taking an early leadership position in the next-generation display market, building on Samsung Electronics' success in the TFT-LCD market.”

Samsung Electronics is the supervisory and lead research institution for detailed implementation of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Energy's (MOCIE) Next-Generation Growth Engine Industries Initiative. The latest round of development has been conducted as part of the project, “Development of Solution-Based AM OLED for Low-Cost 4G HDTVs using a-Si.”

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CDT Demonstrates Milestone in OLED Displays (http://www.cdtltd.co.uk/press/current_press_releases/412.asp)
3 November 2005


http://www.cdtltd.co.uk/images/cm_images/image_library/14%20inchweb.JPG

14" P-OLED display ink jet printed @ CDT

Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) [Nasdaq: OLED] has announced another important step in the development of polymer light emitting diode (P-OLED) display technology with the production of a number of 14 inch full color displays using ink jet printing. The displays were produced at CDT's Technology Development Centre in the UK, and feature a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels x RGB, equivalent to almost three million sub-pixels, or over 30 million ink jet drops.

The active matrix panels use an amorphous silicon backplane, and were made using a multi-nozzle approach - up to 128 nozzles - with no interlacing, and are believed to be the first of their kind ever produced.

The development strengthens CDT's view that multi-nozzle ink jet printing is the best approach to achieving scaleability and a low TAC time in the manufacture of high quality P-OLED displays.

Earlier this year, CDT demonstrated several 5.5 inch displays, and the latest 14 inch displays are part of a continuing program to develop both the underlying P-OLED technology and the means of manufacture. The WXGA+ panels were produced using printers from the Litrex Corporation, a company in which CDT currently has a 50% holding.

For CDT, Dr David Fyfe, CEO commented: "We are delighted at the rate of progress being demonstrated by these latest displays. It is not easy to produce high quality products when manufacturing a display design for the first time and in very small quantities, so the evident viewing quality and freedom from major defects demonstrated by these panels is especially encouraging."

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Idemitsu and Sony to jointly develop materials for OLED (http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200511/05-1129E/index.html)
Agreement reached for mutual use of each company's OLED-related patents
29 November 2005

Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. (hereafter Idemitsu) and Sony Corporation (hereafter Sony) have signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) on November 28, 2005 to jointly develop new superior Organic Light-Emitting Diode (hereafter OLED) luminous materials. And to promote the joint development, they have agreed to the mutual use of each company's OLED-related patents, i.e. material patents and component patents. The formal contract is expected to be signed at the end of January 2006.

OLED is a self-luminous display, which emits light by running an electric current through organic luminous materials. As a result of its simple structure, whereby the organic luminous layer is placed between two glass panels, no back-light system is required. This leads to a much thinner display. OLED is widely considered to be the most viable next-generation flat display, showing excellent color reproduction capability and high-speed response to moving images.

Idemitsu developed the world's brightest blue-light organic luminous material in 1997, based on their molecular engineering and organic synthesis technologies. Idemitsu has since continuously been developing new luminous materials for the mid-large size OLEDs. In addition to materials development, Idemitsu is aggressively working on new technologies such as combination technology for materials, OLED component technologies, etc.

Sony is developing various material and component technologies, and presented a 13 “OLED panel in February 2001 and a 24” OLED in January 2003, based on low temperature poly silicon TFT (Thin Film Transistor) technologies. Sony's mass-produced OLEDs were adopted in the company's PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) products from September 2004. And now, Sony is working on developing new technologies for the realization of a mid-large size OLED panel.

By sharing their complementary OLED related technologies, Idemitsu and Sony will develop new superior OLED luminous materials, boasting excellent features such as high luminescence efficiency for lower power consumption, high brightness and color reproduction for HD contents era, high response time for moving images, long durability, etc.

In addition, the agreement will grant mutual access to both companies' individual OLED-related patents. Sony will be able to use Idemitsu's OLED component related patents, whereby Idemitsu will be able to use Sony's OLED material related patents. As a result, the joint development will be accelerated, and Idemitsu and Sony are expected to expand their respective material and component businesses smoothly.

“As a materials manufacturer, we are delighted to have a strong relationship with Sony Corporation which positions OLED as the leading candidate to succeed as the next generation display" said Akihiko Tenbo, President, Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. "The complementary strengths of Sony's display technologies and Idemitsu's material technologies will positively drive OLED development.”

“We are very pleased to work on this joint development with Idemitsu, which has leading edge technology in many areas and especially in OLED material technologies.” said Ryoji Chubachi, President and Electronics CEO, Sony Corporation. “Sony is positioning OLED as the most important technology for the next generation flat display. Thanks to the development of new superior luminous materials through the joint efforts of the two companies, we will be able to accelerate the OLED development and will advance the materialization of our OLED applied products.”

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CDT reports new records for OLED display materials (http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/news/2/12/18/1)
12 December 2005

Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) has announced two major milestones in the development of long lifetime, high efficiency light emitting polymers for full color, video capable displays.

A phosphorescent red device has been produced by CDT and Sumitomo Chemical which has a lifetime [see footnote] of half a million hours from an initial luminance of 100 cd/m2; this is a record for lifetime of solution-processable materials of any color.

The efficiency is also improved at over 7cd/A. Red efficiency is especially important as this color consumes the largest share of power input in a color device, so improvements in red efficiency have important practical implications.

The second major milestone announced is a lifetime of 150,000 hours for a fluorescent blue device based on a new material developed by CDT, and now part of the Sumation™ portfolio. Just eighteen months ago, CDT announced the achievement of 30,000 hours lifetime for fluorescent blue. The efficiency is also the highest recorded for a blue polyfluorene material at 10cd/A.

The new blue material yields very good color values and efficiency. The OLED industry has come to regard progress on blue materials as a key indicator, since this performance dictates the range of full color applications which can be implemented. The progress announced today gives a strong indication that the technology is moving rapidly to satisfy the requirements for applications including large display screens.

These new materials are fully printable - a major advantage of polymer OLED technology over other OLED technologies. They are also compatible with each other and could be combined in the same device.

"The progress on red lifetime and efficiency is astonishingly rapid," said David Fyfe, CEO of CDT. "Increasingly, the progress on blue lifetime is building on the synergies arising from both the acquisition of Dow Chemical's P-OLED technology by Sumitomo, and the merging of CDT's and Sumitomo's know-how into Sumation. We are confident of further progress."

Footnote

Other data released are the lifetimes from higher initial luminance levels of 200, 300 and 400 cd/m2, which for the red material are as follows: 125,000 hours, 55,500 hours and 31,200 hours respectively, and for the blue: 37,500 hours, 16,700 hours and 9,400 hours. Efficiencies are quoted at over 7 cd/A and 10 cd/A for the red and blue respectively.

When "lifetime" is discussed here, it refers to the time taken for the display/pixel to fall to half its initial stated luminance. Lifetime estimates are based on accelerated testing of simple test devices at several very high initial luminance levels, and use of these data to calculate predicted lifetimes at lower brightness levels. Data are presented subject to experimental error.

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CDT Sees Further Rapid Progress In Polymer Lifetime Development (http://www.cdtltd.co.uk/press/current_press_releases/476.asp)
13 March 2006

Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) [Nasdaq: OLED] welcomes the announcement by Sumation™ - its joint venture partner with Sumitomo Chemical - of rapid progress in the development of long lifetime, high efficiency light emitting polymers for full color, video capable P-OLED displays.

Following a previous announcement in December, CDT now reports the achievement of blue fluorescent devices (CIEx=0.14, y=0.21) with 12,500 hours lifetime(1) from an initial luminance of 400cd/m², and an efficiency of 9cd/A.

Also announced are solution processable red phosphorescent devices (CIEx=0.67, y=0.32) with 50,000 hours lifetime(2) and an efficiency of 11cd/A.

CDT also welcomes the announcement of a green material with color co-ordinates (CIEx=0.36, y=0.60), which represents a more saturated color than previously available from this class of material. Materials with strong colors are important in the design of full color displays with good efficiency and lifetime characteristics. Lifetime achieved for this material is 50,000 hours(3) with an efficiency of 16cd/A.

The increased performance demonstrated by these latest data has prompted a switch to reporting lifetimes extrapolated from the higher luminance of 400cd/m².

Comments CDT's CEO Dr David Fyfe: "We are delighted to see rapid progress being made by the team from Sumation™, our joint venture operation formed in 2005. We place a very high priority on continuing to improve the underlying capability of P-OLED technology and the range of applications it can satisfy. We expect to continue to report further progress going forward. These data demonstrate the very significant synergy achieved with the combination of two very experienced teams in Cambridge and Tokyo."

1. Lifetime data has hitherto been reported by CDT from an initial luminance of 100cd/m². On this basis, the blue fluorescent devices would have an extrapolated lifetime of 200,000 hours.
2. Equivalent to 800,000 hours from 100cd/m².
3. Equivalent to 600,000 hours from 100cd/m²

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Samsung Confirms AMOLED Roll-out (http://displaydaily.com/2006/03/23/samsung-confirms-amoled-roll-out/)
23 March 2006

The projections for the huge market growth of OLED displays beginning in 2007 are staggering, and depend on the roll-out of active-matrix OLEDs (AMOLEDs) as the main display in lots and lots of cell phones.

Now, Lee Woo-Jong, vice president of Samsung SDI’s Mobile Display Business, has announced that the first manufacturing line of his company’s $450M AMOLED plant in Cheonan is scheduled to start producing displays by the end of the year with ramp-up in January '07, which is generally consistent with previous estimates. An EE Times story quotes Lee as saying that the plant will produce the equivalent of 20M 2- to 2.6-inch displays annually. The target application is "digital multimedia broadcasting-enabled phones."

"Initially, we will target the mobile TV phone market and then expand the territory to the 40-inch-level television market in two or three years," said Lee. "We plan to increase the annual AMOLED production capacity to 100M units by 2008 to meet an expected strong demand for higher-resolution displays for mobile TV phones. We have already been negotiating with several global mobile TV phone makers on design-in issues." Although Lee did not identify any potential customers, it is well known in the industry that Samsung Electronics will be a major customer. The AMOLEDs will compete with active-matrix TFTs in this premium end of the cell-phone market.

Samsung SDI will be making its AMOLEDs on a Gen 4 line, and claims its displays will be the first to use thin-film transistors made from low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS). Although this could be true for AMOLED displays intended for cell phones, Toshiba announced a 3.5-inch AMOLED using LTPS last October at FPD International.

Samsung SDI is known to be working with Universal Display Corp. (Ewing, NJ; www.universaldisplay.com), whose phosphorescent small-molecule OLED materials permitted Samsung to build the first cell-phone AMOLED prototype that consumed less power than an equivalent TFT-LCD.

An editorial note: Lee’s stated intention to "expand the [OLED] territory to the 40-inch level television market in two or three years" should be approached with caution. We believe the company’s cell-phone display production will use the proven vacuum thermal evaporation process for depositing the OLED materials. While this is a reasonable initial approach for small displays fabricated on substrates no larger than Gen 4, it would not be suitable for the larger fab generations required to produce large TV panels economically. Furthermore, the largest LTPS deposition equipment in the world is currently Gen 4.

This means that TV-size AMOLED panels will require fundamentally different OLED deposition and backplane fabrication processes than the initial phone-panel product - or Samsung would have to undertake a major, expensive and time-consuming scale-up of LTPS processing. These considerations make volume production of 40-inch panels unlikely in a two- to three-year time frame, although RGB AMOLED prototypes in such sizes are a definite possibility. (Samsung has been showing a "color-by-white" 40-inch OLED demonstrator on the show circuit for some time, but acknowledges that this approach represents a technological dead end for large displays - in part because of its poor luminous efficiency.)

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OLLA project reports OLED lighting milestones (http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/news/3/4/12/1)
12 April 2006

The European OLLA project has demonstrated white OLEDs with an efficacy of 10 lm/W, as well as green ITO-free devices.

Europe's OLLA project, which brings together a consortium of 24 partners to investigate OLEDs for lighting applications, has delivered its first milestone to the European Commission.


http://i31.tinypic.com/65n2fd.jpg

Blue pin-type OLED

The project deliverable is an advanced white OLED prototype light source, with an efficacy of more that 10 lm/W, emitting several thousand hours at 1000 cd/m2 brightness. This initial result makes use of PIN™ doping technology developed by Novaled, which enables increased efficiency with long lifetime at lower driving voltages.

"We have made substantial progress in nearly all working areas within the project," comments Peter Visser, project manager of the European integrated project OLLA. “New chemical compounds for OLEDs have been synthesized, characterized and transferred to other partners to be tested in OLED devices.

"Also, optical light out-coupling structures were investigated and our modeling activities helped us to get a much deeper understanding of the basic processes inside OLEDs. These results show our combined progress in view of large area lighting."

ITO-free devices

An indium tin oxide (ITO)-free OLED device has also been demonstrated within OLLA.


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An ITO-free 1x1 cm2 green OLED device with Baytron® PH500 as
injection material, opening a cheaper approach for OLED lighting applications.

ITO is commonly used as the conductive anode material for OLEDs and liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. Due to the growing demand of flat-panel displays, the price of the rare metal indium has been driven sky-high from US$60 per kg in 2002 to nearly $1000/kg today.

As OLEDs gain more and more interest in the field of lighting applications, the consumption of indium is expected to further rise in the future. To replace ITO, a newly developed conductive polymer from H.C. Starck was employed by the OLLA project.

“Until now, our Baytron® material has been used on top of ITO anodes as a Hole Injection Layer (HIL) to improve brightness, lower the driving voltages, and to reduce the defect density of OLEDs,” said Andreas Elschner of H.C. Starck. “We have developed a new formulation of Baytron®, which is especially tailored to reach high conductivity and good optical properties for use in OLED applications.”

Baytron® PH500 is a new formulation of the conductive polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly(styrenesulfonate), or PEDOT/PSS in short. It can be applied in solution by common spin-coating, printing or inkjet techniques.

In close cooperation with H.C. Starck, the TU Dresden-based Institut für Angewandte Photophysik (IAPP) has demonstrated a first 1.1 cm2 green OLED using the new Baytron® PH500 formulation instead of a normal ITO anode.

"We measured an efficiency of 18.7 lm/W at 1000 cd/m2 brightness, which is an amazingly high value," said IAPP’s Karsten Walzer. “We could even show that OLEDs on PH500 are more efficient than on ITO. This is due to their better matching optical properties within the OLED.” More detailed research results was disclosed during a presentation by IAPP on the SPIE Photonics Europe conference in Strasbourg.

“This encouraging result is one example of many steps we still have to make before commercializing OLEDs in Lighting applications becomes reality," comments Dietrich Bertram of Philips Lighting and technical coordinator of OLLA. "A possible elimination of the ITO layer is a very interesting option in developing this technology towards commercialization.”

“However, as the feasibility has only been shown on 1 cm2 so far, additional research has to be done on larger areas.”

About the OLLA project

OLLA (Organic LEDs for ICT & next generation Lighting Applications) is a joint research project on the development of white OLEDs for general lighting applications. The goal of the OLLA project is to demonstrate in 2008 high-brightness white OLED light tiles with a long lifetime and high energy efficiency.

The consortium has 24 partners in 8 European countries. OLLA is partially funded under the IST (Information Society Technologies) priority of the European Union’s 6th Framework Programme.

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DuPont Announces Breakthrough in Next Generation Flat Panel Displays Technology With High Performance Solution Processing of Small Molecule Materials (http://www2.dupont.com/Displays/en_US/news_events/article20060425.html)
26 April 2006

DuPont — a leader in the development of organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays — today announced a significant technology breakthrough in its OLED technology, taking a significant step toward commercialization of this next generation flat panel display offering.

Using advanced materials, OLEDs produce low power, thin, high-performance flat panel displays. OLED panels are emissive, eliminating the need for backlights and simplifying display design compared to other display technologies, such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs).

DuPont’s latest technological achievement enables -- for the first time -- the combination of high performance and long lifetime of small molecule OLED materials with a printing process that is substantially lower cost and more scalable to larger display sizes than the industry incumbent processes, such as vapor deposition. Through a combination of innovative processing device architecture and new materials, DuPont has demonstrated printing of small molecule OLED materials from solution.

DuPont has achieved lifetimes of the three primary colors each exceeding 10,000 hours of white lifetime (or 40,000 hours for a typical video) at the brightnesses required for a 200 nit display. With this development, DuPont has demonstrated that OLEDs can be manufactured at high yields and low total cost.

"Our model shows that the total cost of OLEDs can be 30 percent less than LCDs," said Craig Naylor, group vice president - DuPont Electronic & Communication Technologies. "Our proprietary materials are also designed to use less power than LCDs. And OLED displays can be very thin -- less than 1mm. With this development, we expect OLEDs will become the next generation flat panel display technology. "

OLEDs are starting to penetrate key applications in small displays today, including cellular phones and MP3 players. With DuPont’s technology, OLEDs can compete in a larger range of products -- including PDAs, personal digital media players, industrial and consumer electronics and other applications where bright, colorful, high contrast, thin, video capable displays are required, including eventually large screen televisions.

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Salmon DNA improves OLED performance (http://optics.org/optics/Articles.do?channel=technology&type=news&volume=12&issue=5&article=11&page=1)
PDF (http://www.nanolab.uc.edu/Publications/PDFfiles/344.pdf)
8 May 2006


http://optics.org/objects/news/12/5/11/bioled.jpg

Completed wafer with 4 devices on it.

http://optics.org/objects/news/12/5/11/salmonDNA.jpg

Salmon DNA

Incorporating salmon DNA into the structure of a conventional OLED makes it ten times more efficient and thirty times brighter, say researchers in the US.

Salmon DNA could hold the key to more efficient and brighter OLEDs, according to researchers in the US. By incorporating a thin layer of DNA into the OLED structure, the team says its BioLEDs are as much as ten times more efficient and thirty times brighter than their conventional counterparts. (Applied Physics Letters 88 171109)

The team's idea involves using the DNA as an electron-blocking layer. This improves the probability of electrons and holes recombining and emitting photons, which in turn enhances the device's luminance.

"It turns out that DNA has nearly ideal energy levels that allow hole transport to proceed unimpeded while it prevents electrons being transported too quickly," Andrew Steckl from the University of Cincinnati told optics.org. "This gives both electrons and holes a greater opportunity to recombine and emit photons."

Steckl and colleagues used DNA from Japan. "Salmon fishing is a very large industry in Hokkaido, Japan, some 200 000 tons per year," explained Steckl. "While the meat and eggs are edible, the male roe is normally a waste product but it is very rich in DNA."

DNA is normally soluble in water making it very difficult to process into thin films. To overcome this, the team used a reaction with a surfactant to convert the DNA into a water insoluble form, but soluble in selected alcohols. This allowed the group to spin coat a 20 nm thick electron blocking layer of DNA on top of the BioLED's hole injection layer.

The team tested a green- and blue-emitting BioLED against conventional OLEDs and found that the DNA electron blocking layer improved the luminance in both cases. For a current density of 200 mA/cm2, the green BioLED achieved 15000 cd/m2, whereas the baseline device reached just 4500 cd/m2. On the other hand, the blue BioLED had a luminance of 1500 cd/m2 at 200 mA/cm2, while the corresponding baseline device reached around 800 cd/m2.

Conventional OLEDs are renowned for having lifetime issues but Steckl and colleagues believe the DNA could also play a role here. "Our preliminary results show that the lifetime of the BioLEDs are significantly longer than that of equivalent OLEDs without the DNA layer," said Steckl. "We are working on understanding the difference in degradation mechanisms."

"We are trying to improve the control of the DNA layer thickness and properties," he continued. "We are also working on introducing lumophores in the DNA layer to obtain combined photoemission from multiple layers in the device. So far we have only used salmon DNA for BioLED fabrication, but are considering other sources of DNA such as mammalian and plant DNA."

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Sony to Start Construction of Large OLED Development and Production Line Early in 2007 (http://www.displaybank.com/eng2004/news/index.php?chk_date=2006-05-19)
19 May 2006

Sony Corp. revealed its plan to build a pilot line that will be dedicated to developing and volume producing large-area organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) early next year.

The new facility will be located in the Shiga complex of ST-LCD, a joint venture between Sony and Toyota established in 2004. The company said it would focus on 10-inch and larger OLEDs at the new line, while developing OLED flat TVs and flexible displays. The new line construction is scheduled to begin in March 2007.

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CDT ACHIEVES 100,000 HOUR BLUE POLYMER LIFETIME (http://www.cdtltd.co.uk/press/current_press_releases/383.asp)
23 May 2006

CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, 23rd May 2005 - Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) [Nasdaq: OLED] announces the achievement of another important milestone with the development of blue polymers for light emitting devices with 100,000 hours lifetime* from an initial luminance of 100cd/m².

This latest announcement is one of a series which CDT has made to enable the industry to chart its progress on this key parameter. Figures of 30,000, 70,000 and 80,000 hours (all from 100cd/m²) were published in May, October and December 2004.

Lifetime is one of the most important parameters which have governed the rate at which PLED technology is adopted commercially, and there is much industry interest in such figures. For this reason CDT has, for the first time, made available a wider range of data around its latest achievement, and included lifetime data for higher initial luminance levels.

Lifetimes for devices made using the new blue materials at 200cd/m², 300cd/m2 and 400cd/m² are greater than 25,000 hours, 10,000 hours and 6,000 hours respectively.

Higher lifetimes are already available with red and green polymers, and so this increased blue lifetime will allow yet more applications to be realized using PLED technology, including full colour displays for digital cameras, PDAs and DVD players. PLED display applications will ultimately include large flat panel televisions.

For CDT, Dr David Fyfe, CEO noted that the performance of materials in an actual display system will depend on a number of factors other than simply brightness to the viewer, such as whether the devices are top-emitting or bottom-emitting, the aperture ratio, the sub-pixel aperture ratio, average pixel brightness, choice of circular polarizer and so on. Fyfe says: "CDT intends to press for industry standards which reflect these realities and which will also allow calculations to be made of system performance at any level, enabling materials to be compared and the practical significance of quoted lifetimes to be exemplified.

"I am delighted to be reporting these new levels of blue lifetime, levels which are consistent with our rapid yet consistent progress over the last two years. We believe the disclosure of lifetime data at more challenging luminance levels will give additional meaning to these results and help designers and display makers to predict more accurately the performance of our technology in real life applications."

* Note to editors: When 'lifetime' is discussed here, it refers to the time taken for the display/pixel to fall to half its initial stated luminance. Lifetime estimates are based on accelerated testing of simple test devices at several very high initial luminance levels, and use of these data to calculate predicted lifetimes at lower brightness levels.

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Samsung SDI to Launch AM OLED Mass Production Three Months Ahead of Schedule (http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188500336)
24 May 2006

The Electronics Times reported today that Samsung SDI (CEO Kim Soon-Taek) would embark on active matrix (AM) organic light emitting diode (OLED) mass production on October 1st this year, which is three months ahead of the original schedule in January 2007.

A top executive of the company yesterday expressed strong commitment to the early launch of volume production, saying, "At the end of June this year, when installation of major facilities including crystallization and photo equipment is completed, the framework for starting mass production will be about 70~80% completed." He also stated, "We intend to disclose our own AMOLED brand by announcing our AM OLED business strategy in November, after launching mass production of OLEDs on October 1st," and "We are working on brand setup."

It will opt for the fourth generation standard (730x920mm) as the glass substrate for mass production, and the maximum capacity will reach 20 million units per year (based on mobile handset applications).

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OLED materials specialist gets funds, adds CEO (http://www.eetuk.com/bus/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188500441)
26 May 2006

LONDON — OLED-T, a U.K. developer and manufacturer of organic light emitting diode (OLED) materials and device structures, has raised £3.8 million (around $7 million) in venture capital funding and started an executive recruitment drive.

OLED-T (Enfiield and Uxbridge, England) has been formed from the assets of ELAM-T which was formed in 1999 and had previously raised nearly £7 million in VC investment. The company says the change of name reflects the focus on the development and commercialization of OLED technology. Prof Poopathy Kathirgamanathan, who was Chair of Electronic Materials at London South Bank University where the OLED material research work was carried out from 1993 to 1998 and who founded ELAM-T, is CTO of the company.

OLED-T will use the investment to fund a new research and development (R&D) facility in the U.K. and to bolster its executive management team and has already recruited Myrddin Jones to be Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Jones was previously General Manager at Hitachi Europe’s Display Products Group where he had responsibility for implementing Hitachi’s display product strategy across Europe and has had over 25 years experience in research and development (R&D) and market development for display businesses.

"OLED is the hottest technology in the display industry now and in the immediate future, and OLED-T is the most exciting early stage company in the OLED market. My brief is to commercialize OLED-T’s world beating OLED material by engaging with display manufacturers”, said Jones.

At Hitachi Jones managed annual revenues of €100 million for the company's European Display Products Group and grew the company's European display sales to European mobile phone, industrial and automotive equipment manufacturers – some of the main application areas being targeted by OLEDs.

OLED-T develops, manufactures and licenses high efficiency, long life-time materials known as ELAMATES for OLED displays. The ELAMATE materials are said to provide efficiency improvements of up to 80 per cent over competitive materials, and lifetimes of as much as three times that of competitive OLED materials. The company designs three of the key materials used in OLED manufacture - the electron transport layer, organic emitters and hole injection layer. OLED-T says it has been successful in extending the display lifetime for blue to over 20,000 hours to match that of the red and green elements.


http://i.cmpnet.com/eetuk/2006/news05/260506oled.jpg


ELAMATES are suitable for use in both 'Passive Matrix' and 'Active Matrix' products. While the passive are today’s OLED technology, enabling small area, low resolution displays to be manufactured cost effectively for applications such as MP3 players, mobile phone sub-displays, active matrix is seen as tomorrow’s OLED technology, enabling large area, high resolution displays to be manufactured for applications such mobile phone main displays, PDAs, and GPS navigation units. Large area displays are set to significantly increase demand for materials.

The new investment will enable OLED-T to expand its existing U.K. research and development (R&D) operation by opening a new custom-built chemistry facility to enable it to scale up its material production. The company has already invested £1 million in advanced machinery for device development.

Display market research and consulting group, DisplaySearch, has reported that the OLED industry reached revenues of over $500 million in 2005 and forecast revenues of more than $4.6 billion in 2010 – around 10% of the component TAM values is for the materials.

OLED will be the fastest growing non-LCD display technology and is said to have several inherent advantages compared to LCDs. They are 50% of the thickness and 70% of the weight and provide a 20% reduction lower power consumption. They are visible from every direction with no color shift and have a 10x faster switching speed to provide improved moving image performance. They provide a 40% bigger color range resulting in stronger, more vivid colors with a contrast of greater that 1000:1 resulting in a vibrant display image with potential for millions of colors.

The company has filed over 60 patents in the area of OLED materials and device structures and sells its materials directly to OLED display manufacturers primarily in Asia. OLED-T are working with 11 global display manufacturers which have evaluated several of its materials in laboratory and production environments and pre-production with major companies in Japan, Korea and Taiwan is being implemented this year with full scale volume commercial adoption by the first customer planned for 2007. It has established relationships with two sub-contract manufacturers in the U.K. and one in the U.S. who can manufacture up to 100kg per month of its materials.

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Universal Display, Mitsubishi team on OLED materials (http://eetimes.com/news/design/business/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188501309)
30 May 2006

MANHASSET, N.Y. — Universal Display Corp. has signed an agreement with Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. and Mitsubishi Chemical Group Science and Technology Research Center to collaborate on developing materials for phosphorescent OLED displays accessible through ink-jet printing.

Universal Display (Ewing, N.J.) has been researching a variety of OLED technologies, including phosphorescent OLED technology—which the company said offers up to four times higher efficiency than conventional OLED technology.

"Collaborating with a world-class chemical company like Mitsubishi Chemical allows us to share ideas and help each other reach the next level of innovation for OLED materials based on our PHOLED phosphorescent OLED technology and Mitsubishi Chemical’s expertise in OLED chemicals and ink formulation," said Steven V. Abramson, president and chief operating officer of Universal Display, in a statement. “Mitsubishi Chemical’s commitment to printable phosphorescent OLEDs, which we call P2OLEDs, indicates that ink-jet printable PHOLED technology has real commercial potential.

Japan-based Mitsubishi Chemical announced at the end of last year it had built the highest-efficiency printable blue phosphorescent OLED. Mitsubishi Chemical expects to accelerate development of printable red, green and blue phosphorescent materials through the agreement.

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OLED fabrication uses direct-photolithography process (http://eetimes.com/news/design/technology/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188702020)
6 June 2006

SAN FRANCISCO — Researchers from Germany’s University of Cologne have achieved what they say is the first high-resolution, full-color organic light-emitting diode display based on a direct photolithographic process.
The team reported on the OLED at the Society for Information Display (SID) symposium here.

The direct photolithography technique was developed in collaboration with Merck OLED Materials GmbH. Unlike other approaches such as inkjet printing, the technique does not require development of an entirely new process technology; rather, it relies chemical modification of the organic material.

"By adding oxetane side groups, our emissive polymers gain the properties of photoresists. Thin films of these smart resists can be patterned simply by exposure to ultraviolet light," said team leader Klaus Meerholz, a Cologne professor.

The group has used the method to fabricate fully operational true-color matrix displays that can display simple pictures and support video while reportedly consuming less power than most conventional displays.

During the fabrication process, spin coating is used to deposit the first polymer onto a transparent substrate. The polymer film is then irradiated with ultraviolet light through a shadow mask, causing the polymer to cross-link and to form an insoluble material. Material in the nonilluminated areas of the film is washed away with solvent.

Two other polymers are subsequently deposited in the same way to fabricate a pixelated device with three individually addressable colors.

Meerholz emphasized that the work is preliminary and that research is required before commercialization can be contemplated.

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CDT, Litrex team for inkjet printing of polymer displays (http://eetimes.com/news/latest/technology/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188701974)
6 June 2006

LONDON — Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) has teamed with Litrex Corporation on cost effective ways to manufacture high resolution polymer organic light emitting displays (P-OLED) through the development of an inkjet printing technique capable of producing the displays at up to 200 pixels per inch.
The work will cover both hardware and software enhancements, mainly to take place at Litrex, as well as process developments at CDT including plasma pre-treatment and film formation development. The work is expected to be completed by the second half of 2007.

Inkjet printing is currently the favored means of producing 200 ppi displays on the large substrate sizes necessary for cost competitiveness. ULVAC subsidiary Litrex (Pleasanton, CA) has already designed and delivered a variety of inkjet printers up to Gen 8 (2.4m x 2.4m glass size) to the display industry, but not for operation at such high resolutions.

"This program will allow us to extend our current inkjet manufacturing technology, using proven techniques and methods, to achieve OLED resolutions which are difficult to achieve by other patterning methods for direct-emissive display technologies," said David Orgill, President and CEO of Litrex.

The agreement comes amongst a flurry of deals announced by CDT Tuesday (June 6), including the sale of an inkjet printing system and associated know-how to the National University of Singapore (NUS). CDT said that it will also provide NUS with know-how based on extensive experience of inkjet printing for evaluation and pre-production of P-OLED displays.

The company also revealed it sold a sophisticated Eclipse display test system to Frankfurt, Germany-based Merck OLED Materials GmbH.

And CDT said its project with Japan’s Toppan Printing has yielded 5.5 inch full color active matrix polymer OLED (P-OLED) displays using a roll printing method. The companies are demonstrating the displays — which they say are the first of their type produced — at this week’s SID conference in San Francisco.

CDT and Toppan have been working on the project (http://www.eet.com/news/semi/technology/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403208) since February 2005. The technique is based on relief printing, already widely used for transferring soluble materials on to a range of substrates. Toppan has adapted the process to produce, with high accuracy, tiny patterned pixels that exhibit highly uniform distribution.

The companies say the process will be capable of scaling to large substrate sizes and very high resolution, potentially over 200 ppi.

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Toppan, Cambridge Display advance roll print process (http://www.eet.com/news/semi/technology/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403208)
6 June 2006

MANHASSET, N.Y. — Toppan Printing and Cambridge Display Technology said they have entered the second phase of a joint program to explore alternative printing processes for fabricating displays based on light-emitting polymer (PLED) technology.

Phase one proved the feasibility of using a roll printing process to deposit light-emitting polymer materials onto a glass substrate. It was completed at the end of 2004.

Phase two will focus roll-printed display performance and will aim to produce displays with a lifetime, efficiency and color fidelity comparable to displays produced using ink-jet printing.

The partners said the aim is to produce over the next two years full-color demonstrations of 12-inch diagonal displays with VGA resolution.

David Fyfe, CEO of CDT (Cambridge, U.K.), said in a statement: "The combination of Toppan's skills in conventional printing processes and those of CDT in light-emitting polymer ink formulation and device structure, enhance the chances for success in this promising project to create very low cost displays".

CDT is a leader in polymer-OLEDs (organic light-emitting diode) for electronic displays.

Toppan Printing (Tokyo) will supply core technologies developed in its printing, packaging, security, electronics, digital imaging and optronics businesses.

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OLED-T AT SID INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM (http://www.oled-t.com/blogs/pressReleases.php)
6 June 2006

London, UK – 6 June, 2006 – OLED-T, a developer and manufacturer of world-class organic light emitting diode (OLED) materials and device structures, today announced that it will demonstrate a series of OLED displays and present a paper at SID International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition on 4 to 9 June, 2006.

On Poster Stand P202, OLED-T will be presenting a poster on their host (for red and green) and electron transporter (E246) and a hole injector (E9363) which are available in commercial quantities (100 kg) for OLED display manufacture.

Professor Poopathy Kathirgamanathan, founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) will present a paper reporting on the performance of OLED-T’s foundation materials used in the manufacture of display products.

OLED-T’s proprietary electron transporter (E246) reduces the display operating voltage and increases the efficiency and the lifetime of OLEDs made of fluorescent or phosphorescent systems, compared with other industry materials. OLED-T’s novel proprietary hole injector (E9363) reduces the operating voltage, increases the efficiency and doubles the lifetime compared with existing solutions.

“The search for stable and high efficiency electron transporters and hole injectors has become particularly intense over the last 12 months as OLED manufacturers. This has coincided with a period of rapid development for OLED-T. SID will provide an opportunity to update the display industry on our progress,” said Professor Poopathy Kathirgamanathan, founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

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OLED manufacturers face pricing pressures (http://optics.org/optics/Articles.do?channel=business&type=news&volume=12&issue=6&article=6&page=1)
9 June 2006

As competition intensifies in the small-to-medium display market, OLED manufacturers are working to introduce lower cost fabrication techniques.

While displays based on organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) continue to dominate technical discussions at this year's Society of Information Display (SID) conference, analysts at iSuppli warn that OLED manufacturers must reduce prices to compete in the small to medium display market.

"Currently the battle is in active matrix devices," Paul Semenza, vice-president for display and consumer research at the US-based analyst firm, told optics.org. "Active matrix OLEDs carry a significant [a factor of two] premium over comparable TFT-LCDs."

Semenza concedes that OLED makers have made real progress in increasing production volumes, with unit shipments forecast to increase from 88 m in 2006 to 364 m in 2012. Revenues over the same time frame are predicted to increase from about $0.7 bn to $3.5 bn.

However, almost all OLED devices produced today are based on small-molecule technology and a passive-matrix design, which limits their use to simple displays in car dashboards and portable devices. The focus for OLED manufacturers now is to produce more sophisticated active-matrix devices, and to introduce polymer-based technology and new fabrication techniques to lower manufacturing costs.

For example, Cambridge Display Technology of the UK and Toppan Printing of Japan announced at the SID conference that they have exploited a novel roll-printing technique developed by Toppan to produce full-color active-matrix displays based on polymer OLEDs. Inkjet printing is currently the favored approach for OLED manufacture, but the two companies believe that roll printing offers a cheaper alternative that still achieves good uniformity and resolution.

Toppan's technique is based on relief printing, an established method for transferring soluble materials onto a range of substrates. But the Japanese firm has improved the precision of the technology to enable small-area pixels to be patterned with highly uniform distribution. The demonstrator displays measure 5.5 inches, but CDT and Toppan claim that the process could be scaled to larger substrate sizes and a resolution of 200 pixels per inch (ppi). In future, the process could also be suitable for producing flexible OLED displays.

DuPont has also developed a printing process for small-molecule OLED materials that it claims is cheaper and more scalable to large display sizes than techniques such as vapor deposition. Using this technique, DuPont has achieved lifetimes exceeding 10,000 hours for the three primary colors at the brightnesses required for a 200 nit display.

Craig Naylor, group vice president for electronic and communication technologies at DuPont, says that these early results demonstrate that OLEDs can be manufactured at high yields and low cost. "Our model shows that the total cost of OLEDs can be 30% less than LCDs. With this development, we expect OLEDs to become the next-generation flat-panel technology."

A joint research effort between Philips Lighting, Philips Research and Novaled has produced a white OLED with an efficacy of 32 lm/W at a brightness of 1000 cd/m2. The lifetime of the device was more than 20,000 hours, and had a colour-rendering index of 88. The companies claim that the device sets a record combination for lifetime and efficiency for a high-brightness white LED, and the researchers are now targeting 50 lm/W as the next benchmark.

About the author

Susan Curtis is editor of optics.org

Seems to me only a few months ago the OLED naysayers were (nay)saying that blue OLED lifetime was way too short to go to production. Now Samsung is saying that they are starting production later this year. So what breakthrough (other than salmon DNA!) did I miss in the news?

BTW, a huge thanks to Isochroma for collecting this information and putting it into a compact, coherent thread! Good work!

Regards to all,

Willie

Wow - great information - thanks!

samsung had a 32" led or oled lcd awhile ago that did 110% ntsc color gamut, samsung has been showing these models off for awhile but still hasn't made one for the consumer.

i waited a hole year for the samsung 460D then got stuck with getting the qualia 005 well not anymore.

also i remember some article at digitimes showing 4 oled back-lighting(red, blue, yellow/green and green) to be used in some display in the future.

Looks great on paper and with Prototypes...but then again so does SED...I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Seems to me only a few months ago the OLED naysayers were (nay)saying that blue OLED lifetime was way too short to go to production. Now Samsung is saying that they are starting production later this year. So what breakthrough (other than salmon DNA!) did I miss in the news?Near the end of the article they mention that the mass production numbers are for mobile handsets. At the moment the closest thing to a company planning to sell OLED TVs is Sony and they are only going to build a pilot line next year that is limited to smaller displays.


Looks great on paper and with Prototypes...but then again so does SED...I guess we'll just have to wait and see.SED though was only being researched by two companies while OLED is being researched by many major CE companies. One big hurdle that remains for OLED though is that it needs to have blue polymers with a lifetime of at least 20,000 hours at 500 cd/m². When that is achieved in production displays we will see a lot of companies start producing OLED TVs.

http://optics.org/optics/Articles.do?channel=business&type=news&volume=12&issue=6&article=6&page=1

If its better, cheaper, and reliable, I want it.

If its better, cheaper, and reliable, I want it.

I fully agree with you. However life has taught me that these are all mutually exclusive.

Organic material from OLED-T has ten times carrier mobility (http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2006/06/09/38874/OrganicmaterialfromOLED-Thastentimescarriermobility.htm)
9 June 2006

A material with 10 times the carrier mobility and three times the lifetime of existing electron transport layers used in organic light emitting diode (OLED) devices has been developed by UK start-up OLED-T.

The company said the material, known as E246, is a drop-in alternative to aluminium quinolate, which was developed by Kodak. “It reduces operating voltage and gives you a more saturated colour,” said Professor Poopathy Kathirgamanathan, chief technology officer of OLED-T.

The firm’s intellectual property, developed by Kathirgamanathan, is in ‘small molecule’ OLED materials much like those from Kodak, in contrast to large molecule polymer emitters such as those used by Cambridge’s CDT.

E246 is being made in kilogramme quantities for OLED-T by an undisclosed European chemical company, and further refined at the company’s R&D lab on the Brunel Science Park.

Although he will not discuss detail, Kathirgamanathan told Electronics Weekly that OLED-T has moved away from very large metal atoms from the lanthanide series in its fluorescent emissive complexes, and gone over to comparatively lighter metal atoms.

“This gives us higher electron mobility,” he said. “High electron mobility with the right energy levels gives us lower operating voltage.”

Kathirgamanathan has also developed phosphorescent complexes containing a heavy metal atom surrounded by a ligand for red and green; a host for fluorescent blue; and a fluorescent blue dopant.

The blue host and dopant together “give a very dark colour with 0.15, 0.15 coordinates. In that, our only competitor is [Japanese firm] Idemitsu, that has the same coordinates,” he said.

In lifetime tests, OLED-T is claiming 160,000 hours from 100 to 50cd/m² for its fluorescent red and green, and what looks like a 10,000 hour half-life at 150cd/m² for its blue, although testing is not yet complete.

A second-generation of electron transport materials will, said Kathirgamanathan, yield a further 10-fold improvement in electron mobility, up to 10-3cm²/Vs. A second-generation blue emitter is also expected, doubling efficiency from 5 to 10cd/A, and “probably delivering 5-6lm/W”.

Qualification of the first emissive materials is underway with two customers, and is expected to take 16 to 20 months.

