flexible display screens ready for mass production supplier

Founded by a Stanford PhD graduate, Royole has designed and is starting to mass-produce a super-thin flexible screen that could be used in everything from t-shirts to portable speakers.

It"s the stuff of science fiction, and plenty of tech trade shows — a screen so thin and flexible that it can be rolled up into a cylinder as small as a cigarette or hung on a wall like wallpaper.

Royole just opened a new factory in China that is already mass producing the displays, and the company is working with partners to get them installed in everything from t-shirts to automobiles to smartphones.

Royole"s screens are based on OLED technology, in which the lighting elements are built into the display itself. Unlike the OLED screens that are in some higher-end televisions, which are typically placed on a rigid base like glass, the lighting elements in Royole"s screens are placed on a flexible plastic base, so they can bend or roll up.

"The cool thing here is that we"re not limited by the form factor of the surface," said Liu, who founded Royole with some friends from Stanford after graduating from there with a PhD in electrical engineering. "They could be anywhere."

Royole, which was founded in 2012 and has raised $1.1 billion in funding, just brought its new factory online in June. The plant will be able to produce up to 50 million panels a year once it"s at full capacity, Liu said. That could help it feed a potentially burgeoning market for bendable gadgets.

Researchers have been trying to develop flexible screen technology since at least the early 1970s — first in the form of monochrome displays that were intended to replace printed pages, and then, much later, in the form of color ones that might replace the screens in TV or portable devices.

For much of the last decade, display makers including Samsung and LG have been showing off their flexible OLED screens and prototype of products made with them at trade shows.

Samsung"s Galaxy Round, a relatively obscure smartphone that came out that year, was one of the first gadgets that used a flexible screen way back in 2013. Because the display was placed behind a fixed plate of glass, so you couldn"t really tell that it was bendable. The only clue was that the front of the phone was concave.

Other smartphones since the Galaxy Round have also employed flexible displays, including the LG G Flex and the Edge versions of the Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Note lines. More recently, the screens have started to make their way into even mainstream devices. Apple"s iPhone X, for example, has a flexible display behind its famously notched screen.

They were "a disappointing application of what that the technology could do," said Raymond Soneira, CEO of DisplayMate, a consulting firm for the display and TV industries.

Neither businesses nor consumers were ready for bendable or foldable gadgets when the first flexible displays started rolling off production lines five years ago, analysts said. Electronics makers generally hadn"t set up their supply chains to accommodate them or figured out how they might be able to take advantage of the screens" properties in new products. Apps hadn"t been written specifically for devices with bendable screens. And nobody had laid the groundwork for new kinds of flexible gadgets by marketing them to consumers.

Things may be different now. Next year, Samsung will reportedly introduce a phone with a foldable screen that"s built around its flexible display technology. Apple reportedly has a foldable phone in the works, too.

"You can"t make [phones] much bigger … and have them be carried by most consumers," Soneira said. "So you"ve got to move up to foldable, even rollable screens."

The release of foldable screen phones and other gadgets from major manufacturers will likely spur developers to start making apps designed specifically around those features. It"s also likely to inspire demand for other devices that take advantage of the properties of bendable screens.

Flexible screens will likely get their start by replacing other screens in devices we already recognize, including not just smartphones, but computer monitors and laptop computers, allowing manufacturers to make models that are slightly more innovative or resilient, said Ryan Martin, a principal analyst at ABI Research. But eventually, manufacturers are likely to get a lot more creative with them.

A flexible display "changes the realm of design as well as design thinking," Martin said. "You"re no longer confined to the four corners of a screen. You can make things more abstract."

At CES, the giant electronics trade show held in Las Vegas every January, LG has shown off a prototype for a car dashboard in which the speedometer, tachometer and other other gauges and buttons are displayed virtually on flexible screens that could be shaped to the contours of a car"s interior.

Although the company is going up against some of the biggest electronics companies around in LG and Samsung, Royole"s got several advantages, Liu said. Its displays are built on its own proprietary technology for which it has filed numerous patents, he said. That technology allows it to build screens that are a tenth as thick as those of competitors.

What"s more, because it"s using a different methodology for building its screens, it was able to get its factory up and running for about $1 billion, which is far less than what it would cost its competitors, he said.

The first devices with Royole"s screens should start showing up later this year. The company plans to sell T-shirts and hats with its flexible displays built in. Soon thereafter, it expects marketers to start using its screens to display advertisements in elevators, airports, shopping malls, and other places.

From there, the screens should start making its way into other products, both traditional and new, Liu said. When purchased in volume, they should be competitive in price to other types of displays, he said.

Kateeva’s YIELDjet system (pictured here) is a massive version of an inkjet printer. Large glass or plastic substrate sheets are placed on a long, wide platform. A head with custom nozzles moves back and forth, across the substrate, coating it with OLED and other materials.

