WRGB - Page 7

A few days ago Panasonic announced the company's first OLED TV, the TX-65CZ950 - a curved 65" 4K OLED panel that features Panasonic's 4K Pro tech which includes advanced gradation controls and 3D color look tables. The TV supports HDR and is THX certified - and is based on WRGB (WOLED) panels produced by LG Display.

The director of Panasonic's TV business, told CNET that the company expects OLED panel prices to drop, to the point where they are within reach of average consumers in two or three years. He also says that the benefit of the curved shape is "not so big", and consumers prefer flat TVs. In fact he says that Panasonic's next flagship TV will "probably" be flat.

As expected, Panasonic announced the company's first OLED TV, the TX-65CZ950. This is a curved 65" 4K OLED panel that features Panasonic's 4K Pro tech which includes advanced gradation controls and 3D color look tables. The TV supports HDR and is THX certified.

The OLED panel itself is produced by LG Display, and uses LGD's WOLED (WRGB) architecture. Panasonic used to co-develop OLED TVs together with Sony, but that OLED TV joint development project was canceled in December 2013. Panasonic (together with JDI, Sony and the INCJ) formed a new company (JOLED) to develop small/medium OLED panels. But the company OLED TV program is reportedly halted.

IHS says that AMOLED material consumption will increase dramatically starting in the second half of 2015 as LG Display increase WRGB (WOLED) OLED TV panel production. The market will more than threefold - reaching $165 million in H2 2015, up from $58 million in H1.

IHS forecasts that the WOLED material market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 79% from 2014 to 2019, to reach over $1.25 billion. The whole AMOLED materials market will grow at 54%, from $658 million in 2015 to $2 billion in 2019 (at a CAGR of 37%).

Japan Display demonstrated their flexible OLED panels, which they refer to as film-type OLEDs. The panels on show are 5.2" in size with a Full-HD resolution (423 PPI). These panels use a WRGB (white-OLED with color filters) architecture. Similar panels have been on display in 2014.

Note that for some reason JDI had a sticker saying "In plane Switching" near those OLEDs. IPS is an LCD technology, so this was probably done erroneously.

UBI Research sees fast growth ahead for white-OLED displays (WRGB) in the next five years. Currently WRGB is only used in OLED TV panels (made by LG Display) and all OLED microdisplays, but UBI says the technology will be adopted in small and medium sized panels as well.

UBI sees over 150 million WRGB OLEDs produced in 2020, out of over a billion OLED displays in total - so WRGB displays will account for 15% of the OLED market. Not all of these will be large OLED TV panels of course. In terms of revenue, WRGB OLEDs will generate over $13 billion in 2020 - most of which will come from large-sized OLED panels.

Samsung and LG agreed to stop the ongoing legal disputes between LG Display and Samsung Display - thus ending a very long court battle that involved technology theft accusation, stolen TVs and even broken washing machines. The two companies ended all current disputes, and agreed to not take new legal actions - and try and settle all issues through dialog.

In past years we've heard of several lawsuits launched by both sides and even accusations of stolen prototype TVs. In 2013 two two Korean arch-rival agreed to resolve their OLED dispute and they even considered cross-licensing patents and dropped all OLED lawsuits against each other, but settlement negotiation failed. Maybe this time they will finally make peace.

According to Korean site ETNews, Samsung Display decided to re-enter the OLED TV market. The Korean display maker reportedly finds it difficult to make a profit from the competitive LCD business (some reports suggest that SDC aims to split the OLED and LCD business soon).

Interestingly, the reports suggest that Samsung aims to use a WRGB architecture - like LG uses in their own OLED TVs, and unlike the direct-emission used in Samsung's small display and first-generation OLED TVs. The WRGB (white OLED with color filters and four sub pixels) was originally developed at Kodak, and then bought by LG back in 2009.

DisplayCentral posted an interesting article on LG Display's OLED TV program. The author reports from a discussion he had with Changho Oh, Senior VP for LG Display’s OLED TV Development Division, in which Changho says that LGD is investing heavily in soluble OLED production and aims to have such panels available in 2018.

A few days ago we reported that an LG Display researcher revealed that the company is developing a roll-to-roll process to produce flexible OLED displays. This is one of several possible printing technologies that can make soluble OLED panels possible.

In June 2014, Japan's Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL), in collaboration with Nokia, unveiled new foldable OLED display prototypes - 5.9" 1280x720 (249 PPI) ones, which can be folded in two or in three (these were two different prototypes).

Last month in Japan SEL unveiled new prototypes. The new panels are bigger at 8.7" and offer a higher resolution (1920x1080, 254 PPI). The new panels are also touch-enabled. And they are still tri-folded like the ones shown in June.

CNet posted an interesting interview with LG's Global Communication Director, Ken Hong. Ken says that their OLED TV production yields are over 80% now - and it's all thanks to the WRGB technology they bought originally from Kodak. Ken says that LG has a large lead over competitors - and they do not expect anyone to catch up for at least 2-3 years.

Ken further says that consumers are ready for OLED TVs now. He says that other makers cannot produce OLED TVs with reasonable yields and this is why they say consumers are not ready. At the current price point, LG's job is to educate consumers why they should spend a premium on OLED technology.