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OLEDs on the look-out for unique application (http://www.optics.org/optics/Articles.do?channel=business&type=feature&volume=11&issue=6&article=1&page=1)
10 June 2006


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Worldwide OLED panel market, 2004-2012: TV could take off around 2010 if backed by major players.
Image: iSuppli Corp, Organic Light-Emitting Diode Displays, 1H 2006

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The growth of the OLED market depends heavily on the success of active matrix OLED technology.
Image: iSuppli Corp, Organic Light-Emitting Diode Displays, 1H 2006

Analysts expect the OLED panel market to grow by more than $200 m in 2006 as the technology gathers momentum. Kimberly Allen of iSuppli looks at the prospects for passive and active OLEDs in the face of stiff competition from LCDs.

Liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) are ubiquitous in everyday technology, from mobile phones and laptops to car stereos and coffee machines. But the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display is emerging as a credible flat-panel alternative thanks to some important advantages over LCDs.

OLED panel market

OLEDs possess the most fundamental feature needed in a display - they look great. As the name implies, OLEDs are diodes and function by injecting holes and electrons into a recombination region from which coloured light emerges. Different organic materials emit red, green, blue or other wavelengths of light, and come in small molecule and polymer form. Because they are emissive, OLEDs also have an excellent viewing angle, good contrast and high brightness.

Market Growth

Unlike an LCD, an OLED does not need a backlight, which means that the display panel can be thinner. This is an important advantage in mobile devices. OLEDs also offer the potential for lower power consumption compared with an LCD, which is always constrained by the power consumption of the backlight. OLEDs supply power only to the pixels illuminated in a given image. OLED materials and device structures are becoming so efficient that an active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) a few inches in diagonal, showing video (on average 30% of full brightness), consumes less power than an equivalent LCD. In addition, because OLEDs can operate at high speed - around 100 times faster than an LCD - devices can support video rates without blurring.

Challenges

OLEDs fall into two categories: passive matrix and active matrix. Active matrix means that every pixel is individually switched, as opposed to a passive matrix arrangement, where row and column electrodes are used to control the pixel at a given intersection.

Unfortunately for manufacturers, OLED driving schemes tend to be more complicated than LCD devices. The reason behind this is that OLEDs are current-driven and are sensitive to slight fluctuations in current. LCDs on the other hand are voltage-driven. Instead of needing one thin film transistor (TFT) per pixel in an active matrix scheme, OLEDs need between two to five, arranged in a compensation circuit.

However, the biggest hurdle facing OLED developers is short lifetime. Although OLED materials and device structures have improved greatly over the past few years, manufacturers can still only guarantee between 5000 and 15,000 h of operation before the brightness of the panel is reduced to half of its initial value. This performance is sufficient for mobile phones and other consumer electronics, but inadequate for television and more sophisticated products. The organic materials simply do not hold up well under the driving current or the exposure to other materials within the device. What's more, the cathode material is highly sensitive to air and even when sealed, the OLED performance degrades slowly over time.

Device lifetime is shortened not only by declining brightness, but also by colour drift. For example, if the red, green and blue emitters degrade at different rates, the display shifts in hue over time. Typically, colour OLEDs are made by patterning red, green and blue emitters into subpixels, although it is also possible to mix multiple emitters together to form a single "white" material and use a colour filter.

With a commercial history of just seven years, OLED manufacturing remains at an early stage, both in terms of technique and equipment. Small-molecule OLEDs are made using vapour deposition techniques, such as evaporation through a shadow mask. OLED materials are too delicate for photolithography. Polymer OLEDs are made by solution processing, either spin-on techniques (for monochrome) or inkjet printing (for colour), although the latter has not yet been commercialized. Yields are quite high for simple panels, but established processes have not been put in place for most types of colour panels. This means that OLEDs are still priced higher than equivalent LCDs.

Early Success

Despite the challenges involved, OLEDs have already reached the market in several key applications. The first commercial OLED product was a small-molecule, passive matrix monochrome car stereo display from Pioneer in 1999. Sold as an aftermarket device, the display was blue-green to resemble vacuum-fluorescent versions commonly in use. Since then, OLEDs have moved into mobile phones, MP3 players, a Kodak digital camera, various industrial and medical devices, and a few other consumer electronics.

Market value

The worldwide market for OLED panels was valued at $520 m (€400 m) in 2005, and is expected to reach $743 m in 2006, rising to $3.5 bn in 2012. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 29% from 2006 to 2012. Looking at the detail, the growing importance of portable media applications and mobile phone main displays is clear.

The biggest market for passive matrix OLEDs is subdisplays, followed by MP3 players. 2005 was a difficult year for OLED subdisplays with the number of units and value both declining in comparison to 2004. Colour subdisplays fared better than monochrome or area colour versions, showing a modest increase in units. However, even this category declined in value from $252 m to $206 m. The difficult subdisplay market was the result of the falling price of TFT-LCD panels (for main displays), which in turn forced down the price of colour super-twisted nematic (CSTN) LCD panels for both main displays and subdisplays. OLED manufacturers, unaccustomed to swift market changes and unwilling to greatly reduce prices because costs remained high, failed to keep up with the changes until later in the year. At that point, orders had already been placed for CSTN LCDs.

Simple OLEDs have been favoured in MP3 players, which are often used as fashion or status items by younger people, because an area colour OLED display is much more eye-catching than a monochrome LCD. MP3 players have played an important role in the PMOLED market over the past two years, leaping more than eight-fold in units between 2004 and 2005, and filling the gap in factory utilization during fluctuations in the subdisplay market. They have also provided an opportunity for smaller PMOLED makers to enter the market. Difficulties in the MP3 market include component shortages and an unstable base of OEMs. The OEMs making the MP3 players are largely Chinese, and shift suppliers readily, seeking the lowest price.

The OLED market is still heavily dominated by passive matrix panels, which are expected to account for 99% of value and more than 99% of units in 2006. But active matrix panels are poised for commercialization. A few products have already appeared, although full mass production at adequate yield has not yet been achieved.

Looking at the worldwide OLED display shipment value in terms of passive and active markets highlights the enormous changes that could soon occur within the industry. The PMOLED market is predicted to continue growing in units throughout the forecast period, but is expected to stagnate at a value of around $1 bn from 2008. This is due to the steep price competition already being seen with CSTN. It is worth noting that the PMLCD market has already stagnated and is now declining in value each year.

An active market

The growth of the OLED market depends heavily on the success of AMOLED. iSuppli believes that near-term commercialization is possible, and makes this assumption in its market forecast.

The first commercial AMOLED reached the market in April 2003. It was made by SK Display Corp - a manufacturing joint venture between Kodak and Sanyo - and was used in a Kodak EasyShare LS633 digital camera back display. The 174 (×RGB) × 218 pixel, 65,000-colour display measuring 2.2 inches has also been used by Ovideon and NeoSol for personal media players in 2005. However, SK Display folded in late 2005, primarily for financial reasons. In Japan, Sony released one model of its Clie PDA series fitted with an AMOLED during the first half of 2005 and is planning another AMOLED product, although no definite announcements have been made.

The most aggressive AMOLED company currently is Samsung SDI. It has invested heavily in building a factory and capital expenditures will reach $450 m. The plan is to release a mobile phone main display in early 2007 and samples are already shipping.

In the meantime, AU Optronics (AUO) has started selling a 2 inch AMOLED for a mobile phone. The OEM is BenQ-Siemens (which owns 40% of AUO), and the phone is being sold initially in Taiwan and then Europe. Other Taiwanese players are making definite plans. Chi Mei Electroluminescence (CMEL) was spun-off as a subsidiary of the Chi Mei Group in 2004 and plans to release both PMOLED and AMOLED panels in small sizes during 2006. Toppoly has built an AMOLED line and intends to release panels for a camera and a mobile phone near the end of 2006. Other players involved with AMOLED include Toshiba Matsushita Display, Hitachi, Samsung Electronics, LG.Philips LCD, RiTdisplay, Epson and Sharp.

The key application for AMOLED is the mobile phone main display. It offers the largest total available market (TAM), and is well-suited to the OLED's attractive image, low power consumption and thin profile. In addition, the increasing use of video on mobile devices also favours the OLED's fast speed. One challenge is the assurance of supply. Mobile handset makers need assurance from OLED panel suppliers that they can deliver at least 10,000 panels per month and often much more. Unfortunately, this figure is currently beyond the capability of most panel suppliers because of low yield and process development is continuing to improve manufacturing competence.

An interesting new idea is the possibility of area colour main displays for emerging markets such as India and South America. It is suggested that these markets could be like the MP3 market, where an inexpensive but attractive display is needed, so that area colour OLED is a superior choice to STN-LCD. However, it remains to be seen whether CSTN might actually emerge as the display of choice in these cases.

Looking further ahead

The ultimate dream of many OLED panel makers is to serve the large-screen television market. OLED is well suited to TV - it has fast speed, good colour, excellent viewing angle and high contrast ratio. TV does not require high resolution, so inkjet printing should be able to serve. The main challenges are the large size, long lifetime requirement (30,000 h), and low price point. Another hurdle is the competition from many other technologies, which is rarely acknowledged.

The TV market is already flooded with options: CRT, LCD, plasma, projection and the potential for a variety of novel technologies like SED and carbon-nanotube-based technology. Consumers, for the most part, do not care about the particular technology - they tend to look only at the picture quality and the price, followed by the size or depth. Having so many technology options makes it difficult to grab the attention of end-product OEMs and channel vendors, and display companies themselves may have to make strategic choices if they can offer multiple technologies.

Currently, OLEDs cannot be manufactured in large sizes. Even the more aggressive participants such as Samsung Electronics have announced that they plan to enter the market around 2008. More time is needed to establish manufacturing processes for large panels and to build equipment that can make such panels efficiently. Inkjet printers for large substrates are still in the beta phase.

Thus, it is likely that the first OLED TVs will be small, designed for novel locations such as the kitchen or bathroom. The TAM for this sort of TV is small, but OLEDs offer novelty. Later, as technical and manufacturing capabilities grow, OLEDs may move into more standard-sized TVs (20-30 inches, or even larger). This could happen around 2010, but only with continued investment and commitment from major players.

Beyond television lies the potential for OLED lighting. Some say that this application could be simpler because there is no need to pattern subpixels or provide a complex backplane to drive it. But the requirement for long lifetime remains, and so OLEDs must still grapple with the difficulties of organic material degradation and colour shift. These are exacerbated at the high brightness levels required for lighting applications.

Finding a niche

What OLEDs need most is a unique application that LCDs cannot serve. At this time, everything an OLED can do can also be done by an LCD - and for a lower price. Furthermore, most of the key companies developing OLEDs are also LCD players, and hence they are ramping up OLED products as part of a larger strategy that will not cannibalize their own LCD businesses.

One option for a unique product would be a flexible OLED. Flexible LCDs exist, but are less appealing than flexible OLEDs. The main difficulty with flexible LCDs is that the image quality is so strongly affected by the cell gap between the two substrates of the display. OLEDs have no cell gap challenge, although this advantage is balanced by the disadvantage of requiring a powerful barrier to protect against water in the air. While glass substrates provide such a barrier naturally, plastic allows too much water to pass and must have a barrier layer. Adequate barrier technology has not yet been developed.

Flexible OLEDs could be used in applications such as shop signage, electronic shelf labels, novel forms of advertising displays and even electronic books or paper. Most developers agree that even entry-level products are still at least 2-3 years away due to technical challenges, but this represents an important long-term option for OLEDs.

About the author

Kimberly Allen is director of display technology and strategy at iSuppli, a US-based group of market experts specializing in the semiconductor and display industries. For more information, see www.isuppli.com (http://www.isuppli.com/)

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OLED firm invests in R&D facility (http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2006/06/14/38969/OLEDfirminvestsinRDfacility.htm)
14 June 2006

OLED-T, the UK-based manufacturer of organic light emitting diode (OLED) materials, has invested $900,000 in an R&D facility on the Brunel University Science Park site, Uxbridge. Last month the firm raised $7m from venture funding.

The 2,000 square foot R&D facility is a chemistry laboratory which will support the production of its OLED materials known as ELAMATES and develop future
generations of materials.

According to Myrddin Jones, CEO of OLED-T, the company is a supplier OLED materials to display manufacturers in Korea, Japan and Taiwan. “The new facility will enable OLED-T to scale the production of its ELAMATE OLED materials to commercial quantities,” said Jones.

The firm also has a manufacturing and device test laboratory on the Innova Science Park in North London.

The OLED display market is predicted to grow from revenues of $500m in 2005 to more than $4.6bn by 2010.

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Next-Generation TV Screens to Debut (http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200606/kt2006062017580011780.htm)
20 June 2006

Samsung SDI and LG.Philips LCD will start mass producing the next-generation AM OLED TV screens this fall, as profits plummet in traditional LCD and PDP screen businesses.

AM OLED (active matrix organic light-emitting diode) is a thin film that emits light by using organic compounds. As it does not require a backlight to function, it is claimed to be more power- and cost-efficient than LCD (liquid crystal display) or PDP (plasma display panel) when mass-produced.

LG.Philips, the 50-50 joint venture of Korea’s LG Electronics and Philips Electronics of the Netherlands, said on Monday that it is working on an AM OLED manufacturing line in Kumi, North Kyongsang Province, and production will start in fourth quarter of the year.

“We have set the internal goal of operating the AM OLED line from the fourth quarter. There is no opposition on that,’’ the company’s public relations official Lee Sang-wook said by phone.

Samsung SDI also confirmed that it will start producing OLED panels of 2 to 2.6 inches from October in its manufacturing complex in Chonan, South Chungchong Province. Samsung SDI has invested 465 billion won in building the line.

It is believed that AM OLED will replace LCD because of its clear image, simple structure and faster response time. But so far, because of technological barriers, it has been used only for small screens used in mobile phones and other digital gadgets.

Since last year, both Samsung and LG have succeeded in developing OLED screens larger than 20 inches. Samsung Electronics even demonstrated a 40-inch OLED TV last year.

The early transition to OLED is mainly due to the lower-than-expected sales of the LCD and PDP panels. LG.Philips LCD last week halved its second quarter expectations, saying it will reduce production of LCD panels and will reconsider its future investment plans.

SDI also has seen its profit drop as the demands for traditional PDP and CRT displays slowed.

To create synergy, LG Group is expected to consolidate the OLED department in LG Electronics into LG.Philips LCD soon. “It is yet to be decided, but there are such opinions in the company,’’ said Lee of LG.Philips LCD.

The market for AM OLED is projected to grow from $831 million this year to $2 billion next year, and to $5.3 billion in 2009, according to market researcher Displaysearch.

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Konica Minolta claims OLED breakthrough (http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/2006/06/konica_minolta_claims_oled_bre_1.php)
30 June 2006


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As well as giving Sony its D-SLR technology, the folks at KM have been busy with OLEDs. The company just announced a device with a 10,000 hour life at 64 lumens/watt, working out to a brightness of 1,000 candelas per square meter. But not only is it bright, it can also do white.

There are hints at applications coming (think cellphones), but the idea is that OLEDs are a step nearer to escaping their niche markets (for example, in the sub screen of your DAP). Or maybe not. A bit like with DMFC fuel cells vs. lithium-ion batteries, OLEDs are one of those technologies that have a lot of potential plusses over more standard competitors (read: LCDs), but there always seems to be a major glitch or two stopping them from becoming the next big thing next year.

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AUO and CMO said to give up on OLED (http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/MailHome.asp?datePublish=2006/7/18&pages=VL&seq=201)
18 July 2006

Both AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) are giving up on OLED (organic light-emitting diode) development, with AUO already suspending R&D activities for the segment while CMO's wholly own subsidiary Chi Mei Electroluminescence (CMEL) is downsizing its workforce by two thirds, due to an uncertain outlook and low yields, according to the Chinese-language Apple Daily.

AUO said the report about it suspending OLED R&D activities was false. The company is still developing OLED technology and products while planning on recruiting more workforce for the segment, sources at the company said. However, AUO declined to comment on production and capacity detail for the OLED segment since it is now in a quiet period prior to the release of its second quarter financial results.

CMO was quoted by the paper as claiming CMEL is only undergoing personnel changes and will not give up on OLED production since OLED is another strategic product for CMO.

CMO confirmed that CMEL is downsizing but declined to comment further.

AUO started investing in OLED technology in 2002, with the company claiming to be the first to introduce a-Si (amorphous silicon)-based full color OLED technology. AUO has rolled out several active-matrix (AM) OLEDs through 2006 and the company currently has two OLED lines, one producing 200×200mm substrates while the other processes 370×470mm substrates.

CMEL was established in October 2004 with a capital of NT$900 million (US$27 million). The company said it currently focuses on small- to medium-size OLED applications and aims at developing OLED TVs in the future.

CMEL plans to volume produce 2.2-inch AM OLEDs in the third quarter of 2006. CMEL's AM OLED line is an adjusted 3.5G line from CMO and the substrate size is by far the largest among industry players, according to an earlier article. The OLED maker currently produces passive-matrix (PM) OLEDs, with monthly capacity at around two-million units and yields at 80-90%, the Apple Daily reported. PM OLED is less expensive to produce than AM OLED and is ideal for applications in consumer electronics such as mobile phone, PDA, portable game console, car-use display and electronic dictionaries.

AUO said it is aiming at applying AM OLED to full-color display applications that require high resolution such as PDAs, digital cameras, monitors, notebooks and TVs. However, the yields for AM OLEDs are still low and Taiwan-based OLED makers are still striving to lower their costs and improve yield.

The OLED market grew 65% in 2005, with Taiwan taking the lead with a surge in shipments from 11 million units in 2004 to 27 million in 2005, followed by South Korea, which increased shipments from 16 million units to 22 million, followed by Japan, which posted growth from seven million units to eight million, according to market research firm Displaybank.

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Research Could Extend Life of OLEDs (http://www.edn.com/article/CA6369513.html?partner=enews&industryid=21366)
9 September 2006

OLED-T has produced a material for “small-molecule” OLED displays that can extend life and improve efficiency.

“We expect at least 20 percent better lifetime and slightly better luminance efficiency,” company CEO Myrddin Jones told Electronics Weekly.

The material, dubbed EL-101 is an electron injection layer. “Ninety-nine percent of OLED displays use lithium fluoride for this layer,” said Jones. “It requires 600°C processing which has an impact on the lifetime of the other layers.”

This tops even the 400°C required to deposit the aluminum back contact. “A LiF electron injector represents the highest temperature process in the fabrication of the OLED,” said Jones.

EL-101 evaporates at 300°C. “It has less impact on lifetime, and throughput is higher because it is faster to ramp the machine up to 300 rather than 600°C,” said Jones.

The company will not disclose the make-up of EL-101 except to say it is an organic material available in powder form in kilogram quantities.

In it more expensive than the traditional electron injector. “LiF is a very cheap salt,” said Jones. “EL-101 is probably two to three times the price of LiF, but it is only used in nanometer thicknesses.”

El-101, claims Jones, like LiF, is universally applicable: “It can be used for single-color or multi-color; fluorescent or phosphorescent; active or passive matrix.”

Electron injectors are one of the layers used in OLEDs to improve efficiency. “If a device was fabricated with no electron injector layer then the drive voltage would be three times higher than with a LiF or EL-101 layer,” said Jones.

In June OLED-T introduced an electron transport layer called E246 and designed as a drop-in replacement for the incumbent aluminum quinolate but with 10 times the carrier mobility and three times the life. “It reduces operating voltage and gives you a more saturated color,” said company CTO Professor Poopathy Kathirgamanathan at the time.

A next-generation electron transport material exists in OLED-T’s labs which, said Kathirgamanathan, will yield a further 10-fold improvement in electron mobility, up to 10-3cm²/Vs. A second-generation blue emitter is also expected, doubling efficiency from 5 to 10cd/A, and “probably delivering 5-6lm/W”.

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Further Significant Progress in Polymer OLED Lifetime Announced (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061003/ukm015.html?.v=63)
3 October 2006

High Efficiency Red Materials Reach Almost 100,000 Hours Lifetime

CAMBRIDGE, England, October 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/

Following quickly behind the recent announcement by Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) [Nasdaq: OLED] and Sumation® of rapid progress in the development of longer lifetime blue light emitting polymers, comes this announcement of similarly impressive progress on red materials.

Data from devices produced using these latest, solution processable, phosphorescent materials show lifetime1 of 98,900 hours from an initial luminance of 400cd/msquared, equivalent to over 1.5 million hours from 100cd/msquared.

This represents almost a doubling of the lifetime results announced as recently as March of this year.

Production of video capable OLED displays requires a full color range of red, green and blue with long lifetime and good efficiency. The efficiency of this phosphorescent red material is approximately 9cd/A, and the color co-ordinates are: (CIEx=0.67, y=0.32).

"We are now seeing tremendous momentum in our development of the full range of P-OLED materials", commented Dr David Fyfe, CEO of CDT. "This latest result demonstrates that our rate of learning and discovery is really accelerating bringing many more applications for P-OLED technology within reach in a short timeframe."

The company will be exhibiting at FPD International in Yokohama, Japan from 18th to 20th October, and will be pleased to welcome visitors at its booth - no. 461.

Note to Editors:

When 'lifetime' is discussed here, it refers to the time taken for the display/pixel to fall to half its initial stated luminance. Lifetime estimates are based on accelerated testing of simple test devices at several very high initial luminance levels, and use of these data to calculate predicted lifetimes at lower brightness levels. Translation of this single pixel data into performance in an RGB display system depends on a number of factors and requires a complex calculation and knowledge of the precise system design parameters such as aperture ratio, brightness, ink formulation and relative pixel areas.

About CDT

Cambridge Display Technology is a pioneer in the development of polymer organic light emitting diodes (P-OLEDs) and their use in a wide range of electronic display products used for information management, communications and entertainment.

P-OLEDs are part of the family of OLEDs, which are thin, lightweight and power efficient devices that emit light when an electric current flows. P-OLEDs offer an enhanced visual experience and superior performance characteristics compared with other flat panel display technologies such as liquid crystal displays, and have the key advantage that they can be applied in solution using printing processes. Founded in 1992, the company is headquartered in Cambridge, UK and listed on the US NASDAQ National Market under the symbol 'OLED'. In 2005, CDT and Sumitomo Chemical established a joint venture called Sumation® which develops, manufactures and sells P-OLED materials to the display industry.

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Outlook for OLED Market Dim in PMOLED, Rosy in AMOLED in 2007 (http://www.displaybank.com/eng2004/news/)
12 October 2006

Displaybank (CEO Peter Kwon), a market research firm, says that the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) industry will observe clearly alternating joy and sorrow in 2006.

Many PMOLED manufacturers have announced their plan to reduce mass production or withdraw from the business sector due to their business downturn. Teco Optronics Co., Optotech Co. Ltd., Ness Display Co. Ltd. and Orion PDP Co. Ltd., excluding the top five to six players, have suffered deterioration in the business segment and eventually withdrew from the market. The PMOLED business seems to face the limitation in the near future without finding a new growth engine such as new clients. Therefore, the OLED industry is paying much attention to the time when AMOLEDs hit the market.

A set of withdrawal or indefinite delay news by AMOLED development specialists such as Pioneer and Sanyo have shed light on the negative outlook, but Samsung SDI and LG.Philips LCD (hereinafter called LPL) and CMEL, an OLED affiliate of CMO, are attracting attention by revealing their schedule for AMOLED mass production. Samsung SDI plans to invest 465.5 billion won ($486 million) to build an AMOLED production plant in Cheonan with the aim of launching mass production in October 2006. LPL unveiled its 2.4-inchQVGA AMOLED at the SID 2006 exhibition in the U.S. in June this year, and also announced it plan to commence mass production of AMOLEDs in the fourth quarter of 2006. In September, CMEL also disclosed its project of AMOLED mass production from the fourth quarter of this year.

The current status of PMOLEDs and AMOLEDs raises the predictions that the mainstay will migrate away from PMOLED toward AMOLED in 2007, with a slowdown in the PMOLED market and market entrance by AMOLEDs. However, there are a number of questions about the success feasibility of the AMOLED business.

Industry insiders agree with the possibility that AMOLED will dominate the next-generation display market, but they say that the time is uncertain. The success will rely on how many application manufacturers including mobile phone vendors will adopt AMOLEDs instead of TFT-LCDs, and when the AMOLED can make inroads into the 10-inch and larger panel market.

Given the circumstances, the worldwide industry is keeping an eye on whether or not the three frontrunners, Samsung SDI, LG.Philips LCD and CMEL, will ride on the stable track of AMOLED.

Whichever is right, it's doubtful that both companies' strategy for early mass production will be successful, but taking into account a variety of factors such as know-how in the FPD industry, technology accumulated through constant research, relations with demand, and all-out supports by corporations, both AMOLED makers seem to have a huge potential for growth in the market.
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12mm-thick 17-inch OLED TV (http://aving.net/usa/news/default.asp?mode=read&c_num=26591&c_code=01&sp_code=35&btb_num=232)
17 October 2006


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Samsung SDI presented a 17-inch AMOLED TV set at KES 2006. The panel is only 1.8mm thick and the TV set is just thin as 12mm. It features a brightness of 400 candela, a contrast ratio of 1,000:1 and 170 viewing angle.

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CMEL and CMO develop 25-inch AM OLED TV panel (http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20061018PR205.html)
18 October 2006


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Chi Mei EL Corporation (CMEL) announced that it has successfully employed the latest low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) TFT LCD technology from Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) together with its own organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) equipment and technology to develop a full-function, full-color 25-inch OLED TV panel.

The OLED panel is currently the world's largest LTPS TFT active matrix (AM) OLED panel and features a slim panel, wide viewing angle, high contrast and fast response time, CMEL said.

CMEL's AM OLED products are about to enter the mass production stage. CMEL is also showing a variety of new AM OLED products with the new LTPS TFT technology, including 2.0- and 3.5-inch products, at FPD International 2006 in Japan (October 18-20) and expects to have these products in mass production starting in the first quarter of next year.

CMEL is also using its 25-inch panel technology to improve the production yield for its small- to medium-size panels for 3G and digital video products.

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Analysis: OLED makers suffering under LCD competition (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2006/11/24/2003337727)
24 November 2006

PESSIMISM: Unless an industry niche can be found, the outlook for this small but innovative sector is less than ideal

By Lisa Wang
STAFF REPORTER

A decade ago, innovative Taiwanese flat panel display companies started investing in a cutting-edge and cost-saving organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology in an attempt to move beyond the slim profits associated with original equipment manufacturing.

Those companies, however, have all but given up hope as high technological barriers and cutthroat competition from cost-efficient liquid-crystal-display (LCD) makers have placed them deep in the red.

"Taiwanese companies hoped to make big money from manufacturing slimmer OLED displays at lower prices than LCD panels," said Roger Yu (游智超), a flat-panel industry analyst with Polaris Securities Co (寶來證券).

"But, the dream has not yet come true as progress in developing competitive products has been slow because of poor foundry yields and performance," Yu said, adding that most companies were still struggling to break even.

Low yields have prompted LCD panel makers AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), which are also developing OLED technology, to cut their OLED staff numbers, according to market research DisplaySearch.

Heavy losses have driven many pure OLED manufacturers out of the market. Singapore's Ness Display closed its doors recently because it failed to attract enough capital amid falling prices to continue operations.

Back home, optical-disk maker Ritek Corp (錸德) on Wednesday was just the latest example of a firm that had chosen to opt out of the industry to concentrate on its core business. Opto Tech Corp (光磊) decided last week to close an unprofitable OLED plant citing immature market conditions and lackluster outlook. In August, home appliances maker Teco Electric & Machinery Co (東元) said it planned to move its OLED plant to China to form a joint venture with a Chinese company owned by the Sichuan government.

"Sharp price reductions and difficulties in cutting costs are the major challenges for OLED display makers," said Kevin Liao (廖顯杰), a flat-panel industry analyst with DisplaySearch.

Ritek said on Wednesday that it planned to sell an OLED manufacturing affiliate, Ritdisplay Corp (錸寶), to South Korean Kolon Industries Inc, after Ritdisplay, the world's No. 5 maker of OLED displays by revenue, had accumulated NT$4.8 billion (US$146 million) in losses since 2002.

"The deal will bring more resources for Ritdisplay and boost its core competitiveness as well as reduce financial reliance on the parent company," Ritek said in a statement.

DisplaySearch's Liao also said limited OLED equipment and component suppliers were behind slow improvements in the industry cost structure.

Technologically, OLED displays readily compete with LCDs in small-and-medium applications such as handset displays and MP3s palyers, but LCD makers are able to edge OLED suppliers out of the market by undercutting them on price.

Overall, OLED display shipments expanded by 15 percent to 16.1 million units in the second quarter of this year over last year, but revenues dropped 14 percent to US$112 million, according to a DisplaySearch tally.

"It's tough for Taiwanese companies to survive as they are smaller in scale than their rivals," Liao said.

Liao said those companies remaining in the industry were conservative about expansion plans.

Ritdisplay, established in 2000, has a capital value of NT$7.5 billion while local rival Univision Technology Inc (悠景) is worth just NT$1.8 billion.

On top of that, “the competition will intensify next year as more Chinese players are preparing to join the game,” Liao said.

Looking from a longer term perspective, Liao said there was still opportunity in the industry. To divert from direct competition with lower-priced LCD panels, OLED display manufacturers should target niche market segments such as Asian handset makers, he suggested.

But Polaris' analyst Yu said he would take a wait-and-see attitude about OLED stocks as he expected they would still have a long way to go before making significant gains.

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Universal Display and Nippon Steel boost green OLED performance (http://lfw.pennnet.com/display_article/280578/12/ARTCL/none/none/Universal-Display-and-Nippon-Steel-boost-green-OLED-performance/)
21 December 2006

December 21, 2006, Tokyo, Japan and Ewing NJ--Nippon Steel Chemical Company (NSCC) and Universal Display today announced significant enhancement in the performance of green phosphorescent OLEDs resulting from their ongoing technical collaboration.

By combining Universal Display's green phosphorescent emitter, UDC-GD48, with NSCC's new green host material, the two companies have achieved record operational lifetime for a green phosphorescent OLED device. This green OLED offers 60,000 hours of operational lifetime at an initial luminance of 1,000 candelas per square meter (cd/m(2)). The device also exhibits a high luminous efficiency of 65 candela per ampere (cd/A) and an external quantum efficiency of 18%, at 1,000 cd/m(2), both characteristic features and benefits of phosphorescent OLED technology. The color coordinates for this device in a standard bottom-emission structure are C.I.E. (0.35, 0.61).

While these color and efficiency characteristics have previously been reported, obtaining this performance in conjunction with improved operational lifetime is an important milestone for Universal Display and NSCC. This represents more than a two-fold increase in operational stability, key for commercial success, as compared to previously reported performance. The device also incorporates Universal Display's proprietary blocking layer material to achieve the reported results. UDC-GD48 is currently available from Universal Display and NSCC's new green host material will soon be available from NSCC for evaluation and use in commercial production.

As a milestone of these collaborative development efforts, UDC and NSCC have now established material systems for red and green phosphorescent OLEDs. The companies are also collaborating on the development of blue phosphorescent materials.

For more information about NSCC's host materials, please contact Masamichi Fujii (mailto:fujiima@nscc.co.jp.). For more information about Universal Display's PHOLED materials and technology, please contact Janice K. Mahon (mailto:jkmahon@universaldisplay.com).

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Display makers to mass produce AM OLEDs (http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/01/03/200701030019.asp)
3 January 2007

From Samsung SDI Co. to LG.Philips LCD Co., the race to mass-produce the next-generation display device called "active-matrix organic light emitting diodes" or AM OLEDs will intensify this year, industry analysts said yesterday.
Samsung SDI will start rolling out AM OLEDs in the first half of this year, though the specific timetable has yet to be decided. It will mark the display panel's official debut on the global market, company officials said.

LG.Philips LCD, which deferred production of AM OLEDs at its Gumi plant late last year pending a management decision, is expected to shortly follow suit.

AM OLEDs need no backlighting and therefore consume less power. They offer a lightweight yet powerful display panels for small digital gadgets such as mobile phones, digital cameras and portable multimedia players. The display module offers a replacement for liquid crystal displays or LCDs currently in use.

"As OLEDs function with self-luminous organic materials, they are better than thin film transistor liquid crystal displays or TFT-LCDs in terms of response time. OLEDs' response time of 1 micro second is 1,000 times faster than TFT-LCDs' 1 milli second reaction time. This feature can help OLEDs realize perfect moving images," said Song Young, an official at Samsung SDI's public relations team.

Samsung SDI plans to roll out an array of QVGA-level AM OLEDs, ranging from 2.0 to 2.6 inches, in the first half of this year. The company aims to manufacture and supply over 100 million units per year beginning next year.

It has invested a combined 460 billion won for the display's production line at its Cheonan plant, located 40 minutes by car from Seoul. The company began a trial production of AM OLEDs in October last year.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese and Japanese manufacturers are taking a "wait-and-see" attitude despite their technical readiness, suggesting they will make a move after seeing Korean display makers start plowing money in the new cutting-edge display modules.

CMEL, an affiliate of Taiwan's CMO, plans to mass produce in the first half. Toppoly of Taiwan plans for the third quarter. TMD and Sony Corp. of Japan are known to have set the timing at the second half of this year.

Industry watchers say AM OLEDs and small-sized LCDs will inevitably compete against each other, signaling "a war without bullets" in the small- and mid-sized display sector.

AM OLEDs, at this early stage of production could be a rather costly option for its buyers, mobile-phone manufacturers. The price will be about 40 percent higher than that of LCDs.

Still, the industry is upbeat on the potential for this tiny screen technology as it offers many other advantages - lightness, better screen quality, higher power efficiencies, faster response time and no optical illusions when viewed from the side.

The U.S.-based market research firm DisplaySearch projects the production of AM OLEDs will literally soar from last year's 2.39 million units to 24.84 million this year, 95.88 million in 2008, and 200 million in 2010.

Well done Isochroma!!

Today we argue Plasma vs LCD. In five years, will we be arguing SED vs OLED? One can only hope. :)

Seems to me only a few months ago the OLED naysayers were (nay)saying that blue OLED lifetime was way too short to go to production. Now Samsung is saying that they are starting production later this year. So what breakthrough (other than salmon DNA!) did I miss in the news?

Regards to all,

Willie

yes - u did missed it ..

The second major milestone announced is a lifetime of 150,000 hours for a fluorescent blue device based on a new material developed by CDT, and now part of the Sumation™ portfolio. Just eighteen months ago, CDT announced the achievement of 30,000 hours lifetime for fluorescent blue. The efficiency is also the highest recorded for a blue polyfluorene material at 10cd/A.

Thread Update:

20 June 2006: Next-Generation TV Screens to Debut

If that was supposed to be a link, it appears to be broken. If it's a teaser, you got me. I want more!:)

-Steve

Steve, just look a few posts ahead. Iso has added the article to one of his older posts.

Oops, missed that. Thanks Madshi. :o

I fully agree with you. However life has taught me that these are all mutually exclusive.

Not true, IMO. Perfect example - quartz watches, that are better, cheaper, and more reliable than most (if not all) mechanical watches. Ditto with computers, that today are far better, far cheaper, and far more reliable than any previous generation. In fact virtually all electronic devices made today are B,C+R than previous generations.

http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/MailHome.asp?datePublish=2006/7/18&pages=VL&seq=201

"Both AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) are giving up on OLED (organic light-emitting diode) development, with AUO already suspending R&D activities for the segment while CMO's wholly own subsidiary Chi Mei Electroluminescence (CMEL) is downsizing its workforce by two thirds, due to an uncertain outlook and low yields, according to the Chinese-language Apple Daily."

Just my luck. I want one of these Samsung OLED televisions so bad I can taste it! The first time I saw the OLED screen I knew it would kill every technology eventually. But when is eventually?

I don't really care if the television only lasts three years or four years before the blue fades. This is the most beautiful picture anyone can imagine. It is like looking at real life. Plus the power usage is almost nothing (90%) of a normal set. Compared to the DLP I just bought tonight because I am tired of waiting for a train that never comes it is probably 95% less electric consumption. Add to that real time response, molecular resolution that could be virtually infinite, infinte color range, 10 mm thick screens and on and on.

What is there not to like? A perfect television you throw out every three years! No more explaining to the wife why you have to have the latest new set. Think of it. I have 15 year old televisons that refuse to die; I wish they would!

You know the story. The wife says, why do you need a new television set justt to set there and watch Da Bears, Da Eagles, Da Lions, Da Dolphins etc. "Darling there is all this great new stuff" just doesn't cut it in my house. But a blank screen after three years and she can't watch reruns of Dallas...now that is a dream machine. I don't want my new television to last. I want it to die when a niffty new technology comes out.

We need hitmen for televisions. Maybe someone should start a service. I'd pay.

This is a great compilation. Thanks.

That said, home-theater-sized OLEDs are not even contemplated for this decade.

samsung 12mm-thick 17-inch OLED TV
http://aving.net/usa/news/default.asp?mode=read&c_num=26591&c_code=01&sp_code=35&btb_num=232

Thread Update:

17 October 2006: 12mm-thick 17-inch OLED TV[/B]


Wonder why only a 1000:1 CR? Leakage of the AM drivers, I suppose.

sticky

This is an interesting article from June of this year. Here is a snippet.

"OLEDs fall into two categories: passive matrix and active matrix. Active matrix means that every pixel is individually switched, as opposed to a passive matrix arrangement, where row and column electrodes are used to control the pixel at a given intersection.

Unfortunately for manufacturers, OLED driving schemes tend to be more complicated than LCD devices. The reason behind this is that OLEDs are current-driven and are sensitive to slight fluctuations in current. LCDs on the other hand are voltage-driven. Instead of needing one thin film transistor (TFT) per pixel in an active matrix scheme, OLEDs need between two to five, arranged in a compensation circuit.

However, the biggest hurdle facing OLED developers is short lifetime. Although OLED materials and device structures have improved greatly over the past few years, manufacturers can still only guarantee between 5000 and 15,000 h of operation before the brightness of the panel is reduced to half of its initial value. This performance is sufficient for mobile phones and other consumer electronics, but inadequate for television and more sophisticated products. The organic materials simply do not hold up well under the driving current or the exposure to other materials within the device. What's more, the cathode material is highly sensitive to air and even when sealed, the OLED performance degrades slowly over time.

Device lifetime is shortened not only by declining brightness, but also by colour drift. For example, if the red, green and blue emitters degrade at different rates, the display shifts in hue over time. Typically, colour OLEDs are made by patterning red, green and blue emitters into subpixels, although it is also possible to mix multiple emitters together to form a single "white" material and use a colour filter.

With a commercial history of just seven years, OLED manufacturing remains at an early stage, both in terms of technique and equipment. Small-molecule OLEDs are made using vapour deposition techniques, such as evaporation through a shadow mask. OLED materials are too delicate for photolithography. Polymer OLEDs are made by solution processing, either spin-on techniques (for monochrome) or inkjet printing (for colour), although the latter has not yet been commercialized. Yields are quite high for simple panels, but established processes have not been put in place for most types of colour panels. This means that OLEDs are still priced higher than equivalent LCDs."

http://optics.org/cws/Articles/ViewArticle.do?channel=business&articleId=25148

This is an interesting article from June of this year. Here is a snippet.

"OLEDs fall into two categories: passive matrix and active matrix. Active matrix means that every pixel is individually switched, as opposed to a passive matrix arrangement, where row and column electrodes are used to control the pixel at a given intersection.

Unfortunately for manufacturers, OLED driving schemes tend to be more complicated than LCD devices. The reason behind this is that OLEDs are current-driven and are sensitive to slight fluctuations in current. LCDs on the other hand are voltage-driven. Instead of needing one thin film transistor (TFT) per pixel in an active matrix scheme, OLEDs need between two to five, arranged in a compensation circuit.

However, the biggest hurdle facing OLED developers is short lifetime. Although OLED materials and device structures have improved greatly over the past few years, manufacturers can still only guarantee between 5000 and 15,000 h of operation before the brightness of the panel is reduced to half of its initial value. This performance is sufficient for mobile phones and other consumer electronics, but inadequate for television and more sophisticated products. The organic materials simply do not hold up well under the driving current or the exposure to other materials within the device. What's more, the cathode material is highly sensitive to air and even when sealed, the OLED performance degrades slowly over time.

Device lifetime is shortened not only by declining brightness, but also by colour drift. For example, if the red, green and blue emitters degrade at different rates, the display shifts in hue over time. Typically, colour OLEDs are made by patterning red, green and blue emitters into subpixels, although it is also possible to mix multiple emitters together to form a single "white" material and use a colour filter.

With a commercial history of just seven years, OLED manufacturing remains at an early stage, both in terms of technique and equipment. Small-molecule OLEDs are made using vapour deposition techniques, such as evaporation through a shadow mask. OLED materials are too delicate for photolithography. Polymer OLEDs are made by solution processing, either spin-on techniques (for monochrome) or inkjet printing (for colour), although the latter has not yet been commercialized. Yields are quite high for simple panels, but established processes have not been put in place for most types of colour panels. This means that OLEDs are still priced higher than equivalent LCDs."

http://optics.org/cws/Articles/ViewArticle.do?channel=business&articleId=25148

Thanks for the informative post. Even if this article was archived previously, it is not really "old" news, and hence nice to get a refresher that's not buried. OLED seems very far away from any sort of credible development for average size flat panel displays, much less the larger variety gaining popularity in the Home Theater market. SED however DOES have working prototypes w/critical but limited reviews, as well as building production facilities as I type, and even this seems not enough to break into the competitive CE market. OLED appears to be at least a decade behind SED in these respects.