Based on years of Institute research, MIT spinout Kateeva has developed an “inkjet printing” system that could cut manufacturing costs enough to pave the way for mass-producing flexible and large-screen OLED displays.

Flexible smartphones and color-saturated television displays were some highlights at this year’s Consumer Electronics Showcase, held in January in Las Vegas.

Many of those displays were made using organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs — semiconducting films about 100 nanometers thick, made of organic compounds and sandwiched between two electrodes, that emit light in response to electricity. This allows each individual pixel of an OLED screen to emit red, green, and blue, without a backlight, to produce more saturated color and use less energy. The film can also be coated onto flexible, plastic substrates.

But there’s a reason why these darlings of the showroom are not readily available on shelves: They’re not very cost-effective to make en masse. Now, MIT spinout Kateeva has developed an “inkjet printing” system for OLED displays — based on years of Institute research — that could cut manufacturing costs enough to pave the way for mass-producing flexible and large-screen models.

In doing so, Kateeva aims to “fix the last ‘Achilles’ heel’ of the OLED-display industry — which is manufacturing,” says Kateeva co-founder and scientific advisor Vladimir Bulovic, the Fariborz Maseeh Professor of Emerging Technology, who co-invented the technology.

Called YIELDjet, Kateeva’s technology platform is a massive version of an inkjet printer. Large glass or plastic substrate sheets are placed on a long, wide platform. A component with custom nozzles moves rapidly, back and forth, across the substrate, coating it with OLED and other materials — much as a printer drops ink onto paper.

An OLED production line consists of many processes, but Kateeva has developed tools for two specific areas — each using the YIELDjet platform. The first tool, called YIELDjet FLEX, was engineered to enable thin-film encapsulation (TFE). TFE is the process that gives thinness and flexibility to OLED devices; Kateeva hopes flexible displays produced by YIELDjet FLEX will hit the shelves by the end of the year.

The second tool, which will debut later this year, aims to cut costs and defects associated with patterning OLED materials onto substrates, in order to make producing 55-inch screens easier.

By boosting yields, as well as speeding up production, reducing materials, and reducing maintenance time, the system aims to cut manufacturing costs by about 50 percent, says Kateeva co-founder and CEO Conor Madigan SM ’02 PhD ’06. “That combination of improving the speed, improving the yield, and improving the maintenance is what mass-production manufacturers want. Plus, the system is scalable, which is really important as the display industry shifts to larger substrate sizes,” he says.

Traditional TFE processing methods enclose the substrate in a vacuum chamber, where a vapor of the encapsulating film is sprayed onto the substrate through a metal stencil. This process is slow and expensive — primarily because of wasted material — and requires stopping the machine frequently for cleaning. There are also issues with defects, as the coating that hits the chamber walls and stencil can potentially flake off and fall onto the substrate in between adding layers.

But moisture, and even some air particles, can sneak into the chamber, which is deadly to OLEDs: When electricity hits OLEDs contaminated with water and air particles, the resulting chemical reactions reduce the OLEDs’ quality and lifespan. Any displays contaminated during manufacturing are discarded and, to make up for lost yield, companies boost retail prices. Only two companies now sell OLED television displays, with 55-inch models selling for $3,000 to $4,000 — about $1,000 to $3,000 more than their 55-inch LCD and LED counterparts.

YIELDjet FLEX aims to solve many TFE issues. A key innovation is encasing the printer in a nitrogen chamber, cutting exposure to oxygen and moisture, as well as cutting contamination with particles — notorious for diminishing OLED yields — by 10 times over current methods that use vacuum chambers. “Low-particle nitrogen is the best low-cost, inert environment you can use for OLED manufacturing,” Madigan says.

In its TFE process, the YIELDjet precisely coats organic films over the display area as part of the TFE structure. The organic layer flattens and smoothes the surface to provide ideal conditions for depositing the subsequent layers in the TFE structure. Depositing onto a smooth, clean surface dramatically improves the quality of the TFE structure, enabling high yields and reliability, even after repeated flexing and bending, Madigan says.

Kateeva’s other system offers an improvement over the traditional vacuum thermal evaporation (VTE) technique — usually somewhere in the middle of the production line — that uses shadow masks (thin metal squares with stenciled patterns) to drop red, green, and blue OLED materials onto a substrate.

This isn’t necessarily bad for making small, smartphone screens: “If a substrate sheet with, say, 100 small displays on its surface has five defects, you may toss five, and all the rest are perfect,” Madigan explains. And smaller shadow masks are more reliable.

But manufacturers start to lose money when they’re tossing one or two large-screen displays due to particle contamination or defects across the substrate.

Kateeva’s system, which, like its TFE system, is enclosed in a nitrogen chamber, precisely positions substrates — large enough for six 55-inch displays — beneath print heads, which contain hundreds of nozzles. These nozzles are tuned to deposit tiny droplets of OLED material in exact locations to create the display’s pixels. “Doing this over three layers removes the need for shadow masks at larger scales,” Madigan says.

