Category Archives: OLEDs

May 22, 2012 — 3M’s Optical Systems Division made its flexible, optically clear 3M FTB3-50 and FTB3-125 films available commercially, to protect sensitive electronics displays from water vapor and oxygen. The films previously were sold under limited R&D agreements.

FTB3 (for flexible, transparent, barrier) film has application in a range of emerging display technologies. FTB3 consists of a base polyester layer (50-125µm thick) with a <2.0µm barrier coating made up of layers of polymer and oxide. It is available in rolls 300mm wide, with larger widths entering the market in Q2.

New technologies incorporating organic electronics or other sensitive components need protection from water vapor and oxygen, said Art Lathrop, marketing manager for 3M Optical Systems Division.

FTB3 is thinner, lighter, more flexible and more impact resistant than glass, 3M reports, which could enable new form factors. “It offers from two to three orders of magnitude better protection from water vapor than packaging grade barrier films, said Lathrop.

The film has a water vapor transfer rate of less than 1×10-3 grams per square meter per day at 20°C. It has an Ra of about 1nm.

“Unlike metal foils, the barrier layer in FTB3 doesn’t conduct electricity,” said Dr. Fred McCormick, senior research specialist within Optical Systems. This could be of interest to display makers requiring an insulating layer.

The film’s flexibility allows roll-to-roll processing of displays.

3M is now developing a range of barrier films using different substrates, additional film layers, and even higher barrier performance for applications ranging from solar panels to electrophoretic, electrochromic, and organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays. 

3M makes a range of materials for displays. The company recently announced, with HP, the “first all-in-one zero client capable of being powered by Type 1 power-over-Ethernet (PoE, IEEE 802.3af),” using 3M’s Dual Brightness Enhancement Film for LED-backlit monitors.

3M is a diverse company creating products for consumer, electronics, and other markets. For more information, visit www.3M.com

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May 21, 2012 — Paul Gray, DisplaySearch, recently blogged about the effect of organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays will have on the TV industry, in light of Sony and Panasonic’s possible collaboration on an OLED technology.

“Some of the messaging from industry seems to indicate a mindset that there is a technical fix for profitability,” Gray said in “Will OLED Revitalize the TV Industry?”, but points out that too many companies could pursue the OLED TV market, which would simply duplicate the profitability/scale issues seen in the liquid crystal display (LCD) TV sector. Consumers also may not be on board with a move to OLED.

OLED displays boast high contrast, vivid color, and thin form factor. However, in television applications LCDs combined with LED backlights can compete in these areas. Gray notes that direct LED backlighting have failed in the market. And few consumers have indicated a willingness to pay extra for a TV set that was 5mm-thick instead of 20mm.

The television industry learned from its push for 3D TVs that content and the consuming experience matter. Consumers’ purchasing behavior is driven by factors other than raw image quality.

Gray advises that TV makers “think deeply about how consumers are watching long-form video at home” before leaping to conclusions about OLED’s impact. “The industry need not take billion dollar technology bets to provide better products.”

Paul is director, European TV Research for DisplaySearch. Read his full blog at http://www.displaysearchblog.com/2012/05/will-oled-revitalize-the-tv-industry/

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May 14, 2012 — Barclays Capital analysts attended Lightfair International, a large, US-based general lighting tradeshow, and gleaned several trends in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic LEDs (OLEDs) for lighting. Data presented at the show points to strong and steady LED lighting demand growth in 2012, though the LED lighting “inflection year” is still in the future.

While utilization rates are still relatively low in LED fabs, many chipmakers are reluctant to convert all of their backlighting-specific (BLU LEDs for display applications) LED tools to lighting-specific production, because they value yields honed for a specific design. Chipmakers told Barclays that they do not want to reconfigure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) tools unless they are confident that this backlighting-specific production will no longer be needed. This suggests that anticipated LED lighting demand in H2 2012 and beyond will require more MOCVD tool orders, even without higher capacity utilization rates in LED fabs. Gradually improved MOCVD capex, in Q3 2012 and beyond, will be supported by a steady stabilization in LED supply/demand as 2013 approaches.

Barclays observed that LED chips still compete based on price, even among the Tier 1 LED makers, and further cost reductions are needed if margins are to survive. LED component price declines did moderate to an extent relative to last year’s price cuts, but the aggressive pricing trend continues, driven in part by end customers leveraging Tier 3 quality price points in China against Tier 1 and 2 LED makers. Until LED makers reach 80%+ effective yields in the fabs, the distribution of LEDs per run is fairly wide. Chips that do not meet their application’s specs are dumped on the market at a much lower price. Indeed, even in lighting-grade LEDs, there is “no rationality for price points,” according to 1 Tier-1 supplier. The good news for LED revenues is that unit volume growth is offsetting the price cuts.