EDIT 1/17/2007 : Due to recent developments between now and when I first posted, SED seems to be headed in the wrong direction. There were no SED's at CES 2007 due to US litigation, Canon has since become the sole owner of SED Inc., and has since put the brakes on the proposed production plant in Japan. What does that spell for SED?...doom.

Thread Update:

3 January 2007: Display makers to mass produce AM OLEDs


Source?

It's good to hear that the Red and Green OLED bulbs have gone past the 60,000 hour mark before 2006 ended.

If you do the math/maths (or mathematics), you would know that:

60000 hours/24 hours (in a day) = 2500 days

Now, 2500 days/365 days in a year = 6.84 years.

That's more than enough even for people who leave their TV on 24/7 non-stop.

But since majority of us (more than 90%) only use our HDTVs for 8-12 hours per day at max, then this numbers double to 12-13 year OR MORE.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

But I ask this question:

What about the Blue OLED bulbs?

It appears that it hasn't even reached the 30,000 year lifespan yet.

How's the status of the Blue OLED bulbs?

P.S.

Isochroma

Here's another article from Sony (just came out today) which made a debut of its prototype 27 inch OLED TV running at 1080p resolution and 120hz.

They also announce immediate plans for small-size OLED TV production this year with medium and larger sizes due for 2008-2009.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sony to Showcase Next Generation Displays (Prototype) at 2007 International CES - OLED TV, Laser Projection TV, and 82inch LCD TV


Tokyo, Japan, Jan 8, 2007 - (JCN Newswire) - Sony is exhibiting the following prototype TVs featuring newly developed technologies from January 7th 2007, at "2007 International CES", Las Vegas. This will broaden the possibilities for future next generation TVs.

OLED TV

Sony will be demonstrating extremely slim, approximately 3mm depth with 11inch and less than 10mm depth with 27inch (when thinnest part of the body is measured), next generation TV displays, with high contrast, wide color gamut, quick response time, incorporating OLED (organic light emitting diode) technology. There are two prototype models, 27inch TV with Full HD panel (resolution: 1920 x 1080) and 11inch TV with wide-SVGA panel (resolution: 1024 x 600). The prospect of mass production of the panels for smaller size OLED TVs is close to be cleared, and development on the panels for middle / larger-sized is currently under development.

82inch LCD TV

82inch large and full HD (resolution 1920 x 1080) screen that adopts 120Hz motion compensation technology and 10-bit panel. This delivers an increase in the television's gradation level, and effectively eliminates image blurring, for example when watching sports footage. In addition to the commonly acknowledged advantages of LCD TV, such as low power consumption and higher picture quality, the model adopts LED backlight which enables wider color gamut.

Laser Projection TV

Laser projection TV using SXRD display device that realizes wider color gamut and high contrast. Furthermore, due to the laser durability, customers are not required to exchange the light source over time. The model size is 55inch with a depth of just 273mm (monitor only), realizing full HD resolution (1920 x 1080). Sony will continue to pursue both design and technology development in seeking to further enhance its projection TVs lineup.

For more details on the Sony Electronics CES 2007 Virtual Press Kit, please visit www.sony.com/news .



About Sony

Sony Corporation is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, game, communications, key device and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. With its music, pictures, computer entertainment and on-line businesses, Sony is uniquely positioned to be the leading personal broadband entertainment company in the world. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of approximately $67 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005. Sony Global Web Site: http://www.sony.net

Contact:

Sony Corporation
George Boyd
george.boyd@jp.sony.com
+81-3-5448-2111

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http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=13958

sony's oled tv pictures

http://www.engadget.com/photos/sonys-1-000-000-1-contrast-ratio-27-inch-oled-hdtv-1/

Sony's 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio 27-inch OLED HDTV (http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/01/08/sonys-1-000-000-1-contrast-ratio-27-inch-oled-hdtv/)
8 January 2007


http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/01/sony-oled3.jpg


http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/01/sony-oled4.jpg


http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/01/sony-oled2.jpg


http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/01/sony-oled1.jpg


http://www.engadget.com/media/2007/01/cimg0243.jpg


Some people need bigger and better LCDs, but we're just fine with the 27-inch prototype Sony mentioned during its press conference yesterday. With a contrast ratio of greater than 1,000,000:1 (not a misprint) to go with its 1080p resolution, and >100% NTSC color reproduction, we'll take this Organic LED great looks in a small package any day. We promised to hunt it down on the show floor and so we did, finding it hiding amongst a rookery of 11-inch displays. Take a look at the gallery for a few more shots of this HDTV and hope it hits shelves someday.

Wonder if this will show up all the Sony haters....hmmm.

That Sony set has me interested. I'd love a flat planel in the 40-50" range to go over the fireplace without have to resort to LCD or Plasma. I wonder if it's possible to use this technology for front projection?

even more of the sony's at ces 07
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20070111/dg79_01.jpg
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20070111/dg79_02.jpg
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20070111/dg79_03.jpg
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20070111/dg79_04.jpg
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20070111/dg79_05.jpg
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20070111/dg79_06.jpg
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20070111/dg79_07.jpg

More Sony OLED photos

http://i.n.com.com/i/ne/p/2007/ces2007-091_550x413.jpg

http://i.n.com.com/i/ne/p/2007/ces2007-094_550x413.jpg

Sony eyes OLED TVs January 8, 2007 4:17 PM PDT
Sony shows off its organic light-emitting diodes, or OLED, TV prototypes at CES. The big one in the middle measures 27 inches across, while the others measure about 11 inches across. OLEDs consume less power and are thinner than LCDs, but the challenge is making them cheaply. Sony's OLED TVs are thin, and they have a nice picture. "Brilliantly bright," says CEO Sir Howard Stringer. They may hit the market next year.

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20070108/ces06_01.jpg

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20070108/ces06_04.jpg

Shockingly insane!!!

But I have a question though?

The 27 inch model is so thin but it leads me to think........

Where is the power supply? what about the hardware board and chips, where are the inputs?

Can we actually store a hardware board on something as thin as that?

I know I'm an average noob but I can't even see where the power cord is?

Where are the buttons for the TV (channel, volume, menu)?

Or does it have an external tuner or box?

From simple looks and observation, the stand is like that of an average lampost but where's the power cord, where's the system hardware (or is Sony capable of making hardware the size of a DVD-case)?

Because to the ordinary person (like me), they can't even tell on how a super clear image is being displayed if there are no plugs or areas where the hardware produces the image?

It leads commoners to think that this is "magic".

Anyone care to explain to an uninformed tech person like I am?

EDIT:
Of course I see the circular/round base (below the stand)that supports it but......

I also wondered 'wow, that is soooo thin, where is the power source'.
I bet it's a block on the floor. :) Some have a base also.
Very impressive pics but how is the motion?

Wonder if this will show up all the Sony haters....hmmm.

I'm a Sony hater, but I have to say, that 27" set looks very nice. It'll be interesting to see if OLED, laser, and or SED will go in to production anytime soon...I'm all for any one of them to take off.

it is inpressive as many people are thinking if this tech was even going to make it and all the sudden out of the blue sony says maybe next year .... nice but as everyone is thinking what is the price ? and i already noticed a flaw , if you look at post #41 where the car is (red car) look at that picture of that one compare to the other shot where its from a difrent viewing angle , now notice somehting? viewing angle is affected to this tv , and #37 on this one not so sure but the one with the lake and the moutain theirs a werid rainbow ....

http://i31.tinypic.com/2rxzoma.jpg


In the photo above, note the LCD (left display) loses most of its contrast off-angle, while the OLED display (right) does not.

OLED displays don't suffer from the viewing angle problems of LCDs because they don't use a polarizer. LCDs need polarizers because the liquid crystals are sandwitched between two polarizers, and act as light valves by rotating the polarization of light.

Because OLEDs are direct-emission, they don't need a polarizer; you're seeing artifacts caused by the camera or other elements in the room.

If you're still not convinced, here are some references:

Universal Display: OLED Technology (http://www.universaldisplay.com/tech.htm)

OLEDs can provide desirable advantages over today’s liquid crystal displays (LCDs), as well as benefits to product designers and end users. OLEDs feature:

▪ Vibrant colors
▪ High contrast
▪ Excellent grayscale
▪ Full-motion video
▪ Wide viewing angles from all directions
▪ A wide range of pixel sizes
▪ Low power consumption
▪ Low operating voltages
▪ Wide operating temperature range
▪ Long operating lifetime
▪ A thin and lightweight form factor
▪ Cost-effective manufacturability
The Inquirer: The Pros and Cons of OLED displays (http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=23515)

In general, OLEDs deliver brighter images, higher contrast ratios, wider viewing angles and, without the need for a backlight, require less power to run.

oe magazine: brightness on display (http://oemagazine.com/fromTheMagazine/feb01/brightness.html)

OLED is a viable flat-panel display technology because it has an important set of attractive attributes: high luminous efficiency, color, wide viewing angles, low drive voltage, fast response, and low process temperature.

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CES 2007: IGN: OLED FTW (http://wireless.ign.com/articles/753/753793p1.html)
8 January 2007


http://wirelessmedia.ign.com/wireless/image/article/753/753793/ces-2007-oled-ftw-20070108105848501.jpg


http://wirelessmedia.ign.com/wireless/image/article/753/753793/ces-2007-oled-ftw-20070108105849579.jpg


http://wirelessmedia.ign.com/wireless/image/article/753/753793/ces-2007-oled-ftw-20070108105850407.jpg


http://wirelessmedia.ign.com/wireless/image/article/753/753793/ces-2007-oled-ftw-20070108105851735.jpg


Tucked against a small wall inside Korean electronics giant LG's massive CES booth, three little screens were causing an enormous stir. An easy twenty people were swarming a trio of tiny OLED screens, but even from the outskirts of the mob, a casual pair of eyes could pick out that some stunning tech was on display. LG's AM-OLED A220A screens, ready for use in mobile phones, produced images of such sterling clarity and brightness that it was hard to believe -- that is, until we got close enough to get our peepers a mere five inches from the screens themselves, and at the encouragement of a beaming LG representative.

The 2.2-inch A220A screens boast QVGA resolution (240 x 320) and 262,000 colors. The screens were flashing through a series of high-resolution photographs and video clips, including CG footage of a Final Fantasy-esque mage and a exotic rocketing down a freeway. Our pictures of these OLEDs do not do these little screens justice -- they are amazing, and we want them in our handsets (or portable gaming devices) now.

LG had OLED on display in their booth last year, but the screens were planted on a wall display. At this CES, LG -- which was a lot more open about letting people snap their own in-booth photos -- had the trio of screens on a small ledge where you could take a peek from the side to check out the impressive viewing angle and the ultra-thinness that would make them ideal for popular slim-line handsets.

Beautiful stuff, indeed, and hopefully en route to us.

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CES 2007: Hardware Upgrade: OLED Technology (http://www.hwupgrade.com/articles/mobile/18/ces-2007-from-oled-technology-to-1-tb-hard-drives_10.html)
12 January 2007


http://www.hwupgrade.com/articles/mobile/18/lgoled1.jpg


OLED-based (Organic Light Emitting Diode) displays had a large appearance at CES this year. As they will be the next major technology upon which TVs are based, we decided to take a look at some of these displays. This year, many more manufacturers had OLED-based products on display compared to 2006. At the LG booth, we took pictures of the company’s three smallest OLED displays:


http://www.hwupgrade.com/articles/mobile/18/lgoled2.jpg


As is evident in the photo, the displays are extremely thin. The 2.2-inch displays display at resolutions of 240x320 and can show up to 262 million colors. The contrast ratio is 10000:1. They also have excellent visibility at angled shots.


http://www.hwupgrade.com/articles/mobile/18/sonyoled1.jpg


Another very interesting OLED product was on display at Sony’s booth; a 27-inch OLED screen. As can be seen, it was sharp, bright, and very much viewable in a well-lit environment. It is also important to note that OLED products consumed far less energy than traditional LCD screens.


http://www.hwupgrade.com/articles/mobile/18/sonyoled3.jpg


A sideshot shows just how thin the screens are. Sony is planning on creating even larger screens throughout the course of this year.


http://www.hwupgrade.com/articles/mobile/18/sonyoled2.jpg


Sony also showed a number of smaller OLED displays. Although not meant for home theater rooms, they would prove to be particularly useful in laptops and small TVs.

well what ever it is i noticed the picture looks better from one viewing angle then the other.

ADDED: page 36 before the last picture ( 4th pix?) you posted it compare that one with the same (red car) but couple of post later

Very impressive pics but how is the motion?


my question also.


:rolleyes:

Using manufacturer-listed specs, it is LESS THAN 1 ms or in layman terms, is faster than 1 ms. It is in fact in the micron level.

Like the OLED PC monitor from Samsung SDI already listed sub-1ms response time.

And since we know that for flat-panel TVs the final version is always better than its prototype, it appears that ALL OLED flat panel TVs will have response time that is FASTER than 1 ms (or sub-1ms which means <0.1ms-0.01 ms or less).

Contrast ratio seems to be KING too :). The highest I've seen from both Plasma and LCD is 100,000:1 and 50,000:1. The 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio of this Sony 1080p prototype display beats them all. It would take 2-3 more years for Plasma and LCD technology to reach the 1m CR mark.

The only downside I see though with this prototype is the LOW figure for candela brightness.

At 200 cd/m2-600 cd/m2, it is better than any 2006 TV BUT IS NOT ENOUGH to beat what Samsung is coming out with. 1,300 cd/m2 by July this year.

OLED too should push for >1,000 cd/m2 brightness ASAP in order to gain foot in this.

OLED too should push for >1,000 cd/m2 brightness ASAP in order to gain foot in this.
What would you need such a high brightness for? Are the sun glasses you must be wearing all day glued to your head?

OLED too should push for >1,000 cd/m2 brightness ASAP in order to gain foot in this.

Good grief! Even at a 400 cd/m² peak, our current plasma has more brightness than needed, even for daytime viewing. 1000 cd/m² would be eyeball scorching.

well what ever it is i noticed the picture looks better from one viewing angle then the other.

ADDED: page 36 before the last picture ( 4th pix?) you posted it compare that one with the same (red car) but couple of post later

I wonder if this is due to this TFT hybrid OLED tech of Sony's. ;)
A glorified LCD. :D

well what ever it is i noticed the picture looks better from one viewing angle then the other.

ADDED: page 36 before the last picture ( 4th pix?) you posted it compare that one with the same (red car) but couple of post later

My guess, after looking at the picture, was that the close up was taken without a flash, and the far away shot was taken with one. Also, in mentioning the rainbow, that one appears to have been taken with a flash as well, as you can see the same effect, but in a straight ahead shot that shows the flash reflection at the bottom of post #41

what seems inpressive to me is that oled was like a quiet technology almost never spoken and all the sudden its coming out its going to be great :D question is how much for a decent size?

The range of 20+" OLED displays Sony presented is ideal to productivization as high-end computer monitors for advanced applications. Even at high price there would be defnitely market for them.

Fact that Sony does not indicate commitment to this means that the technology is way off the prime time.

The range of 20+" OLED displays Sony presented is ideal to productivization as high-end computer monitors for advanced applications. Even at high price there would be defnitely market for them.

Fact that Sony does not indicate commitment to this means that the technology is way off the prime time.

They're considering a 2008 release for OLED production for HDTV applications (which is one full year after Samsung SDI releases their OLED HDTV sets later this year).

Even Howard Stringer, "big boss" at Sony, says that they plan to enter OLED production next year.

Ask Isochroma about the press release for that.

When I first saw the Sony Trintron in 1969,my jaws dropped.

Now in 2007,I saw the Sony OLED's and they wowed me. So beautiful,so sexy,I can't wait.

I hope Sony is the first to market a OLED television. It will be like the Trinitron all over again. :)

CES 2007: Diamonds In The Rough (http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/ces2007.html)
16 January 2007


http://www.hdtvexpert.com/images_b/ces07_14.jpg


http://www.hdtvexpert.com/images_b/ces07_15.jpg


Sony had a few tricks up their sleeve including a 52-inch laser-powered, rear-projection SXRD HDTV prototype, two new designs for their second-generation Blu-ray player, and an eye-catching exhibit of AM-OLED flat panel color HDTVs, with six 11-inch models and one 23-inch offering — none of them products at this time...

LG.Philips showcased small, widescreen (16:9) AM-OLEDs for handheld electronics...

Wow these displays even photograph really well. They must be stunning in person. Oled can't come out soon enough.

Large 1600x1200 pixels image of Sony OLED at CES
http://www.techspot.com/newspics/2007/ces07/CES2007075.jpg
i found a few more there

sony
http://www.techspot.com/newspics/2007/ces07/CES2007071.jpg
http://www.techspot.com/newspics/2007/ces07/CES2007073.jpg
http://www.techspot.com/newspics/2007/ces07/CES2007074.jpg

lg
http://www.techspot.com/newspics/2007/ces07/CES2007062.jpg
http://www.techspot.com/newspics/2007/ces07/CES2007063.jpg

http://i31.tinypic.com/dqhrpv.jpg


This image in particular struck me as illustrative of the excellently excessive contrast, impressive color purity & saturation, and of course high 1080p resolution these 27" displays can show.

Thanks MUGEN for the links!

DisplayBank: Will 2007 OLED Industry Remain Bright or Dim? (http://www.displaybank.com/eng2004/news/press_show.php?id=2109)
8 January 2007


http://www.displaybank.com/news_img3/972926.gif

2005/2006 OLED Panel Shipment Ratio by Application

Shipments of organic Light-emitting diode (OLED) panels surged by 19.7% from the preceding year to 730 million units in 2006, slightly lower than earlier expectations, according to the latest investigation by a market research institute, Displaybank (CEO Peter Kwon). The passive matrix (PM) OLED market has heavy dependence on the application market for use in mobile handset sub-displays and MP3 players, and there have been no new markets found. Displaybank pointed out that, for these reasons, the growth potential has been diluted, and therefore, the commercialization of AMOLEDs have been delayed from the previously proposed 2006 to this year.

The outlook for the major application markets such as mobile phone sub-displays and MP3 players also remains pessimistic. In the past, bright and clear PMOLEDs were mostly adopted in mobile phone sub-displays, while the latest mobile phone market trend is heading for higher specifications and larger main-displays in an effort to enhance functionality such as televisions and motion pictures and design capability, demand for PMOLED sub-displays has continued to weaken. Moreover, STN-LCD prices have dropped below those for PMOLEDs, creating hindrances to the adoption of PMOLEDs in low-end mobile phones, while PMOLEDs are lagging behind TFT-LCD in the high-end application market in terms of performance compared with prices. With regard to MP3 players, Displaybank predicts that, as mobile phones and mobile phone-use multimedia devices have trended to the combination of MP3 player functionality, the MP3 player application market also cannot avoid a negative outlook.

However, a number of companies are likely to plan to or decide to start mass production of AMOLEDs for 2007. The initial market for AMOLEDs will be created by mobile phone main displays, but we need to have more time to keep an eye on whether AMOLEDs could compete with LCDs in prices and functionality, because of very low yields at the current introductory stage. However, if yields will be improved at a rapid pace, and the price gap with TFT-LCDs will shrink to a certain price point, the AMOLED market will likely be on track to grow for 2007.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Korean giants push OLED TV forward (http://avzombie.com/blog/2007/02/21/korean-giants-push-oled-tv-forward/)
21 February 2007

LG is stepping up its investment in OLED display technology. Currently its Korean rival Samsung is the market leader in OLED screens, with a share of 21 per cent. New data from DisplaySearch reports that LG’s OLED business grew by 179 per cent in 2006, after it doubled its production capacity to 2.4 million units, giving it a market share of 19.6 per cent.

OLED screens are capable of high definition display and can be just one centimeter thick, but a short life span has prevented the technology from being implemented in large-screen TV products. However, its supporters are becoming more bullish. Samsung has demonstrated a 30 inch prototype, while LG.Philips has shown screens up to 20 inches.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cambridge Display Technology and Sumation Announce Strong Lifetime Improvements to P-OLED Material; Blue P-OLED Materials Hit 10,000 Hour Lifetime Milestone at 1,000 cd/sq.m (http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/070327/116199.html)
27 March 2007

CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, March 27, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) (NasdaqGM:OLED - News) and Sumation(r) are pleased to announce new growth in lifetime metrics for red, green, blue, and white P-OLED materials.

Data results from spin coated devices using a common cathode and solution processable materials developed in 2006 demonstrate that lifetimes(a) of 24,000, 35,000, 10,000, and 5,200 hours for red, green, blue, and white, respectively, have been achieved from an initial luminance of 1000 candelas per square meter, or cd/sq.m. This is equivalent(b) to over 150,000, 198,000, 62,000, and 27,000 hours from an operating brightness of 400cd/sq.m for these materials.

The latest figures represent a 5x, 11x, 6x, and 5x improvement for red, green, blue and white materials, respectively, compared to lifetimes reported at the end of 2005. In the case of blue, lifetime has been increased by 2.5x in the short time since the last announcement in November 2006.

David Fyfe, chief executive officer of CDT commented, "Since establishing the Sumation joint venture with Sumitomo in late 2005 we have achieved rapid progress in P-OLED material lifetimes, a critical component to commercial adoption. Given the results we have achieved, it now makes sense for us to quote lifetime data from 1000 cd/sq.m, as is becoming standard in the OLED industry. At current lifetime levels, P-OLED technology could meet the requirements for micro and small displays.''

Dr Susumu Miyazaki, chief executive officer of Sumation added, "We're very pleased with the progress we have made in increasing P-OLED lifetimes and are currently proceeding with production ramp-up of these materials. Commercial quantities of materials will be available to our customers in the near future.''

The above pics looks like the 11 inch,not the 27 inch.

A big disadvantage for OLED TV seems to be, similar to Plasma TV, reflections or glare in rooms with sunlight or electric lighting. Judging from the photographs of the prototype models, OLED may be fine for dark home theater, but for a bright room, LCD can be better.


I don't know about everybody else, but I would rather have a glass screen with a little bit of glare than I would the cheap plastic screens found on LCD and RPTV's..

1. It's more durable/scratch resistant
2. It produces a clearer picture
3. It's easy to clean

Also, LCD screens aren't entirely immune to glare...try placing one near an open window in the middle of the day.

That being said, I think OLED TV's have a lot of potential, and if they can get the cost down to an acceptable level and get them in the stores in the near future, I think they will do well.

I realize we can't tell too much from the pics here (thanks, however) but the colors seem to be almost incandescent, especially reds and greens. Pretty - but not entirely realistic. Maybe someone turned the color control up too much?

I disagree. Imagine a sunny day at Waikiki and I think that's what it would look like!

I've been to Waikiki and the OLED looks better than the real thing!

Very nice source of material! Thanks!


So....Are these going to be very susceptible to image retention?

I view lots of static images. :o

So....Are these going to be very susceptible to image retention?

I view lots of static images. :o

I don't know about IR, but my guess is that they will be susceptible to burn-in. So far, the aging characteristics of the organic materials (in terms of light output) is similar to, or worse than, that of modern phosphors. Brighter images cause the materials to age faster, so this could create burn-in.

-Steve

Hi, could someone please kindly tell me a list of companies out there who are OLED Inkjet process fabrication machine builders for tv displays for special needs and clients? :-)

Here's an article from CNET group predicting the bright future for OLED technology.

Bright future for OLEDs, report predicts
By Candace Lombardi, CNET News.com
16/2/2007

OLEDs, which have only recently found their way from the lab to the Consumer Electronics Show floor, are poised to become a multibillion-dollar market.

The OLED market is predicted to hit US$10.9 billion by 2012 and grow to US$15.5 billion two years later, according to a report released Thursday from research firm NanoMarkets. The market is expected to reach US$1.4 billion this year.

OLEDs (organic light-emitting diodes) can be fashioned into thin sheets of polymer that emit bright light when an electrical current is applied. They are already used on the outer screen of many clamshell phones, a few MP3 players, an electric razor and a Kodak camera.

Kodak was one of the first to develop a specific kind of OLED technology. Now companies like Sony are touting OLEDs as the next big thing in flat-screen televisions and General Electric is using them to develop more energy-efficient lighting fixtures and windows. Their thinness and promise of low power consumption also make OLEDs ideal for signs, as well as computer and laptop monitors.

"The attraction for OLEDs in all of these areas--cell phones, signs or computer and television displays--is that, first of all, OLEDs are very bright and attractive to look at," said Lawrence Gasman, a senior analyst at NanoMarkets.

OLED displays require no backlighting, as LCDs (liquid crystal displays) do. In fact, OLEDs, which promise to be more energy-efficient, could be used to replace the power-eating fluorescent backlighting currently used for LCDs, according to Gasman.

Also, OLEDs may prove cheaper to manufacture. Currently, OLED displays are not as complicated to produce as LCD displays, though the processes are similar, said Gasman. Developing technology, however, will enable OLED displays to be printed on conventional or ink-jet printers. The new roll-to-roll process, similar in look to newspaper printing, will be much cheaper than the LCD manufacturing process, said Gasman.

Although, Sony has said that 2008 could see some OLED televisions available to consumers, don't expect to see OLED televisions become the norm overnight. Companies have invested heavily in LCD manufacturing plants, according to Gasman, and are unlikely to throw them out just to switch to OLEDs.

"It takes a long time for any new technology, however good, to take over in televisions. To state the obvious, people don't buy a new one after 18 months as they do with cell phones. The product life for televisions is longer," said Gasman.

OLED for billboards and signs?
Do expect to see OLEDs as the main screens on mobile phones. OLEDs have fast switching rates, which means they are good for video. That is a big motivator for main displays on cell phones, especially with mobile video becoming more popular.

"In theory, they also have very low power consumption overall. They don't drain the batteries as fast as LCDs do, and that is tied to the switching issue. You don't need as much power to change pictures and things," said Gasman.

"And power is probably the main constraint--apart from size issues--on what you can do on mobile phone or handheld gaming devices," he said.

For these reasons, it's expected that revenue for OLED displays used in mobile phones and handhelds will be about US$7.2 billion by 2014, according to NanoMarkets.

The report also noted the physical flexibility of OLEDs and the wide angle from which they can be seen as other attractive traits. Companies looking to offer detachable roll-up displays for cell phones and slimmer displays for commercial signs and notebook computers will make the switch to OLEDs. Large color displays, such as billboards, are not yet an option with current OLED technology. But medium-size OLED displays, like informational signs at kiosks, are ideal because they can be viewed from far angles, said the report.

OLEDs are also expected to have a significant impact on lighting, with the market for OLED-based lighting expected to exceed US$1 billion by 2014.

According to companies exploring the use of OLEDs in light fixtures, a 25-cm square panel of OLEDs can generate about 25 to 31 lumens per watt, compared with the 10 to 15 lumens per watt given off by an incandescent light bulb.

But OLEDs are not yet weather-resistant, so don't expect to see them as airport runway lights anytime soon.

One place you might see them, however, is in the airplane cabin. Gasman said OLEDs could be built into planes to offer lighting, as well as into the wall panels of homes. The lighting would be less expensive to run in terms of power than incandescent lighting.

http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/home_av/tvs/0,39037594,61990462,00.htm
http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/home_av/tvs/0,39037594,61990462-2,00.htm

Much thanks for all the great links, gentlemen. The breakthroughs in LED technology in general, and OLED in particlular, in the last year alone have been stunning! Keep the good news coming.

Has anyone personally seen the OLED in action?

Have you seen it display 60 fields per second of crystal clear source material (no blurring)??? It is supposed to have a quick response time.. but then so is SXRD... :(

Wondering if I should get my hopes up and start saving my pennies for true 1920x 1080 at rock solid 60 fields per second...

meh

Oh yes it will, the pixels switch 100 times faster than LCD. OLED is a truly solid-state display technology, unlike LCD which is liquid-state.

100x faster switching speeds means that you could get ten people watching ten different videos (frame interleaved) on the same display, using shutter glasses for each, synced to the different display times. Each person's display would be 10x faster than an LCD, ie. 600fps or maybe only 1/4 of that considering that LCD's real speed is about 15fps.

Alternately, you could omit the glasses and watch your video at 600fps, and it would still be more than 10x clearer than an LCD.

However, it's important to remember that OLED is still crappy technology compared to inorganic LED, whose switching time is measured in nanoseconds (5ns typ.). One thousand nanoseconds is one microsecond, so LEDs are 1000x faster than OLEDs, which are about 100x faster than LCD.

In other words, a true LED display (they can sometimes be seen in big billboards, etc.) can show 100,000 fps without smear. If 1000 people each with their own synced shutterglasses, were to watch one of these displays showing 1000 video streams frame interleaved, each could see their 'own' display running at 100Hz!

OLED's seem like the perfect technology. I'm just wondering if there are any more drawbacks to these that haven't been discussed. From what I can tell, the only things I see of concern are as follows:

1. Organic Lifetimes(which could possibly lead to image retention over time)
2. Possibly high cost of manufacturing(at least in the near future)
3. Screen sizes. Can they be made bigger...cheaply?( I recall reading about a 40" Samsung panel)
4. Easily damaged by water/moisture. Can't these be sealed up tight?

Also, any news on Sony's OLED plans?

Alternately, you could omit the glasses and watch your video at 600fps, and it would still be more than 10x clearer than an LCD.

[...]

In other words, a true LED display (they can sometimes be seen in big billboards, etc.) can show 100,000 fps without smear.
I think you are not aware of the sample-and-hold effect. Are you? It affects OLED in the same way as LCD. Running a movie with 2400fps doesn't improve the clarity, if you just repeat each frame 100 times, because repeating frames doesn't have any visible effect on a sample-and-hold type display. The only way how 2400fps could have an advantage over 24fps with a sample-and-hold type display is if you calculate true intermediate frames in between the 24 original frames or if you show black frames in between. If you don't do that, you'll still see motion smear with OLED, as you do with all sample-and-hold type displays.

This kind of motion smear is not physically shown by the display (in reality there's never a time when the OLED shows smear), but the motion smear is created by the eye trying to track the motion on screen. Because of this problem LCD manufacturers are just now releasing 120Hz LCD displays, which are either calculating true intermediate frames or which show black intermediate frames in between. OLED will have to use similar techniques to work around the sample-and-hold effect.

This kind of motion smear is not physically shown by the display (in reality there's never a time when the OLED shows smear), but the motion smear is created by the eye trying to track the motion on screen. Because of this problem LCD manufacturers are just now releasing 120Hz LCD displays, which are either calculating true intermediate frames or which show black intermediate frames in between. OLED will have to use similar techniques to work around the sample-and-hold effect.

OLED displays will ALL have the 120hz refresh rates as well as the HDMI 1.3 once they get released. The Sony 27 inch prototype already had 120hz refresh rate support built-in it so applying 120hz to OLED displays won't be a problem.

However, I do have one question:

Of course ILED (Inorganic Light Emitting Diode) displays for HDTV application are the successors to OLED in the next decade but let's focus on shorter term here.

My question is: How will OLED TV perform against an LCD TV that uses LED backlighting?

CES 2007 has shown that the Sony prototype is KING of the response time (with its "microseconds" of response time unlike other display tech that use only "milliseconds" which is slower).

Question is: Can we claim this as a general fact/truth? Meaning that OLED TVs are still way faster than what LED-backlight LCD TVs are capable of?

OLED displays will ALL have the 120hz refresh rates as well as the HDMI 1.3 once they get released. The Sony 27 inch prototype already had 120hz refresh rate support built-in it so applying 120hz to OLED displays won't be a problem.
I never said it would be. Actually it was my whole point that OLED would have to use the same techniques used by the latest 120Hz LCD displays to work against the sample-and-hold effect.

It's much too optimistic saying that OLED will automatically have 10x clearer motion than LCDs just because OLED can switch faster. The switching/response time is no longer the main problem, but the sample-and-hold effect is.

I see the Sony uses "Super Top Emission" which has brightness-limiting color filters like LCDs.

Does anyone know why domestic sized displays can't be fabricated with direct radiating filterless ILEDs ?

The filter does not limit the brightness.

If you take red light and pass it through a red filter, you can get 100% through.

The filter is to reduce ambient light.

The filter does not limit the brightness.

If you take red light and pass it through a red filter, you can get 100% through.

The filter is to reduce ambient light.The filter does reduce ambient light but it also cuts the target light output. The filter is there to improve color purity and reduce unwanted ambient light at the cost of reduced light output.

http://www.sony.net/Products/SC-HP/cx_news/vol39/pdf/featuring39.pdf

So how many years will it be before we have 65-inch OLED?

5-6 years, at the minimum.

I saw one last week at Sony's Road Show in Vegas. It has the best picture I have ever see on anything, although it was only a 10" picture, or so. A 27" set would be the first size available. Still gotta have one. They said it was very expensive to produce, so don't know what they will cost yet. Anybody heard any cost on this set? Tom.

Not really worth mentioning a screen that is only 10" big. Nor one with 27". I'm sorry, but at that size pretty much any display can look great.
Until they manage to show us a 50" screen prototype (minimum), the technology is not worth waiting for.

Not really worth mentioning a screen that is only 10" big. Nor one with 27". I'm sorry, but at that size pretty much any display can look great.
Until they manage to show us a 50" screen prototype (minimum), the technology is not worth waiting for.

You do have a point on 50 inch (which is the starting for 1080p differentiation)

But I believe that at 40 inch, it would already have a sweet spot.

Below 50" is IMHO a dying market. That's a size people are looking at skipping nowadays and going for the bigger and now affordable 50" screens.

I don't know about the US, but over here in Germany I would say people have the room for bigger screens and want bigger screens.

So if this technology wants to cut in end of this year or maybe even not before next year, then 50" is the minimum.

Below 50" is IMHO a dying market. That's a size people are looking at skipping nowadays and going for the bigger and now affordable 50" screens.

I don't know about the US, but over here in Germany I would say people have the room for bigger screens and want bigger screens.

So if this technology wants to cut in end of this year or maybe even not before next year, then 50" is the minimum.


For the main display in a home, I agree that 50" is a good starting point. However, there is still a good market for smaller displays for use in a kitchen, bedrooms, etc. I personally would not want a display larger than about 40" for use in our current bedroom.

For the main display in a home, I agree that 50" is a good starting point. However, there is still a good market for smaller displays for use in a kitchen, bedrooms, etc. I personally would not want a display larger than about 40" for use in our current bedroom.

The old house where I currently live-in is old and small so anything larger than 40 inches is still not possible. If we move to a new living place, then it's possible for 50 inch and above but it won't happen for us till the next four years.

For the current house, 40 inches is big enough for us. This is also considering that for developing countries, one is even lucky if he/she can get a 40 inch HDTV atm.

But would you seriously consider spending extra bucks on such a small screen for your bedroom or kitchen?
If they release this technology, they will probably want to charge something extra. If they cannot provide screen sizes which fully reveal the improvements brought to us by this technology, then I don't see that happening.

But would you seriously consider spending extra bucks on such a small screen for your bedroom or kitchen?
If they release this technology, they will probably want to charge something extra. If they cannot provide screen sizes which fully reveal the improvements brought to us by this technology, then I don't see that happening.

Are you comparing between current LCD and upcoming OLED???

Maybe there's slight confusion. I was referring to the LCD sets that are available now. Right now, I'm getting a 32inch Samsung Bordeaux set this month then after 6-9 months, I'm eyeing a higher-end Samsung 40 inch model (something with HDMI 1.3, LED backlight and 120hz refresh rate). I'm not eyeing anything above 40 inches for CURRENT LCD sets because anything above that is too heavy and is too expensive for the family. (developing country + small, old house)

As for OLED TV....well.....I have no concrete plans for OLED yet (either 2009 or 2011; before the end of the decade or after the start of the decade). Still have to see what they come out with first.

Whatever it is though, it could probably be a Sony with a round base (like something similar to the CES 2007 prototype)

What about non-organic LED displays? Philips seems to be working a lot under the curtains...

What about non-organic LED displays? Philips seems to be working a lot under the curtains...

You must be referring to ILED (Inorganic Light-Emitting Diode).

Isochroma mentioned this a few posts back and said that this was the successor after OLED gets launched. So by the year 2020, this would be the one to wipe out OLEDs.

He mentions that on response time ALONE, ILEDs have around 1-10 nanoseconds of response time. This is when compared to OLED TVs that would be launched with 1-10 microseconds.

Thus, ILED is 500-1000 TIMES FASTER than what OLED can achieve (which is already 100x faster than LCD technology even at 1 ms).

Still, this ILED technology won't even be available till like a decade or two so for upcoming tech, let's just wait for OLED.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
P.S.

Isochroma...

Do you have anything else to share regarding ILED technology for HDTV applications?

:)

You must be referring to ILED (Inorganic Light-Emitting Diode).

Isochroma mentioned this a few posts back and said that this was the successor after OLED gets launched. So by the year 2020, this would be the one to wipe out OLEDs.

He mentions that on response time ALONE, ILEDs have around 1-10 nanoseconds of response time. This is when compared to OLED TVs that would be launched with 1-10 microseconds.

Thus, ILED is 500-1000 TIMES FASTER than what OLED can achieve (which is already 100x faster than LCD technology even at 1 ms).

Still, this ILED technology won't even be available till like a decade or two so for upcoming tech, let's just wait for OLED.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
P.S.

Isochroma...

Do you have anything else to share regarding ILED technology for HDTV applications?

:)


Hummm...What are the differences between a LCD with LED as backlights and a only-LED display?

LEDs make light.

LCDs block light.

Cambridge Display Technologies announces new OLED lifetimes.

http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/070327/116199.html

I'm no expert, but please don't take Cambridge Display Tech's announcements too seriously. Their intellectual property portfolio is far inferior to Universal Display Corporation, plus they have a tendency to lean towards hype and hyperbole in their press releases and corporate presentations. The lifetimes of blue emitters remains the most significant obstacle preventing the widespread mass manufacture of OLEDs, be they small molecule or polymeric. Hopefully, a usable blue phosophorescent material [aka a blue phosphorescent material with good enough color coordinates] will be discovered within the next 1-2 years, but it's impossible to predict these things.

disclosure: i have invested in Universal Display Corporation.

Not really worth mentioning a screen that is only 10" big. Nor one with 27". I'm sorry, but at that size pretty much any display can look great.
Until they manage to show us a 50" screen prototype (minimum), the technology is not worth waiting for.
For anyone,
Would this be true of "all" display technologies?
42" & 47" 1080p flat panels; are "not worth" it?
How about 32" HiDef direct view CRT's; are they "worth" it?

50" plasmas 'always' looked the 'best'. Maybe, there is something magical about 50(+)".

Then again, maybe its the all important viewing distance!

Newbie Q:
What's the largest OLED in the consumer market today?
What does it cost?
[if OLED's are only found in phones right now, can we at least assume a 1 1/2" OLED is cheaper than a 1 1/2" LCD?]
Thank you.

OLEDs are still only used in the handheld market. Once major advantage OLED has over LCD is lower power usage. OLED requires little to no power for static images which is very important for battery operated handheld devices. But OLED still costs at least 50% more than LCD.

Going to larger sizes is not straight forward as the requirements are much different for TVs and desktop monitors than for the handheld devices. The lifetime issue is one such problem. Displays larger than 2" also require going from Passive Matrix to Active Matrix. Active Matrix OLED is inherently more expensive to manufacturer than Passive Matrix due to lower yields and higher backplane costs. Each red/green/blue subpixel requires one or more transistor. Currently, a 2" Active Matrix panel is well over double the cost of a similar LCD panel. There are other issues as well.

Many OLED companies are working on these issues but it will be many years before all of these come together so that OLED can compete with the other large flat screen TVs that are currently available and continue to drop in price.

OLEDs are still only used in the handheld market. Once major advantage OLED has over LCD is lower power usage. OLED requires little to no power for static images which is very important for battery operated handheld devices. But OLED still costs at least 50% more than LCD.

Going to larger sizes is not straight forward as the requirements are much different for TVs and desktop monitors than for the handheld devices. The lifetime issue is one such problem. Displays larger than 2" also require going from Passive Matrix to Active Matrix. Active Matrix OLED is inherently more expensive to manufacturer than Passive Matrix due to lower yields and higher backplane costs. Each red/green/blue subpixel requires one or more transistor. Currently, a 2" Active Matrix panel is well over double the cost of a similar LCD panel. There are other issues as well.

Many OLED companies are working on these issues but it will be many years before all of these come together so that OLED can compete with the other large flat screen TVs that are currently available and continue to drop in price.
Hood,
Thanks for getting me up to speed w/this new tech.
I'll not be waiting now for the '08 Super Bowl to buy OLED! ;)
Became disillusioned w/LCD's issues & wanted to hear about what may be just down the road.
From what you posted, I'm thinking 2010-12 B4 50" OLED are out in mass. :eek:
Thanks for keeping it real in the hood. :cool:
;)

Does anyone have any information on how long it will take for OLEDs to make it into things like PDA's and laptop screens? I was pretty sure Sony had made a Clie PDA a year or two ago that had an OLED screen but it was only released in Japan. Seems like the OLEDs would be great for PDA/smartphones, the new UMPCs, and laptops. But I wonder if they can be used in a touch-screen type application?