As with its YIELDjet FLEX system, Madigan says this YIELDjet product for OLED TV displays can help manufacturers save more than 50 percent over traditional methods. In January, Kateeva partnered with Sumitomo, a leading OLED-materials supplier, to further optimize the system for volume production.

The idea for Kateeva started in the early 2000s at MIT. Over several years, Madigan, Bulovic, Schmidt, Chen, and Leblanc had become involved in a partnership with Hewlett-Packard (HP) on a project to make printable electronics.

They had developed a variety of methods for manufacturing OLEDs — which Madigan had been studying since his undergraduate years at Princeton University. Other labs at that time were trying to make OLEDs more energy efficient, or colorful, or durable. “But we wanted to do something completely different that would revolutionize the industry, because that’s what we should be doing in a place like MIT,” Madigan says.

A few years before, Bulovic had cut his teeth in the startup scene with QD Vision — which is currently developing quantum-dot technology for LED television displays — and was able to connect the group with local venture capitalists.

Madigan, on the other hand, was sharpening his entrepreneurial skills at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Among other things, the Entrepreneurship Lab class introduced him to the nuts and bolts of startups, including customer acquisition and talking to investors. And Innovation Teams helped him study markets and design products for customer needs. “There was no handbook, but I benefitted a lot from those two classes,” he says.

So in 2012, Kateeva pivoted, switching gears to its YIELDjet system. Today, the system is a platform, Bulovic says, that, in the future, can be tweaked to print solid stage lighting panels, solar cells, nanostructure circuits, and luminescent concentrators, among other things. “All those would be enabled by the semiconductor printer Kateeva has been able to develop,” he says. “OLED displays are just the first application.”

Ladies and gentlemen, our dreams of flexible digital newspapers are nearly within reach: LG just announced that it has begun mass production of a 6-inch, 1024 x 768 e-paper screen that can bend by up to 40 degrees. We haven"t been able to find a press release, but several Korean publications are reporting that the plastic-based screen is shipping to Chinese manufacturers to build e-readers right away, and devices based on the technology could be available in Europe as soon as early April. LG is boasting that at 0.7mm thick, the entire display is as thin as a protective film for a phone"s screen. According to the reports, LG conducted 1.5-meter (about 5 foot) drop tests with the screen and smacked it with a rubber mallet with no ill effect. We"re waiting for the other shoe (or e-reader) to drop, but that sounds positively fantastic. Maybe we"ll get some bendable batteries to go with the screen, some day.

Seoul, Korea (Oct. 7, 2013)– LG Display [NYSE: LPL, KRX: 034220], the world’s leading innovator of display technologies, today announced that it will start mass-production of the world’s first flexible OLED panel for smartphones. This state-of-the-art panel represents another milestone following the company’s commercial rollout of the world’s first 55-inch OLED TV display earlier this year.

“LG Display is launching a new era of flexible displays for smartphones with its industry-leading technology,” said Dr. Sang Deog Yeo, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of LG Display. “The flexible display market is expected to grow quickly as this technology is expected to expand further into diverse applications including automotive displays, tablets and wearable devices. Our goal is to take an early lead in the flexible display market by introducing new products with enhanced performance and differentiated designs next year.”

LG Display’s flexible OLED panel is built on plastic substrates instead of glass. By applying film-type encapsulation technology and attaching the protection film to the back of the panel, LG Display made the panel bendable and unbreakable. The new display is vertically concave from top to bottom with a radius of 700mm, opening up a world of design innovations in the smartphone market. And only 0.44mm thin, LG Display’s flexible OLED panel is the world’s slimmest among existing mobile device panels. What’s more, it is also the world’s lightest, weighing a mere 7.2g even with a 6-inch screen, the largest among current smartphone OLED displays.

In March 2012 LG Display developed the world’s first 6-inch Electronic Paper Display (EPD) based on e-ink which utilizes a plastic backplane. Having previously showcased the world’s first curved 55-inch OLED TV panel at CES 2013, today’s announcement highlights the company’s leading position in advanced flexible display technologies.

According to research firm IHS Display Bank, the global flexible display industry will see dramatic growth and become a USD 1.5 billion market by 2016, exceeding USD 10 billion by 2019. LG Display plans to advance flexible display technologies and bring innovation to consumers’ daily lives with the introduction of rollable and foldable displays in various sizes.

LG Display Co., Ltd. [NYSE: LPL, KRX: 034220] is a leading manufacturer and supplier of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels, OLEDs and flexible displays. The company provides TFT-LCD panels in a wide range of sizes and specifications for use in TVs, monitors, notebook PCs, mobile products and other various applications. LG Display currently operates nine fabrication facilities and seven back-end assembly facilities in Korea, China, Poland, and Mexico. The company has a total of 56,000 employees operating worldwide. For more news and information about LG Display, please visit www.lgdnewsroom.com.