The quality barrier between Tier 1 and Tier 2/3 LED suppliers continues to hold, with only ~10 LED makers that can reach 100lm/W efficacy levels in mass production, and meet Energy Star, UL, etc., specifications. In step with the luminous efficacy improvements at the chip level, system-level efficacy also continues to increase, with various troffers and luminaries already approaching 100lm/W. Korean LED makers are considering leveraging BLU LEDs for some lighting applications, like linear lighting and troffers, because specifications are similar. As a result, Samsung is becoming a major threat to Tier-1 LED suppliers, longer term, as it focuses on quality.

Also read: As LED patents run out, supply chain value will shift downstream

With LED lifetimes approaching 50K hours, LEDs are no longer the predictors of the lifetime of the full system, and the lifetime of the other components is becoming more prominent. Despite various certifications available, data on the lifetime and reliability at the total system level is still fairly limited.

While still in the early stages of development, OLED lighting was also being exhibited by several suppliers, with Philips and OSRAM appearing to be at the lead from an efficacy and product quality standpoint. Philips’ OLED lighting panels reached 25lm/W this year, with the company aiming for 60lm/W next year, driven by new developments in OLED materials (Philips using RGB stack with combination of phosphorescent and fluorescent materials); new developments in the glass substrate (adding reflective element to the glass composition); and advances in the deposition and processing technology. However, while reaching 60lm/W efficacy would be a big breakthrough, the key from there would be lumen maintenance, which is still very low for the OLED lighting panels currently available on the market. And while some companies suggested that OLED lighting is now moving from a designer/architectural application to a high-end lighting application, based on the product specs and the pricing, Barclays puts OLED lighting ~5-7 years behind LED lighting.

This year’s Lightfair was “almost entirely focused on LEDs,” said Barclays analysts. While LED dominance in new products at the booths is not yet indicative of end market penetration, it highlights the inevitability of LED lighting adoption in the coming years. Most lighting manufacturers and suppliers and LED makers alike see 2012 as a year of steady, strong LED lighting demand growth, though not yet an inflection. The biggest ramp in demand remains in segments where lighting is on for longer than 8 hours per day (streetlights, gas station canopies, retail, hospitality, warehouses). This is aided by the Federal Recovery Act spending on retrofitting public fixtures. Membership in the Solid State Street Lighting Consortium — a Department of Energy (DOE)-sponsored consortium of cities and municipalities looking to upgrade their lighting systems to energy-efficient solutions — has expanded to ~350 members from less than 100 last year. Payback periods for LED installs are compressing — for outdoor lights, LED systems have gone from 50-60% more expensive than non-LED lights last year to ~30-50% more. The payback for replacing non-LED luminaires in many applications is currently 2-5 years, sufficient to ensure funding for many commercial and industrial users. Utility rebates and government subsidies offered in various regions enhance paybacks further.

Many companies at Lightfair indicated that advances in LED chips and components, especially with regard to high efficacy, have lowered the cost of other components in a lighting system, driving down costs.

Learn more about Lightfair at http://www.lightfair.com.

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May 11, 2012 — The Innovation Award Laser Technology 2012 recognized 3D metal micro-structuring laser technology from Schepers, excimer laser design for OLED and LCD display fab from Coherent, and a laser brazing head technology from Precitec Optronik.

Stephan Brüning, responsible for R&D laser applications at Schepers GmbH & Co KG, was awarded the €10,000 Innovation Award Laser Technology 2012 prize at this week’s International Laser Technology Congress (AKL). His team was recognized for their work in "3D micro-structuring of large-scale metal surfaces for embossing and printing applications with high-power ultrashort-pulse lasers." Brüning also has been awarded the title of Fellow of both AKL and the European Laser Institute (ELI).