Jacksonian, the active matrix OLED on the Clie VZ-90 was fabulous. Unfortunately, Sony was unable to mass manufacture OLED displays in sufficient quantities to make a profit.

Since January 2007, Samsung SDI has slowly began to mass manufacture these displays. Right now their OLEDs can be found in 2.2" displays on the Clix2 mp3 player, and a kyocera cell phone. Over the next 9-12 months they will begin ramping up to larger sizes, such as 3" up to maybe 5". It will probably be 2-3 years before we see laptop-sized screens, and as much as 5 years before we see small HDTVs with OLEDs.

OLEDs are great for PDAs and smartphones, they are far more energy efficient and vibrant and attractive than LCDs. They can be used with touch-screen applications, since the touch-screen technology is applied in a different layer (IE, it is independent from the LCD or the OLED in the display).

Thanks for the info. Guess I'll have to be patient. The Clie screen had me thinking it was closer to reality than it is.

Jacksonian, the active matrix OLED on the Clie VZ-90 was fabulous. Unfortunately, Sony was unable to mass manufacture OLED displays in sufficient quantities to make a profit.

Since January 2007, Samsung SDI has slowly began to mass manufacture these displays. Right now their OLEDs can be found in 2.2" displays on the Clix2 mp3 player, and a kyocera cell phone. Over the next 9-12 months they will begin ramping up to larger sizes, such as 3" up to maybe 5". It will probably be 2-3 years before we see laptop-sized screens, and as much as 5 years before we see small HDTVs with OLEDs.

OLEDs are great for PDAs and smartphones, they are far more energy efficient and vibrant and attractive than LCDs. They can be used with touch-screen applications, since the touch-screen technology is applied in a different layer (IE, it is independent from the LCD or the OLED in the display).

From what I know (or heard) though:

Samsung SDI wants to launch their OLED TV in the last quarter of this year (which includes their 40 inch model AMOLED model).

Sony is considering joining OLED production next year starting off with their 27 inch model (like the one in CES 2007) and then going to 40 inches in the last quarter of 2008.

So it still looks like OLED is launching within this decade (unless something unfortunate happens).

Here are some more comments on the move to large OLED TVs.

http://displaydaily.com/2006/03/23/samsung-confirms-amoled-roll-out/


"Lee’s stated intention to "expand the [OLED] territory to the 40-inch level television market in two or three years" should be approached with caution. We believe the company’s cell-phone display production will use the proven vacuum thermal evaporation process for depositing the OLED materials. While this is a reasonable initial approach for small displays fabricated on substrates no larger than Gen 4, it would not be suitable for the larger fab generations required to produce large TV panels economically. Furthermore, the largest LTPS deposition equipment in the world is currently Gen 4.

This means that TV-size AMOLED panels will require fundamentally different OLED deposition and backplane fabrication processes than the initial phone-panel product - or Samsung would have to undertake a major, expensive and time-consuming scale-up of LTPS processing. These considerations make volume production of 40-inch panels unlikely in a two- to three-year time frame, although RGB AMOLED prototypes in such sizes are a definite possibility."

BlackRaven, unfortunately your information is incorrect. There is no way that Samsung SDI will be able to mass manufacture 40" AMOLED tvs by the 4th quarter of 2007. Samsung is SLOWLY SLOWLY ramping up, from 2.2" now to 3-7" displays over the next 12 months. This information is coming directly from someone I know who works at Samsung SDI, in the investor relations department. It is also consistent with Samsung SDI's own statements at their conferences.

Sony hasn't issued a precise time-table in recent months, other than to have said at CES that "we will probably do something [with OLEDs] within the year". This is widely believed to refer to small screens, like Samsung SDI is doing. Just like Samsung SDI, Sony does not have the infrastructure to create large-sized screens in bulk.

I'm looking forward to their arrival, but LARGE amoled screens aren't coming any time soon. The very earliest they are likely to arrive is at the end of the decade, not 2007. In the meantime I will enjoy smaller screens. There is a rumor right now by some Prudential Equities analysts that the iPhone will have an AMOLED screen created by Samsung SDI. I tend to disbelieve this rumor, but quite likely AMOLEDs will be used in the second generation of the iphone, and in many other small consumer electronics very soon.

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd. Introduces 20.8-inch Organic Light-Emitting Diode Display (http://www.tmdisplay.com/tm_dsp/press/2007/07-04-09.html)
9 April 2007


http://www.tmdisplay.com/tm_dsp/press/img/OLED21inch.JPG (http://www.tmdisplay.com/tm_dsp/press/img/OLED21inch0.JPG)


Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd. (TMD) has developed a 20.8-inch low-temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panel to advance to the next-generation of flat-screen TV sets and monitors.

The newly developed panel demonstrates the world's largest screen size for polymer-type OLED display panels using LTPS technology, accomplished through the use of newly developed techniques for uniform coating of organic electroluminescent materials and the optimized combination of electrodes and organic materials.

TMD has been concentrating its efforts towards the development of LTPS technology and OLED technology. Since the development of a 17-inch OLED panel in April 2002, which then was the world's largest screen size among OLED displays, TMD has been developing 2.0-inch, 2.2-inch, 2.5-inch, 2.8-inch, and 3.5-inch OLED panels ideally suited for cellular phones and compact mobile equipment and has been in mass production of 3.5-inch OLED panels.

An OLED panel reproduces images from light emitted by the fine organic electroluminescent film formed on the glass substrate, thus it can provide high-contrast, clear images with ultra-fast response time for moving picture performance. In addition, the OLED panel features an ultra-wide viewing angle, a thinner profile due to the eliminated backlighting system and other peripheral elements, and energy conservation offering eco-friendly advantages.

The new 20.8-inch OLED display has been developed based on LTPS technology, which TMD has been continually refining, and an electroluminescent coating process, which is advantageous for larger display screen sizes. The three (RGB) color-emitting layers use polymer organic electroluminescent materials, and an ink-jet type coating process is adopted for coating of each color. These have contributed to achieving a large screen size of 20.8-inch and would enable the expansion of potential applications of large-size OLED panels, which have been conventionally limited to smaller size screens.

In addition to the adoption of a top emission structure, TMD is now managing light at the nanometer level in individual pixels to improve the efficiency of distributing light produced from the color-emitting layers. This has contributed to higher brightness and lower power consumption.

The newly developed panel will be exhibited in TMD's booth at the 3rd International FPD Expo (Display 2007) at Tokyo Big Sight from April 11 through April 13, 2007.

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Toshiba, M'shita jv aims to sell TV-use OLED panels (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070411/tc_nm/toshiba_matsushita_tv_dc;_ylt=Ahdfy7ZbMeNyUyZQuPRzIoQjtBAF)
11 April 2007

TOKYO (Reuters) - A joint venture between Toshiba Corp. (6502.T) and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (6752.T) said on Wednesday it aimed to launch TV-use organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels in three years, taking aim at a $35 billion market dominated by LCD and plasma panels.

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co. Ltd., owned 60 percent by Toshiba and the rest by Panasonic maker Matsushita, aims to start commercial production of OLED panels for flat TVs by 2009, a spokesman for the venture said.

OLED panels are said to be energy-efficient, make thin and light displays, and have strength in showing fast-moving images.

Besides Toshiba Matsushita Display, Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news). (6758.T) develops OLED panels for TVs.

In 2007, the market for TV-use liquid crystal display (LCD) modules is expected to come to $27.4 billion, while demand for plasma panel modules will likely total $7.5 billion, according to research firm DisplaySearch.

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Sony says to sell ultra-thin OLED TVs this year (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/11/AR2007041102588.html)
11 April 2007

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp. <6758.T> said on Thursday it planned to start selling ultra-thin TVs using organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology this year, likely becoming the first to market with a TV using the promising next-generation display.

Several companies are investing in OLED technology because it can produce bright, colorful images and does not require a backlight as do liquid crystal displays (LCD), allowing for a thinner panel. OLED panels are also said to be energy-efficient and good at reproducing fast-moving images.

OLED displays are already used in digital cameras, cellphones and other devices with relatively small panels. But cost and technology hurdles have so far prevented them from being mass produced for use in larger equipment such as TVs.

The new 11-inch OLED TV to be launched this year will be made by ST Liquid Crystal Display Corp., a joint venture between Sony and Toyota Industries Corp. <6201.T>, Sony spokesman Daiichi Yamafuji said, declining to give unit targets or a likely price.

"It won't be easy for OLED TVs to replace LCD TVs, but we would like to turn OLED TVs into a big new business," Sony Executive Deputy President Katsumi Ihara said in a speech at a display forum in Tokyo.

The Nikkei business daily reported earlier that Sony would begin by mass producing about 1,000 of the 11-inch OLED sets per month, and would aim to keep the TVs priced at within a few times of existing flat TVs.

That would be just a fraction of its LCD TV business.

Ihara said Sony slightly exceeded its target of selling 6 million LCD TVs in the business year ended last month, and reiterated a target to sell 10 million units this year.

Other companies investing in OLED displays include Seiko Epson Corp. <6724.T>, Canon Inc. <7751.T>, Samsung, and a joint venture between Toshiba Corp. <6502.T> and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. <6752.T>.

The venture, Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., announced on Wednesday it aimed to launch TV-use OLED panels in three years, taking aim at the $35 billion flat TV market, which is currently dominated by LCD and plasma display technology.

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Sony: 1,000,000:1 OLED TV on sale in 2007 (http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/12/sony-1-000-000-1-oled-tv-on-sale-in-2007/)
12 April 2007


http://www.engadget.com/media/2007/04/sony_11-inch_oled.jpg


http://www.engadget.com/media/2007/04/sony_11-inch_oled_profile.jpg


Sony is once again showing off their beautiful OLED TVs (http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/sonys-1-000-000-1-contrast-ratio-27-inch-oled-hdtv/) we first peeped at CES (http://www.engadget.com/photos/sonys-1-000-000-1-contrast-ratio-27-inch-oled-hdtv-1/128897/). No surprise there, after all, we love to gawk at that incredible 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio just as often as possible. The real news is that Sony is finally ready to move an OLED TV into production. Sorry, not that bad-azz 27-inch model (http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/sonys-1-000-000-1-contrast-ratio-27-inch-oled-hdtv/) capable of Full HD 1080p. Nope, instead they'll be pushing out the 11-inch pup sometime "within 2007." We're talking 1024 x 600 pixels slathered across that wee 1M:1 contrast panel capable of 8-bit RGB color and covering more than 100% of the NTSC color gamut. Oh, and the display itself measures just 3-mm thick. Hot-freakin'-tastic. Unfortunately, it will likely suffer from a high price tag and short display life. Still, you'll be tempted, especially after seeing the set's razor-thin display in a profile shot after the break -- yeah, dramatic viewing angles too. Oh, Sony, why must you taunt us.

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LCD, Plasma... Now OLED In TV Picture (http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=17&artnum=1&issue=20070412)
12 April 2007

LCD is so yesterday.

Consumer electronics giant Sony (SNE) announced plans Thursday to produce televisions using organic light-emitting diodes by year's end. OLED displays boast ultrathin screens with much higher contrast and richer colors than today's liquid crystal display and plasma TVs.

But don't toss out your current flat-panel TV yet. OLED TVs are still in their infancy, so they're pretty small and very expensive.

Sony's first commercial OLED TV will be 11-inches wide. It hasn't set a price yet, but analysts say it could cost about $1,000 at first.

"It's going to be pricey," said Vinita Jakhanwal, an analyst with market research firm iSuppli. Sony will sell them initially to well-heeled consumers and business executives as "status symbols."

Huge Hit At CES

Sony likely put OLED TV production on the fast track after the vivid, eye-popping colors of prototypes displayed at January's big Consumer Electronics Show produced such a strong response.

"People were just going bananas over it," said Barry Young, an analyst at market research firm DisplaySearch. "They had no plans before that time to get this out."

The reaction of retailers at the show was "extremely positive," he said. Sony showed off 11-inch and 27-inch models at CES.

Sony's rapid move into OLED TV production suggests that the company learned a bitter lesson from several years ago when it was slow to get into the flat-panel TV market. It has since fought back with its Bravia line of LCD TVs. Last year, Sony was No. 1 worldwide in LCD TV revenue, beating out Samsung and Sharp, DisplaySearch says. It's not a player in plasma TVs.

OLED televisions have the potential to become the next generation of flat-panel TVs, analysts say. But they say the technology faces significant hurdles.

OLED displays today are mostly smaller screens for cell phones and portable media players. Companies making OLED screens are struggling just to make those 2-inch and 3-inch displays, Jakhanwal says. Larger displays will be even more of a problem, she says.

New production processes must be developed to improve capacity and quality, and lower costs, she says. "Manufacturing processes are still quite undeveloped right now," Jakhanwal said.

There's also the question of the life span. Today's OLED displays have 30,000 hours of life, compared with hundreds of thousands of hours for an LCD screen, she says.

OLED displays reproduce images using light emitted from the self-luminescent properties of some organic materials. But these materials can degrade over time, she says.

Still, OLED displays ultimately could be cheaper to make than LCD or plasma displays because they use less materials, analyst Young says. They don't require a backlight.

If OLED televisions can overcome their cost, size and lifetime issues, they could give LCD TVs a run for their money. They offer a sharp, vivid picture that makes other flat panels look dull by comparison. Plus, their ultrafast response time is ideal for sports and other quick moving pictures.

OLED TVs also have a much wider viewing angle. So as you move to the side of the set, the contrast ratio doesn't change like it does for LCD TVs.

0.12-Inch Thick

And for TV owners obsessed with thin sets, OLED offers the thinnest yet. The screen in Sony's planned 11-inch OLED TV will be 0.12-inch thick. It probably will be about a quarter-inch thick when housed in a protective frame, Young says.

"You could basically paste it on the wall," he said.

But Sony isn't alone in developing OLED, or what it calls organic electroluminescent, televisions. Samsung, LG Philips, (LPL) Toshiba Matsushita Display, AU Optronics (AUO) and others are working on this.

But Sony hopes to gain the first-mover edge. It will use production of the 11-inch display as a learning experience, Young says. It will try to boost production volumes and improve process designs. At the same time, it will work on the production of much larger TV displays.

This year, the OLED display market is expected to generate $833 million from the sale of 97 million units. TV displays, though, will account for only about 5,000 of those units, says iSuppli's Jakhanwal.

But iSuppli expects the OLED TV market to generate $690 million in sales by 2012.

Sony will make its OLED display panels at a plant operated by ST Liquid Crystal Display, a joint venture it has with Toyota Industries.

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Commentary: OLED to be the next advanced technology for TVs (http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20070413VL200.html)
13 April 2007

Customers will have even more choices for next-generation TVs, as Sony is eying organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology and plans to launch OLED TVs soon while Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology (TMDisplay) also schedules to volume produce OLED TV panels in the next few years.

Sony's OLED TV will be launched this year and the product will be made by ST Liquid Crystal Display (ST-LCD), a joint venture between Sony and Toyota Industries, Sony spokesman Daiichi Yamafuji said in a recent report from Reuters. The company, however, declined to give unit targets or price level for the segment, the report noted.

Sony demonstrated two slim OLED TV prototypes at CES 2007 in Las Vegas (January 8-11). The 11- and 27-inch TVs are about 3mm and less-than-10mm thin, respectively. The TVs both have a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 while the panels used feature resolutions of 1,024×600 and 1,920×1,080, respectively, according to Sony.

The Japan-based company currently is focusing on LCD technology for TV application.

Sony started developing OLED panels in the early 90's and began mass production of full-color OLED displays in September 2004, according to the company. Sony's OLED production base at ST-LCD's production facility. ST-LCD mainly focuses on low-temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) panels.

After production commenced in April, 1999, ST-LCD sees accumulated shipments of LTPS panels reached 200 million pieces in August 2006, according to a company press release.

TMDisplay, a joint venture between Toshiba & Matsushita Electric Industrial, also aims to start mass production of OLED panels for flat-panel TVs by 2009, a spokesman said in another report from Reuters.

Early this month, the joint venture announced it has developed a 20.8-inch LTPS OLED panel for TVs and monitors. The company announced developments of a 17-inch OLED panel in April 2002.

Although OLED has been widely used in applications such as handsets, MP3 players and car-use devices, the technology has advantages in TV application over LCD. Firstly, OLED is a self-luminous, which means there is no need for backlighting. Also, OLED does not have the limited response time of TFT LCD. The response time of OLED displays is measured in microseconds, not the milliseconds associated with LCD displays. OLED display also features an excellent color reproduction, with most of them able to offer color gamut of over 100% NTSC standard.

Samsung SDI, LG Electronics (LGE), RiTdisplay, Pioneer and TDK were the top six OLED panel suppliers by revenues in 2006, according to DisplaySearch. Global OLED panel shipments totaled 72.1 million last year, up 29% from 2005, the research firm added.

Samsung Electronics unveiled a 40-inch active matrix (AM) OLED LCD TV in May 2005. Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) has worked with subsidiary Chi Mei Electroluminescence (CMEL) to develop AM OLED panels using LTPS technology from CMO and OLED equipment from CMEL. In the mean time, CMEL is also delivering samples of 25-inch OLED TV panels to clients, sources said this February. CMEL is currently focused on small- to medium-size OLED panel applications and is developing large-size OLED TVs.

Besides OLED, next-generation flat-panel technologies for TVs include field-emission display (FED) and surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED).

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Toshiba to Launch Organic EL TV in 2009, 30-Inch Class in View (http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20070413/130804/)
13 April 2007

Toshiba Corp. has revealed that it will release an organic EL (electroluminescence) TV product in 2009. Toshiba PR department commented on the screen size, "We have 30-inch class in consideration." Toshiba's President and CEO Atsutoshi Nishida announced this at a management policy meeting held on April 12. At this meeting, Nishida said, "We are certain now that we will be able to launch our first product in 2009," regarding the commercialization of the organic EL TV, which the company had projected in "2015 to 2016" before. As for the screen size, he said, "We plan larger size than those Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd. (TMD) have developed." Toshiba places a 30-inch class model in view, which is larger than the 21-inch prototype organic EL display that TMD announced on April 9 (related story from Tech-On!). "To prepare both the high-end and commodity models, we are currently developing panels made from polymer (organic EL) materials as well as low molecular weight materials," said Nishida.

Toshiba expects TMD to manufacture the panels that will be applied for its organic EL TV, according to the company's PR department. Toshiba, however, is yet to specify neither when the construction and operation of its organic EL panel plant will start nor the value of total investment at present. Commenting on the organic EL's competitiveness in the TV market, Nishida stated, "We don't expect that the organic EL can compete from the beginning on the equal footing with the LCD TV, which is released from many manufacturers across the world, but we believe its superiority will be recognized as production volume rises."

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Sony VP Ihara Assures Market Release of Organic EL TV within 2007 (http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20070413/130805/)
13 April 2007

"Allow me to guarantee here that Sony will launch its first organic EL TV by the end of 2007." Katsumi Ihara, Executive Deputy President, President of TV and Video Business Group, Sony Corp., declared so at a display-related seminar held in Tokyo on April 12.

It is an 11-inch organic EL TV that Sony projects to launch within this year. The company showed its prototype at "2007 International CES" held in the US in January 2007. "We gained momentum from good reactions from people there," said Ihara. This prototype drew great attention and became the most focused item at the CES in January with the high quality of picture that only self-light emitting displays can render and yet only 3-mm thick slim body.

In his lecture, Ihara said, "We don't expect the organic EL TV to replace the LCD TV so easily. We consider proposing the organic EL TV as different from the LCD TV first and raising it big."

Following Sony's announcement, Toshiba Corp. also announced the release of a large organic EL TV product slated for 2009 in the afternoon on the day. Coverage on organic EL expanded in a scoop due to a series of announcements by presidents and executive officers of major electronics manufacturers. For organic EL, which is only at the beginning phase of the market after 10 years since the first commercial application was released, such trends are likely to work positively toward market expansion.

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Sony talks up next-gen TVs (http://www.smh.com.au/news/home-theatre/sony-talks-up-nextgen-tvs/2007/04/13/1175971308686.html)
13 April 2007


http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/04/13/218443336_narrowweb__300x368,0.jpg

A visitor looks at Sony's 11-inch OLED TV at Display 2007 in Tokyo.

Sony said on Thursday it planned to start selling ultra-thin TVs using organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology this year, aiming to become the first to market with a TV using the promising next-generation display.

Several companies are investing in OLED technology because it can produce bright, colourful images and does not require a backlight as do liquid crystal displays (LCDs), allowing for a thinner panel. OLED panels are also said to be energy-efficient and good at reproducing fast-moving images.

At a display forum in Tokyo, customers, suppliers and even rival TV makers turned their backs on 50-inch and bigger TVs to throng before Sony's tiny 11-inch OLED TVs.

"LCD and plasma displays look faded in comparison," said a Denso employee who declined to be named, fighting to take a picture of the new TVs.

OLED displays are already used in digital cameras, mobile phones and other devices with relatively small panels. But cost and technology hurdles have so far prevented them from being mass produced for use in larger equipment such as TVs.

The OLED TV to be launched this year will be made by ST Liquid Crystal Display, a joint venture between Sony and Toyota Industries, Sony spokesman Daiichi Yamafuji said, declining to give unit targets or a likely price.

Sony has invested aggressively in LCD technology and is now the world's largest player in the LCD TV market. It makes big LCD panels in a joint venture with South Korea's Samsung Electronics.

"It won't be easy for OLED TVs to replace LCD TVs, but we would like to turn OLED TVs into a big new business," Sony Executive Deputy President Katsumi Ihara said in a speech at the display forum.

The Nikkei business daily reported earlier that Sony would begin by mass-producing about 1,000 of the 11-inch OLED sets a month - a fraction of its LCD TV business - and would aim to keep their price within a few times that of existing flat TVs.

"OLED sets are very expensive, and we mean to begin first by marketing the TVs as a status symbol," said Sony's Kazuhiro Imai, a senior manager of the company's TV and Video business group. "We will see where the business goes from there."

Ihara said Sony slightly exceeded its target of selling 6 million LCD TVs in the business year ended last month, and reiterated a target to sell 10 million units this year.

Other companies investing in OLED displays include Seiko Epson Corp., Canon Inc., Samsung and a joint venture between Toshiba and Matsushita Electric.

Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida said on Thursday the company hoped to make larger TV-use OLED panels at the joint venture, Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology, by 2009, taking aim at the $US35 billion flat TV market, which is currently dominated by LCD and plasma display technology.

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Sumitomo Chemical to produce OLED panels in 2008, says paper (http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20070414PB203.html)
14 April 2007

Japan-based Sumitomo Chemical plans to produce organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels in 2008, according to Japanese-language Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The company may invest 5 billion yen (US$42 million) to set up an OLED panel facility in Japan and may also parter with other electric machinery making companies in the future, the paper reported.

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Nippon Steel, UDC Co-Develop Phosphorescent Organic EL Material with 5x Longer N Life (http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20070417/131028/)
17 April 2007

Nippon Steel Corp. and Universal Display Corp. (UDC) of the US have jointly developed a red phosphorescent material for organic EL panels, which has greatly improved lifecycle and luminance efficiency compared to existing materials. Its life, which represents the time before initial luminance of 1,000 cd/m2 halves, extends to 220,000 hours equivalent to five times that of the previous material. The material has also achieved luminance efficiency of 24 cd/A, 60% higher than that of the previous material. External quantum efficiency is 19% at 1,000 cd/m2 luminance, according to the companies.

Nippon Steel and UDC will focus on promoting the commercialization of the green phosphorescent material they developed in 2006 and developing a blue phosphorescent material. The two companies look to early form a lineup consisting of full color of phosphorescent materials by combining these green and blue phosphorescent materials with the aforementioned red one.

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Organic Displays Hit Global Market (http://www.advancedimagingpro.com/web/online/Industry-News/Organic-Displays-Hit-Global-Market/3$3899)
20 April 2007

Korea Times
via NewsEdge Corporation
By Cho Jin-seo

The fledgling technology of making ultra-thin displays using organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) is starting to bear fruit finally with Sony, Samsung SDI and other makers introducing new applications.

Sony yesterday said that it is going to sell 11-inch OLED TVs for the first time in the world this year. Korean firms such as Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDI, LG Electronics, LG.Philips LCD and Neoview Kolon are also investing in the technology, which should replace the current LCD and plasma panels in the long term, becoming the norm for digital displays.

Samsung Electronics Digital Media President Park Jong-woo said that organic displays can be a breakthrough in its TV business, as the competition for creating bigger screens now does not carry much meaning to consumers.

"No matter how better and bigger TVs get, people are not going to want a 100-inch TV in their bedrooms. So I think that Internet TVs or OLED TVs will be the product for creative management,'' Park said at a meeting with the press Tuesday.

OLED panels use certain organic compounds that emit red, green and blue lights in response to electric signals. Unlike LCD and plasma screens, OLED panels do not need an additional light source, or "backlight,'' so they are slimmer and more energy-efficient, and capable of showing clearer, fast-responding images.

Among the five Korean firms in the business, Samsung SDI is so far the most active in marketing its OLED products. The firm is selling small panels under 10 inches used in mobile phones, car stereos and other portable gadgets. One of the advanced models was adopted in a portable music player from Reigncom, iRiver Clix, which was launched with a fanfare in February.

For large TVs and monitors, Samsung Electronics has succeeded in making a prototype 40-inch panel but the high production cost and relatively short lifespan of the organic cells have stopped makers from mass-production.

"There are many technological issues to be solved for the mass production of the large OLED TVs. It will take some time for OLEDs to reach their full potential,'' said an official of LG.Philips LCD.

Industry insiders and market researchers say that it will take about a year for the OLED market to get into full bloom, because of difficulties in maintaining the panels' quality during manufacturing. According to a Samsung SDI insider, the yield in the manufacturing process for a 2.2-inch OLED - its main product - is only 40 percent, which means that only four out of 10 panels produced from the line are good enough to be sold.

"We will probably have to wait until next year to achieve an 80 percent yield,'' he said.

Market research firm Display Search also expects the OLED market will explode next year. It was a $491 million market last year and is expected to grow to $814 million this year. In 2008, it could expand to $2.3 billion, it predicts.

Samsung Electronics says that the firm has no illusions about the OLED market, and what Park said was just a long-term prospect.

"We have never have made a complete TV set with an OLED panel. Commercialization of OLED TVs is a long story for us. The cost is still too high,'' its public relations official said.

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UDC and CMO affiliate sign contract for PHOLED materials and technology (http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20070425PR203.html)
24 April 2007

Universal Display Corporation (UDC) and Chi Mei Electroluminescence (CMEL), an affiliate of Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) and subsidiary of the Chi Mei Group, announced on April 26 they have entered into an agreement for UDC to supply proprietary phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED) materials and technology to CMEL for use in CMEL's manufacture of commercial active-matrix (AM) OLED display products.

Through the use of UDC's proprietary PHOLED materials and technology, OLED displays can be significantly more power efficient than AM LCD displays and up to four times more efficient than those displays using conventional OLED technology. Higher-power efficiency translates into reduced power consumption – an important benefit to end users of today's battery-operated cell phones and other portable devices, as well as tomorrow's large-size TVs.

Financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, however, as is customary with these agreements, UDC will recognize commercial chemical sales and license fee revenues from its supply of this material to CMEL. The term of the agreement runs through December 31, 2008.

Over the past few years, UDC has announced a series of performance milestones for its red, green and blue PHOLED systems. UDC's PHOLED materials, manufactured by PPG Industries exclusively for UDC, are currently being evaluated and used in commercial production by a number of electronics manufacturers.

CMEL is currently focused on producing small- and medium-size OLED panel applications.

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A nanowire grid could help make large organic LED displays practical (http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/18591/)
26 April 2007


http://www.technologyreview.com/files/10801/oleds_x220.jpg

Metal mesh: A grid of 200-nanometer-thick metal wires could
be used as a flexible and robust transparent electrode
to light up flat-panel displays and organic LEDs

Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays are attractive because they are bright, efficient, and thin enough to be flexible. But they are currently limited to use in small displays, such as those in mobile phones. That's in part due to the failings of one piece of the device, a transparent electrode used to light up the display. Now researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new type of electrode that could help clear the way for large, flexible OLED displays.

OLEDs consist of organic semiconductor layers sandwiched between two electrodes, one of which must be transparent to allow light to escape. Today's displays use a transparent film of indium tin oxide (ITO), but this material is expensive, fragile, and inflexible, which makes it unsuitable for large-area flexible displays. It can also degrade the organic light-emitting layers.

The new electrode is a grid of highly conductive metal wires so thin that they are essentially transparent. Electrical-engineering and computer-science professor L. Jay Guo says that the electrode should be more flexible and less expensive than ITO, while not degrading the organic materials. The researchers incorporated the grid into an OLED as the top electrode and observed no *visible difference in brightness between their LED's light emission and that of a conventional OLED made with an ITO electrode, although Guo says that he and his colleagues will need to do more-detailed optical measurements to see how the two compare. The work is described in an online paper in the journal Advanced Materials.

The researchers made grids of copper, gold, and silver, with wires 120 or 200 nanometers wide and separated by gaps of about 500 nanometers in one direction and by gaps of 10 micrometers in the perpendicular direction. The excellent conductivity of these metals and copper results in a resistance as small as five ohms, which is less than the average ITO layer's resistance.

The researchers use a technique called nanoimprint lithography, which allows them to make a grid of wires that can be transferred to any other surface, including a substrate for a flexible display. (See "10 Emerging Technologies That Will Change the World.")

By changing the width and height of the wires, the researchers can change the transparency and conductivity. Making the wires thinner makes the electrode more transparent, but at the same time, the thinner wires have higher resistance. So the researchers double the wires' height, which reduces the resistance by a factor of three but decreases the transparency by only 5 percent, Guo says. "There's great potential [to] play around with these parameters," he adds. "[There's] a lot of room to optimize the structure."

Jorma Peltola, who is a consultant with flat-panel display manufacturers, notes that while finding a robust, flexible alternative to ITO is a priority for the OLED-display industry, better organic materials and manufacturing methods will also be required before OLEDs can move into the marketplace for larger displays.

Also, the new technique faces a tough challenger: carbon nanotubes. Researchers are developing carbon-nanotube films that could replace ITO. Nanotube films presently have about three times higher resistance than the new metal grid for comparable transparency, but that difference is small and shrinking with new developments, says Andrew Rinzler, a physics professor at the University of Florida, who is studying carbon-nanotube films. Also, unlike the metal grid, nanotube layers contact every portion of the organic semiconductor layer that they are deposited on, which should increase device efficiency.

But as a first-time demonstration, the metal-grid idea is worth pursuing, Rinzler says. "The possible problems and competing technologies notwithstanding, this is a potentially viable technology that is well worth exploring."

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OLED sales to reach US$20 billion by 2017, says OIDA - Business Wire (http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070430006464&newsLang=en)
30 April 2007

TAIPEI, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The progress of Organic LEDs (OLEDs) beyond mobile displays was the topic of OIDA’s Dr. Philip Wright’s presentation at the OLEDs Asia conference last week. OIDA predicts that OLEDs will provide new levels of performance in display technology challenging other large format display technologies like Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Electroluminescent (EL), and laser TV. In addition, OLED devices have the potential to provide outstanding lighting performance for certain applications.

“OIDA believes 2007 will be a breakout year for OLEDs,” said Dr. Wright, “Our research shows that OLED sales will exceed $1B in 2008 growing to $20B annually by 2017.” Among the developments highlighted in his talk were:

Recent announcements indicate that benchmark performance for large format flat panel displays presage the performance capabilities of these technologies.

OLEDs for solid state lighting are projected to deliver over 220 lumens/watt performance in the lab and production efficiency of 130 lumens/watt by 2017

OIDA is updating its OLED roadmap for display and lighting application, which will be published later this year.
Dr. Wright pointed out that recently several manufacturers announced displays with more than 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 1-2 orders of magnitude better than LCD technologies. In addition, the technologies for large displays is 2-3 times more energy efficient than LCD or EL technologies. Likewise, this emissive technology can be used for lighting taking advantage of the flexible substrate to offer unique and special purpose lighting with very high efficiency.

About OIDA

The Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA) is a Washington DC-based, not-for-profit association that serves as the nexus for vision, transformation, and growth of the optoelectronics industry. OIDA advances the competitiveness of its members by focusing on the business of technology, not just technology itself. OIDA members include the leading providers of optoelectronic components and systems enabled by optoelectronics, as well as universities and research institutions. OIDA provides roadmaps, reports, and market data for the optoelectronics industry, serves as the voice of industry to government and academia, acts as liaison with other optoelectronic industry associations worldwide, and provides a network for the exchange of ideas and information within the optoelectronics community. Learn more about OIDA at www.oida.org (http://www.oida.org).

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Flat screen displays an organic evolution (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e61ac7de-f82d-11db-baa1-000b5df10621.html)
1 May 2007

For the average consumer, the minute differences between flat-screen liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions and plasma display TVs are near-impossible to detect with the naked eye.

But the next generation of flat-screen TVs are a breed apart. The clean, crisp images on Sony’s 11in, 3mm thick organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV are so arresting that the line between TV and reality becomes blurred. One journalist peering at a screen muttered that it was akin to looking out of a window.

Last year, flat-panel TV prices fell by 25 per cent and this year similar – if not greater – price declines are expected. Against this backdrop, Japanese consumer electronics makers are scrambling to gain a foothold in the next generation of flat-screen technology.

Sony is set to begin selling 11in OLED TVs by the end of the year, while Canon is aiming to sell its 55in surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) TVs within roughly the same time. Toshiba, Sony’s main rival, wants to launch a 21in OLED TV by 2009 along with Matsushita, its joint venture partner.

OLED technology, which is not exclusive to Sony, uses the ability of some organic chemicals to emit their own light when an electric current is applied. OLED screens require no backlight, so they can be as thin as 3mm and produce better quality pictures at a lower energy cost.

“It will take a couple of years until we make a profit with OLED . . . there are a lot of issues to overcome,” says Katsumi Ihara, Sony’s executive deputy president.

“We need to find a mass-production manufacturing process for the larger screen size. The current process requires too much money.”

SED panels, meanwhile, provide very clear colour and do not require a back-light, reducing electricity usage and materials costs. Canon, however, is embroiled in a legal dispute in the US with a company called Nano-Proprietary over SED patents – a move that could delay the entry of its product into the crucial American market.

Analysts expect it will take at least another five years before next-generation TVs become commercially viable. The technology is still immature, and the biggest hurdle is the ability to mass produce larger panels.

“After 2010, OLED is a promising technology,” says Koya Tabata, a consumer electronics analyst at Credit Suisse in Tokyo.

“Sony has been working on it for almost a decade. The problem with [Canon’s] SED technology is that it is only to be used in TVs, whereas OLED can be used in separate applications, such as mobile phone displays,” he says.

Elsewhere in Asia, industry executives are shunning the next generation of TV technology. In Taiwan, which surpassed South Korea last year as the world’s largest production base for LCD panels, executives do not expect OLED to evolve as the future mainstream technology for flat-screen TVs.

“It will be very difficult for this technology to survive,” says Lee Kuen-yao, chairman of AU Optronics, the world’s third largest LCD panel maker.

“Sony has never bet on the right horse in display technology. Why should they be right this time?”

Henry Wang, head of industry researcher WitsView, says that Korean and Taiwanese panel-makers will have to brace themselves if there are real breakthroughs in OLED in Japan.

“The Taiwanese found that ramping OLED faces immense challenges,” he says.

“And in spite of Sony’s recent noises, that still seems to be the case – even Sony can do no more than 1,000 panels a month.”

In South Korea, Samsung’s affiliate, Samsung SDI, has been more aggressive in entering the OLED market. The company has earmarked Won 466.5bn ($501m) as a first-stage investment in OLED panels between 2006 and 2007. It aims to produce 20m active matrix OLED panels this year and wants to increase output to 50m panels in 2008 to capture the high-end mobile phone market.

The company plans to mass produce small-size AM OLED panels in the third quarter. It has developed 2in and 4in AM Oled panels for mobile TVs and is currently testing the technology.

But even Sony executives admit that the battle over bigger LCD and PDP TVs will continue in the foreseeable future, in spite of the emergence of nascent technologies such as OLED and SED.

“I do not think that LCD will last until the next century, but I also do not think that LCD will disappear next year,” says Ryoji Chubachi, Sony’s president.

“It will remain the mainstay of televisions.”

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OLED Display Market Catches-up with Hype (http://news.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/10381/351752.html)
3 May 2007

Outstanding display performance and low power consumption deliver rapid growth in mobile applications for OLED

Confidence in the Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display market was initially undermined by hype from vendors. During the infancy of the market it was predicted that OLED would replace LCD within a period of five years. Now, however, OLED is on the way to establishing a strong position in mobile applications where the combination of low power consumption and excellent optical performance gives real advantages to consumers. This is the view of Myrddin Jones, CEO, OLED-T speaking today at the Future Horizons International Electronics Forum in Athens, Greece.

"The OLED industry has spent the past few years trying to bring the amazing technology demonstrators to mass production. But the dominant incumbent technology, LCD, has had a 30 year start on the OLED industry with high yields and a mature infrastructure," said Myrddin Jones, CEO, OLED-T.

"The OLED industry was originally too optimistic about the speed of commercialisation of the technology. Only now, with new materials bringing improved lifetimes and with the establishment of dedicated active matrix production lines in Asia is the market becoming a reality."

OLED is gaining significant market share in the mobile product market in applications such as mobile phones, media players and digital cameras where its high performance and low power consumption benefits deliver improved product performance for mobile products, in particular with video.

OLED has numerous technical benefits that make it ideally suited to mobile applications compared with LCD including lower power consumption, faster switching speed, broader colour range, higher contrast, up to 30 per cent decrease in weight and 50 per cent decrease in thickness.

"OLED-T has a broad portfolio of OLED materials. It has developed a broad patent position and is well-placed in the industry as the market moves firmly into a stage a commercial development," said Craig Cruickshank, principal analyst, Cintelliq.

OLED is developing into an important market for the display industry as well as the chemical industry. Materials are estimated to make-up 20 per cent of the value of the OLED supply chain.

The worldwide flat panel display market was worth $70 billion in 2006 and is forecast to rise to $100 billion by 2010 according to major display analysts. OLED is the fastest growing non-LCD display technology and by 2010 it is predicted that it will be worth more than $2.5 billion.

OLED-T produces high performance OLED materials for use in the manufacture of OLED displays. The materials are suitable for both active and passive matrix OLED displays, and can also be used for lighting and flexible displays.

About OLED-T

OLED-T is leading the research, development and commercialisation of a pioneering class of organic light emitting diode (OLED) materials, called ELAMATES, for OLED displays.

OLED is a new generation of flat panel displays that exhibits numerous benefits over LCDs, particularly for portable applications. These benefits include faster switching speed, lower power consumption, higher contrast, lighter and thinner, and displays a perfect image from every direction.

Invented by OLED-T, the ELAMATES portfolio of materials offers significant advantages of cost, performance and large scale manufacturing capability to a flat panel display industry eager to reap the benefits of this new generation of display technology. The materials offer dramatic efficiency improvements of up to 80 per cent, and lifetimes of as much as three times that of competitive OLED materials.

OLED-T has over 60 patents in the area of OLED materials and device structures. It sells its materials directly to OLED display manufacturers primarily in Asia.

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Samsung SDI eyes phones, TVs for AM-OLED screens (http://www.reuters.com/article/TechnologyMediaTelecoms07/idUSSP23694620070515)
16 May 2007

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung SDI Co., the world's top mobile display maker, expects prices of its next-generation flat screens to fall to the same level as liquid crystal displays by 2010, a senior executive said.

"By 2010, AM-OLED will become cost-competitive," Chung Ho-kyoon, Samsung SDI's chief technology officer, said on Tuesday at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit.

Chung was referring to a new display technology -- offering brighter screens and lower power use -- which Samsung SDI hopes to mass-produce from the third quarter of this year and, by 2009, to use in television sets.

At present, the price of an AM-OLED mobile display is roughly 60 percent higher than LCDs.

Sony Corp. said last month it planned to start selling ultra-thin TVs using OLED technology this year. A joint venture between Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Toshiba Corp. is also investing in OLED technology.

Local rival LG.Philips LCD Co. Ltd. is also expected to enter the market sooner or later.

AM-OLED screens -- standing for active-matrix organic light-emitting diode -- are seen as a promising display technology because they produce brighter images, respond faster and consume less power.

Makers were hoping the new display would quickly replace LCD on high-end multimedia mobile phones and portable media players, but demand has remained sluggish so far as handset makers, locked in a price battle, have been reluctant to buy the more expensive product.

AM-OLED display makers also face serious technical challenges in their efforts to expand the lifespan of their products -- a key requirement for a technology that wants to move from mobile phones to televisions.

