According to news reported by Yonhap News LG Display and Samsung Display are expected to settle their ongoing IP battle over OLED and LCD display technology as the two companies recently sat down together in a number of separate meetings to find a mutually acceptable solution. It is widely believed that the companies will eventually cross-license the patents being disputed.

It is known that the two companies are currently disputing seven technology patents on OLED owned by LG Display and seven patents on LCD technology owned by Samsung Display.

Universal Display Corp announced its results for the first quarter of 2013. For the quarter UDC reported a net loss of $4.8 million even though revenues where up 19% compared to first quarter 2012. The increase was led by a 21% increase in material sales. Commercial material sales were up 40% compared to the first quarter of 2012. The increase in commercial material sales was due mainly to greater demand for UDC's green emitter and host materials from their AM-OLED display customers.

According to an article by Digitimes Samsung Electronics is expected to begin selling 55-inch OLED TVs (product code - ES9500) in South Korea in June 2013. This will be closely followed by the Taiwanese market in the 3rd quarter of 2013.

Rumours continue to circulate that Samsung has ongoing issues in producing OLED TV panels in sufficient quantities because of low yields in productions and a number of other technology related barriers. Initially, the product will be in limited supplu, but no ramp-up schedule has been made public.

Samsung's 55-inch OLED TV is not the first company to launch 55-inch OLED TVs as LG Electronic has already launched its own range 55-inch OLED TVs - EM9600 - and more recently announced a curved OLED TV. This must have placed increase pressure for Samsung to launch its own 55-inch TV despite have both technologicla and production issues to still solve.

LG Electronics may have an technologica advanatge over Samung in lareg area OLED TV as both companies have pursued different architectures for the OLED panel. Samsung has adopted "pure" array of red, green, and blue subpixels, whereas LG Electronic uses white OLEDs (WOLED) overlaid by red, green, and blue filters in addition to a fourth, filter-free white OLED subpixel. This may have allowed LG Electronics to improve production yields. Thereby, gaining an competitive advantage over Samsung.

Which company will be the eventual winner in the OLEDTV market remains to be settled. Although LG and Samsung continue to fight over IP they may have to resolve the differences out of court. Should Samsung continue to have yield problesm there is still the possibility that Samsung may have to license white OLED technology directly from LG if they are to succeed in the marketplace.

www.digitimes.com    www.samsung.com    www.lg.com

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science has awarded four Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants targeting advances in OLED lighting technology. The FY13 Release 2 Phase I awards will explore the technical merit or feasibility of an innovative concept or technology.

The SBIR Release 2 Phase I awards related to OLED Lighting are:

Acuity Brands Inc. recently demonstrated three new OLED luminaires at LIGHTFAIR International. Each OLED luminaire has been designed to enhance architectural spaces through their flexible, customisable form factors and give users novel ways to experience and design with light.

The following three OLED luminaire concepts where shown at LIGHTFAIR in the Acuity Brands booth. Official launch dates for commercial applications of these concepts are planned to be announced later this year.

Modelo^TM OLED luminaires from Winona® will enable the mixing and matching of square and rectangular panels to build personalised ceiling and wall luminaires. Configurations can include straight, curved, round, oval and square patterns. Modelo OLED luminaires will be suitable for applications such as corporate, hospitality, retail, residential and museums.

Figure: Acuity Brands - MODELO OLED Luminaires

Blackbody and Cibicworkshop presented at the recently held Milano design Week 2013 a new OLED lighting product - Bonzai. The new lamp design makes use of round OLED lighting panels, and combines environmentally-friendy high-tech lighting and artisan craftsmanship. Blackbody OLED are produced in France.

Bonzai is the result of on-going collaboration between Cibicworkshop and Blackbody. Their first experimentation and research on design and technology "Wonderoled" was presented in 2012 as an exhibit at Triennale di Milano.

Figure: Blackbody and Cibicworkshop - Bonzai

LG Electronics (LG) has announced that it will begin accepting pre-orders for its 55-inch (54.6-inch diagonal) curved OLED TV (Model 55EA9800) in South Korea, with deliveries to begin next month. More than 1,400 LG retail stores in South Korea will begin taking orders today from customers for the premium TV, priced at KRW 15 million (approximately USD 13,500).

The announcement makes LG the first and only company to commercialize both the flat screen OLED TV, which began shipping to Korean customers in February, and the curved OLED TV, giving LG a significant lead in the OLED segment

Figure: LG Electronics - 55-inch (54.6-inch diagonal) curved OLED TV (Model 55EA9800)

As of 1 April 2013 all sales will move from Lumiotec oo the parent company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. For the present time all sales and information inquiries and requests will continue to be chanelled through the Lumiotec website.

The new sales contact point is MHI

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd

Strategic Business Development Department

Lumiotec Team

16-5 Konan 2-Chome

Minato-ku

Tokyo 108-8215

www.lumiotec.com    www.mhi.co.jp 

Merck has announced that its New Business R&D and Application Lab is set to begin operations in Taiwan. The first in Asia to employ such wide-ranging and diversified technology, the Lab will provide key materials and first-rate technical services for the development of OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) panels, LED (Light-Emitting Diode) lighting, 3D technology and flexible displays.

The wide range of applications in which these products can be used in the future includes architecture, medicine, transportation, communications, and many more. OLEDs can be used for display panels and for lighting, setting new accents in interior decoration. In the future, smart phones will have flexible displays. In the field of medicine, flexible displays could store and display patients’ medical histories, a more useful and environmentally friendly choice.

Dick Hsieh, Managing Director, said, "The New Business R&D and Application Lab will enable Merck Display Technologies Ltd. to offer timely, more professional and innovative technology services to customers." Dick added, "Our development staff will provide immediate interaction with clients to understand their needs, solve their problems, and directly engage in supplying needs for materials."

Cambrios Technologies Corp. and Novaled have announced they have sucessfully made a metal-grid free large area 100 cm² (10 cm by 10 cm) OLED lighting panel using Cambrios ClearOhm^tm transparent electrodes. This "breakthrough" development is the result of a collaboration by Cambrios and Novaled to demonstrate the functionality of a high performance large area OLED panel enabled by Cambrios’ silver nanowire material.

Cambrios has already demonstrated a 5 cm by 5 cm OLED lighting panel with efficiencies greater than 40 lm/W, based on ClearOhm electrodes.

According to Cambrios OLEDs made using ClearOhm electrodes exhibit:

• improved angle dependence of color
• providing higher quality OLED displays and lighting products

Dr. Rahul Gupta, Senior Director of Business Development at Cambriosm said, "Partnering with Novaled to create a large OLED lighting tile symbolizes Cambrios’ commitment to help drive the manufacturability of the emerging OLED industries." Rahul, added, "The partnership underscores the continued expansion of our supply chain of strategic relationships in the OLED and OPV industries in addition to our existing strong ecosystem of IC suppliers, sensor makers and film suppliers that serve the large area touch market."

Dr. Sven Murano, Novaled’s VP of Product Management, said, "We chose to partner with Cambrios because of their coating materials excellent performance. Novaled’s materials and technology in combination with Cambrios` ClearOhm coating materials as a transparent electrode led to high performance hybrid OLEDs." Sven added, "With this approach manufacturers can produce high-performance, long lifetime OLED lighting tiles in high volumes at affordable costs."

www.novaled.com    www.cambrios.com