The 2nd place for the award went to a team led by Coherent’s Rainer Pätzel focused on excimer lasers for active-matrix liquid crystal display (LCD)- and organic light-emitting diode (OLED)-based flat-panel displays (FPDs). Coherent’s high-power 308nm excimer laser with pulse repetition rate of 600Hz and stabilized output power of 1.2kW provides fast cycle times for excimer laser annealing (ELA) on Gen-6 FPD panels, increasing throughput over typical Gen-4 tools. In ELA, a laser processes amorphous silicon (a-Si) into low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS), increasing electron mobility by more than 100x. The laser line beam has a final homogeneity of 1.8% to allow 10-20 overlapping irradiations of each location with the same fluence when scanning the substrate. Coherent’s state of the art cylindrical optics deliver a homogeneous line beam with dimension 750 mm X 0.4 mm for Gen-6 ELA, creating a display backplane with very homogeneous 50nm film of polysilicon of approximately 0.3um2 grain size providing 150cm2/Vs — 2 orders of magnitude higher than the electron mobility of an amorphous silicon backplane. The output power of 1.2 kW was achieved by spatially merging and temporally synchronizing two high-power UV-oscillators, each capable of 1 Joule energy/pulse and 600 Hz pulse frequency. The VYPER dual-oscillator laser platform (photo above) was combined with a novel beam delivery concept for beam forming, mixing, homogenizing and projecting the incoming laser beams into one homogeneous line beam.

Third prize went to a team led by Precitec Optronik’s Markus Kogel-Hollacher for a 3D-capable co-axial laser brazing head with integrated seam tracking.

The Innovation Award Laser Technology is a European research prize awarded at two-year intervals by the associations Arbeitskreis Lasertechnik e.V. and the European Laser Institute (ELI), conferred on an individual researcher or on an entire project group, whose exceptional skills and dedicated work have led to an outstanding innovation in the field of laser technology. The scientific and technological projects in question must center on the use of laser light in materials processing and the methods of producing such light, and must furthermore be of demonstrable commercial value to industry. Jury decisions are based on:

  • Proven commercial benefit
  • Innovative quality of the resulting laser beam source, laser manufacturing process or laser system
  • Scientific / technological quality of the underlying research
  • Creative approach to technology demonstrated by the designated individual or project group
  • Importance of the contribution of the applicant’s work to the overall innovative process

More information about the awards and this year’s winners can be viewed at www.innovation-award-laser.org.

Article courtesy of our sister publication Industrial Laser Solutions. Visit http://www.industrial-lasers.com/index.html for more information.

May 10, 2012 — Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) emerged on the display scene recently, gaining adopters in small screen sizes like smartphones, and just moving into large-size displays like 55” televisions in recent months (LG Electronics made one in December 2011; Samsung Electronics came out with one at CES in January 2012). OLED offers better power consumption, light emission, and clarity than liquid crystal displays (LCDs)

As OLED adoption ramps up, mass production technology for large-area OLED is increasingly an issue that could prohibit OLED from gaining market share on LCD. In current OLED manufacturing, color patterning is achieved by fine metal mask (FMM) using thermal evaporation, and laser-induced thermal imaging (LITI), which can be limited to small-size panels. Manufacturers are now looking for color patterning technologies — from solution-based printing to laser imaging and layering white OLEDs with filters — that suit display production at Gen-8 fabs or larger.

Also read: OLED trends: Materials, color patterning advances and the display race

Samsung Mobile Display (SMD) is developing small mask scanning (SMS) technology, which improves FMM color patterning. Hybrid patterning system (HPS) technology combines LITI and FMM, and is currently under development. LG is working on a method that combines white OLEDs with color filters (WOLED+C/F).

Displaybank issued a Korean patent analysis report regarding the OLED color patterning technology, comprising research and analysis about the patents of foreign companies in Korea as well as the key patents of Korea-based companies. 495 patents relating to OLED color patterning technology were selected in the primary screening among a total of 2,532 raw data disclosed or registered by December 2011. 52 key patents regarding SMS, HPS, Ink-jet, and WOLED+C/F technology were then analyzed as large-area OLED color patterning technologies. Learn more at http://www.displaybank.com/_eng/research/report_view.html?id=855&cate=2

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May 4, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — eMagin Corporation (NYSE Amex:EMAN), organic light emitting diode (OLED) microdisplay and virtual imaging technology developer, received a $3.1 million follow-on order for OLED microdisplays under an existing US Army Remote Viewer Program.

Deliveries under this contract have already begun, with all the microdisplays to be delivered by the end of 2012. The eMagin SVGA+ OLED-XL microdisplay was originally chosen for this program in 2008, with original shipments starting in 2009 and expected to continue into 2013.

eMagin was awarded a $1.12 million SBIR contract from the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) to optimize its WUXGA OLED micro display for mass production in February 2012.