"Currently, our technology is about 20,000 hours. It should have at least 50,000 hours or more for TV application," Chung said. "Our target is by 2009 we will meet this requirement."

Despite the technical and financial obstacles the slim, lightweight and energy efficient displays are seen as a candidate to make an ideal mobile TV, analysts say.

Further ahead, Chung said, AM-OLEDs could be used on flexible or transparent supports such as fabric and glass.

"That's when we will see real differentiation (with other display technologies)," Chung said.

Samsung SDI, which makes plasma displays and traditional cathode-ray tubes (CRT) for TVs, has been struggling with sliding prices and low shipments in the midst of intensifying competition with LCD screens.

Plasma makers appear to have no choice but to wait for consumer demand to move up to the 50-inch-and-bigger category, where PDPs are expected to remain cheaper than LCDs for the next two or three years.

"The display industry is going through a tough time," Chung said, "but people will always need display."

Asked about the prospects for PDPs, Chung said the technology still had a strong future.

"PDP still has a lot of room to bring down costs," he said, citing new processes that only use one layer of integrated circuits instead of two.

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LG.Philips LCD develops first full-color flexible AM OLED using a-Si technology (http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20070517PR202.html)
17 May 2007


http://hdtvprofessor.com/HDTVAlmanac/LPL_FOLED-small.jpg


LG.Philips LCD has announced that it has developed the first full-color flexible active matrix (AM) OLED (organic light emitting diode) display that uses amorphous silicon (a-Si) technology. LG.Philips LCD has developed this display in cooperation with Universal Display Corporation (UDC), which holds the original patents for phosphorescent OLED (PH OLED) technology.

The 4-inch full-color flexible AM OLED display features 320×240 QVGA resolution and can reproduce 16.77 million colors. At 150μm, this display is barely thicker than a human hair. It uses a stainless metal foil substrate to ensure durability and protection against heat, which improves the manufacturing process and enhances product stability, noted LG.Philips LCD.

OLED technology is recognized as an optimal technology for use in flexible displays. It allows LG.Philips LCD to develop a flexible display with improved durability and reliability while delivering full-color and high-resolution. Most importantly, using a-Si backplane technology allows LG.Philips LCD to use its existing TFT LCD production line for these AM OLEDs, a major step toward demonstrating the commercial viability of such products. LG.Philips LCD is the first company to employ this technology, the maker said.

In 2006 the company revealed a 14.1-inch monochrome electronic paper (e-paper) display. In 2007, it became the first company to introduce a color version in the same size.

LG.Philips LCD will unveil the full-color flexible AM OLED display at SID 2007 in the US on May 20.

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Novaled Achieving Groundbreaking Lifetimes For PIN OLEDs (http://dmnnewswire.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=142275)
21 May 2007

DRESDEN, Germany, BUSINESS WIRE -- Novaled has achieved outstanding results in lifetime for both, top and bottom emission PIN OLEDs. More than one million hours at an initial brightness of 1,000 cd/sqm have been reached.

Novaled achieved unsurpassed lifetime results for top and bottom emitting red fluorescent devices. A red bottom emitting Novaled PIN OLED(TM) shows a luminance drop of only 4% after 6000 hours measurement at a starting brightness of 3,700 cd/sqm. The record top emitting red PIN OLED shows a luminance drop of even only 1% after 1,000 hours measurement at a starting brightness of 12,000 cd/sqm. Both OLEDs are down calculated to more than one million hours (corresponding to one century) at starting brightness of 1,000 cd/sqm.

Novaled has also reached significant achievements for blue fluorescent PIN OLEDs: 50,000 hours at 500 cd/sqm in bottom emission answering the request of RGB Active Matrix displays.

In addition, major lifetime improvements have been shown for green phosphorescent PIN OLEDs (100,000 hours at 500 cd/sqm for Ir(ppy)3 based top emission OLEDs). With this value Novaled has doubled its performance for Ir(ppy)3 based green OLED stacks during the last twelve months. "We are confident to reach one million hours lifetime with more performing phosphorescent emitting material", says Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth, CTO of the company.

About Novaled

Novaled AG is engaged in the research, development and commercialization of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technologies and proprietary materials. The company is a spin-off from the University of Dresden and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Main investors include Credit Agricole Private Equity, TechnoStart, TechFund Capital Europe and CDC Entreprises Innovation. Founded in 2001, Novaled experienced rapid growth, maturing into a world-class company. The enterprise commercializes its Novaled PIN OLED(TM) technology along with its proprietary OLED materials to display makers and lighting companies. The company has a strong IP position in OLED technology based on more than 220 patents granted or pending. www.novaled.com

About OLEDs

OLEDs are semiconductors made from thin layers of organic material only a few nanometers thick, which emit light. In a fast growing market OLEDs are key parts of a revolution: the dream of paper-thin, flexible, highly efficient displays with brilliant colors and high contrast is becoming reality. OLEDs represent the future of ultra flat panel displays as well as a vast array of new lighting applications.

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd. Introduces 20.8-inch Organic Light-Emitting Diode Display (http://www.tmdisplay.com/tm_dsp/press/2007/07-04-09.html)
9 April 2007


http://www.tmdisplay.com/tm_dsp/press/img/OLED21inch.JPG (http://www.tmdisplay.com/tm_dsp/press/img/OLED21inch0.JPG)


Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd. (TMD) has developed a 20.8-inch low-temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panel to advance to the next-generation of flat-screen TV sets and monitors.

The newly developed panel demonstrates the world's largest screen size for polymer-type OLED display panels using LTPS technology, accomplished through the use of newly developed techniques for uniform coating of organic electroluminescent materials and the optimized combination of electrodes and organic materials.

TMD has been concentrating its efforts towards the development of LTPS technology and OLED technology. Since the development of a 17-inch OLED panel in April 2002, which then was the world's largest screen size among OLED displays, TMD has been developing 2.0-inch, 2.2-inch, 2.5-inch, 2.8-inch, and 3.5-inch OLED panels ideally suited for cellular phones and compact mobile equipment and has been in mass production of 3.5-inch OLED panels.

An OLED panel reproduces images from light emitted by the fine organic electroluminescent film formed on the glass substrate, thus it can provide high-contrast, clear images with ultra-fast response time for moving picture performance. In addition, the OLED panel features an ultra-wide viewing angle, a thinner profile due to the eliminated backlighting system and other peripheral elements, and energy conservation offering eco-friendly advantages.

The new 20.8-inch OLED display has been developed based on LTPS technology, which TMD has been continually refining, and an electroluminescent coating process, which is advantageous for larger display screen sizes. The three (RGB) color-emitting layers use polymer organic electroluminescent materials, and an ink-jet type coating process is adopted for coating of each color. These have contributed to achieving a large screen size of 20.8-inch and would enable the expansion of potential applications of large-size OLED panels, which have been conventionally limited to smaller size screens.

In addition to the adoption of a top emission structure, TMD is now managing light at the nanometer level in individual pixels to improve the efficiency of distributing light produced from the color-emitting layers. This has contributed to higher brightness and lower power consumption.

The newly developed panel will be exhibited in TMD's booth at the 3rd International FPD Expo (Display 2007) at Tokyo Big Sight from April 11 through April 13, 2007.

Wow that was quite fast.

Hmm...Toshiba and Matsushita are involved? If so, then maybe I can make a few guesses/assumptions:

Toshiba:
Since their SED business is full of problems and lawsuits, they (Toshiba) now at least have a back up plan by investing in OLED in-case their SED venture (with Canon) fails.

Matsushita:
If so, then Panasonic will indeed venture into OLED production for HDTV as their new business before the decade ends (aside from current plasma TV production which is their forte)

In any case, when will this new TV be released for sale to the public?

EDIT:
Apparently that set does look....weird.

It would be better off without that black casing thingy surrounding the main screen area.

"...in-case their SED venture (with Canon) fails."

Err, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but ........

yahoo news (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070411/tc_nm/toshiba_matsushita_tv_dc;_ylt=Ahdfy7ZbMeNyUyZQuPRzIoQjtBAF) posted an article. Expects OLED TVs 2009

This looks to be more hype than substance. Notice that they don't mention what size OLED TV they will produce in 2009.

Here are some comments from Toshiba's President from less than 4 months ago. I doubt much has changed.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20061225/125850/

"He cited the active matrix organic EL (electroluminescence) display as a potential successor to the SED. That is why Toshiba invests in the polycrystalline Si (p-Si) TFT line (at Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd.), he added. However, "The technology has only become applicable to a 3- or 4-inch display and it is impossible to create a 40-inch organic EL display in 2 to 3 years. It is even difficult to achieve it in 2015 to 2016. We will pursue the SED until then, but management requires to consider about 10, 20 years ahead," Nishida said."

sony showing off those oled display's from CES 07 again
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20070411/display1.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/11/AR2007041102588.html

Here is an interesting article. It claims that Sony that will mass-producing and then selling a couple thousand 11" OLED TVs during the 2nd half of 2007. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, neither Sony nor Samsung SDI has the capability to mass-manufacture these TVs in big enough quantities to really matter much. Sony for example is going to making 1,000 per month and they 'declined to estimate a price per unit'. That's japanese for 'realllllllllly realllllllly expensive'.

These small size OLED TVs will be very expensive. 40"+ competitive OLED TVs are still 5-10 years away.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070412/tc_nm/sony_oel_tv_dc_3

The Nikkei business daily reported earlier that Sony would begin by mass-producing about 1,000 of the 11-inch OLED sets a month -- a fraction of its LCD TV business -- and would aim to keep their price within a few times that of existing flat TVs.

"OLED sets are very expensive, and we mean to begin first by marketing the TVs as a status symbol," said Sony's Kazuhiro Imai, a senior manager of the company's TV and Video business group. "We will see where the business goes from there."

Another log on the fire here. (http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/12/sony-1-000-000-1-oled-tv-on-sale-in-2007/)

Toshiba to Launch Organic EL TV in 2009, 30-Inch Class in View
Toshiba Corp. has revealed that it will release an organic EL (electroluminescence) TV product in 2009. Toshiba PR department commented on the screen size, "We have 30-inch class in consideration." Toshiba's President and CEO Atsutoshi Nishida announced this at a management policy meeting held on April 12. At this meeting, Nishida said, "We are certain now that we will be able to launch our first product in 2009," regarding the commercialization of the organic EL TV, which the company had projected in "2015 to 2016" before. As for the screen size, he said, "We plan larger size than those Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd. (TMD) have developed." Toshiba places a 30-inch class model in view, which is larger than the 21-inch prototype organic EL display that TMD announced on April 9 (related story from Tech-On!). "To prepare both the high-end and commodity models, we are currently developing panels made from polymer (organic EL) materials as well as low molecular weight materials," said Nishida.

Toshiba expects TMD to manufacture the panels that will be applied for its organic EL TV, according to the company's PR department. Toshiba, however, is yet to specify neither when the construction and operation of its organic EL panel plant will start nor the value of total investment at present. Commenting on the organic EL's competitiveness in the TV market, Nishida stated, "We don't expect that the organic EL can compete from the beginning on the equal footing with the LCD TV, which is released from many manufacturers across the world, but we believe its superiority will be recognized as production volume rises."
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20070413/130804/

i'm pro oled and new technology, but am i the only one who thinks that 30" in 2-3 years time is not really something to brag about?

it's tiny and seriously, who cares about the contrast on a 10-30" screen?
at that rate the first oleds worth mentioning won't be around until 2015, when we finally get 50-60", by when plasmas will hopefully be 70" and bigger at a fraction of the cost.

yes, work on it, but constant talking about it doesn't make it any more relevant today nor thsi year or as it seems, next year.

Engadget (http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/04/13/30-inch-oled-tv-from-toshiba-in-2009/) also posted the news of a 30" Toshiba OLED TV in 2009. Now only if their forecast isn't as faulty as it has been for SED.
I would love to see a 30" OLED manufactured. I have a small living area and a 30" set would be great. For a number of years I had a 30" Loewe Aconda till it's system board failed and never felt the screen size was too small. So yes there is a market for 30" HDTVs.

Gee, I wonder what a 70" plasma would weigh? :rolleyes:

Gee, I wonder what a 70" plasma would weigh? :rolleyes:

I'm more concerned about power consumption of plasma sets.

That's the only reason why I'm holding off any considerations on getting a Pioneer plasma set (like the upcoming 8th gen)

If they do impose a sharp drop in power consumption for the Pioneer 8th gen plasma, then I might reconsider.

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Going back:

It's good to hear a lot of happenings are coming around for OLED.

"i'm pro oled and new technology, but am i the only one who thinks that 30" in 2-3 years time is not really something to brag about?"

Well, no, I mean it's profoundly irrelevant from a home-theater perspective to introduce a 30-inch set in 2009 or 2010. It's going to be pricey and LCDs will presumably be awfully good and $500 or so by then at 30 inches.

On the other hand, there won't be 50 and 60-inch and larger OLEDs until someone starts commercially mass producing smaller ones. So in that sense, it's very exciting news >>when<< someone starts shipping a 30-inch TV using OLED technology.

Let's hope this is the real deal.

And you can't really have 30" TVs until you have smaller displays, which is why Sony and Samsung SDI are important. Sony's 11" displays, manufactured in tiny quantities such as 1,000 per month, and Samsung SDI which are much smaller in size 2.2" to 7", will whet the public's appetite for this beautiful technology and fuel innovation and investments.

And you can't really have 30" TVs until you have smaller displays, which is why Sony and Samsung SDI are important. Sony's 11" displays, manufactured in tiny quantities such as 1,000 per month, and Samsung SDI which are much smaller in size 2.2" to 7", will whet the public's appetite for this beautiful technology and fuel innovation and investments.

Yup

In other words, start small but go bigger and better as time passes by.

Go OLED :)

Hmm, maybe they could use OLED to make lightweight 1080p virtual reality helmet TVs. That would give them an interesting little niche until they came in larger sizes.

Hmm, maybe they could use OLED to make lightweight 1080p virtual reality helmet TVs. That would give them an interesting little niche until they came in larger sizes.

I imagine just about any tiny/small screen application under the sun will be a prime candidate for OLED. The more the better, and the sooner the better as we'll begin to see an increase in their screen sizes.

lightweight 1080p virtual reality helmet TVs

skip the helmet, just put an hdmi connector at the base of your skull. Although I'm
not sure anyone's brain stem would be 1.3 compliant yet.

I would love a 30" beauty any day of life!

skip the helmet, just put an hdmi connector at the base of your skull. Although I'm
not sure anyone's brain stem would be 1.3 compliant yet.

Ghost in the Shell style?

Nah I think I'll pass (I don't like to put any sort of electronics inside my brain :p )

"i'm pro oled and new technology, but am i the only one who thinks that 30" in 2-3 years time is not really something to brag about?"

Well, no, I mean it's profoundly irrelevant from a home-theater perspective to introduce a 30-inch set in 2009 or 2010. It's going to be pricey and LCDs will presumably be awfully good and $500 or so by then at 30 inches.

On the other hand, there won't be 50 and 60-inch and larger OLEDs until someone starts commercially mass producing smaller ones. So in that sense, it's very exciting news >>when<< someone starts shipping a 30-inch TV using OLED technology.

Let's hope this is the real deal.


Rogo, glad to see you back! It's been a couple of months...have you been working on your HT set up? I seem to recall that you were considering a Pearl/flat panel combo. Sorry for the O/T everyone.

Personally, I like his post and would also like to see the reply. Some side comments are good.

There are enough "topic police" around.

I wonder if oled tv's will scale down to standard definition well?

Everyone in the industry knows that Sony and LG's affiliate companies (LG Electronics and LG Philips LCD) are also licenees of UDC.

UDC, in case anyone is interested, is the single best choice for anyone who wants to invest in the OLED industry.






* Disclosure: I followed my own advice and have a large investment, relatively, in this company.

* Disclosure: I followed my own advice and have a large investment, relatively, in this company.

You're a stockowner/shareholder of an OLED company? Cool :)

Well, it was cooler a month and a half ago, when the price per share started shooting from $12 all the way to $18.34 or so. Now it's less cool when the price shrinks from $18.34 down to $16. That's the hard thing about the stock market, it takes a strong stomach.

Still, I believe in the technology in the long term, so I am staying put. Even if the blue phosphorescent materials required for large HDTVs aren't invented for 10 years, there is still plenty of room for profit with smaller screens.



You're a stockowner/shareholder of an OLED company? Cool :)

The 11-inch display looks amazing <3
I can imagine some people using it as photo displays in their common room or bedrooms instead of lame old photographs :P

LCD and Plasma obsolete in 3-4 years???

The 11-inch display looks amazing <3
I can imagine some people using it as photo displays in their common room or bedrooms instead of lame old photographs :P

LCD and Plasma obsolete in 3-4 years???


6-7 is my bet

IF they manage to produce proper screen sizes without being ofertaken by laser TVs.

Sorry, but I am amazed at the hype you guys are making over a product which really has nothing to do with HT screens yet. Cellphones maybe. Or small monitors for notebooks. But that's about it.

30" would suffice -- especially for a computer monitor. OLED is probably the only technology (other than failure) to get me to let go of a NEC FE1250+ -- outstanding black levels and color fidelity -- things I've come to appreciate in this "Dynamic Contrast Ratio" world.

HT, why should we restrict our conversation to technologies that are available now? OLED is an amazing HT technology that will be phenomenally successful in a few years. until that time, i will be happy to have OLEDs in my PDAs, mp3 players, portable DVD players, small laptop displays, etc.

No, feel free to hype it but I must say, unless manufacturers actually present a plan as to how and by when they will be able to produce significant quantities in screen sizes, that will actually make a difference and will be able to let the viewer fully appreciate the benefits, this technology is nothing else but a theoretical predecessor to Plasmas and LCD.

It's OK, feel free, but I am still waiting for actually interesting news. Being able to produce a 11" screen is really nothing that could make me become interested and a technology which won't be able to produce a minimum size of interest to me in the next two or three years is just not what I would call a revolution.

Anyhoo, enjoy and I sincerly hope that we will see some major technology advances. I don't cre whether it is OLED or laserTV or whatever gives best PQ.

"i'm pro oled and new technology, but am i the only one who thinks that 30" in 2-3 years time is not really something to brag about?"

Well, no, I mean it's profoundly irrelevant from a home-theater perspective to introduce a 30-inch set in 2009 or 2010. It's going to be pricey and LCDs will presumably be awfully good and $500 or so by then at 30 inches.

On the other hand, there won't be 50 and 60-inch and larger OLEDs until someone starts commercially mass producing smaller ones. So in that sense, it's very exciting news >>when<< someone starts shipping a 30-inch TV using OLED technology.


True. Tell me when it's comming out in a few monthes, not 6 years.

Can you imagine the commercial potential of OLED signs. If you saw Minority Report then you can see how they would be used in malls, buildings and street signs when they become very very cheap to make. (2020 or later I would guess)

OLED TV's MAY be available in sizes of 40" and up in 35 years IF they figure an economically viable way to mass produce them. A lot of if's, but the interest would be there as people would love TV's that thin with PQ that amazing.

Another issue is that LCD's and Plasma TV's are just catching on with mainstream America. The average Joe will be happy with an HD LCD TV for the next 10 years. Plus the cable TV industry has to vastly change its' infasructure to actually deliver high quality HD content. OLED's are cool, but if you are watching Time warner cable with their ****** compressed HD feeds, it really doesn't matter.

35 years??? I want some of what you are smoking, LOL.

There is massive investment and infrastructure development going for active matrix OLEDs, there is no reason to think that large OLEDs are more than 4-6 years off. And the small displays (2.2" - 4") are so much more attractive than Liquid Crap Displays that they are sparking a lot of interest in all sectors of the display industry.



OLED TV's MAY be available in sizes of 40" and up in 35 years IF they figure an economically viable way to mass produce them. A lot of if's, but the interest would be there as people would love TV's that thin with PQ that amazing.

Another issue is that LCD's and Plasma TV's are just catching on with mainstream America. The average Joe will be happy with an HD LCD TV for the next 10 years. Plus the cable TV industry has to vastly change its' infasructure to actually deliver high quality HD content. OLED's are cool, but if you are watching Time warner cable with their ****** compressed HD feeds, it really doesn't matter.

35 years??? I want some of what you are smoking, LOL.

There is massive investment and infrastructure development going for active matrix OLEDs, there is no reason to think that large OLEDs are more than 4-6 years off. And the small displays (2.2" - 4") are so much more attractive than Liquid Crap Displays that they are sparking a lot of interest in all sectors of the display industry.


I meant 3-5 years. Woops. :p

Samsung SDI Develops 0.52mm AMOLED - Mass Production from 2H 2007 (http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/17/samsung-and-lg-philips-announce-amoled-displays/)
17 May 2007


http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/05/samsung_2_2inch_amoled.jpg


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Samsung SDI has developed the world's first 2.2-inch active matrix (AM) organic light emitting diode (OLED), which is only business card-thick (0.52mm). The new super-thin 2.2-inch AM OLED features a one-third thickness of the conventional TFT-LCD modules that are 1.7mm thick.

The new display delivers a resolution of QVGA (240x320), 260,000 colors, a contrast ratio of 10,000:1, and color reproduction of 100%. It is scheduled that the new AM OLED is to be revealed at the SID exhibition to be held from 22 through 24 May in Long Beach, California, U.S.A., along with a 2.6-inch QVGA (240x320) AM OLED and a 2.8-inch LQVGA (240x400) AM OLED.

The Korean company aims to commence mass production from the second half of this year and boost its annual capacity of AM OLEDs from 15 million units this year to more than 100 million units by 2008.

Take THAT, SED!

Sony Sees Its Way Clear to Develop Larger OLED Panels for Televisions with New Production Technique (http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20070524/133073/)
24 May 2007


http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20070524/133073/Sony02.jpg

Conceptual diagram of LIPS

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20070524/133073/Sony03.jpg

Enhanced productivity with laser units arranged in parallel

On the first day of the SID 2007 symposium, a lecture given by Sony Corp. attracted the largest audience, other than the keynote speech. The place was so crowded that many people had to stand, in spite that the largest hall was prepared. In its lecture, Sony unveiled the production technique of 27.3-inch OLED display panels for use in televisions which was presented at 2007 International CES. The panel features a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 and a gamut of over 100% NTSC. A TV set incorporating the panel can be extremely thin, i.e. 10 mm in thickness. The announcement is of great significance in that the company sees its way clear to manufacture larger size panels with the adoption of the new production technique. The company also set development policies to enhance production efficiency.

The panel has the top emission structure in which light is emitted to the opposite direction from the TFT formed on the glass substrate. With this structure, it is possible to exclude a sealed glass while assuring a high aperture ratio. In addition, colors can be adjusted by controlling the width of a luminescence material. Sony calls the structure Super Top Emission.

The luminescence material used in the prototype panel is described as the low-molecular type. Sony decided to employ this type of material because it can be applied in a vacuum atmosphere, thereby avoiding water or hydrogen that can cause degradation from being mixed in the material. In general, a low-molecular OLED panel is obtained by defining the film deposition area with a shadow mask, followed by vacuum deposition pattering. This time, the company has employed a laser transfer technology called Laser Induced Pattern wise Sublimation (LIPS) to deposit the luminescence material. A donor substrate is prepared by applying the luminescence material on the entire surface of the glass substrate. Then, the substrate is selectively irradiated with a laser beam so as to form the film deposition areas respectively corresponding to red, green, and blue lights by patterning without using a mask.

With the adoption of this method, degradation in patterning precision resulting from the deformation of the shadow mask, which has been the bottleneck in the production of large size panels, can be prevented. Organic materials such as hole and electron transport materials, which need to be applied on the entire surface of the substrate without patterning, are subjected to deposition as usual. Meanwhile, Sony has also prototyped an 11-inch OLED panel and presented a TV set using it at 2007 International CES. All organic materials used in this panel are applied by deposition.

There is a laser transfer technology known as LITI which is developed by 3M Co. as with the LIPS. Since a luminescence material is transferred in the atmosphere during the LITI process, this technology involves a problem of possible degradation factors being mixed in. In contrast, during the LIPS process, the donor substrate and a substrate formed with TFT are bonded together in a vacuum. Then, a portion called PDL surrounded by exterior walls on the TFT substrate is brought into a vacuum state. In this way, the laser transfer process itself is carried out in the atmosphere while placing the portion with which the material is applied in a vacuum.

In the TFT production process, the company has employed rapid thermal anneal process called diode laser thermal anneal (dLTA) which uses an infrared laser diode to improve crystallinity. As a result, the TFT mobility is enhanced to 5-10 cm2/Vs, thereby increasing the amount of current flowing in the luminescence material and boosting the luminance. Similar method was employed by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. of Korea although Samsung called the crystals after annealing "Nanocrystal Si" while they are referred to as "Microcrystal Si" by Sony. As indicated by names, Sony's grain is larger than that of Samsung's. Further details of dLTA were unveiled on May 24, 2007.

Sony used laser units in both luminescence material transfer and TFT annealing processes. The company says that the laser process is a matured, highly reliable technique. It is also possible to increase production throughput by the adoption of a multi-gun setup with laser units arranged in parallel. In fact, the company used the equipment provided with multiple laser units, although the density of alignment is yet to be specified. The wavelength of the laser used is 800 nm.

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Kodak cross licenses OLED technology with CMO and CMEL (http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20070524PR205.html)
24 May 2007

Eastman Kodak, a specialist in organic light emitting diode technology (OLED), recently announced a cross licensing agreement with Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) and Chi Mei EL (CMEL). CMEL plans to incorporate Kodak's active matrix OLED display technology in small panel, mobile displays.

The license, which is royalty bearing to Kodak, enables CMEL to use Kodak technology for active matrix OLED modules in a variety of small- to medium-size display applications such as mobile phones, digital cameras and portable media players. The agreement also enables CMEL to purchase Kodak's patented OLED materials for use in manufacturing displays.

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Worldwide OLED TV Shipments to Surpass 1.1 Million Units in 2012: iSuppli (http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20070529/133320/)
29 May 2007


http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20070529/133320/EL-1.jpg


According to iSuppli Corp. of the US, worldwide shipments of TVs using organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 170.6% and reach around 1.2 million units in 2012, up from 8,000 units in 2007. Shipment value is expected to reach $690.6 million (USD) in 2012, rising from less than $1 million in 2007.

iSuppli explains interest in OLED TVs has been stimulated by Sony's recent announcement that it will "release an OLED TV by the end of 2007." In response to Sony's announcement, Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd. also announced a 20.8-inch active matrix OLED panel for TVs.

Active matrix OLED panels are suitable for use in televisions

iSuppli said active matrix OLED panels are suitable for television in many respects. OLED panels feature fast response time, vivid color display, wide viewing angles, high brightness and high contrast ratios. Moreover, since the technology needs no backlight, manufacturers can make a panel slimmer than existing flat panel displays on the market. iSuppli forecasts a 20-inch or larger OLED TV will be launched by 2012. The company also predicts large OLED TVs will be manufactured by applying polymer LED (PLED) materials on the substrate using inkjet printing technique, while small OLED TVs will use vacuum deposition processing technology.

OLED panels are, however, facing challenges such as poor yields, limited lifetimes and pricing that are preventing them from being adopted to TVs. Manufacturers are currently developing process technology for active matrix OLED panels using small 2.0- or 2.4-inch models. Considering there are many challenges even when processing small panels, it takes a longer time to establish a process technology for large panels, iSuppli predicted. Furthermore, inkjet printers that produce 4G substrates for OLED panels are still at a pretest phase.

Based on these circumstances, iSuppli considers the market's first OLED TV is likely to be a compact model for use in the kitchen or bathroom, for example. However, the market for such small OLED TVs is small. iSuppli analyzes a more standard 20-inch or larger OLED TV will be released around 2012 if OLED panel manufacturers continue to invest in the technology. However, manufacturing cost for OLED panels is likely to remain high even at that time with an OLED TV panel costing double the price for an LCD TV panel in 2011, according to iSuppli.

Many rival technologies compete with OLED in the TV industry

Another challenge is OLED has many rival technologies such as CRT, LCD, plasma, SED and FED panels in the TV market, said iSuppli. Most consumers do not give first priority to the display technology when purchasing TVs. They give first priority to image quality and pricing, and second priority to the screen size and the depth of the product. iSuppli warns the many options in TV display technologies may make it difficult for OLED TVs to attract consumers and manufacturers. That is why iSuppli forecasts worldwide OLED TV shipments will fall below 0.5% of 242.7 million-unit overall TV shipments estimated for 2011.

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OLED Displays Break Out of Slump; Units Up 71% and Revenues Up 56% Y/Y; Pioneer Replaces Samsung SDI as Revenue Leader According to DisplaySearch (http://www.displaysearch.com/press/index.html?id=1489)
4 June 2007

DisplaySearch, the worldwide leader in display market research and consulting, revealed in its latest Quarterly OLED Shipment and Forecast Report that Q1'07 OLED shipments were 19.1M, up 71%Y/Y and revenues were $121M, up 56% Y/Y, as the ASP dropped by only 9% Y/Y. Shipments and revenue were down Q/Q, 14% and 13%, respectively, due to seasonality. OLED displays compete with LCDs in small/medium applications such as mobile phone main displays and sub-displays, MP3s, and automotive consoles. The top five suppliers, shown in Table 1, had a market share of 85.4% as the industry continued to consolidate.

Active matrix OLEDs displays continued volume shipments with Samsung SDI, Kodak, Sony and eMagin shipping 335K displays in Q1'07. By Q2'07, the volume is expected to grow to 685K displays. Applications include MP3s, mobile phones and near eye.

Overall, RiTdisplay led in units, with 5.1M closely followed by Pioneer, also at 5.1M, Samsung SDI at 3.7M, LGE at 3.1M and TDK at 1.5M. Univision, which had shut down due to financial problems has restarted production and shipped 900K units in Q1'07 and is expected to grow volume to 1.5M units next quarter, recovering to a leadership position.

Sub-displays and MP3 player displays combined to account for about 87% of shipments at 12.6M and 4.0M, respectively. Of the remaining applications, main displays and industrial applications showed strong growth, but volume remained low as shown in Table 2:

Sub-display volume is very strong in Japan and is the major cause of the growth in the category. Main display growth is primarily due to the Kyocera cell phone which uses the Samsung SDI 2.4" QVGA AMOLED panel. Kodak found a home for its remaining inventory created by the now defunct joint venture with Sanyo.

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Organic LEDs brighten up (http://optics.org/cws/article/research/30471)
4 July 2007


http://images.iop.org/objects/optics/news/13/7/6/image1.jpg

CoFe nanoparticles on substrates (http://optics.org/cws/article/research/30471/1/image1)

Magnetic nanoparticles could boost the efficiency of an organic light-emitting device by more than 30%, say US researchers.

Jian Shen of the Oak Ridge National Lab and colleagues used the magnetic nanoparticles to dope the structure of a polymer-based organic light-emitting diode (OLED). The technique not only opens up a way to get more light out of an OLED, but also allows the OLED intensity to be controlled by an external magnetic field.

CoFe nanoparticles on substratesA typical polymer-based OLED structure contains three layers: a thin light-emitting layer held between a hole-transport layer and an electron-transport layer. The emissive layer should be thin enough to allow the electrons and holes from the transport layers to meet and recombine.

Shen and colleagues fabricated their device by using an ultrasound method to mix cobalt ferrite (CoFe) nanodots into chloroform solutions of polymers. The researchers spin-cast the CoFe-doped polymers onto a conducting glass substrate to form the OLED. They then measured the electroluminescence intensity of the doped OLED and compared it with that of a non-doped OLED.

The team found that the quantum efficiency of the OLED increased by 27% for an OLED that was doped with 0.1% of nanoparticles – a figure that rose to 32% when an external magnetic field was applied. According to the researchers, these improvements can be attributed to two simultaneous effects: an increase in the number of excitons among the total number of charge carriers, and an increase in the fraction of “singlets” among the total number of excitons. Singlets are electron-hole pairs with opposite spins, so that the total spin equals zero.

“The high efficiency of OLEDs enhanced by doping with CoFe nanoparticles could play an important role in accelerating the commercialization of OLEDs for other applications, such as magnetic-field sensors,” explained Shen. “Moreover, the magnetic tuneability implies that the new OLED can be controlled via a non-contact method (an external magnetic field).”

The researchers are now trying to optimize their process to further enhance the quantum efficiency of the OLED. They will do this by adjusting the doping concentration and also by making more uniform magnetic nanoparticles.

The work was published in Applied Physics Letters.

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New generation of lighter displays to take on LCDs (http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2007-07-05T022827Z_01_TP346801_RTRIDST_0_TECH-DISPLAY-LOWPOWER-COL.XML)
4 July 2007

TAIPEI/SEOUL (Reuters) - A new generation of super-thin, power-sipping displays is making its way to the market, stretching battery lives to new limits and perhaps one day posing a challenge to heavier, energy-gobbling LCDs.

New screens that glow on their own are taking on their clunkier liquid crystal display rivals -- which require powerful backlighting -- by producing sharper video images for smartphones, game consoles and portable media players.

But industry watchers say it will be years before a clear winner -- if any -- emerges with the clout to outdo LCDs.

Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and bi-stable technologies are the most likely challengers to LCDs.

An OLED screen uses as much as 40 percent less power than a comparable LCD and could be twice as thin because it does not need backlighting.

These technologies are already being used in some smaller portable devices, such as music players from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Reigncom Ltd. and a thin mobile phone from Kyocera.

And Sony Corp. plans to sell small-sized TVs using the OLED technology later this year.

"In hand-held devices, display consumes power most. It's all about power and then maybe brightness," said Lehman Brothers analyst James Kim in South Korea.

Analysts reckon Apple's iPhone, which launched in the United States on Friday, may end up using more energy-efficient screens, such as OLED, given the short battery life of its pilot models with LCD screens.

"It makes sense (for Apple) to move to OLED screens. They are working to improve the battery issue," said Kim Woon-ho, an analyst at Prudential Investment & Securities.

"OLED makers have some expectations for Apple's switch, too, although there's no firm plan yet."

Apple was not available for comment.

IN ON THE ACT

The commercial for these new display types has caught the eye of some LCD makers, like Samsung SDI Co. and Sony, given that LCD prices have plunged by a third in the last year.

Samsung SDI is already making OLED screens, while Taiwan's Chi Mei EL Corp. (CMEL) -- an pure OLED maker owned by LCD company Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. -- is running at full capacity.

The market for low-power forms of OLED and low power LCD displays is set to grow rapidly, reaching $24 billion in sales by 2012, rising at an annual growth rate of 27 percent from $6 billion in 2007, according to market researcher iSuppli Corp.

Developing new technology is costly, so some LCD producers like LG.Philips LCD Co. Ltd. are improving existing LCDs -- using new power control technology and optical sensors for backlight units.

"LCD companies are working to improve LCD panels," Prudential's Kim said. "It may take years for the (OLED) market to grow if the trend continues."

But some industry experts reckon OLED technology -- which began life powering car radios -- may end up on large televisions.

OLED producers will have to improve the organic material used between the two electrodes which illuminate the screen, and costs will have to come down before OLEDs become widely used in cellphones, PCs and flat-screen TVs.

"The price of an OLED display is 1.7 to 1.8 times higher than that of a LCD and it won't become more competitive until after the price falls sharply," CMEL President Peter Chen said.

A rival to OLED technology are bi-stable displays, which retain images without power, making them suitable for public displays and sub-screens on devices, although bi-stable displays have image quality issues.

Another product is color flexible OLED display. LG.Philips LCD recently unveiled a 4-inch full-color flexible OLED display, although the size is still too small for handheld e-books.

And that's just the beginning. One day, versions of newspapers and magazines that are updated wirelessly might be rolled up or folded, and carried like a piece of paper, for instance.

"That's when we will see real differentiation (with other display technologies)," said Chung Ho-kyoon, Samsung SDI's chief technology officer.

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Novaled reports record green PIN phosphorescent OLED lifetimes and lowest driving voltages (http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20070709PR201.html)
6 July 2007

Novaled recently presented its latest achievements of PIN OLED (organic light-emitting diode) development at IDMC 2007 in Taipei, Taiwan, among of which is strong results in lifetime for green bottom emission PIN OLEDs with more than 200,000 hours at an initial brightness of 1,000 cd/sqm and low driving voltages.

The achievement of a green PIN phosphorescent OLED device in bottom-emission geometry with a CIE of (0.36, 0.61) of above 200,000 hours were attained by combining Universal Display Corporation (UDC)'s high-efficiency PHOLED materials with low-voltage Novaled PIN-OLED technology and doped transport materials, noted Novaled.

Novaled expects that very low driving voltages below 2.6V, already achieved for Ir(ppy)3, can also be obtained for other phosphorescent green emitters, noted Jan Birnstock, vice president of Technology Transfer, Novaled.

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Magnetic doping brightens OLEDs (http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201001556)
16 July 2007

PORTLAND, Ore. — Efficiency is the name of the game for flat-panel display technologies. This is especially important for extending the battery life of cellphones, digital cameras, personal digital assistants and other portable devices that use organic LED displays.

Now, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) claims it can make OLEDs 30 percent more efficient by doping (http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196602005) them with magnetic nanoparticles. As a bonus, the introduction of magnetism into the OLED material enables brightness to be controlled without the addition of electrical contacts.

"What we did was to enhance the lighting efficiency of an OLED by doping the organic polymers with a very low concentration of magnetic nanoparticles," said ORNL senior researcher Jian Shen. "Doping also allows us to control the OLED-s intensity with a magnetic field, whereas conventional OLED intensity is tuned by an electric field, which needs [electrical] contacts."

Conventional OLEDs are nonmagnetic, depending only on electrical fields to create excitons (electron-hole pairs), the recombination of which emits the photons that make an OLED glow. By mixing magnetic nanoparticles into the polymer matrix (at concentrations of less than one-tenth of 1 percent) Shen's team found they could increase OLED efficiency by 27 percent. And by applying an external magnetic field to the doped OLEDs, an additional 5 percent was achieved, for a total increase in efficiency of 32 percent over conventional OLEDs, Shen said.

Light emission in solid-state LEDs occurs when high-energy injected electrons and holes recombine, dropping their energy levels and causing a single photon to be emitted to compensate. An LED with 100 percent efficiency would recombine every single injected electron and hole. In real devices, 100 percent efficiency is never achieved, but by confining them in a small region, designers can achieve the greatest efficiency possible, Shen said.

When electrons and holes pair up, but before they recombine, they are called excitons. Ordinarily, the magnetic spin of each member of an exciton is random, accounting for their variable efficiency in recombining. To increase the efficiency of recombination, Shen's group doped the organic LED's polymer with nanoparticles made magnetic with cobalt and iron (CoFe). In the presence of the magnetic nanoparticles, a larger number of excitons with opposite spins accumulate, called singlet excitons. Oppositely polarized charge carriers are much more likely to recombine, accounting for the higher efficiency of the magnetically doped OLEDs, Shen said.

"The presence of CoFe magnetic nanoparticles enhances the efficiency of electro luminescence, their fluorescence, by increasing the fraction of the so-called singlet excitons among the total excitons," said Shen.

Next, Shen's group will experiment with different doping levels and methods of mixing the magnetic nanoparticles with polymers to achieve ultra uniform concentrations, in hopes of further enhancing efficiency.

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OLEDs Will Be Everywhere—Even The Shirt On Your Back (http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?AD=1&AD=1&AD=1&AD=1&AD=1&AD=1&AD=1&AD=1&AD=1&AD=1&AD=1&ArticleID=15993)
19 July 2007

A self-powered display— thin, flexible, and durable enough to be incorporated into clothing—is one of the goals of a $1.7 million international research project that aims to bring organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) to the mass market. The research consortium, known as Modecom (for Modeling Electroactive Conjugated Materials at the Multiscale), includes 13 engineering teams from nine universities and two companies.

Over the next three years, the researchers plan to improve the science behind OLEDs, making them powerful, reliable, and efficient enough to be used in an array of business and consumer products. OLEDs are already a part of some portable gadgets, such as mobile phones and MP3 players. But Modecom wants to make it practical for the devices to be used in large-screen applications, such as televisions and computer displays.

Increasing the size of OLEDs would also open the door to cutting-edge applications, like clothing-based displays, next-generation lighting systems, and portable solar power panels, explains project coordinator Alison Walker, a senior lecturer in the physics department at England's University of Bath (Fig. 1 (http://www.elecdesign.com/Files/29/15993/Figure_01.jpg)).

The biggest problem with current OLEDs is reliability. Gadget-sized OLEDs work well enough, but larger versions— designed for use in TVs and desktop displays—tend to fail quickly, often within months. Walker says the consortium is aiming for an improved understanding of how OLEDs work, which will aid in the design of longer lasting OLEDs.

"We are trying to link how they are made with how they perform, a very ambitious task but one in which we expect at least partial success," she says.

Modecom is focusing on two specific types of OLEDs: small molecule devices, developed in the U.S. and Japan by firms including DuPont subsidiary Uniax, and polymer OLEDs (P-OLEDs), pioneered in Europe by Cambridge Display Technology, a Modecom partner, Philips, and several other firms (Fig. 2 (http://www.elecdesign.com/Files/29/15993/Figure_02.gif)).

