AMOLED - introduction and market status - Page 14

Tianma demonstrated a new AMOLED display panel at SID Displayweek, that sports a micro-lens array that helps to decrease power consumption by 10-15%.

The so-called MLP panel is 6.2" in size with a 876x2142 resolution (373 PPI) and a brightness of 420 nits. The pixel configuration is, interestingly, YYG - yellow and green sub-pixels, which means that this display uses color filters.

Sharp introduced a new phone in Japan, called the AQUOS R6, which features a 6.67-inch 2730x1260 1Hz-240Hz dynamic refresh rate IGZO AMOLED display.

This is an interesting development. Sharp started producing flexible OLEDs for its own devices in low volume in August 2018, but has since ceased production later in 2019. This is the first time we hear of an IGZO mobile AMOLED display, and it is likely that Sharp produces these in-house.

Samsung Display is unveiling new OLED technologies today at SID Displayweek 2021. The video below shows all the new displays:

First up we have a tri-foldable AMOLED display shown with a smartphone prototype. The display can be folded twice inside and outside, and when fully open the display is 7.2-inch in size.

Samsung Display announced that certification company SGS has certified its laptop OLED for gaming performance. According to SGS, the new Samsung Display OLED displays showed blur length below 1.4mm and moving picture response time below 15.4ms.

Samsung says that an LCD laptop with identical specifications showed a maximum 2.1mm blur length and 26.4ms moving picture response time. Samsung OLED's HDR contrast ratio resulted in over 1,000,000:1 according to SGS.

Xiaomi's VP (and Redmi manager) Lu Weibing posted an interesting poll at its Weibo account. Weibing asked Xiaomi users whether they prefer an AMOLED or LCD display.

Out of around 20,000 respondents, over 14,000 chose AMOLED as the preferred display type. Last year he posted a similar poll - but then most users preferred an LCD display. LCD advocates say that they prefer LCD if drove by DC dimming, rather than the PWM used in most AMOLEDs. It is actually also possible to use DC Dimming with OLED displays.

Chinese smartphone producer TCL unveiled an interesting new smartphone prototype (concept?) called the Fold ‘n’ Roll.

As you can see in the video, the device has a 6.87-inch OLED display when fully folded. It can open up (out-folding) into a 8.85-inch display, and then it can open even further to a 10-inch tablet-like device using a rolling mechanism. The display itself is produced by TCL's CSoT subsidiary.

Korea-based OLUM Material announced a new FMM technology for OLED production, which the company refers to as Unit-Cell FMM, which enables high-efficiency deposition (and patterning) of evaporated OLED materials.

The basic idea is to use a small FMM unit in front of every display panel, rather than a large FMM in front of the entire substrate. A large mask is useful for very fast production, but the large masks tend to sag and deform and so FMM production is limited in size.

According to Trendforce, smartphone brands will increase adoption of AMOLED displays in 2021, which will lead to a 39% market share for AMOLED displays in the total smartphone display market - up from 31% in 2019.

AMOLED displays are increasingly replacing high-end LTPS LCD displays in the high-end part of the smartphone market. The market share of lower-end a:Si LCD is quite stable.

Samsung Display announced that the company aims to lead the gaming display market, and it will supply more OLED displays for gaming smartphones, in addition to gaming laptops (as it does already). These displays will be branded as "OLED for gaming" displays.

Samsung Display reveals its AMOLED displays were adopted by Asus for its latest gaming smartphone (the ROG Phone 5) - a 6.78-inch 1080x2448 HDR10+ (1200 nits peak) 144Hz AMOLED display.

Ireland-based OLED IP company Solas OLED announced that a jury in the US district court in Texas has found Samsung Display and Samsung Electronics liable to Solas for wilfully infringing two fundamental OLED patents (USPTO #7,446,338 and #9,256,311). The jury awarded solas with $62.7 million in damages.

Solas says that these patents are required for AMOLED to function - these patents were used in the OLED displays used in Samsung's Galaxy S and Galaxy Note smartphones.