The program specifies high-performance microdisplays with low power consumption, noted Andrew G. Sculley, president and CEO of eMagin, who added that eMagin sees OLED microdisplays increasingly adopted as a critical component for military applications that require high resolution, low power and “instant-on” under a wide range of temperatures.”

eMagin integrates high-resolution OLED microdisplays with magnifying optics to deliver virtual images comparable to large-screen computer and television displays in portable, low-power, lightweight personal displays. eMagin microdisplays provide near-eye imagery in a variety of products from military, industrial, medical and consumer OEMs. More information about eMagin is available at www.emagin.com.

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April 27, 2012 — Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays manufacturing is virtually 100% concentrated in Korea, according to Displaybank, with Samsung Mobile Display (SMD) and LG Display (LGD) scaling up capacity.

SMD began large-scale AMOLED production in 2008, and the market has expanded under SMD’s leadership, gaining adopters for smartphone displays and other 3”-4” displays.

AMOLED shipments are increasing dramatically, shows Displaybank’s report, “Korea AMOLED Light-Emitting Material Industry Analysis.” In 2011, SMD ramped a Gen-5.5 line. LGD nearly quadrupled its AMOLED production capacity since 2010, with a Gen-4.5 line coming fully on-line. In H1 2012, both companies plan to commercialize 55” AMOLED TVs. They are accelerating development with deposition equipment of 4~10K.

Also read: AMOLED displays draw attention on smartphone adoption

Figure. Korea’s AMOLED light-emitting materials market size. Includes HIL, HTL, R’, G’, EML(RGB) dopant/host, ETL, EIL, and CPL materials. SOURCE: Korea AMOLED Light-Emitting Material Industry Analysis, Displaybank, Nov 2011.

With the growth in AMOLEDs, related material markets — especially light-emitting materials — are seeing significant increases.

Displaybank’s “Korea AMOLED Light-Emitting Material Industry Analysis” report analyzes equipment trends, development trends, and the supply chains of Korean AMOLED panel makers. It analyzes the current state of Korea’s AMOLED light-emitting material industry through the analysis of domestic AMOLED common layer materials and market size of light-emitting materials, and competition analysis of each material. Learn more at http://www.displaybank.com/_eng/research/report_view.html?id=865&cate=10.

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April 23, 2012 — Investments in fabless companies, semiconductor suppliers, and other semiconductor companies fell more than 80% month-to-month (M/M) and year-to-year (Y/Y) in March, reports the Global Semiconductor Association (GSA) in its Global Semiconductor Funding, IPO and M&A Update.

Semiconductor companies (fabless companies, integrated device manufacturers [IDMs], and semiconductor suppliers) saw $28.9 million in venture capital investments; a 81.9% decrease from February 2011 and a 84.9% drop from March 2011.

8 semiconductor companies received funding in March; a 42.9% decrease M/M and a 14.3% increase Y/Y. Of these, 6 were fabless and 2 were chip suppliers.

A single semiconductor company, Merus Audio of Denmark, received first-round investment dollars in March. M/A-COM Technology Solutions Holdings held its initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ Global Select Market (ticker: MTSI). LED company Novaled AG filed with the SEC to raise up to $200 million in its IPO.

In March, semiconductor mergers and acquisitions (M&As) increased (6 more over February) and held steady Y/Y. These include entire fabless, IDM and semiconductor supplier companies, not sectors/product lines or foundry facilities. The largest was Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD’s) acquisition of SeaMicro for $334.0 million.

Access the report at http://www.gsaglobal.org/publications/fundings/index.asp. The Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) aims to accelerate growth and increase the return on invested capital of the global semiconductor industry by fostering a more effective ecosystem through collaboration, integration and innovation. It addresses the challenges within the supply chain including IP, EDA/design, wafer manufacturing, test and packaging to enable industry-wide solutions.

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April 20, 2012 — Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) will be a nearly $11 billion market in 2017, and will take some display market share from the $100-billion liquid-crystal display (LCD) sector, according to a Lux Research report.

OLEDs made up a $1.9 billion market in 2011. In small-screen displays, like smartphones, OLEDs are gaining adoption and working toward cost parity with LCDs. For large-screen displays, like televisions, OLEDs require further technological advancements, bringing down cost barriers, said Jonathan Melnick, Lux research analyst and lead author of the report, “Cutting Up the LCD Pie: Calculating the Billion-Dollar Slices from Display Innovation.”