"Small molecule OLED devices are further [along] in development, but are more expensive to make as they can not be made by inkjet printing," Walker says. She also predicts that large OLEDs will reach the market in less than five years.

At that point, she expects clothing vendors to weave OLED strips, running off of solar power, into garments. The strips could change color at the press of button or be used to display electronic messages. "They are cheap to make, are flexible, are bright," Walker says. "Polymers are inherently compatible with clothing, unlike their competitors in the display market such as liquid crystal displays."

Walker expects OLEDs to begin replacing incandescent, fluorescent, and even conventional LED lights within the same five years and to someday become the leading artificial lighting technology.

Walker notes that Modecom's molecular- and device-level research will also help expand the understanding of polymer materials used in plastic electronics for applications such as electronic paper and intelligent labels (Fig. 3 (http://www.elecdesign.com/Files/29/15993/Figure_03.jpg)). "OLEDs would not have advanced to their present stage, nor would have any hope of getting further, unless the science is understood," she says.

John Edwards

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Normal-size phones set for fuel cells and touchscreens (http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/normal_size_phones_set_for_fuel_cells_and_touchscreens/)
19 July 2007

http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/static/image/2007/07/18/tosi06.jpg

The Wireless Japan exhibition near Tokyo this week has seen plenty of demonstrations of existing and future technologies, but there’s one that we’re still not sure how to categorize – fuel cells.

<Cut>

As well as the DMFC gear, Toshiba displayed some very thin screens it has developed with Matsushita for use in phones and similar devices. These range from 2.4 to 2.8in and are just 0.99mm thick.

The OLED displays offer WQVGA resolution of 432 x 240 pixels and employ circuitry built into the glass and are all touch-sensitive. This is achieved without a touch-panel module by using an optical sensor to follow the shadow a finger makes onscreen.

Given the current trend towards touch-sensitivity in larger-screened devices, it’s clearly only a matter of time before even smaller phones and PDAs sport the technology. Toshiba Matsushita hasn’t specified a date for mass production.

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LG Electronics Moves into AM OLED Mass Production (http://www.displaybank.com/eng2004/news/sread.php?id=2613)
20 July 2007

At its IR session for the second quarter, LG Electronics said that it has moved into mass production of active matrix (AM) organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), which are emerging as the next-generation display. On the other hand, the Korean giant will also phase out the production of the conventional passive matrix (PM) OLEDs. The company started volume production of AM OLED panels at Plant E, Gumi, North Gyeongsang province, and will soon launch two to three new mobile phones incorporating its AMOLED panels. In addition, the Korean vendor is also in close talks with LG.Philips LCD for the AM OLED business direction such as production of AM OLED panels using LG.Philips LCD's fourth-generation low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) LCD glass substrates.

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Sony rolls out OLED prototype for Aussie retailers (http://www.current.com.au/2007/07/27/article/VRDRLFXJTX.html)
26 July 2007

SYDNEY: For the first time in Australia, Sony is showing off working samples of its OLED flat panel TV at the Sony Experience More trade show, giving retailers a window into the future of the brand’s flat panel TV business.

Sony made a big splash at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year when it demonstrated two working OLED TV samples, and the company has again rolled out the cutting-edge technology to wow Australian retailers at its trade-only event being held in Sydney this week.

Sony is making no secret of its desire to see OLED one day replace LCD as its premium flat screen technology, with the brand’s prototype OLEDs already reaching 27 inches and boasting a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1.

“We consider OLED as the most powerful technology for future displays, such as TV,” said Sony Australia senior product manager – visual displays, Graham Keogh.

“Key features, such as its slimness, high contrast, high brightness level and quick response time will be fully maximised and adopted in products.”

Sony’s OLED display comprises Super Top Emission technology, which according to the company generates even better levels of brightness and high-resolution. The ultra-slim display is just 3mm thick at its slimmest part.

OLED offers significant picture quality advantages over both LCD and plasma flat panel displays, and is already being incorporated into portable devices including mobile phones and mp3 players because of its low power consumption.

According to Samsung, OLED is likely to be introduced in the PC monitor market first before making its way through to big-screen TVs.

Companies not typically associated with displays are also working on OLED, including Kodak and Hewlett Packard – such is the variety of products that will one day incorporate OLED displays.

Sony said earlier this year it plans to release the first 11-inch OLED television in Japan in the fourth quarter 2007.

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Sumitomo Chemical Company to Acquire Cambridge Display Technology for $12 Per Share (http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=123951)
31 July 2007

TOKYO and CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, July 31, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Sumitomo Chemical Company (Sumitomo Chemical) and Cambridge Display Technology (Nasdaq:OLED) (CDT) today jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement whereby Sumitomo Chemical will acquire CDT, a developer of technologies based on polymer organic light emitting diodes (P-OLEDs). Under the merger agreement, Sumitomo Chemical will acquire all outstanding shares of CDT common stock at a price of $12 per share in cash, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $285 million. The merger consideration represents a 107 percent premium over CDT's 90-day average closing share price and a 95 percent premium over CDT's closing share price of $6.15 on July 30.

In connection with the merger agreement, Kelso and Company and certain of its affiliates and certain members of CDT's senior management, holding in the aggregate approximately 43% of the outstanding shares of common stock of CDT, have entered into several agreements with Sumitomo Chemical under which they have agreed to vote all of their shares of CDT common stock in favor of the transaction.

David Fyfe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CDT, said: "I am delighted to recommend this merger to our stockholders, as is the entire board of directors. I believe that the acquisition of CDT by Sumitomo Chemical will significantly enhance the prospects for P-OLED technology adoption, especially as P-OLED is looking ever more likely to become the next mainstream display technology. CDT and Sumitomo Chemical have developed a more integrated and closer relationship since Sumitomo acquired a license to certain IP from CDT in 2001, culminating in the formation of a 50/50 joint venture in 2005 to develop, manufacture and sell P-OLED materials to CDT licensees and others. We have admired the long term commitment of Sumitomo Chemical to the development of this very important technology and believe this merger is not only in the best interest of our shareholders but also of our employees and the global display industry."

Hiromasa Yonekura, President of Sumitomo Chemical, said: "In recent years, Sumitomo Chemical has positioned its display materials business as one of its strategically important business areas and an area of focus for our business resources. OLEDs are expected to see considerable market growth in the future as next-generation materials for flat panel displays and lighting applications, and our company is actively engaged in the development of new materials and the improvement of device technologies. We have built a close cooperative relationship with CDT up to this point, and the complete integration of both companies' technological and intellectual assets through this acquisition will make it possible to greatly accelerate development. We are very grateful for the support of the CDT board of directors and major shareholders, and I am pleased to extend a warm welcome to all our colleagues at CDT on behalf of Sumitomo Chemical."

Completion of the merger is subject to CDT stockholder approval and other customary closing conditions. The acquisition is expected to close during the third or fourth quarter of 2007.

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Still waiting for OLED TVs (http://news.com.com/+Still+waiting+for+OLED+TVs/2100-1041_3-6203556.html)
21 August 2007

OLED televisions are going to be a boon for picture quality and energy efficiency--someday, if you can afford them.

We've been hearing about the potential for OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TVs for several years now and Sony, Samsung and Seiko Epson have demonstrated the ability to make a prototype OLED panel.

So when will TV manufacturers actually start selling OLED TVs and, more importantly, will those TVs cost way too much for the average consumer? So far, Sony has indicated that it will be the first out of the gate with an OLED TV sometime next year, and the panels will likely be small, in the range of 11 to 27 inches wide. No one is saying how much it will cost, but some pundits think that little TV could cost somewhere between $800 and $1,000. Toshiba is expected to start selling 30-inch OLEDs in 2009.

"OLED TVs at the moment essentially don't exist," said Lawrence Gasman, principal analyst at Nano Markets. "If you go to an (industry) conference you'll see some beautiful prototypes, which are very impressive, but you can't actually buy one yet."

There's another problem: unlike LCD (liquid crystal display) and plasma, which were completely new display technologies compared with cathode ray tubes when they first debuted, OLED TVs are a variation on the ingredients and manufacturing process used to make LCD panels. The fact that it's not a drastically new technology could mean a more difficult time gaining a foothold with consumers, particularly when the price for a new OLED TV will be so high, at least initially.

"Any tech coming into the TV market now has to be many steps ahead of where existing plasma and LCDs are at. The technology has to be substantially better and (have) comparable prices," said Riddhi Patel, an analyst with iSuppli. And right now, that's simply not the case.

Another major issue that's holding up OLED TVs is the reliability factor. It's "fair" to consider that organic materials used in OLEDs need further advances to be realistic for the TV market, said Janice Mahon, vice president of technology commercialization for Universal Display, an OLED research company. The OLEDs currently used in cell phone displays are lasting 5,000 to 10,000 hours while TV manufacturers generally need OLEDs that won't peter out until 30,000 to 50,000 hours of use.

Nonetheless, the market for OLED TVs could be big. According to a forecast by Nano Markets, the OLED TV market should be worth about $42 million in 2008, $436 million in 2009, and $1.2 billion by 2010.

That leaves time for OLED companies like Universal Display and Cambridge Display Technology to tinker with manufacturing processes and dream up more innovative ways to use smaller OLED screens, such as in flexible displays. This technology is being deployed in some cell phones and portable media players.

The key to OLED TVs is the series of thin organic films that give off light when an electrical current is applied. TVs can be simpler to make with OLEDs than LCD panels mainly because there are fewer parts in OLED TVs. Specifically, there's no back light, which makes OLED TVs potentially thinner and able to reduce the power consumption of the display by a factor of four, according to Universal Display, which works on several different OLED technologies.

There are other issues, of course. One of the biggest is differential aging, meaning the red, green and blue diodes degrade at different rates, which results in a distorted picture. But that's changing.

"Over the past two years this problem has begun to disappear as the result of technical improvements in OLEDs," said Gasman of Nano Markets. "Cambridge Display has, for example, announced that it has achieved lifetimes of 80,000 hours for blue OLEDs and blue polymers for OLEDs with 100,000 hours of life."

The manufacturing process is also experiencing growing pains. Right now, OLED manufacturers can produce a sizable amount of smaller displays for cell phones, but increasing the glass size at large volumes necessary for TVs could be a challenge--but one that could be solved, said Mahon of Universal Display. "It's no different for what's had to be done for LCD and plasma panels. It's simply part of the maturation of a technology."

And then there's price. Considering the rate at which LCD television prices are falling, which is making high-definition viewing accessible to a larger subset of consumers, OLEDs will be far out of the price range of the average TV shopper whenever they do land on store shelves.

To put it bluntly, "Right now OLED cannot come in at a competitive price," said iSuppli's Patel. "We are anticipating OLEDs by the end of this year from Sony, an 11-inch for $800 to $1,000. For a $1,000, you can get a 40-inch plasma."

Plus there's a choice that major LCD manufacturers have to make: they're right in the thick of a battle over LCD market share. LCD is a technology that many consumers are only recently embracing, so it could make less sense for some to spend resources on something like OLED.

At some point, when parts become more plentiful and manufacturing efficiency increases, OLEDs will likely be cheaper to produce than LCDs. But that point could still be a few years off. "An OLED may cost 60 to 70 percent of a comparable LCD. Intrinsically, there will be a cost advantage in making an OLED (TV)," Mahon said. "The question is how quickly (they'll get there)."

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Cambridge Display Technology and Sumation Announce Further Improved Performance of Green and Red P-OLED Materials (http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/primenewswire/125619.htm)
28 August 2007

CAMBRIDGE, England, Aug. 27, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) (Nasdaq:OLED) and Sumation(r) are pleased to announce substantially improved lifetime data for green and red P-OLED materials.

Data from spin coated devices using a common cathode and interlayer material demonstrate lifetimes(1) for recently developed solution-processable green and red P-OLED materials of 78,000 hours and 67,000 hours, respectively, from an initial luminance of 1000 candelas per square meter, or cd/m2. This is equivalent(2) to approximately 445,000 hours and 420,000 hours from an operating brightness of 400cd/m2 for these materials. These latest lifetimes represent a 60% and 280% increase in performance for green and red materials over results that were announced in May and March of this year, respectively.

Chief Executive Officer of CDT, Dr. David Fyfe commented, "Once again, we are reporting tremendous progress on materials developed at Sumation and tested at CDT's facilities. Rapid material development continues unabated and is a testament to the excellent collaboration between Sumation's research centers in the U.K. and Japan."

President and Chief Executive Officer of Sumation, Susumu Miyazaki added, "We continue to make rapid progress on all colors and these results are the latest in a series of accomplishments that we anticipate will continue for the foreseeable future."

Notes to editors:

1) When 'lifetime' is discussed here, it refers to the time taken for the display/pixel to fall to half its initial stated luminance. Lifetime estimates are based on accelerated testing of simple test devices at several very high initial luminance levels, and use of these data to calculate predicted lifetimes at lower brightness levels. Translation of this single pixel data into performance in a full color display system depends on a number of factors and requires a complex calculation and knowledge of the precise system design parameters such as aperture ratio, brightness, ink formulation and relative pixel areas.

2) Acceleration factors to convert lifetime from one brightness to another have been determined for green and red materials using various initial luminances between 6000 cd/m2 and 800 cd/m2 and found to be equal to 1.9 for green and 2 for red. These acceleration factors were used to predict lifetimes at 400 cd/m2. It should be noted that due to the long lifetimes at 400 cd/m2, lifetime predictions at this brightness are susceptible to greater errors than the lifetimes quoted at 1,000 cd/m2

OLED technology to make minor inroads into TV market (http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20070525PR202.html)

OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display technology is set to make minor inroads into the TV market during the next few years, iSuppli predicts.

Now mainly relegated to handset displays, OLED TV shipments will rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 170.6% to reach 1.2 million units in 2012, up from 8,000 in 2007. Sales revenue for OLED TVs will increase to US$691 million in 2012, rising from less than US$1 million in 2007, iSuppli forecasts.

Sony spurs OLED TV talk

"Interest in OLED TVs has been stimulated by Sony's recent announcement that it will offer a product using the technology by the end of the year," said Vinita Jakhanwal, principal analyst for mobile displays at iSuppli. "Sony cited OLEDs' ultra-thin form factor and higher contrast and richer colors compared to conventional LCD TVs."

In response to Sony's announcement, Toshiba Matsushita Display (TMDisplay), the display arm of the con*sumer-electronics giant Matsushita, also announced acceler*ated availability of 20.8-inch active-natrix OLED (AM OLED) panels for OLED TVs, Jakhanwal added.

TV suitability

Indeed, AM OLED technology is suitable for TV in many regards, iSuppli believes. OLEDs offer fast response time, good color, high brightness, excellent viewing angles and high contrast ratios. Furthermore, OLEDs don't need backlights, making them potentially thinner than the alternative flat-panel technologies on the market.

Moreover, the resolutions needed in the TV market are attainable with OLEDs. OLED TVs in larger sizes, i.e. greater than 20-inches, could be sold by the 2012 timeframe. Most likely, these TVs will use polymer panels made by inkjet printing in the largest sizes, but small-molecule OLEDs made by evaporation techniques also could be used in TVs.

However, there are shortcomings to OLED technology that will prevent wider adoption in the TV market. The main challenges are poor manufacturing yields, limited lifetimes and pricing.

OLEDs get active

Manufacturing processes for AM OLEDs now are being tested for small sizes like two and 2.4 inches. Manufacturing these small-sized panels is proving to be a challenge. Producing AM OLEDs in larger sizes will be an even greater challenge. More time is needed to establish manufacturing processes for large panels, and to build equipment that can make such panels efficiently. Inkjet printers for fourth-generation (4G) substrates are still in the beta-testing phase.

Thus, it is likely that the first OLED TVs will be small and designed for novel locations such as kitchens or bathrooms. The total available market for this sort of TV is small.

Later, as technical and manufacturing capabilities grow, OLEDs may move into more standard-size TVs at dimensions of 20 inches or larger. This will happen near the end of the forecast, but only with continued investments and commitments from major polymer OLED suppliers.

Due to high manufacturing costs, AM OLEDs are expected to be considerably more expensive than LCD panels for the foreseeable future. OLED TV panels are expected to be twice as expensive as LCD TV panels in 2011.

Crowded market

Another challenge for OLEDs in the television market is the large number of competitive technologies vying for a share of sales. The TV market already is flooded with options: CRT, LCD, PDP (plasma display panel), four types of projection systems and the potential for a variety of novel technologies like surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) and carbon-nanotube field emission display (FED).

Consumers, for the most part, do not care about particular technologies. Instead they tend to look only at the picture quality and the price, and secondarily at the size and depth. This may make it difficult for OLEDs to gain consumer awareness.

The plethora of technologies also may make it hard for OLED TV to attract the attention of end-product OEMs and channel vendors.

Because of this, OLED will be limited to less than half of 1% of the 242.7 million unit worldwide TV market in 2011, according to iSuppli.

OLED was touted as being a cheaper and thinner alternative to LCD and plasma. If it is more expensive than either, then who needs it? Rear projection is getting better and better and cheaper and cheaper. Is it that much of a problem to have a TV that is 10" deep? That is where RPTVs are headed, with lifespans of 30,000 hours and more. Plasma keeps getting better and cheaper. There is hardly a need for SED or OLED. I would not invest in these new technologies.

IB

OLED will get both bigger and cheaper, and at some point may be a very worthy competitor for LCD and PDP if they can break through the 40" barrier.

Believe it or not, it IS "...that much a problem to have a TV that is 10" deep...", particularly in markets outside North America where RPTV has never really taken off. Yes, people in Europe dealt with deep CRT, but never adopted RPTV due to overall size of the cabinet, among other things. As flat panel displays come down in price as they go up in size, RPTV is eventually an endagerred species outside of specialty products and markets.

OLED will get both bigger and cheaper, and at some point may be a very worthy competitor for LCD and PDP if they can break through the 40" barrier.

Believe it or not, it IS "...that much a problem to have a TV that is 10" deep...", particularly in markets outside North America where RPTV has never really taken off. Yes, people in Europe dealt with deep CRT, but never adopted RPTV due to overall size of the cabinet, among other things. As flat panel displays come down in price as they go up in size, RPTV is eventually an endagerred species outside of specialty products and markets.


All of the true flat panel technologies have burn-in problems. LCD flat panels are not in the same true flat category as plasma, OLED, and SED, because the panel itself does not provide any light source. LCD is a form of rear projection. The true flat technologies will burn-in and there is no hope to fix that problem on the horizon. I think RPTV will be around for a long time, because they keep getting cheaper, lighter, better looking, and longer lasting, and at a lower price point. You get the added bonus of no burn-in, thus you can hook them up to your computer with no worries.

IB

All of the true flat panel technologies have burn-in problems. LCD flat panels are not in the same true flat category as plasma, OLED, and SED, because the panel itself does not provide any light source. LCD is a form of rear projection. The true flat technologies will burn-in and there is no hope to fix that problem on the horizon. I think RPTV will be around for a long time, because they keep getting cheaper, lighter, better looking, and longer lasting, and at a lower price point. You get the added bonus of no burn-in, thus you can hook them up to your computer with no worries.

IB

The horrible off-angle viewing from RPTV & LCD is deal breaker for me, and will never own one unless something dramatically changes. Also, I much prefer a self-illuminating direct view display as opposed to a "reflected-view". Presently, top-tier plasma displays offer the very best PQ, and the latest Pioneer 8G's that are soon to be released will make a big leap in black levels & contrast. The "burn-in" issue for the newer Plasmas is a red herring, and w/pixel shift and other advancements makes burn-in a pretty much non-issue. I don't leave my TV's on 24/7 and take pretty good care of my electronics so I would not be concerned. OLED's are poised to be the next big video tech to breakout as a real competitor in the marketplace. Competition is good for us consumers, and all will benefit from increased PQ & decreased pricing.

OLED was touted as being a cheaper and thinner alternative to LCD and plasma. If it is more expensive than either, then who needs it? Rear projection is getting better and better and cheaper and cheaper. Is it that much of a problem to have a TV that is 10" deep? That is where RPTVs are headed, with lifespans of 30,000 hours and more. Plasma keeps getting better and cheaper. There is hardly a need for SED or OLED. I would not invest in these new technologies.

IB

RPTV needs to shave its huge ass further though (though Laser TVs are trying to fix that part).

So atm, my choice would be OLED. Why you ask? Simply from the aspect of contrast ratio and motion speed, OLED wins hands down. Where can you even find any display tech that can reach speeds of ONE MICROSECOND OR LESS. (CRT =1-2 ms; plasma & RPTV = 2-3 ms; LCD 4-8 ms avg.).

Also, OLED wins on the aspects of power consumption, weight and display thickness (being just 1 cm or less in depth)

And the lifespan of OLED materials are increasing rapidly. Latest report indicates that Red and Green OLED bulbs/materials have gone past the 60,000 hour lifespan stage @ 1000 cd/m2 brightness (as of March 2007 from CDT). Blue though still is only at 20k @ 1000 cd/m2 brightness......although work is constantly being done in order for that target to be reached before year-end.

So that sums it up as to why OLED is gonna come out strong even before this decade ends ;)

:)

So that sums it up as to why OLED is gonna come out strong even before this decade ends ;) :)

Unfortunately, you won't see a 30" OLED by then. And what will be produced will cost more than double a similiar sized LCD. HT sized OLED is still more than 5 years away and will still cost more than double LCD at that time.

Unfortunately, you won't see a 30" OLED by then. And what will be produced will cost more than double a similiar sized LCD. HT sized OLED is still more than 5 years away and will still cost more than double LCD at that time.

An even then, you must be a willing "early adopter" and all that it entails...not me, my friends. Only tried, true & blue video tech for my hard earned bucks. We're talking around 2015 time frame.

All of the true flat panel technologies have burn-in problems. LCD flat panels are not in the same true flat category as plasma, OLED, and SED, because the panel itself does not provide any light source.
Sorry, not true. You are describing the difference between emissive panels (e.g. PDP and OLED) and tansmissive panels (LCD). Both, however, are generally considered to be "FPD" or Flat Panel Displays in the jargon of the display industry.
LCD is a form of rear projection. It is when the LCD panels are "microdisplays" of the type used in both front and rear projectors as well as other display applications. NOT true when the panel is used in, say, your computer or laptop monitor, an "HT" sized display, an industrial process monitor, a front panel display or literally thousands of other display applications.

The true flat technologies will burn-in and there is no hope to fix that problem on the horizon. Yes, if it is an emmisive display with a phosphor-based screen, again like a PDP. LCDs are flat panel display technologies. They may occasionally exhibit "dead" or "stuck" pixel cells, but that is different from phosphor burn. Whether a product may "burn in" or not is something I have never seen as being part of what defines a flat panel'; it is simply an artifact of the display's technology.

I think RPTV will be around for a long time, because they keep getting cheaper, lighter, better looking, and longer lasting, and at a lower price point. You get the added bonus of no burn-in, thus you can hook them up to your computer with no worries. You ignore the fact that RPTV was once based on CRT and thus prone to burn-in. That's gone now, with LCD, LCoS and DLP/MEMS type light valves used as the heart of the projection engines. And, yes, illumination is moving from UHP bulbs to LED and laser sources, but in the long run it is shaping up to be a flat panel world in anything much below 50"W.

I guess only time will tell.

Flat panels will grow ever larger in market share because people want to hang their TV on the wall. I own, and am quite happy with, an RPTV. But it will be an ever decreasing share of the market as the price difference narrows.

I suspect we WILL see a 30" OLED sooner than anticipated. Too many companies chiming in right now, too many pieces seem to be falling in to place. And it may start off more expensive, but it has the potential to become VERY cheap to make- probably even cheaper than CRTs today. They may one day crank them out with ink jet technology, in a vacuum or inert gas room.

Flat panels will grow ever larger in market share because people want to hang their TV on the wall. I own, and am quite happy with, an RPTV. But it will be an ever decreasing share of the market as the price difference narrows.

I suspect we WILL see a 30" OLED sooner than anticipated. Too many companies chiming in right now, too many pieces seem to be falling in to place. And it may start off more expensive, but it has the potential to become VERY cheap to make- probably even cheaper than CRTs today. They may one day crank them out with ink jet technology, in a vacuum or inert gas room.

Good point.

With so much R&D, investment and of course even more $$$ going into OLED TV production, I won't be surprised that sets such as the 27-inch 1080p prototype from Sony would appear on the market even before the end of this decade (ie. before year 2010).

Heck, I'm even surprised that CDT and the OLED materials producers are on an R&D blitz to ramp-up lifetimes for blue OLED materials (which have reached an all-time high). With the pace that their going, I think that they will be capable of producing blue OLED bulbs that break the 60k hour limit.

Although it will be a niche/early adopter tech within the current decade, it does seem something that is going to come out strong and become a potential tech.

It's still wishful thinking though but the potential is clearly visible :)

If half the stuff shown in the display area and talked about in the papers at SID last week come to fruition, we'll be there with big OLEDs soon (before 2009) than later.

CDT is far from the dominant force in the OLED R&D industry, you should focus more on Universal Display Corporation [ticker symbol PANL]. They are the ones who are developing the small molecule PHOLEDS that will be used by Sony, LG, Samsung, etc.

I wouldn't trust CDT's lifetime data either, as they love to hype and misrepresent their findings. Currently the lifetime for blue PHOLEDs with the color coordinates for a consumer display are more like < 5,000 hours. Blue still needs a lot of work.

Good point.

Heck, I'm even surprised that CDT and the OLED materials producers are on an R&D blitz to ramp-up lifetimes for blue OLED materials (which have reached an all-time high). With the pace that their going, I think that they will be capable of producing blue OLED bulbs that break the 60k hour limit.

Although it will be a niche/early adopter tech within the current decade, it does seem something that is going to come out strong and become a potential tech.

It's still wishful thinking though but the potential is clearly visible :)

I suspect we WILL see a 30" OLED sooner than anticipated.
I agree. It only takes one advancement to turn everything around :)

Also, Apple's new laptops and the iPhone will have an OLED display :)

Apple's new laptops and the iPhone will have an OLED display :)

Laptops with OLED, or rather LED-LCD?

If, indeed, the iPhone has OLED display, what is the screen resolution? Active or passive matrix?

Laptops with OLED, or rather LED-LCD?
OLED ;)

If, indeed, the iPhone has OLED display, what is the screen resolution?
No other information at this time, just that the first series of iPhones wouldn't have it, but then it would sometime early next year.

thats a reasonable guess, Planet HDTV, but you shouldn't just make up rumors like that. earlier in the year there was a silly rumor being circulated that the first generation of iphones would have OLED displays but most of the members of the OLED-related message board i subscribe to thought this was highly unlikely since Samsung SDI is still unable to mass manufacture sizes larger than 2.2" in bulk. However, by early next year they probably will be able to make iphone-display sizes in sufficient quantities.

As for the Apple laptop with an OLED screen, I HIGHLY doubt it. The big OLED manufacturers like LG and Samsung SDI are nowhere near capable of pumping out enough laptop-sized screens yet. And Sony has promised its 11" OLED will be for sale by year end, but this is hotly contested, and furthermore its price would be prohibitive to be used as a laptop display.

thats a reasonable guess
It's not a rumor or a guess :rolleyes: Pickup the new MacLife magazine :) It is well known that Steve Jobs wants to be the first company to do this.

most of the members of the OLED-related message board i subscribe to thought this was highly unlikely
So they're just 'guessing' then huh? :rolleyes: Weird.

Looks like we'll find out who's right soon enough :)

However, by early next year they probably will be able to make iphone-display sizes in sufficient quantities.
Hello, McFly... that's what I said ;)

"No other information at this time, just that the first series of iPhones wouldn't have it, but then it would sometime early next year."

hi planet hdtv

"It's not a rumor or a guess Pickup the new MacLife magazine"

Do you mind quoting the exact article or dialogue you are referring to? I highly doubt that an Apple spokesman or Steve Jobs said anything as specific as "We plan to use active matrix OLEDs in our second generation iphone". Had he said that, I would have heard about it, since the OLED world is pretty small and an apple product with OLED would be BIG news.

"It is well known that Steve Jobs wants to be the first company to do this. "

First company to do what? There are already cell phones and mp3 players with active matrix OLED displays. By the time early next year rolls around, there will be even more.

What is your source for the rumor about OLED-display laptops, might I ask?

"Looks like we'll find out who's right soon enough"

Oh, I wouldn't bet against you. It seems quite possible the next generation of iphones would have an OLED. Like i said before, by quarter 1 or 2 of 2008, samsung SDI will be able to make enough displays for the huge orders that apple requires.

Well I read the article you were referring to, and it was interesting, but.....

There was noone at Apple that was quoted as saying they planned to put OLEDs in the second, third, etc, generation of iphones. In fact, there was noone at Apple who was quoted at all. The only thing the article said about iphones, was that it was doubtful that OLEDs would appear in the first generation iphone, and theoretically possible they would appear in the second generation. WELL, THAT IS OBVIOUS. I could have told you that.

The article DID NOT SAY that Apple loved OLED. The article also did not say that Apple was postponing its use of OLEDs as a result of their high price. The article DID NOT SAY that apple was planning on using OLEDs in their laptops, or anything of the sort.

You must have been referring to a different article, or just making stuff up. The one i saw was a list of 5 or so technologies that something to look for in the near future.

:rolleyes:

Where did I say that they were quoting Apple? You can either read what is written or you can read what you want to see. Looks like you read what you want to see :rolleyes: There are many other sources for this information too. One was an open letter by Steve Jobs where he wrote about making Apple more green in the future and using these and other new technologies, but I guess you know more than him about what Apple wants to do. Glad you read the one article though. As mentioned before, in time we'll see who was correct. I'm not worried. Have a nice day ;)

You're confusing OLED with LED-backlit displays. The open letter by Steve Jobs refers to the just-released LED-backlit Macbook Pros and other upcoming LED-backlit displays. This is in response to recent criticism of Apple's environmental practices. Nowhere in the letter is there a mention of OLED products. Before you resort to condescension, you might want to read what you're quoting.

Wit? Class?

Those are unsubstantiated rumours with no credibility, one is from 2006 and doesn't cite a source, the other is from two months ago and is *lready* partially inaccurate merely because it claimed we would see a Macbook with an OLED display by June. None of the OLED manufacturers are at the stage where they could mass manufacture macbook-sized displays. Or if they did, the price would be astronomical.

Over the years, there have been 10-15 different rumours involving OLEDs and Apple, all of them turning out to be false.

moderator

deleted some posts: please do not bash or insult fellow members if you wish to continue posting here

Please tell me about passive matrix OLEDs! Do they exist outside a lab?

PMOLEDs are the past; the industry is rapidly converting its PMOLED lines to AMOLED. Google is your friend, here's a link to start:

http://displayblog.wordpress.com/tag/pmoled/

PMOLEDs are the past; the industry is rapidly converting its PMOLED lines to AMOLED

Thank you! There is something very important I want to know. OLEDs have a "response time" of 0.01 ms which is fantastic. However, there's an aspect of motion handling called "sample-and-hold effect" and that is what makes me see motion blur on LCDs. Now, I've been told that with PMOLED the sample-and-hold would not be an issue, but with AMOLEDs it would make OLEDs have motion blur like on LCDs. Based on that I want PMOLED. Are there any PMOLED screens I could buy to watch my HD sports and movies on? Could anyone explain this to me?

There won't likely be any PMOLEDs for such screen sizes. Rather, to eliminate the SAH affect, AMOLEDs will be strobed @ 120 Hz. or whatever frequency they decide is cool. This will achieve the same effect, while also having the benefits of active-matrix transistorized switching.

yeah, PMOLED is a dying technology, and is being replaced by AMOLED.

There won't likely be any PMOLEDs for such screen sizes. Rather, to eliminate the SAH affect, AMOLEDs will be strobed @ 120 Hz. or whatever frequency they decide is cool. This will achieve the same effect, while also having the benefits of active-matrix transistorized switching. This bugs me. Claiming that OLED screens will be much faster than even CRTs and then claiming they must use active matrix is counterintuitive. The two cannot exist together. Active-matrix = SAH effect even with faster refresh rates and PWM or strobbing or whatever.

The only way to get CRT speed is to use a single short impulse of light per frame. And to my knowledge CRT and SED are the technologies capable of this. PMOLED promised even faster but the lifetimes are just too short when using the high currents required for passive matrix. So now they want to use active matrix and along with it will come motion blurring from the SAH effect.

Also, this thread has multiple mentions of breakthroughs for Blue lifetimes for OLED materials from companies like CDT. This is very misleading as these long life blue materials have very poor spectral emmission purity. In fact the blue looks more like blue-white. Pure blue emitting materials still have extremely short lifetimes. There is still a lot of work to be done.

Perhaps you should learn some basic electronics before posting such comments. Transistors such as those used behind each active-matrix cell can switch millions of times per second.

OLEDs can use any emission-cycle length desired to achieve specific visual effects. They can, like a CRT, activate cells for only a brief duration of the nominal frame-time, eliminating the SAH effect far better than CRT can (no phosphor decay time).

The only disadvantage of using shorter emission times, for both active- and passive-matrix, is the emitter material must be driven harder in inverse proportion to the emission-time in order to maintain a given brightness. This is true for CRT (refresh rate), plasma, the beloved SED, as well as ILED matrix-displays.

Short-duration high peak emission driving regimes will age OLED, ILED and phosphor emission materials significantly faster. The manufacturer must decide during the design phase how to compromise between lifetime and motion-rendering based on the power vs. luminance depreciation characteristics of the emitter material.

To conclude, the issue of active- and passive-matrix driving methods is an important, but not sole, determinant of such design decisions. In order to reach large sizes, all low-voltage displays must implement active-matrix designs in order to minimize I^2R losses in the ITO conductor planes, and minimize the current-carrying requirement for the matrix driver circuitry.

Plasma has the unique advantage that its gas cells ionize at relatively high voltage, minimizing current and thus I^2R ITO losses on glass and current in silicon (cost, size) - therefore allowing direct-drive passive designs. Depending on operating voltage, SED may also share this useful feature.

Perhaps you should learn some basic electronics before posting such comments. Transistors such as those used behind each active-matrix cell can switch millions of times per second.
I wasn't trying to be nasty but if you want to belittle me that's fine. If you can't handle people questioning your info then at least try and act a little more civil and get your facts straight.

AM in OLEDs is used to maximize lifetime by minimizing current desity through the EL material. Switching from PM to AM and maintaining the same brightness fundamentally requires a "LONGER" emission time. Do you agree?

The longer the emission time the more the percieved motion blurring. Agree?

In OLEDs lifetime is the limiting parameter. This in turn limits current density through the EL material. This combined with luminous efficiency determines the hold time required to get a targeted brightness. With current technology (luminouse efficiency) they must use AM or PWM to get a long enough hold times to achieve high enough brightness with a usuable lifetime.

PM can be used to get ultra short hold times in the micro second range thanks to the ultra fast EL decay rate but to get a useable brightness you need to pump a lot of current through the device which kills the lifetimes.

Look at some actual OLED research papers regarding the SAH effect and AM. Using 120Hz and PWM really improves things but there is no possible way they can achieve shorter emmision times than a CRT and have any usuable brightness and lifetime.

Transistors such as those used behind each active-matrix cell can switch millions of times per second.

Ask yourself how an AM panel is addressed and controlled. Why the transistors are there and why SAH is synonymous with AM. Furthermore, why LCDs use AM (which is not the same reason why OLED is using them) and how SAH,PM,AM relate to emission time and how emission time relates to motion blurring. If you can answer all of that you'll see why an AM OLED will not have better motion handling than a CRT.

Of course when longer lifetimes and higher luminous efficiencies are produced then large OLED TVs will be able to take advantage of the short decay rates that EL materials produce.

Since emisssion time per frame determines motion blurring you can easily rate technology on motion handling by the emission times.

1) - OLED (passive matrix) - micro seconds
2) - CRT - 1-2 milliseconds due to phosphor decay
3) - SED (passive matrix) - same as CRT
4) - OLED (PWM) (several milliseconds)
5) - Plasma - 4-6 milliseconds
6) - OLED (active matrix 120 Hz) 8.33333 milliseconds
7) - LCD (active matrix 120Hz) 8.3333 milliseconds plus slow response times
8) - LCD (active matrix 60Hz) 16.7 milliseconds plus slow response times

Indeed, I replied a bit too harshly, probably because your latest comments brought to mind your previous comments along the same line. In them I could clearly hear the whine of an idealist: personally, I'm not opposed to such philosophical bents, but am first and foremost a pragmatist. Cost and feasability are foremost on my mind in this area.

Your comments seem to be phrased as a kind of argument for a particular design, or perhaps the lament of one who senses that no design in existence can provide the sought-after ideal qualities. In this you are most certainly correct.

Passive-matrix driving schemes do not inherently require short-duration high-power operation. Rather, such a scheme is chosen to minimize the driver circuitry cost - remember that passive-matrix driver circuits are more costly because the switching elements must carry the full drive current. To minimize the cost, underpowered switching elements are used, but only carry current for a portion of a frametime, thus allowing them to dissipate heat which, if run continuously, would overheat devices of such density.

The practical implementation of this method is frequently row-at-once or column-at-once drive, ie. alternate rows or columns are activated sequentially. At low frequency, this can sometimes give the visual impression of an interlaced display.

As far as the technology of passive-matrix driver design, if circuit cost is no object it can be made to drive the entire panel at once, but it is still limited to small displays, due to I^2R losses in the ITO conductors connecting each pixel. These losses increase with both panel size and resolution (longer and thinner traces, respectively).

All large low-voltage displays use active-matrix, for both cost and technical reasons as I outlined previously. It can be guaranteed that this will not be changing in the future. So if we are talking about TV-sized displays, the discussion ends there: no passive-matrix will ever be used at such sizes. As for smaller devices, they're out of the purview of the thread's topic, which is OLED TVs (nominally, devices of 20" and larger).

Regarding emission times and lifetime, as noted previously, it is up to manufacturers to determine how to compromise between on/off ratio and lifetime. Perhaps you may be able to have some influence on their plans if you can design a regime which shows advantageous performance over current ones.

To finish on a positive note, driving schemes can enjoy significantly enhanced flexibility compared to those for plasma cells, due to the unnecessary sustain and priming pulses, and the need to use PWM to simulate n-bit grayscale emission levels. The nonlinear property of gas ionization requires on-off switching, at least in the plasma display cell.

SED, LCD and OLED can all be driven using continuously-variable voltage or current sources, which is a boon to those who are disturbed by the visual impression of noise generated by plasma PWM. This effect is particularly evident at the viewing distance required for the immersion effect (30 degree FOV or greater), and worse in darker scenes than lighter.

After carefully re-reading your last post, I'm mystified as to where you get the 'several milliseconds' for OLED response time. From drive circuit to emission, the switching time should be no more than a handfull of microseconds.

I think you're confusing sample-and-hold motion smear with other properties of the circuit.

"Ask yourself how an AM panel is addressed and controlled. Why the transistors are there and why SAH is synonymous with AM. Furthermore, why LCDs use AM (which is not the same reason why OLED is using them)"
Rather than ask myself, I'll ask you instead (since I've already provided the technical explanation for why transistors are there). Liquid crystals require less power to hold in a particular position than emissive OLED cells require to emit; the primary reason for active-matrix in LCD is cheaper drive circuitry. Still, trace resistance is a significant issue in large panels of both types.

Regarding the on-off ratio per unit time that manufacturers may use in standalone OLED displays, that has yet to be decided as none are in production. Depending on manufacturer decisions, initial panels may have either shorter or longer on-times than CRT; they may very well have continuous emission. This will probably change with time, as newer OLED emitter materials are introduced, assuming the market for such devices does succeed.

Finally, my statement regarding OLED response time being better than CRT (and any other display device currently in existence, excepting ILED) was not speaking about motion smear or the sample-and-hold effect. I was speaking about response time in the normal sense of the word, which is the time taken for a pixel to reach requested brightness after the signal has been received.

"This bugs me. Claiming that OLED screens will be much faster than even CRTs and then claiming they must use active matrix is counterintuitive. The two cannot exist together. Active-matrix = SAH effect even with faster refresh rates and PWM or strobbing or whatever."
The two cannot exist together? Is there something about transistor-gated power supply you perhaps are unclear about? There is nothing preventing active-matrix designs from using any switching scheme you can devise. The transistors under each cell can switch as fast as the transistors in the driver circuitry of a passive-matrix design.

You could build an active-matrix panel which used short-duration high-intensity activations, precisely emulating the (economically-driven) effect found in passive-matrix devices. Just for the fun of it you could activate alternate rows sequentially, for a neato psuedo-interlace visual effect. There would be no need to do so however, because the cheaper low-power drive circuit would allow you to address all the pixels simultaneously, unlike such passive-matrix designs. Thus the entire panel could be strobed in temporal sync, or each pixel could be strobed in checkerboard fashion, or whatever.

Hell, you could even drive it somewhat like a plasma, using full on-off PWM, but at much higher frequency (Khz.), thus avoiding the visual 'noise' of temporal dithering.

It seems such schemes are unlikely to be used, because they are perceived (correctly) by the industry to be unnecessary.

Following is a simple, easy-to-understand description of the basic differences between an active-matrix and a passive-matrix design.

Passive-matrix switches the cells in a driver circuit located on a PCB behind the glass. Power to twist the liquid crystals or glow the OLED emitter is sent through individual ITO traces to each pixel.

Active-matrix uses very low-power switching transistors (in an integrated circuit) on the PCB to send signal-level voltages through the ITO traces to the base pins of power transistors on the glass, which switch power from on-glass ITO power planes into the cell.

The net effect of active-matrix is we are only running the tiniest of currents through the individual pixel traces, instead of power to supply the cell. Also, the power transistors are photolith'd onto the glass instead of living within the driver circuit. The only time lost is we are now switching on two transistors instead of one, but that is incredibly tiny.

The advantages of active-matrix switching are so great that it is even making inroads into smaller devices. If you read the latest stories in this thread, you'll note that the industry (correctly) sees a dim future for passive-matrix devices.

Iso, rather than get angry and argue I'd rather attempt to settle this with technical information. From the following quote from you I think I can see why we are not on the same page.

Finally, my statement regarding OLED response time being better than CRT (and any other display device currently in existence, excepting ILED) was not speaking about motion smear or the sample-and-hold effect. I was speaking about response time in the normal sense of the word, which is the time taken for a pixel to reach requested brightness after the signal has been received.
I never once referred to response time which as we know is ultra-short in OLEDs and will not contribute to any motion video artifacts that AMOLED might have. What I was referring to is hold time. The SAH effect refers to how long each pixel is emitting light per frame period. The rating of technology I posted above refers to this "HOLD" time. It has been scientifically proven that "HOLD" time is the greatest contributor to motion blurring in display technology.

see link (http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=DTPSDS000036000001001590000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes)

Active Matrix and Passive Matrix: Do you agree that PM is an impulse display method with one very short pulse of light? This pulse length is determined by the addressing time since each line of pixels is addressed individually. Since there is so little time to emit light the current must be very high to get enough intensity out of the EL material.

Do you agree that AM is a hold type of display method with an extended duration of light emission? Since the amount of time for light emission is much longer the current can be much lower and our eyes integrate the light output over time to get a high brightness. The problem is we also see blurring due to retinal persistence.

Now, if you still disagree then just do a quick google search for AMOLED and you’ll get plenty of articles telling you how AMOLEDs hold the image on the screen for the entire refresh cycle.

link 1 (http://www.universaldisplay.com/active.htm)
link 2 (http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/cpmt/presentations/cpmt0401a.pdf)
As a result, the AMOLED operates at all times (i.e., for the entire frame scan), avoiding the need for the very high currents required for passive matrix operation. “

And if you want to read actual research papers that describe how AMOLEDs suffer from image blurring just like LCDs for the exact same reason as LCDs (SAH effect) and how they plan on fixing the problem (120Hz, BFI, interpolation) just like LCDs then you can read the following and also search the journals yourself
link 3 (http://sid.aip.org/getpdf/servlet/GetPDFServlet?filetype=pdf&id=JSIDE8000013000005000447000001&idtype=cvips&pc=SID132369&auth=NaHR9X7bREslTAS3Fpw47aiSvkKz1WLCE46JEs6kgQA=)

Also, just to be thorough: The number one reason LCDs use AM is to give the liquid crystal enough time to transition to the desired state. PMLCDs activate each cell for such a short period ot time there was no way the LC could transition properly. This gave poor brightness and severe ghosting.

AM solved this by holding the voltage at each cell for the entire frame scan. At 60Hz this gave a full 16.7ms for the cell to transition properly. The result is high brightness and better ghosting performance. The problem is the SAH effect.

OLED on the other hand does not have a response time problem so the driving force for AM is due to "LIFETIME". Using AM significantly reduces power consumption and increases lifetime of the EL material. The problem is the SAH effect.

Also from the same link

OLED displays are activated through a current driving method that relies on either a passive-matrix (PM) or an active-matrix (AM) scheme. In a PMOLED display, a matrix of electrically-conducting rows and columns forms a two-dimensional array of picture elements called pixels. Sandwiched between the orthogonal column and row lines, thin films of organic material are activated to emit light by applying electrical signals to designated row and column lines. The more current that is applied, the brighter the pixel becomes. For a full image, each row of the display must be charged for 1/N of the frame time needed to scan the entire display, where N is the number of rows in the display. For example, to achieve a 100-row display image with brightness of 100 nits, the pixels must be driven to the equivalent of an instantaneous brightness of 10,000 nits for 1/100 of the entire frame time.

So what happens when you have 1080 lines of resolution ?? Even with multiplexing you can see that you would have to literally blast the EL material with current and fry the lifetime and power consumption to get any usable brightness.

This is why AM is used as I've said about 10 times now. The only way to use PM in large TV OLEDs is to greatly increase the EL material luminous efficiency.

Another paper from Science and Technical Research Laboratories in Japan:

link (http://sid.aip.org/getpdf/servlet/GetPDFServlet?filetype=pdf&id=DTPSDS000036000001001586000001&idtype=cvips&pc=SID132369&auth=NaHR9X7bREslTAS3Fpw47RH4X0iJbe7SUST7Sb0dq6w=)

First paragraph states as follows : Moving images displayed on active matrix displays such as AMLCD and AMOLED are essentially blurred because hold type displays use active matrix driving.

As I said above, AM is synonymous with SAH effect. 120Hz, BFI, interpolation reduce the SAH effect but do not eliminate it.

It's well known that OLED should suffer from the sample-and-hold effect. What I'm wondering about is why there should be a change between passive and active? I mean isn't the OLED picture "on" all the time either way?

It's well known that OLED should suffer from the sample-and-hold effect. What I'm wondering about is why there should be a change between passive and active? I mean isn't the OLED picture "on" all the time either way? In general Flat panel pixel based displays address the pixels in line by line fashion (multiplexing can be used but I'll keep this simple). Active matrix has a TFT and capacitor behind each pixel which allows the cell to be "on" even when not being addressed. So the pixels can actually be addressed line by line and then all turned on at once and held on for the full frame period.

With Passive Matrix there is no switch or capacitor behind each pixel. This means that when the panel addresses the pixels line by line that the pixels actually activate when addressed and de-activate when not. This is similar to a CRT and SED. So at any given moment only one row of pixels is actually on. And the time that the pixels are on is determined by the addressing speed.

Take 1080 lines as an example:

60Hz addressing = 16.7ms of time per frame to address all the 1080 lines
1/1080 * 16.7 = .015 milliseconds of time per line of pixels

This means using passive matrix each pixel can emit light for only .015ms. This is plenty of time for OLEDs but the problem is that to get a usable brightness in .015ms would require a massive amount of current during that .015ms. This would quickly burn out the OLED and kill the lifetime and power consumption.

This is why small screens can use Passive matrix as they have few pixels and less stringent brightness, lifetime requirements.

Large TVs with 6 million pixels just won't work with Passive matrix and current EL materials as the emission times are too short and power consumption to high along with extremely short lifetimes.

In general Flat panel pixel based displays address the pixels in line by line fashion (multiplexing can be used but I'll keep this simple). Active matrix has a TFT and capacitor behind each pixel which allows the cell to be "on" even when not being addressed. So the pixels can actually be addressed line by line and then all turned on at once and held on for the full frame period.

With Passive Matrix there is no switch or capacitor behind each pixel. This means that when the panel addresses the pixels line by line that the pixels actually activate when addressed and de-activate when not. This is similar to a CRT and SED. So at any given moment only one row of pixels is actually on. And the time that the pixels are on is determined by the addressing speed.

Take 1080 lines as an example:

60Hz addressing = 16.7ms of time per frame to address all the 1080 lines
1/1080 * 16.7 = .015 milliseconds of time per line of pixels

This means using passive matrix each pixel can emit light for only .015ms. This is plenty of time for OLEDs but the problem is that to get a usable brightness in .015ms would require a massive amount of current during that .015ms. This would quickly burn out the OLED and kill the lifetime and power consumption.

This is why small screens can use Passive matrix as they have few pixels and less stringent brightness, lifetime requirements.

Large TVs with 6 million pixels just won't work with Passive matrix and current EL materials as the emission times are too short and power consumption to high along with extremely short lifetimes.
Thank you - good post!!

Capacitors are only used with LCD :)

And they are used because it is a constant potential which holds the liquid crystals in a particular position. The electrical leakage through the LC, while significant, is small enough that its voltage can be maintained by a parallel capacitor.

OLEDs are not at all the same: as energy-consuming devices, they must be supplied with current at all times (they are constant-current devices). There is no capacitor behind an OLED pixel. Thus there is no minimum 'hold time' as there is in an AM LCD design.

To elaborate on my previous post, the liquid crystals in an LCD themselves act as a small capacitance (albiet with significant leakage).

The amount of twist that the liquid crystal experiences is proportional to the static electric field between the electrodes. Little current flows from one side to the other; the potential difference (voltage) between the two electrodes creates the electric field.

By coupling a capacitor in parallel, the particular potential last applied (by either the on-glass or on-PCB transistor) can be held (for a while), despite the small leakage current. However, to change the potential, the capacitor must be charged/discharged by the difference in potentials between the current state and the requested state. Larger transitions will be slower, adding a minimum 'hold time' which varies depending on the requested transition and the current state.

Plasma and OLED pixels are very different: they are energy-dissipating devices. Plasma cells are short-circuits of ionized gases, while OLED pixels are diodes with such minimal forward resistance that they are basically short-circuits also.

Such devices require a constant-current energy supply. They have minimal capacitance and there is no particular value in placing a parallel capacitor; it would be drained of all charge at the moment the transistor was deactivated.

Iso, seriously, if you would read the links I provided you'd see that even though the AMOLED is constant current you need a capacitor to supply the current "AFTER" the addressing is complete. Otherwise there is no reason to use Active matrix.

Direct Quote "The TFT array continuously controls the current that flows to the pixels, signaling to each pixel how brightly to shine. Typically, this continuous current flow is controlled by at least two TFTs at each pixel, one to start and stop the charging of a storage capacitor and the second to provide a voltage source at the level needed to create a constant current to the pixel. As a result, the AMOLED operates at all times (i.e., for the entire frame scan), avoiding the need for the very high currents required for passive matrix operation."

Even better, go to google and type in AMOLED and capacitor.

Check out the schematics for AMLCD and AMOLED. LCD is constant voltage and OLED is constant current. Both require a storage capacitor after the addressing TFT. OLED requires a second TFT to provide a voltage source to maintain contant current through the OLED.

The capacitor in an OLED circuit is not used to provide energy to the OLED. Rather, it is used to maintain base bias on the control transistor. There is a big difference.

Because the base of the transistor has virtually no leakage current, the base-capacitor's value (microfarads) is very tiny; it need only maintain a very small bias voltage to keep the power transistor open. Thus it takes virtually no time to drain its charge, unlike the capacitor which is directly parallel to a liquid crystal.

The roles of the two capacitors are very different, and so too is their performance. One is a high-value device which pisses charge into a leaky liquid-crystal solution, the other is a small-value device that keeps a pool of electrons swimming in the almost leak-proof base region of a FET or non-FET transistor.

The base-bias capacitor's value is no obstacle to switching the pixel at microsecond rates.

I was expecting you'd raise this point, but I knew to wait for you to further exposit your rationale so we could completely clear up this aspect of circuit design.

I was expecting you'd raise this point, but I knew to wait for you to further exposit your rationale so we could completely clear up this aspect of circuit design. Nice :rolleyes: First you say there is no SAH effect in OLEDs then you say there is no capacitor in OLEDS, then when you're totally proven wrong you belittle the person providing the correct info. I don't recall that I have questioned your intelligence or belittled you in any way. All I did was question your information and this is how you act. Please control your pride.

The roles of the two capacitors are very different, and so is the performance. One is a high-value device which pisses charge into a leaky liquid-crystal solution, the other is a small-value device that keeps a pool of electrons swimming in the almost leak-proof base region of a FET or non-FET transistor. Regarding SAH effect the roles of the two capacitors are identical. That is to hold the pixel "ON" well past the addressing period. Think about it, the data line charges the storage capacitor to the desired value. In LCDs this value "holds" the LC at a certain orientation to emit light. In OLEDs this value "holds" open the gate in the 2nd TFT allowing current to flow from Vdd to ground well "after" the addressing has passed by.

One thing I don't get is how they change the Cs value the next cycle. Maybe you can inform me on this as I am always willing to learn :)

Do you agree that AMOLED will have SAH?? If so that is enough for me to be satisfied. If not for the love of god please read the links I provided and comment on why they say that AMOLED suffers from SAH. Maybe the links are wrong but some of them are full university research projects.

http://i30.tinypic.com/t68ig8.jpg

Perhaps you don't remember that the caps have values which differ by at least an order of magnitude. Think! The diagram omits the cap values because it's intended as a basic structural exposition; it's assumed that the viewer has an understanding of basic analog circuits. It is also assumed the viewer will be cognizant of the vastly different values of the two caps, considering their places in the circuit.

One only has to hold a charge on the base pin of a transistor, the other has to have sufficient charge to piss into a leaky LC for a frame. Do you have any idea how much energy-holding difference that is?

As for SAH, I've already told you that the driver circuit design is responsible for its presence. That is independent of OLED technology. It occurs whenever you keep pixels at the requested value for an entire frame.

What I'm saying is that OLED emitters and their active-matrix driver circuits don't have to do so. Unlike LCD active-matrix drivers, the hold caps do not place a reasonable limit on pixel transition rates, due to a different circuit design that removes the need for them to hold large quantities of charge by placing them at the base pin of the transistor rather than in parallel.

OLED active-matrix driver circuits can be built to run high-amplitude short-duration or long-duration low-amplitude mode, or anything in-between. Any display that uses long-duration low-amplitude driving mode will 'hold' the image, so generate SAH visual artifacts. There is no need to even discuss that. I've pointed out since my first post in our little discussion that the driving mode is determinate of hold-time.

For LCD, the minimum hold-time is the largest of the liquid-crystal rotation time and the hold cap charge/discharge time.

For OLED, the minimum hold-time is the time taken to suck the minute charge out of the switch-transistor's base-pin holding cap (whose value is very very tiny).
Depending on target emitter lifetime, OLEDs can be driven any which way you like. The studies you quote look at specific implementations of OLED, specific driver circuit implementations in particular.

How any particular manufacturer chooses to implement its driver circuit is not my business.

The implementation-independant characteristics of OLED are my business. It is those characteristics that differentiate each display technology, and it is there that the ultimate limits of each can be found.

Even in an LCD, the limiting factor is the liquid crystal rotation time, not the hold cap's discharge rate. It is because of the slow LC that backlight strobing is required to achieve impulse-like performance.

There isn't even sufficient time in a frame for the LC to reach the requested rotation value, never mind to get there from full-block and back again. In contrast, the OLED emitter material is plenty fast enough to do so, providing the AM driver tells it to. And if the driver is told to, it has plenty of speed to make that happen, with room left over for fun :)

Thus, if you prefer the impulse-characteristic, then the correct approach is to lobby the soon-to-be manufacturers to design their driver circuits in that way. And if you're partial to the hold-type characteristic, then too you may be able to influence their decisions.

Remember though, that it is the flexibility of the emitter material which allows manufacturers the luxury of choosing their driving regime with such latitude. That speed consitutes one of the implementation-independent attributes of OLED which grant it a natural advantage over all other display types. Whether it is made use of will depend on many factors, which only the future will reveal in its own time.

http://isochroma.com/Testfiles/Misc/AVS/LCD%20vs.%20OLED%20Circuits.jpg

Let's take another look at this circuit :)

On the left, we'll note that the transistor supplies voltage to the combined capacitance Cs and Clc. To answer xrox's question about why Clc changes: when liquid crystals rotate, their capacitance changes. Now, the capacitance of Clc is pretty small in any state of rotation, and its leakage rate is fairly high.

That is why we need Cs. Cs is a capacitor of much higher value. It provides a source of charge at the voltage level TFT provided when it was on. Because Clc is leaky, charge drains out of Cs into Clc during the time TFT is off.

The problem with the specific circuit pictured above is that in order to keep the voltage across Clc reasonable during TFT's off-time, Cs has to be fairly large, due to Clc's high leakage.

Assuming that Clc is really fast (which it isn't, but let's just assume it is so we can look at the limitations of the other portion of the circuit), we can crank the voltage to maximum across Cs and Clc quickly by activating TFT fully.

The problem comes when we want to bring the voltage across CsClc down to zero quickly. This is because while TFT can provide charge, it cannot be used to remove charge. All we can do is wait for Cs to drain through Clc, which takes a while due to its large capacity.

The process can be sped up by inserting a new TFT, called here TFT2, across CsClc. This second transistor short-circuits CsClc when its base is activated, dissipating the charge in CsClc as heat.

Unfortunately, adding TFT2 means requiring a third connection, Data line 2, in order to activate its base. Even worse, each added transistor makes photolith more complex and prone to defects. Adding a third data line is unfeasible as well.

A third data line can be avoided but this requires making the circuit more complex by adding more components behind each pixel, increasing the failure rate and cost even more.

All of these procedures will speed up the non-LC portion of the circuit (TFT and Cs), but won't help with the slow rotation-rate of Clc's liquid crystal.

Turning to the right circuit (OLED), we see that as soon as TFT2 is turned off, the OLED extinguishes immediately. There is no need to wait for stored charge to deplete, or slow liquid crystals to rotate to their relaxed position. The OLED's excitation-de-excitation times are in the microsecond range.

The slowest component in the OLED circuit is Cs, whose value is low enough that it can be charged and discharged many thousands of times per second. We can make Cs small because TFT2, being a transistor, has extremely minimal leakage current between its base pin and source/drain pins; better electron retention means less reserve is needed to maintain pressure during TFT1's off phase.

Back to the LCD circuit: if we increase the leakage through Clc, or put a resistor in parallel with it, then Cs will be discharged quicker. Unfortunately, we will need a larger value of Cs to hold sufficient charge between TFT on-cycles. The larger value of Cs will precisely eliminate any gains to be had by its faster discharge.

To sum up, liquid crystal operation is a messy compromise. There are methods that may marginally improve performance of the purely electrical portion of its action, but such improvements are small and come at high material cost - not to mention being negated by LC's slow response. Thus, they are not implemented in commercial products.

Due to its different nature, the OLED emitter doesn't require such compromises, and thus naturally achieves higher performance. The one extra cost is the second transistor, needed because diodes require a constant-current source, rather than LC's constant-voltage.

Perhaps you don't remember that the caps have values which differ by at least an order of magnitude. Think! The diagram omits the cap values because it's intended as a basic structural exposition; it's assumed that the viewer has an understanding of basic analog circuits. It is also assumed the viewer will be cognizant of the vastly different values of the two caps, considering their places in the circuit. Not only did I not say they did I also don't need to use such condescending attitudes :) You really need to stop that.

As for SAH, I've already told you that the driver circuit design is responsible for its presence. That is independent of OLED technology. It occurs whenever you keep pixels at the requested value for an entire frame.......... So after saying there is no hold time issue in AMOLED you go and say that the driving scheme causes the hold time :rolleyes: Of course it does, I've told you ten times. Active matrix is a driving scheme!! I've posted more than enough confirmed proof that AMOLED suffers from SAH and why.

Then you say there is no way a capacitor is in AMOLED and that is just my lack of knowledge. But alas when I point out using actual proof that there is a capacitor you say Oh! of course but tell me all about it's technical purpose (which I already told you) rather then saying you were wrong about that.

Even in an LCD, the limiting factor is the liquid crystal rotation time, not the hold cap's discharge rate. It is because of the slow LC that backlight strobing is required to achieve impulse-like performance. How can you say this when I've posted scientific evidence that directly contradicts this assumption of yours. Throughout your argument not once have you posted any sort of confirmed information. Just your thoughts which I have questioned. I on the other hand have posted many technical papers which totally contradict what you believe.

This is not my thoughts versus your thoughts. This is your thoughts versus what actually exists in scientific papers and journals. Did you read the paper that studied motion blurring on SAH displays and determined that even in current LCDs SAH is by far the major cause of motion blurring.

So answer me this: How can a large area TV OLED (AM or PM) using current materials achieve impulse like performance with high brightness and long lifetime. If it can't be done what must they do to fix the problem?

Better yet state simply why you think OLED needs to use AM? (number one reason)

What about LCD - why did they need to use AM? (number one reason), hint look a few post up :)

Rather than continue with this I must just choose to ignore Iso's misinformation about certain things. Overall, this thread is a great resource thanks to Iso himself. I just cannot agree on this one topic as I actually have proof to the contrary. I don't know what else to do.

So in summary the actual facts are:

-PM has very short high current emission times that are not feasable in large area displays with many pixels and long lifetime requirements.

-AM has much longer lower current emission times that allow for use in large area displays with many pixels and long lifetime requirements.

This is due to the simple facts that OLEDs lifetime is inversly proportional to current through the device. AM is used to extend lifetime while maintaining high brightness.

If you won't take my word for it just google AMOLED versus PMOLED

http://www.onestopdisplays.net/FAQ/FAQ_AMvPM.pdf
http://www.universaldisplay.com/passive.htm
http://www.universaldisplay.com/active.htm

The one problem with AMOLED is that just like LCDs it will suffer from motion blurring from the sample and hold effect (not the same as response time).

120Hz refresh, Black Frame insertion, or pulse width modulation are all concepts to solve the problem.

link 3 (http://sid.aip.org/getpdf/servlet/GetPDFServlet?filetype=pdf&id=JSIDE8000013000005000447000001&idtype=cvips&pc=SID132369&auth=NaHR9X7bREslTAS3Fpw47aiSvkKz1WLCE46JEs6kgQA=)

An ideal solution would be to produce a high luminous efficiency OLED that requires very little power to achieve high brightness in very short pulses with long lifetimes. That is what research is still focusing on.

You are confusing AM driving schemes with OLED. Neither OLED itself nor the various driving schemes require either long or short hold times, on a purely technical basis.

"So after saying there is no hold time issue in AMOLED you go and say that the driving scheme causes the hold time Of course it does, I've told you ten times. Active matrix is a driving scheme!! I've posted more than enough confirmed proof that AMOLED suffers from SAH and why."
It is not active matrix which 'causes' hold time. Both passive-matrix and active-matrix can run OLED emitters continuously or in pulsed operation. It is not economical to run passive-matrix in continuous operation, so that is not done. It is economical to run AM in either pulsed or continuous mode.

"This is not my thoughts versus your thoughts. This is your thoughts versus what actually exists in scientific papers and journals. Did you read the paper that studied motion blurring on SAH displays and determined that even in current LCDs SAH is by far the major cause of motion blurring."
And in my previous post I explained why LCDs always operate in hold mode. And SAH is of course the cause of motion blurring. And SAH itself is unavoidable with liquid crystals because of their limited rotation rate. Limited rotation rate creates both undesireable intermediate values and prevents pulsed operation. Barring any major breakthrough in liquid crystal formulation, it looks like we're stuck with only small improvements in that area.

Then you say there is no way a capacitor is in AMOLED and that is just my lack of knowledge. But alas when I point out using actual proof that there is a capacitor you say Oh! of course but tell me all about it's technical purpose (which I already told you) rather then saying you were wrong about that.
Context! My fault was to not specify where the cap is located, and its purpose (if it is used). You found one design which uses caps to hold the TFT base pin's voltage, so that the PCB drive circuitry's cost can be reduced by driving only one or a set of rows/columns at one time. That method is one implementation of active matrix, and is neither a performance constraining one nor characteristic of all implementations.

Regardless, in LCD passive- or active-matrix circuits, the cap is not the limiting factor preventing faster switching speed. In OLED circuits, due to the extremely fast response of the emitter, cap drain speed may very well be the limiting factor, but it is still orders of magnitude faster than any LCD, and well within the cycle rate necessary for visual strobing.

"The one problem with AMOLED is that just like LCDs it will suffer from motion blurring from the sample and hold effect (not the same as response time)."
The 'problem' is neither active matrix nor OLED, it is the driver design. Because you've found one company with a particular design which runs in continuous emission mode, doesn't mean that other AM designs won't run in pulsed mode. Active-matrix does not imply continuous emission any more than passive-matrix implies pulsed operation. In the case of passive-matrix, for economic feasibility pulsed-mode operation is used, but it is not required in a technical sense.

Active matrix means there's one or more transistors or other 'active' components under the pixel. These 'active' components allow voltage to be switched into the cell from ITO power planes via a low-current control signal. Active-matrix does not specifically require either constant-on or impulse operational modes. It can accomodate either one, depending on design - which is largely driven by economics. And when I say economics, I mean both the cost of on-PCB drive circuitry and the 'price' of burning out OLED emitters quicker using high peak driving schemes.

It is up to manufacturers to decide which mode they prefer. Whichever they use, it will be with active-matrix circuits for large displays.

There will be no end to this discussion until you understand how basic electronics works, at which point you'll be able to answer these questions yourself.

You are confusing AM driving schemes with OLED. Neither OLED itself nor the various driving schemes require either long or short hold times, on a purely technical basis. LOL, I am not confusing anything Iso. I am just regurgitating what is in the posted literature. Believe what you will but the facts are straightforward and for all to see in the literature. You sure are stubborn and wrong, a bad combination. Stick to posting actual articles and scientific information as you have in the past. It is a very usefull thread.

Cheers

You sure are stubborn and wrong, a bad combination. Stick to posting actual articles and scientific information as you have in the past. It is a very usefull thread.
I've run an electronics lab for over a decade. I've built analog and digital circuits, high and low voltage. If you have a better understanding of the electrical characteristics of driver circuits, you are encouraged to post specifics. As for my statements, I believe them to be correct and will continue to do so until you can refute them.

Having read "A new driving method introducing a display period for AMOLEDs", I'm not particularly suprised to find that their driving method is similar in some respects to plasma.

Though it solves the motion blur problem by lighting each pixel for only a portion of the frametime, it introduces some other problems, which heretofore have been characteristic of plasma. In particular, I'm disappointed to see the "Peak luminance" plan. It means that, just like plasma, bright scenes will have lower pixel luminance than dark ones. Whites will look 'dirty' just like with plasma.

The primary goal of their 'peak luminance' scheme is to reduce the cost of drive circuitry by making it too weak to power the entire display fully. Instead, total power will be constrained such that the product of the total number of pixels times their intensity will be a constant.

It is sad to see the potentials of such nice emitters being sabotaged before they can really shine. However, these plans may very well never come to fruition.

Strobing can be achieved without peak luminance limitation under a power * area curve, with only a minor increase in driver circuit cost.

Regarding this discussion, we can continue as long as you wish. Perhaps we may even provide this thread's many other observers with both education and entertainment, while we await substantive news from the manufacturers.

Since you're interested in strobing to overcome the SAH effect, and I've said that it can be accomplished with active-matrix circuitry, we both have good news to give one another. It's really good news because large displays both require active-matrix and also show SAH artifacting (with more pronounced visiblity than small displays).

So, I propose that between us, we develop a homegrown driving scheme for OLED pixels that allows both intraframe off-times and excludes the undesireable limitations of plasma drive circuitry, such as APL limiting. Thus we may grow sweet crops from the fertile soil of argumentation.

Reading your link on active-matrix displays, I've pinpointed some areas which can be clarified. The following quote is from that article.

"As a result, the AMOLED operates at all times (i.e., for the entire frame scan), avoiding the need for the very high currents required for passive matrix operation."
It's important to understand that like the PM design, the AM design's on-PCB driver circuit operates in line-by-line or column-by-column scan mode. The main difference is that the AM design allows each pixel to hold its value continuously, rather than strobe at high intensity for a portion of the frametime.

This 'scan' mode is not necessitated by either AM or PM in particular, but is used by both designs to save money by using fewer components in the driver circuitry. 'Scan' mode is cheaper because you only need componentry to address one row/column at a time.

Both AM and PM can be run in 'scanless' or totally-addressed mode. This is where each pixel's addressing is handled separately from others. It costs more, but can be done. It is not likely to be commercially available due to economic reasons, regrettably.

We are thus left with active-matrix and scanning for large displays.

The active-matrix scanned mode can be used to achieve strobe action by increasing the scan speed such that there is time for two transitions per frame, instead of one. The first transition is from discharged to charged (with the charge voltage determined by requested brightness). The second transition is from charged to discharged (black).

The paper referenced in my previous post posits one of many methods to achieve such a device. There's plenty of room for new proposals.

The good news for you is that what you seem to want out of OLED - a reduction or total elimination of the SAH artifact, can be achieved at reasonable economic cost by using high-speed active-matrix scanning with two transitions per frametime, or equivalent methods using various mutations of the basic AM driver circuit.

Whether manufacturers will decide to use one of these methods in their products, is a question only the future will answer.

At this point I'm done with what needs to be said, and over the volume of material we've posted, I think we both have a good idea that what is wanted can be achieved, within technical and economic constraints. Personally, I hope that we can both find a resolution of our concerns in this positive outcome and return to our usual pursuits.

Waiting is hard, especially for those whose ideals are crushed by the current devices on the market. Expectations and projections can be tossed back and forth for eternities, but in the end only patience and time will deliver answers to those questions. In the meantime, my busy life will take me away from this subject once more, for periods of time unpredictable.

Before I go, I'd like to invite anyone observing this discussion, who is qualified by electronics experience to provide their input about the statements that have been made. It is always helpful to have third parties who can lend their voice to the exposition. In particular, I'm thinking about bringing some electronics professionals here to provide their advice on the subject.

Having read "A new driving method introducing a display period for AMOLEDs", I'm not particularly suprised to find that their driving method is similar in some respects to plasma. I've posted for the last 24 hours that SAH is a problem with AMOLED and once you finally read this paper you say your not surprised ?

Anyway, at least you finally agree with the literature :) Did you happen to see what Conventional driving schemes are for AMOLED. This is what I've been saying from the very beginning, and several literature sources back me up.

Though it solves the motion blur problem by lighting each pixel for only a portion of the frametime It does not solve it at all. It only reduces it. Look at the ratings I posted a while back. In order to reach CRT levels you need emission times shorter than 2ms per frame period. SAH effect is purely persistence of vision. The shorter the emission time per frame the crisper the motion. And this driving scheme at best will match Plasma at an average 4-6ms.

Since you're interested in strobing to overcome the SAH effect, and I've said that it can be accomplished with active-matrix circuitry, we both have good news to give one another. It's really good news because large displays both require active-matrix and also show SAH artifacting (with more pronounced visiblity than small displays).

So, I propose that between us, we develop a homegrown driving scheme for OLED pixels that allows both intraframe off-times and excludes the undesireable limitations of plasma drive circuitry, such as APL limiting. Thus we may grow sweet crops from the fertile soil of argumentation. I personally think that to " fully" overcome SAH using AM or PM circuitry will require different EL materials at the least. Specifically higher luminous efficiency and lifetimes. This will give loads of lattitude when it comes to current driving and emission times.

Reading your link on active-matrix displays, I've pinpointed some areas which can be clarified. The following quote is from that article.

"As a result, the AMOLED operates at all times (i.e., for the entire frame scan), avoiding the need for the very high currents required for passive matrix operation."
It's important to understand that like the PM design, the AM design's on-PCB driver circuit operates in line-by-line or column-by-column scan mode. The main difference is that the AM design allows each pixel to hold its value continuously, rather than strobe at high intensity for a portion of the frametime. Explained this 10 times already (look back)

The active-matrix scanned mode can be used to achieve strobe action by increasing the scan speed such that there is time for two transitions per frame, instead of one. The first transition is from discharged to charged (with the charge voltage determined by requested brightness). The second transition is from charged to discharged (black).

The paper referenced in my previous post posits one of many methods to achieve such a device. There's plenty of room for new proposals. Yes but all proposals are limited by the material lifetime issues. There is no way to get high enough brightness in microseconds without cranking up the current to lifetime killing levels, this is why we need higher efficiency materials with longer lifetimes.

The good news for you is that what you seem to want out of OLED - a reduction or total elimination of the SAH artifact, can be achieved at reasonable economic cost by using high-speed active-matrix scanning with two transitions per frametime, or equivalent methods using various mutations of the basic AM driver circuit.

Whether manufacturers will decide to use one of these methods in their products, is a question only the future will answer.

At this point I'm done with what needs to be said, and over the volume of material we've posted, I think we both have a good idea that what is wanted can be achieved, within technical and economic constraints. Personally, I hope that we can both find a resolution of our concerns in this positive outcome and return to our usual pursuits. I think OLEDs is a great technology and I think this thread is a great resource but I know that large AMOLEDs will not achieve CRT motion performance unless better materials are used.

Before I go, I'd like to invite anyone observing this discussion, who is qualified by electronics experience to provide their input about the statements that have been made. It is always helpful to have third parties who can lend their voice to the exposition. In particular, I'm thinking about bringing some electronics professionals here to provide their advice on the subject. Aside from this just do a search of SID or IDW display journals on AMOLEDs and how the SAH effect is being dealt with.

Considering the high peak brightness and short on-times you quote, you are correct in that the primary problem to be solved if manufacturers decide that SAH warrants their attentions, is the emission material.

The OLED emission material would have to withstand significantly higher peak currents than it currently can to achieve such high-peak short emission times.

A large determinant of power-delivery schedule of the active-matrix driving circuitry in the first discrete OLED displays on the market, will be the lifetime vs. power density characteristic achieved by OLED forumulation at that time.

It may be the case that in order to save costs, manufacturers could use continuous-emission mode in their first models. This may be a horror to you, but a large fraction of the population is not disturbed by SAH artifacting; personally, I can barely notice it in LCDs fed 60 fps (interlaced) video.

Manufactureres may decide that other attributes of their OLED devices will be sufficient for buyers to pay its premium price: perfect black level, high color purity, high resolution, light weight, low power consumption, thinness.

SAH is but one attribute in a larger mix, in a market that is under very rapid change.

Considering the high peak brightness and short on-times you quote, you are correct in that the primary problem to be solved if manufacturers decide that SAH warrants their attentions, is the emission material.

The OLED emission material would have to withstand significantly higher peak currents than it currently can to achieve such high-peak short emission times.

A large determinant of power-delivery schedule of the active-matrix driving circuitry in the first discrete OLED displays on the market, will be the lifetime vs. power density characteristic achieved by OLED forumulation at that time.

It may be that, in order to save costs, manufacturers could use continuous-emission mode in their first models. This may be a horror to you, but a large fraction of the population is not disturbed by SAH artifacting; personally, I can barely notice it in LCDs fed 30 fps. video.

Manufactureres may decide that other attributes of their OLED devices will be sufficient for buyers to pay its premium price: perfect black level, high color purity, high resolution, light weight, low power consumption, thinness, etc. The funny thing is, and you may laugh at me for this, that I have extremely fast retinal persistence and thus do not see much motion blurring even on LCDs. I don't even see those plasma rainbows people complain about but I know they exist. I am more interested in the science than anything else as that is what I do for a living.

A final horror which I sometimes ponder: even with the lowest-cost circuitry and panel componentry, AMOLED may never displace LCD from the TV-size market, or it may take longer than the decade so optimistically forecast by certain analysts (see stories). The picture in my head is of us struggling to make a better chair arrangement on the Titanic's deck, as it slowly sinks below the waves.

It's not outside the bounds of probability that I may not be able to buy a 40"-class OLED TV inside my lifetime, though I certainly hope and believe that this won't be the case.

OLED is having a slow and complex birth process; right now the key to economic success is mass production on a big scale, and material cost reduction too. I'd be really happy to get any TV-sized OLED and, personally, wouldn't be too mad if it didn't have strobing. Others will have different priorities, I know.

On the topic of SAH vs. impulse displays, some personal observations of myself and friends. I get headaches after a few hours of using my PC CRT at 88hz. I can't watch plasmas in the local store for more than a few minutes without eyestrain & the beginning of headaches.

LCD however, does not cause me such problems, even under extensive viewing. Two of my friends won't buy anything but LCD, despite my encouragement to get a good CRT. One of them gets terrible headaches from any kind of CRT.

Because of these problems, I will not purchase any display product that uses impulse operation. When my savings are sufficient, the CRT will be replaced with an LCD or OLED display, which uses the SAH driving method.

Both SAH and impulse modes have certain advantages, and certain disadvantages. Since we probably know well the advantages of impulse for motion rendering, maybe it's time to mention that a good portion of the population is sick of living so long with interlaced, flickering CRTs.

The problem of flicker (interlaced and non-interlaced {strobe}) and the health problems it causes in a significant fraction of the general population will drive them to pay the high cost of new display technologies only if they offer relief from the pain. A pain that gets worse as the display size increases and APL rises.

LCD has already given them the taste of a stable, flicker-free image. Some will notice and be displeased by motion smear on SAH displays, but at least as many and probably more will find the eased eyestrain and vanished headaches to be of greater value.

Considering the pressure to get OLED displays onto the market ASAP at a price and with a lifetime that have some hope of competing with LCD, manufacturers may decide that not only is impulse operation unworthy of inclusion due to panel lifetime degeneration, but that it is an active liability for their first products, where eyestrain considerations will be paramount: PC displays.

Now I'm not privy to these manufacturers' internal decision-making processes, but if I was in their board rooms casting a vote and giving a reason for it, I would make a logical argument against the impulsive driving method for at least first-generation products, for the reasons outlined above.

I would further add to that argument that if impulsive driving were to be implemented, it ought to be added to the top end of the product mix as a premium feature: for only those whose concern with motion rendering stands above all other priorities.

The rationale for this argument is that OLED's small (projected) market is already priced out of sight of such a large fraction of the population, that its production costs will be difficult enough to recoup as is, without further fragmenting or alienating its (prospective) toehold in the market by introducing a feature which decreases panel lifetime significantly (from the already limited OLED lifetime) and alienates potential customers who are affected by flicker sensitivity.

The more I think about it, the more convinced I become that it is suicide for an aspiring OLED display manufacturer to even attempt introducing their product with this 'feature', given that it is short lifetime that has kept OLED off the market for so long.

Their products will have significantly shorter lifetime than competitors' SAH products, and they will have to wait longer than their competitors for sufficient emitter material advancement to enable the release of a product with acceptable lifetime and color-shift (differential aging). The marginally higher price they (may) be able to get for it will not be sufficient compensation for delayed introduction and smaller market (flicker-sensitive segment).

So Ischroma, does this mean that OLED HDTV sets (when it launches after this decade) would be faster than all other display tech including CRT (not sure about Laser TV....but we'll see ;) )???

Will it still hold the title as "SPEED KING" in the world of consumer display tech???

That depends on how manufacturers choose to implement the driving circuitry. The OLED emitter itself has the capability to be as fast as the drive circuitry's designed to drive it. There is a price to pay in terms of lifetime, when using the impulse driving method. Manufacturers will decide whether that 'price' is worth the extra returns they may get by pricing the product higher.

The material cost to implement impulsive drive, apart from accelerated emitter aging, is very low. I'll be posting some schematics later which show how to achieve impulse driving using standard active-matrix scan circuitry, without the excessive complexity of other designs.

Ah, the heat & humidity plus chores kept me away for a while, but on with the show!


http://i27.tinypic.com/15p0ggx.png

The circuit above I drafted this morning, as a modification to the one posted previously. It allows the standard row-scanning on-PCB circuit to be adapted to impulse operation.

R1's value is chosen to drain C such that the voltage drop across Z keeps it in the breakdown region for the desired operation time. When the voltage across Z falls to breakdown, Z becomes nonconducting. The high-value (megohm) resistor R2 then pulls the base of TFT2 down, shutting it off and extinguishing OLED.

The circuit does not, at OLED, generate the ideal square-wave source. It does, however, suffice to provide sufficient impulsivity without the requirement for more transistors.

Transistor budget is at most three on mass-produced glass-photolith'd planes, due to defects. Even the single transistor behind LCD LCs is frequently defective, causing 'stuck' pixels. This is one reason why the previous design, while an excellent demonstration of good technique, will not be feasible in a mass-production scenario.

This circuit is a crude first approximation of something which can do the job. There are undoubtedly other implementations which perform better and stay within a three-transistor budget.

Too late. OLED is surpassed by IOD (Iron Oxide Display). (http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/32783/113/)

Seriously, think of all the research being done on displays, especially over the last 10 to 15 years. Whatever displays are available 10 to 15 years from now, I'll bet they'll be very good, very light, very thin and very cheap.

Your efforts are appreciated but there is a problem with your post, namely that it is off-topic. The topic of this thread is "OLED TVs: Technology Advancements Thread".

Your post has absolutely nothing to do with OLED TVs. If you feel this technology's applications warrant the attention of viewers, please start a new thread with a topic of the appropriate title.

I don't agree, competing technologies are related to OLEDs simply because they are competitors. It is hardly off topic. If I was to talk about how awesome Oberweis's butter pecan ice cream is, that would be off topic. Also, to do so would be unethical because that flavor of ice cream has 26 grams of fat per cup. Unforgivable.

In this case, the "rusty" technology that Navychop has linked to is certainly NOT a replacement for OLEDs. It appears to be an inferior type of display, since it is limited to tiiiiiny sizes and also appears to lack the self-emissive quality that OLEDs possess, although I don't doubt it probably has some legitimate uses.

There's plenty of room up one level, in the sub-forum where this thread exists. It is called:

"Flat Panel General & New FP Tech"

Note the "New FP Tech" part of the title. That means iron TVs, etc.