OLEDs give smartphones thinner designs with better-performance displays, longer battery life, and lighter weight for an acceptable higher cost than conventional displays. Lux Research’s component materials and manufacturing cost analysis shows that “OLEDs will decrease from their current $3,000/m2 for small-area displays to be cost competitive with LCDs by 2016,” Melnick reports. By 2017, more than one third of all smartphones will use OLED displays, or $9.5 billion of the $11 billion OLED market. If Apple switches its iPhone and iPad designs to OLED displays, this could drive 3x growth or more, to $35 billion.

Also read: AMOLED display gives Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 the edge

In 2017, the reflective display market will reach $1.6 billion. Lux Research expects the e-reader market to be subsumed under tablet PCs and hit market saturation starting in 2013. E-readers dominate the non-segmented reflective display market. With e-reader numbers dropping, digital signage will take over as the primary application for reflective displays in 2017.

In the flexible display space, manufacturing technologies are immature, such as barrier films, restricting potential use in new and existing display form factors. Flexible displays will reach a $140 million market in 2017. OLEDs are considered candidates for the flexible display market, though materials and manufacturing challenges exist, keeping OLEDs to a 15% share of the total flexible display market.

The report, “Cutting Up the LCD Pie: Calculating the Billion-Dollar Slices from Display Innovation,” is part of the Lux Research Printed Electronics Intelligence service. Lux Research provides strategic advice and on-going intelligence for emerging technologies. Visit www.luxresearchinc.com for more information.

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April 12, 2012 — Active matrix organic light-emitting diodes (AMOLEDs) are moving from small-quantity development into higher volumes, with shipments destined for smartphones driving growth in the small- and medium-sized display (SMD) market in February, said IHS. SMDs are displays smaller than 10” diagonally.

Total SMD shipments hit 186.8 million units in February, up 9% from January, serving mobile handset, tablet and digital still camera makers, according to an IHS iSuppli Small & Medium Displays PriceTrak report. The increase brought to an end 4 straight months of shipment declines that started in October 2011 (see the figure).

Figure. Worldwide small/medium displays forecast by millions of units shipped. SOURCE: IHS iSuppli Research, April 2012.

AMOLED displays are gaining market share, and increased orders are coming in from Chinese electronics vendors. Worldwide shipments of AMOLED mobile handset displays are expected to increase sequentially by 14% in Q1 2012 and by 80% compared to the same time a year ago.

AMOLED displays are lighter weight and offer more saturated colors than traditional LCD panels. Samsung Electronics, Nokia Corp., and HTC Corp. have adopted AMOLED displays for new mobile handsets. AMOLED displays will gain more share as tablet PCs switch to the technology, likely this year.

“Display manufacturers are increasing their AMOLED manufacturing,” said Vinita Jakhanwal, director for small & medium displays at IHS, adding that “AMOLED is coming of age in 2012.

Samsung Mobile Display Co. currently drives the AMOLED market, with the largest manufacturing capacity. Also read: AMOLED display gives Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 the edge

LG Display Co. recently redirected its AMOLED focus away from mobile handsets toward the TV market, but it is still Samsung Mobile Display’s largest competitor.

Taiwanese and Chinese display suppliers are working to improve their competitive positioning, looking to challenge these leaders in AMOLED production and win orders from top handset makers. AU Optronics Corp. (Taiwan) has likely orders from handset manufacturer HTC and Sony, and should start shipping small volumes of AMOLED displays in Q2. AUO is reportedly planning for AMOLED production at a Gen 6 fab. ChiMei Innolux Corp. (Taiwan) should start AMOLED panel production in 2012.

In mobile phones, AMOLED prices increased 0.9 percent to an average of $54 in February, due to the introduction of new, higher-specification AMOLED displays. AMOLED commands price premium of 15 to 20% over comparable low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) LCD displays with touch capabilities. A 4.3” QHD “Super” AMOLED display for mobile phones with an integrated on-cell touch solution, boasting QHD resolution at 960 by 540 pixels, was priced at $51 in January. A comparable LTPS LCD plus projected capacitive touch solution had a total price of $42. Prices could come down if AMOLED supply increased, although its performance advantages will help prevent price erosion.

In tablets, total average panel prices retreated 0.4% to $48.87, down from the January average of $49.06. AMOLED tablet displays, meanwhile, stayed at about $100. LG and Samsung remain the pre-eminent suppliers for the tablet PC display market, with high capacity and reliable shipments to Apple for its iPad, to Amazon for its Kindle, and to Samsung Electronics for its Galaxy Tab.

Learn more in Increased AMOLED Display Demand Preserves Premium Pricing from IHS iSuppli.

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