Now as for the off-topic post, it is not "hardly off topic" it is "completely off topic". The topic of this thread is not "new FP tech" or "OLED tech & other tech" or "OLED tech & iron TVs" it is "OLED tech". The "New FP Tech" is one level up from here, and that is where such posts belong. How is anyone going to know how great the new iron TVs will be if the post is hidden in the hole down here?

I suspect that your explanatory post, recounting to us why navychop's post is off-topic, is itself off-topic and therefore mildly ironic.

People who are interested in OLED tech are HIGHLY LIKELY to be interested in competing/related technologies and therefore such technologies can legitimately be discussed in a thread that focuses on OLEDs. If he had wishes to discuss iron oxide Tvs, and failed to connect them to OLEDs as a potential competitor, then indeed he should post his comments to a new thread in FP General & New FP

PS...does anyone want to bet on whether Sony will make good on their promise to mass manufacture 1000 11" OLEDs by the end of 2007? I personally doubt they will be able to, even though they keep assuring us they got the right stuff.

I think Samsung SDI's initiatives with small-size OLEDs are more promising, it will allow them to hone their manufacturing techniques to improve production yields, etc, which will finally allow OLEDs to become mainstream devices.

Indeed, Samsung probably has the lead, especially considering how early they demonstrated their 40" OLED TV. Undoubtedly they will be one of the biggest players in the coming OLED market, starting with handhelds.

As for Sony, they seem to have some excellent tech and will probably be following closed behind.

Note the use of the word "Seriously."

The point is that OLED, and any other technology, must move to market quickly. There are many other hounds nipping at their heels.

Thread Update (links go to original articles; see the end of my previous post for archived stories)

I'd appreciate it if you were to include a link to your previous post.

I'd love to do it, but the pages generated by this forum only include anchors at the top of each post. So if I linked to the last post I made (which includes this story), the page would load it with the top showing. You'd still have to scroll all the way to the bottom of that post to see the last story. Maybe there's some way to add anchor code in posts, to allow linking to say the bottom of a post...

I'm considering posting stories individually with each update, then moving them to the archive-post on the next update. The idea has so far been to avoid fragmentation by putting all stories in one post, limited only by the 10-picture-per-post maximum.

I'd love to do it, but the pages generated by this forum only include anchors at the top of each post. So if I linked to the last post I made (which includes this story), the page would load it with the top showing. You'd still have to scroll all the way to the bottom of that post to see the last story.

That would be fine.

It would at least put you in the general area. As it is, I have just been clicking on your link to the original article and that is fine also, so no biggie.

I'll probably start doing that with new items.

Too late. OLED is surpassed by IOD (Iron Oxide Display). (http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/32783/113/)

Unfortunately, this is just a small prototype. They would first need a big company to get them to recognition (unlike OLED which already has Sony and Samsung working hard in and releasing prototypes).

So atm, it hasn't surpassed OLED in terms of which tech will come out first.

I told my professor about [OLED flat panels] since he worked in the industry with Philips in OLED development. He was explaining to me that there were people that made OLEDs out of peanut butter or bananas. Something edible. I showed him some articles taken from magazines about Sony at CES with their OLED display. I am seriously considering taking his lab in which we design and create a functioning OLED display. Cal Poly is really following through with their mission statement of "learn by doing." I will refer him to this link!

According to the following report the first OLED from Sony will cost 7x the LCD equivalent.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20070725/136757/

"The company projected a cost of Sony's 11-inch organic EL panel will be around $700 (USD). That is equivalent to the cost of a 40-inch class LCD panel, while the costs of current 10-inch class LCD panels are about $100 per panel."

According to the following report the first OLED from Sony will cost 7x the LCD equivalent.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20070725/136757/

"The company projected a cost of Sony's 11-inch organic EL panel will be around $700 (USD). That is equivalent to the cost of a 40-inch class LCD panel, while the costs of current 10-inch class LCD panels are about $100 per panel."

Aww that sucks.

But this is still normal. Just like any first-gen technology, it will cost very high. I think this is expected.

Hopefully, there will be a reduction every year. Ie. If OLED costs 7x LCD price this year, then it should be 6x the LCD by next year. 5x the year after. 4x LCD by year 2010......and so on.........I hope.

Good thing though is that the more OLED TV tech matures (along with its price drops), the more it improves.

Prototype OLED TV tech is atm capable of around less than one millisecond or faster (<0.01 ms). By the end of this decade, I expect that the response time to be faster than that. Blue OLED lifetimes will also be capable of reaching the 60k hour holy grail lifespan and power consumption (currently at less than 100 watts) may even be improved slightly if manufacturers have nothing else to do.

With that said, I still believe that the future for OLED TV still looks bright as ever. :)

What a waste of money, IMHO. The far superior company is Universal Display Corporation, they are the ones who own the IP for phosphorescent OLEDs....the tech that will be in displays by Sony, Samsung SDI, LG Philips LCD, LG electronics, Chi Mei, and other major manufacturers.

I don't care if Satan owns it, just somebody bring it to market!

Any new updates about OLED???

I don't care if Satan owns it,

:D

Hi i found a interesting article about the release of OLED-Tvs at:
release-of-oled-tvs (http://www.oled-display.net/release-of-oled-tvs)

Well that whole artical is just a rehash of the current standing of OLED, every thing thats been being said for the last 4 years.

If though there is a buyable unit on the retail shelf next year or even 09 then it's showing someone beleaves it will eventually be a big player and that it can compete in a price/features war eventually. I don't care if its here in 5 years I just don't want it to die off because of cost. I would buy a 1980 x 1200 computer display for over a $1,000 in a heartbeat if it looks like i beleave it will. I can see a path where it could start with graphic artist then move on to main stream retail.

Same here.

OLED Videos

▪ Sony Moves a Step Closer to OEL TV (11" & 27") [ Stream (http://movie.diginfo.tv/2007/08/23/07-0253-r.php) / AVI (http://sharebee.com/0d0b425d) / MKV (http://sharebee.com/7df4f6c4) : 6.6 MB ]
▪ Epson 40" OLED Display [ MKV (http://sharebee.com/c5a0000f) : 0.8 MB ]
▪ Wil Wheaton praises Sony's 1,000,000:1 Contrast OLED TVs [ Stream (http://www.lemaroc.org/videos/video-3Ufs9Wx0VXQ.html) / AVI (http://sharebee.com/b998f334) / MKV (http://sharebee.com/d3bc262d) : 5.2 MB ]

▪ lemaroc.org: OLED Videos (http://www.lemaroc.org/videos/recherche-OLED.html)
▪ takatv.com: OLED Videos (http://www.takatv.com/recherche-page0-OLED.html)

Thread Update (links go to original articles; see the end of my previous post for archived stories):

28 August 2007: Cambridge Display Technology and Sumation Announce Further Improved Performance of Green and Red P-OLED Materials (http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/primenewswire/125619.htm)

That's superb news indeed.

Hopefully, there will be new announcements on lifespan improvement to Blue OLED materials within the year.

Can't wait for those to come out :)

Only slightly off-topic:

Is it just me or is Wil Wheaton getting a lot of props & plugs in the geek news world these days? Dude's a has-been child sci-fi actor. We shouldn't be celebrating him, we should be ignoring him to the dustheap of society, just like Mark Hammil.

*sigh* the geek world's doomed when an aging Wesley Crusher's our idol...

Blackraven, the news isn't particularly superb at all. Those improvements are to polymeric LED (POLED) materials, not PHOLEDs, which are the type of OLED that is currently expected to appear in OLED TVs. You should watch for news from Universal Display Corporation, they are the ones whose research is likely to usher in the age of OLED televisions. Currently, it is anyone's guess when long lasting blue PHOLED materials will be created. It requires a dramatic improvement over today's levels. In the meantime, blue fluourescent material can be substituted (that is what Sony, toshiba, Samsung) etc are doing. This has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Lexx, are you basically saying that the geek world should shun Wil Wheaton because he is basically a geek? Should we look for someone cooler?

Carmack, Romero, Kutaragi, Miyamoto, Molyneux, Meier, Wright...all better examples of the "gods" of gaming.

If I'm going to idolize someone, it better be someone amazing. If, as a geek, I'm going to idolize someone, it'll be a notable creator. Wheaton's just a 30-something adult geek with a family and a blog - not exactly amazing or accomplished. The only thing making him notable is his former role as Wesley Crusher, and that doesn't make him awesome, it makes him LAME.

For the same reason I think Dustin Diamond is lame and doesn't deserve the spotlight he occasionally receives these days.

Any new updates?

OLEDs enjoy growing demand (http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/09/12/200709120024.asp)
12 September 2007

Dubbed next-generation displays in the industry, organic light-emitting diodes are flourishing in the display market, at least in terms of revenue and shipments, a report said yesterday.

According to the quarterly OLED shipment and forecast report by the market research group DisplaySearch, the OLED market grew 24 percent in the second quarter from a year ago, hitting the 19.8 million mark in total shipments.

The combined revenue from OLEDs reached $123.4 million in the second quarter, up 13 percent from a year ago, the report showed.

"As OLED displays become more prevalent in key small and medium display applications like mobile phones, main displays and sub-displays, MP3s and automotive consoles, they become increasingly competitive in comparison with LCDs," said DisplaySearch senior vice president Barry Young in a statement.

OLEDs produce brighter colors, higher contrast ratios and have a broader viewing angle than LCDs. OLED pixels directly emit light whereas LCDs have to use backlights.

"Over the next year, we are expecting revenues to grow by 117 percent due to the introduction of AMOLED (active matrix OLED) displays for mobile phones and digital cameras, plus the added number of suppliers including TPO, LG.Philips LCD and Casio," Young said.

The report said that AMOLEDs are beginning to impact the market as Samsung SDI, the world's top OLED manufacturer, becomes the first company to reach full production of AMOLEDs.

"We have completed the preparation for mass production of 2-inch class AMOLEDs. We cannot disclose the exact date but it is going to be very soon," said Samsung SDI spokesman Seo Hae-soo.

Also, Sony previously had announced that the Japanese electronics giant will mass-produce 11-inch AMOLED TV displays.

AMOLEDs perform much better in video pictures than typical OLEDs.

Separately, Samsung Electronics president of its digital media business, Park Jong-woo, said Samsung is developing 30-inch OLED TVs and plans to release them by 2010, during the consumer electronics trade fair IFA 2007 in Berlin last week.

Regarding any plans to produce OLED displays, an LG.Philips LCD official said the company had previously reviewed the matter but has not come up with a specific plan yet.

"The reason we are still reviewing the matter has nothing to do with technology. We are still closely watching market movements," the officials said, asking not to be named.

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Sharp says Pioneer deal a ’strategic alliance’ (http://avzombie.com/blog/2007/09/20/sharp-says-pioneer-deal-a-strategic-alliance/)
20 September 2007

Mikio Katayama, president and COO of Sharp describes his shock deal with Pioneer as a “strategic business alliance,” citing rapid changes in technology and harsh global competition as a reason for the move. Katayama says: “it is not an exaggeration to say that we cannot predict one year ahead, or half a year, or even three months ahead.”

The two have announced that they will jointly develop OLED display technology, and co-develop mobile technology products. Sharp currently depends on LCD for more than 70 percent of its profit, but such dependency makes it vulnerable to changes in the LCD market. With Pioneer's expertise, it plans on broadening its range and diversifying. Sharp is now the top shareholder in Pioneer.

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OLED-T Green OLED Emitter Offers World Class Efficiency Performance (http://www.oled-info.com/technical_research/oled_t_green_oled_emitter_offers_world_class_efficiency_perf ormance)
25 September 2007

OLED-T today announced a green phosphorescent OLED material with world class efficiency performance.
The new material called E255a has a high colour saturation making it ideal for a broad range of product applications in single colour and full colour displays. The material also has a very high efficiency delivering high brightness at low power making it ideal for mobile product applications with either passive matrix or active matrix driving.

The University of Hong Kong has manufactured OLED demonstrators using E255a and has reported a device efficiency of 40 cd/A at 1000 cdm-2 with a very saturated green colour coordinate of (0.28, 0.64) which is wider than commercially available LCD products.

E225a will be available for customer sampling from January 2008 and can be deposited onto any desired substrate by vacuum coating methods.

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OLEDs storm consumer space (http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202300069)
9 October 2007

Sony and Samsung are both making moves to bring OLED displays to a larger commercial audience. In Sony's case, the target is the television. In Samsung's, it's portable devices.

Sony Corp. will launch an 11-inch ultrathin flat TV with an organic LED display in Japan in December. The model is purported to be the first TV to employ OLED technology. It will vie for a share of an $82 billion market dominated by LCD and plasma panels.

Meanwhile Samsung SDI this week will announce its intention to produce the world's first 3-inch WVGA (480 x 800) active-matrix (AM) OLED panel, using PenTile subpixel rendering technology from Clairvoyante Inc.

Sony's OLED TV will be a commercial breakthrough. The technology's characteristics of energy efficiency, thin size and light weight amount to a crisp picture that Sony said is now suitable for showing fast-moving images from sports events and action movies.

"I want the world's first OLED TV to be the symbol of the revival of Sony's technological prowess. I want this to be the flag under which we charge forward to turn our fortunes around," Sony president Ryoji Chubachi said at a news conference at the company's headquarters, in Tokyo.

But size is still a limitation for OLED technology.

"It seems like it is more about technological leadership than something that can actually have an impact on the TV market," said Paul Semenza, vice president for displays at market research firm iSuppli Corp. Semenza said Sony caused a stir at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January when it showed an OLED prototype display, "which is truly stunning. But in 2007, 11 inches is not a TV; it is a mobile device."

Sony, the world's second-largest maker of LCD TVs (behind Samsung), expects the 11-inch OLED TV to sell for $1,700--almost as high as retail prices of some of its own 40-inch LCD models.

Large-OLED-panel manufacturing is difficult, which limits OLED's appeal as a common display for next-generation TVs. LCD panels dominate, and TV makers are showing LCD and plasma prototypes with much larger panels than OLEDs have achieved to date. Matsushita is even offering 103-inch plasma TVs, while LCD TV makers are offering 40-inch sets, moving up from the predominant 30-inch models.

"I don't think OLED TVs will replace LCD TVs overnight. But I do believe this is a type of technology with very high potential, something that will come after LCD TVs," Sony executive deputy president Katsumi Ihara told reporters at the Tokyo announcement, which was made just before the opening of Ceatec (the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies Providing Images, Information and Communications), Asia's largest annual electronics and communications industry event.

Ihara said he set the price tag of about $1,700 without paying much attention to profitability, suggesting perhaps that Sony is willing to take a loss on each set it sells, at least initially. The TV will go on sale in Japan Dec. 1.

Worth the price?

The set's life span of about 30,000 hours of viewing is roughly half that of Sony's LCD TVs, but long enough to allow eight hours of daily use for 10 years, according to the company. Sony will limit monthly production to 2,000 units, compared with its plans to sell 10 million units of LCD TVs in the year through next March.

"The price is obviously an issue, and the fact that they might not be making a profit on a $1,700 11-inch display says a lot about how far they have to go on cost competitiveness," said iSuppli's Semenza. He pointed out that the lifetime of 30,000 hours could be viewed as considerable "if it was the point at which users started to notice degrading brightness or color shifts." However, he said, Sony could be quoting the set's total useful lifetime, "which suggests that consumers might start to notice changes within 10,000 or 20,000 hours, which is not so good."

"The biggest limitation that active matrix OLED has is the lack of maturity in the manufacturing process and the very limited manufacturing capacity overall," Semenza said. By contrast, the LCD industry has multiple sixth-, seventh- and soon eighth-generation fabs, each of which can produce millions of 30-, 40- and 50-inch TV panels per year. A small number of pilot and fourth-generation lines exist for AM OLEDs. These lines can have an impact on mobile phones and PMPs, but not on TVs, Semenza said.

Samsung's clear choice

In partnering with Clairvoyante--the other 800-pound gorilla in the OLED space--Samsung hopes to overcome performance and manufacturing challenges typical of high-resolution OLED panels.

By incorporating Clairvoyante's PenTile RGB technology, Samsung intends to develop the first handheld WVGA RGB OLED panel. To date, OLED displays for portable computers and mobile devices have been available only in formats up to QVGA (240 x 320). PenTile technology makes it possible to attain WVGA performance by eliminating one-third of the subpixels while maintaining the same display resolution.

Anticipating a strong demand for OLED technology, Samsung recently invested in additional capacity. Industry research group Display Search predicts that the AM OLED market will grow to $5.58 billion by 2011, up from $220.5 million in 2007. Samsung has been fabricating OLED panels since August 2002 for applications in car audio systems, electronic games, MP3 players and, now, cell phones.

"Our partnership with Clairvoyante will create a PenTile OLED panel that will lead the handheld market with a power-efficient, high-resolution OLED panel that supports continued innovation in emerging handheld applications," said Sung-Chul Kim, vice president of Samsung SDI.

Samples of the Samsung panels will be available in the first quarter of 2008, with mass production slated for the third quarter. The new module will be demonstrated later this month at Flat Panel Display International in Yokohama, Japan.

"Samsung SDI's commitment to supporting the growing OLED market will result in small/medium displays that are increasingly competitive with LCDs," said Joel Pollack, president and CEO of Clairvoyante. "Using PenTile technology, Samsung SDI can more quickly capitalize on this market growth by overcoming production hurdles to create high-resolution displays."

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Samsung SDI Starts Mass-Producing AMOLED Displays (http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200710/200710110017.html)
11 October 2007


http://english.chosun.com/media/photo/news/200710/200710110017_01.jpg

Samsung SDI has succeeded in mass-producing AMOLED displays.

Samsung SDI has won the race to start mass-producing a next-generation display screen using active-matrix light-emitting diodes or AMOLED. AMOLED is clearer than the LCD or PDP formats currently used for display screens to a point where the display screen remains clear even under direct sunlight. Electronics companies all over the world have been racing to mass-produce it.

Now South Korean electronics companies can outdistance their Japanese or American rivals. At present, LG Philips LCD, Sony and Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology (TMD) are shaping up to mass-produce AMOLED screens, touted as the future of mobile displays. The size of the market is expected to reach US$3.6 billion (about W3.4 trillion) by 2011.

In a press conference at Samsung SDI's Cheonan Plant, a company spokesman said, "We've received orders from manufacturers of mobile phones or video gadgets for up to 90 percent of next year's production.” Samsung SDI already supplies the product to domestic MP3 player maker Reigncom and has reportedly signed a supply contract with the world's top mobile phone maker Nokia.

Kim Jae-wook, the head of Samsung SDI's display business, said the firm plans to increase its monthly 2-inch AMOLED screen production capacity from the current 1.5 million units to 3 million in 2008. A Samsung SDI spokesman claimed the company has made “a new breakthrough” after sluggish performance in the cathode ray and PDP TV business.

The company’s mass production of AMOLED displays has spurred domestic and foreign display manufacturers to gain a slice of the market. Sony, overtaken by Korean firms in the market for PDP and LCD display screens, has recently produced digital TVs using AMOLED in what looked like an attempt to retrieve its reputation. Despite being only an 11-inch prototype, Sony's product is attracting attention from the industry, and the firm has announced it will produce and sell 1,000 units per month from the end of the year.

TMD is also busy preparing to mass-produce AMOLED. The LG Group has recently put LG Philips LCD in sole charge of the AMOLED project earlier carried out jointly by LG Electronics and LG Philips LCD.

But if AMOLED manufacturers are to take the initiative in the display market, they need to make at least 20-inch monitor screens and 30 to 40-inch screens for digital TVs at affordable prices. The industry predicts that the day will come in four to five years.

Samsung SDI's Kim Jae-wook said, "We've already finished development of AMOLED for 17-inch TVs. The question is whether we can supply them at a competitive price or earn profits, so we'll decide whether to advance into the AMOLED TV market in earnest after studying the market situation."

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The OLED gold rush begins (http://avzombie.com/blog/2007/10/13/the-oled-gold-rush-begins/)
13 October 2007

The great OLED gold rush is on. With both Sony and Samsung SDI making the running with the next generation display technology, other panel-makers are keen to play catch-up. The world’s second-biggest maker of panels, joint-venture company LG.Philips is negotiating with LG Electronics to acquire its OLED division. Kwon Young-soo, CEO of LG.Philips, says he expects to obtain the operation early 2008.

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Seiko Epson to enter ultra-thin panel business (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/International__Business/Seiko_Epson_to_enter_ultra-thin_panel_business/articleshow/2456886.cms)
14 October 2007

TOKYO: Japan's Seiko Epson Corp plans to make ultra-thin flat displays based on organic light-emitting diode technology (OLED) after it expanded the lifespan of the panels, a daily said on Sunday.

The electronics maker has a production line at its Nagano plant and aims to take orders for OLED panels by the end of the year. The plant is capable of manufacturing several thousand OLED panels a year, the daily said.

The company has expanded the life span of OLED panels to more than 50,000 hours compared with the maximum life of standard OLED devices, which is typically 30,000 hours, Nikkei said.

OLED panels, which emit light when an electrical charge is passed through the surface, are lighter and thinner than existing LCD panels or plasma displays, and boast higher contrast pictures, but are also more expensive.

The company plans to start making an eight-inch business-use OLED monitor that is 2.8 millimetre thick at its thinnest part. The production line is also capable of manufacturing larger models of up to 21 inches, the daily said.

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Seiko Epson set to enter OEL panel battleground (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2007/10/15/2003383274)
15 October 2007

Seiko Epson Corp plans to enter the organic electroluminescent (OEL) panels business in a move seen as increasing already severe competition in the flat-panel display sector, a report said yesterday.

Seiko Epson was seeking to take orders for the panels by the end of the year, as it has succeeded in extending the life span of OEL panels to compete with liquid-crystal-display (LCD) and plasma displays, the Nikkei Shimbun said, citing unnamed company sources.

OEL display panels use less power and offer brighter images and wider viewing angles than liquid crystal display panels.

However, the maximum life span of standard OEL devices is typically 30,000 hours, far fewer than the 60,000 hours for LCD and standard plasma displays.

Seiko Epson has now found a way to nearly double the life span of OEL panels to more than 50,000 hours, it said.

The company plans to start its OEL production with an eight-inch business-use monitor that is 2.8mm-thick at its thinnest part in its plant in Nagano Prefecture, the report said.

The company anticipates demand from stores and other commercial facilities as well as for use as monitors in car navigation systems, it said.

Rivalry over the booming global demand for flat-screen TVs has been intensifying among Japanese companies.

Electronics giant Sony Corp has said it plans to begin selling the world's first OEL television in December at a price of ¥200,000 (US$1,700).

Sony's next generation TV has a screen with a thickness of just 3mm, which was made possible because the organic display is self-luminescent and does not require a backlight.

Sharp Corp, the world's largest maker of LCD displays, said in August it had developed a 52-inch LCD TV that is just 2cm thick.

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[FPD International] Epson Develops Long-Life OLED Display System; Produces "Ultimate Black" (http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20071016/140684/)
16 October 2007


http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/20071015PR201_files/1_r.jpg


Seiko Epson Corp has developed an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display system said to be capable of producing "the ultimate black". The light emitting capabilities of OLED displays make possible such features as high contrast, wide viewing angles, and fast response times. In addition, the display can be made very thin and lightweight.

To realize the high-quality representation of textures, Epson has been uncompromising in its efforts to achieve "ultimate black" since it is black that holds the key to overall image quality. Furthermore, the problem of early stage brightness deterioration, until now the major obstacle to extending the life of the device, was solved by improving the light-emitting materials and through the development of the company's own original element structure. As a result, the life of the device is lengthened to more than 50,000 hours, a level appropriate for practical application.

Epson has already installed and commenced operations of a development and manufacturing line that is capable of small-scale production at its Fujimi Plant in Nagano prefecture, Japan.

The company will showcase the OLED panel as a reference exhibit at FPD International 2007, which will open Oct 24, 2007, in Yokohama City, Japan.

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[FPD International] Tokki, GE Co-develop Film Sealing Equipment for Organic EL Devices (http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20071023/141100/)
23 October 2007


http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20071023/141100/tokkiA.jpg

Samples made with the film sealing equipment. The luminous layer is about
1 × 1cm. Sealing films cover the luminous layers. Transparent ITO electrodes look
like crossing at right angles on the luminous layers.


Tokki Corp prototyped a plasma CVD (chemical vapor deposition) film sealing equipment for organic EL devices and confirmed its ability by sealing some organic EL layers. The company has been developing the equipment with GE Global Research, central laboratory of General Electric Co of the US.

By improving the productivity of the equipment, Tokki aims to release sealing equipments for mass production of organic EL devices within 2008. Compared with glass sealing, which is currently used, film sealing enables to reduce the number of parts and devices and can be applied to flexible panels, the company said.

The prototype of the equipment will be exhibited at FPD International 2007 from Oct 24, 2007, at Pacifico Yokohama, Yokohama City, Japan.

The newly-developed sealing equipment can be used for the fourth-generation glass substrates (730 × 920mm), which the company's other organic EL device manufacturing equipments can deal with. The verification of the technology was conducted with a 200 × 200mm glass substrate.

An Alq3 organic EL layer, which is about 1 × 1cm and sandwiched between transparent ITO electrodes, was formed on the glass substrate. Then, thin sealing films of several nanometers thick were accumulated on the layer.

The sealing films were developed by GE Global Research. Several organic and inorganic layers are piled up to form a barrier film that prevents a luminous layer from deteriorating by protecting it from humidity and gases.

Compositions of the organic and inorganic layers are gradually changed to form a film so that the degree of adhesion between layers increases. And the high degree of adhesion will help to prevent cracks on the film when it is used for flexible substrates in the future, the company said. Its gas barrier ability is in the level of 10-6g/m2 per day.

Film sealing does not need sealing glass, adhesive, desiccant agent and others. Also, film sealing enables to make thinner devices because it does not require glass.

Glass sealing requires about five processes such as cleaning sealing glass and vacuum degassing in addition to automated transportation systems between those processes. In film sealing, only one process, vacuum chamber, is needed.

"We want to cut the price of the equipment by half (compared with glass sealing equipments)," said Osamu Oshinden, senior manager of the corporate planning department in Tokki.

To achieve this goal, in the second stage of the joint development, settings will be adjusted to improve productivity by reducing takt time and using larger substrates, he said. The first target will be OLED panels, but flexible OLED panels and OLED lamps will be the next targets, he added.

Tokki and GE announced in January 2007 that they launched a one-year joint development project toward the practical use of film sealing technologies for organic EL devices.

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CMEL to expand OLED production (http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20071024PD222.html)
25 October 2007


http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/20071024PD222_files/1_r.jpg

CMEL exhibits a 25-inch AMOLED panel at the ongoing FPD International 2007 in Japan

Chi Mei EL Corporation (CMEL), a subsidiary of Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO), has announced that the company will invest NT$1 billion (US$30.6 million) to expand to a second OLED production line. Volume production is slated for 2008, said CMO president Chao-Yang Ho.

As present order amount at the company is higher than its available capacity, CMEL thus decided to expand its OLED panel production, and plans to begin volume production at the expansion in the third quarter of 2008. The second line will house a monthly capacity of 700,000 2-inch equivalent panels, Ho detailed. CMEL currently mainly produces OLED panels at 2.4- and 2.8-inch with yields averaging above 65%. Handset vendors from China and Korea are key customers of the company.

Besides the planned expansion, Ho said CMEL will introduce a 4.3-inch OLED panel during the first quarter of 2008. Another OLED panel sized at 7.6-inch will be launched in the second quarter, he added. Ho further noted that when the second OLED production line starts operation, CMEL will also introduce 11- and 12-inch panel production and expects to offer 32-inch AMOLED panels during 2010.

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At Flat Panel Display International 2007, It is Not Business as Usual (http://displaydaily.com/2007/10/25/at-flat-panel-display-international-2007-it-is-not-business-as-usual/)
25 October 2007

I am writing this in Yokohama, where Flat Panel Display International (FPDI) 2007 is in full swing. There is more than the usual level of excitement here, and that’s not only because the flat-panel display industry is rapidly growing and (finally) highly profitable. There is also the sense that exciting technical changes are afoot. In short, this is not just evolutionary business as usual.

For one thing, there are lots of active-matrix OLEDs here, with Samsung SDI and CMEL presenting a range of small AMOLEDs that are in volume production now. CMEL’s displays are being made with a non-laser annealing process for making the low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) backplane, which is a very significant development because it offers a clear path to shattering one half of Gen 4 limitation that currently afflicts AMOLED manufacturing and keeps costs higher than those for roughly equivalent LCDs. LG.Philips LCD was also showing a display fabricated with a furnace-based crystallization process that will not heat standard display glass beyond its yield point. Unlike CMEL, LPL’s process does not use a catalyst, but LPL is still in the demonstration phase. We may see some furnace-based LPL product next year.

--- CUT (non-OLED-related material) ---

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[FPD International] Samsung SDI VP Indicates OLED Panel Roadmap in Keynote Session (http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20071029/141477/)
29 October 2007


http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20071029/141477/vB.jpg

Samsung SDI's OLED Products roadmap

"It is Samsung SDI that is supplying OLED panel products now," said Ho Kyoon Chung, executive vice president and CTO, Corporate R&D Center, Samsung SDI Co Ltd of Korea, in the FPD Summit (keynote session) at the "FPD International 2007 Forum" October 24.

He presented the company's OLED panel roadmap and said, "OLED panels have opened the new era of organic optoelectronics. Not only displays but also new applications such as OLED lighting systems, organic electro-luminescent power generators and organic sensors will emerge in the near future."

"In the mobile display industry, the shift from monochrome to color displays formed the first wave, the realization of high-resolution TFT panels made the second wave and active matrix OLED panels will be the third wave," Chung said. "The OLED panel market will grow to US$3.7 billion in 2010."

Regarding the company's production scale, "We initiated OLED panel volume production in September 2007 and our current output is 1.5 million units per month on a 2-inch panel basis," he said. "The output will reach 3 million units per month in 2008.".

Explaining the company's product development roadmap, Chung said, "Following small panels used in 2007, 3.5- to 7-inch panels including 4.1-inch panels will be applied to ultra mobile PCs, for example, in 2008. Then we will realize 14-, 15- and 21-inch panels in 2009 and large 40- to 42-inch full HD (high definition) OLED TVs in 2010."

"We will provide a flexible OLED display by 2012 at the latest," he added.

As for OLED lighting systems, Chung said, "It won't be long before we commercialize them," because the OLED's light emitting efficiency is currently doubling every year. The company currently achieves 50lm/W luminance, a life of 20,000 hours till the initial luminance halves and a color rendering property of more than 80 colors.

"Our cost goal is 1 euro cent per lumen," said Chung.

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Sony OLED HDTVs May Come to America This Year (http://www.dailytech.com/Sony+OLED+HDTVs+May+Come+to+America+This+Year/article9503.htm)
2 November 2007

Sony says OLED HDTVs could see America stores this year depending on Japanese demand

Many home theater enthusiasts have high hopes for OLED technology -- hopes that not only will OLED HDTV sets require less power but that they also will be significantly thinner and provide better color reproduction and image quality.

Engadget is reporting that Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow revealed in talks this morning with journalists at the Sony Club in New York that, “OLED could come (to the U.S.) before the end of the year." The catch is that OLED HDTVs coming to America is dependent on the demand in Japan and panel supply. In other words if Sony’s OLED XEL-1 is a big hit in Japan, we won’t be seeing them this year in America.

Sony announced its 3mm thick XEL-1 OLED HDTV almost exactly one month ago to lustful stares from home theater fans around the world. The screen size was small at 11-inches and the price was high at about $1744 USD. The Sony XEL-1 OLED TV left many outside Japan reaching for their wallets only to be told the TV wasn’t available outside Japan.

There have been several other announcements in the OLED arena recently with Toshiba announcing that it would have 30-inch OLED HDTVs on the market by 2009. Toshiba, however, stated that the problem with OLED technology was that the method for producing the OLED panels was immature accounting for the increased cost and longer lead times before panels were available.

Just last week Samsung’s Executive Vice President and CTO, Ho Kyoon Chung, unveiled its roadmap for OLED products. Samsung expects to have 40 to 42-inch OLED panels on the market by 2010.

While Toshiba and Samsung make promises to get OLED HDTVs into the hands of consumers, Sony is actually doing it.

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UPDATE 2-Canon to take majority stake in Tokki for $69 mln (http://www.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUST9225920071113)
13 November 2007

TOKYO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Canon Inc said it aims to take a majority stake in Tokki Corp, a supplier of flat panel-making equipment, for $69 million or more to speed development of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels.

Canon has been developing OLED panels in a bid to replace liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, which it now procures from outside suppliers for digital camera, camcorder and printer displays.

Canon is the world's largest digital camera maker competing with Sony Corp and Olympus Corp, while Tokki is the world's No.1 maker of tools used to make OLED displays.

Canon will offer 556 yen per share in a tender offer planned for 20 working days between Nov. 14 and Dec. 12, aiming to buy at least 3.07 million shares. The offer price is at a 22 percent premium over Tokki's closing price on Tuesday.

The Tokyo-based company also plans to buy 14.2 million new Tokki shares in a third-party allocation, paying 417 yen per share.

In total, Canon aims to take at least a 51 stake in Tokki for 7.6 billion yen ($69 million) or more.

OLED displays use organic, or carbon-containing, compounds that emit light when electricity is applied. Unlike LCD panels, they do not need backlighting, making OLED panels slimmer and more energy-efficient.

OLED panels also offer bright colours and images that are easy to see outdoors, an ideal trait for camera displays.

Canon said it may offer small-sized flat TVs using OLED displays in the future.

For the large-sized TV market, Canon has been developing another type of flat panel TVs based on surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) technology.

Ahead of the announcement, shares in Canon closed down 1.3 percent at 5,360 yen, while Tokki was down 1.5 percent at 456 yen, underperforming the Nikkei average, which fell 0.5 percent. ($1=110.09 Yen)

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Sony's XEL-1 OLED TV pre-sales begin in Japan (http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/14/sonys-xel-1-oled-tv-pre-sales-begin-in-japan/)
14 November 2007

While it's not scheduled for release until December 1st, Sony is now taking pre-orders for its super-slim XEL-1 OLED TV. Japan only, though we're hopeful for a US release too. Sure, it costs ¥200,000 (about $1,800) for 11-inches of set that will only last about 30,000 hours -- less than that of an LCD. Still, that's only $0.0018 per unit of its 1M:1 contrast ratio. See, affordable.

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OLED chemists have a bright idea (http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2007/November/23110701.asp)
23 November 2007


http://www.rsc.org/images/oled-225_tcm18-107607.jpg

A pixel made from the new material, which can emit red,
green and blue light, allows OLED devices to comprise only two layers

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) can be made more cheaply and easily thanks to a new molecule made by Chinese chemists. OLEDs use less power than liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and can be made much thinner, so making them cheaper and longer-lasting is important for the electronics industry.

Most OLED materials need several layers to provide a flow of electrons and 'holes', or spaces where electrons can move into, and other layers to stop the flow of electrons or holes in the right places. But the new molecule improves on current OLED designs by performing several necessary electronic functions in just one layer. It can also be treated to emit all the colours required for laptop and mobile phone displays.

The new molecule comprises a quinoxaline group, which accepts electrons very readily, and bulky polyphenyl groups, which stop the molecules sticking together and losing energy by nonradiative pathways - this means it can take the place of several layers in the OLED.

The work provides 'a simple and effective approach to construct highly efficient and multicoloured OLEDs,' the researchers say. One of the authors of the paper, Yunqi Liu of the Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Beijing, told Chemistry World: 'Our research opens a way for designing and applying multifunctional materials in OLEDs to simplify the fabrication process.'

But John de Mello, senior lecturer in nanomaterials at Imperial College London, UK, suggests the material isn't ready to use on a commercial basis. 'This is a very interesting approach to colour tuning in organic light-emitting diodes, although one that may require further optimisation for practical use,' he said. 'The devices appear to have rather high current and voltage demands, which suggests alternative materials systems may be needed to achieve adequate power efficiencies.'

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Toshiba shelves plan to sell OLED TVs in 2009/10 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7142159)
10 December 2007

TOKYO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp said on Tuesday it has shelved plans to sell ultra-thin OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TVs in 2009/10 because of the cost of mass production.
Toshiba will stick to its plans to make OLED displays for mobile phones and will see if making OLED TVs is financially viable later, Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Ohmori said. (Reporting by Mayumi Negishi)

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Is there room for OLED technology in the TV market? (http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20071211PR200.html)
11 December 2007


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[I]Source: iSuppli, compiled by Digitimes, December 2007

After examining Sony's 11-inch OLED (organic light emitting diode) TV exhibited at iSuppli's Flat Information Displays (FID) 2007 conference last week, there is no denying how stunning the picture is. But because the OLED TV market is still in its infancy, with the Sony set being the first to be manufactured and sold to consumers, it's unreasonable to expect it to compete effectively with LCD or PDP (plasma display panel) TVs at this time, according to research firm iSuppli.

However, this begs the question: Will OLED TV ever be able to match up with LCD and PDP TVs?

"It will be a challenge for OLED to catch up, given the investments that have been put into the other technologies," said Paul Semenza, vice president of displays at iSuppli, speaking at FID 2007 last week. "But there is no doubt about its performance and there is a lot of potential for the display technology, maybe in mobile applications."

With Sony being the first to throw its hat into the OLED TV ring, due to its introduction of the 11-inch set this month in Japan at a price of US$1,800, shipment volumes are expected to be very small, targeting a small niche of well-heeled, tech-savvy consumers.

And even at such a high price, Sony indicated that it is taking a loss on the sale of each OLED set, according to Vinita Jakhanwal, principal analyst for mobile displays at iSuppli.

A few more brands are likely to enter the OLED TV market in 2009, including Toshiba and Panasonic. The major motivation for these companies' entrance into the market is to make a statement to the industry that they are capable of producing OLED TVs, Jakhanwal added.

OLED problems and benefits

Semenza stressed that despite the obstacles, iSuppli does not discount the prospects and potential of OLED technology. However, there are a number of fundamental technology and market challenges that must be resolved before OLEDs can make a real impact in the market.

One of these challenges is the fact that active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) panel manufacturing is still an inefficient process, Jakhanwal said. As the size of OLED displays becomes larger, the yields and manufacturing losses also get larger.

"As a result, AMOLED products are going to be small-sized displays, for applications such as mobile phones and personal media players (PMPs) for a few more years," Jakhanwal said. "OLED suppliers still are struggling with improving yield rates and low manufacturing efficiencies for small-sized displays."

Furthermore, OLED material lifetimes are still an issue for products that require long lifetimes such as televisions. Add to this the fact that AMOLED suppliers cannot guarantee high volumes because the technology is coming from a single source.

However, OLED TV has a number of great upsides, including: OLED TVs use no backlights, so they offer potential power-savings benefits compared to other technologies. Because they have no backlights and use only a single glass substrate, OLED TVs can be very thin.

The response time for OLED TVs is very fast, so there is no motion blur while watching television. OLED TVs have a much richer color gamut than competing display technologies.

iSuppli forecasts the global OLED TV market will reach 2.8 million units by 2013, managing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 212.3% from just 3,000 units in 2007. In terms of global revenue, OLED TV will hit US$1.4 billion by 2013, increasing at a CAGR of 206.8% from US$2 million in 2007.

Potential is everything

Because OLEDs already serve as small panels for mobile handsets, PMPs and other small handheld devices, it is safe to assume OLED TVs could be a natural fit for automotive infotainment, mobile television, kitchen televisions or other consumer electronics devices that want to add small-screen sets.

The main challenge for the OLED TV industry is making large-enough panels that could be sold at reasonable prices in order to compete against the other television technologies.

Still, iSuppli believes that OLED TV is promising in the long term. Reducing power consumption, extending lifetimes, achieving larger sizes and attaining reasonable pricing eventually will help OLED TV to be competitive, but in the meantime, it will find a place in applications that require small sets.

Thanks for the updates :)

http://i20.tinypic.com/2a6v3b6.png

Sony XEL-1 Next generation Display

*World first OLED TV.
*Natural color
*Wide color gamut
*High contrast
*High speed response
*Low energy consumption
*Soon

:p

Sony XEL-1 Next generation Display
:p
Maybe.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/09/28/Latest-gadgets-innovation-expected-at-Ceatec_1.html

Maybe.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/09/28/Latest-gadgets-innovation-expected-at-Ceatec_1.html

It's on Sony.jp webstore, so we are talking about actual product here.

http://www.sony.jp/event/special/

"coming soon"

Check that page's source and translate it to English. :D

http://i20.tinypic.com/abpfyf.jpg

Now it's official: story (http://www.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.watch.impress.co.jp%2Fav%2Fdocs %2F20071001%2Fsony.htm&langpair=ja%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8).

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20071001/sony1_00.jpg

Price ~$1750.

Now it's official: You were right.

It's so tiny, yet so expensive. I would buy a 27" for $1K, though.

I certainly will be following Sony's development of the OLED with interest. At least they have made a start. For now I will buy a Pioneer Plasma (Pro-150FD) ... but my next TV my well be a Sony OLED if they can advance to large screens (60") at a competitive price.