A report from ETNews claims that Samsung Display is ready to expand its foldable-display business and start selling to companies other than Samsung Electronics" phone division. Flexible panels were previously exclusive to Samsung"s phone division, but the report says Samsung Display plans to sell 1 million panels this year in the open market. ETNews quotes a source saying "multiple Chinese smartphones markets" are working with Samsung and plan to ship devices in the second half of 2021.

A million panels isn"t a huge supply compared to the ~350 million smartphones sold annually, but that is about the size of the foldable market in these early days. Canalys" last numbers said 1.74 million foldables were sold from September 2019 to June 2020, which represents the first generation of foldables, before the launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Samsung hopes to see that number grow a lot in 2021, with ETNews reporting Samsung Display will supply 10 million foldable displays to the phone division.

It doesn"t sound like the third parties buying from Samsung will have a lot of wiggle room in terms of form factor. According to the report, Samsung is supplying two types of displays: one that folds across the horizontal axis like the Galaxy Z Flip, and one that folds across the vertical axis like the Galaxy Z Fold. The industry isn"t quite sure what a flexible display smartphone should look like, and at trade shows, various companies have pitched all sorts of wild form factors. There are concepts for rollable display smartphones, outward-folding displays like the Huawei Mate X, and tri-folding smartphones that fold up like a wallet or a brochure. It doesn"t sound like Samsung will be humoring any of those form factors just yet.

This report signals an end of Samsung"s exclusivity period on its foldable display technology, which has been an exception to the way Samsung normally does business. Samsung Display and the Galaxy phone division are both under the "Samsung Electronics" label, but often the various divisions of Samsung treat each other like any other customer. If your goal is "sell as many phones as possible," it would be a good strategy to keep any special technologies in house, but if you"re focused on making as much money as possible, it"s better to sell to the entire industry. As a whole conglomerate, Samsung makes more money selling iPhone parts to Apple than it does selling Galaxy Phones to consumers. We recently saw a good example of this "components-first" approach with the rise of faster-refresh-rate OLED smartphone displays, where OnePlus, Google, and others were using Samsung-made 90Hz OLED displays a generation before Samsung. Advertisement

The foldable displays are special, though. Samsung Display says it invested six years and $130 million in R&D to bring foldable displays to market, and so far, the phone division has had exclusive access to the technology. Presumably, the plan was that Samsung Electronics would have a huge head start over the competition and would be the only company selling Foldable phones for a few years. Samsung"s plans didn"t work out, though. According to Korean prosecutors, Samsung"s foldable display technology was stolen in 2018 and sold to "two Chinese companies" that have never been officially named. A report from Nikkei Asia pegs China"s biggest display manufacturer, BOE, as a recipient of the stolen display technology, and that certainly seems plausible given that BOE is the closest thing Samsung has to competition in the foldable-display market.

BOE foldable displays power Samsung"s two biggest foldable rivals, the Huawei Mate X and the Moto Razr. Like we listed above, there are plenty of other companies that bring prototype foldable smartphones to trade shows, but as far as products that are actually brave enough to come to market, there are devices powered by Samsung and BOE and maybe one or two tiny boutique outlets like Royale. ETNews still qualifies Samsung as the only "mass market" flexible-display panel provider, a fine conclusion given that other devices seem to mostly be paper launches with either minimal distribution or constant stock problems. If you want to zoom in on the extremely small foldables segment, a report from industry tracker Display Supply Chain Consultants recently put Samsung"s 2020 foldable smartphone market share at 88 percent.

At OTI Lumionics we are developing advanced materials—by design—using quantum simulations, machine learning and real-world testing in pilot production. We are currently focused on key enabling materials for OLED displays that will be used in next-generation consumer electronics and automotive. Our advanced electrode materials, and associated manufacturing technology, are being used to build transparent displays and lighting.

We work closely with our partners and customers to design new materials that are mass-production ready. Using our computational Materials Discovery Platform, we are able to rapidly iterate new materials, allowing fast turn around time to meet our customers’ needs.

As phones, tablets and even laptops move away from typical rigid slab-like constructions, display panels that can withstand the potential punishment of form-factors that are intended to fold (or worn, or maybe even roll up) regularly may become a component of demand.

BOE is one company that may stand to supply this need. A panel it has developed that has just won a Beijing Science and Technology Progress Special Award may be an example of the display material of the future. It is called R5 200,000, where R5 refers to its spec of a bending radius as low as 5mm and 200000 refers to the number of times it can withstand being folded to this extent.

Then again, this R5 200,000 is an outward-facing panel, which means its active (image-showing) side is still visible as it goes through all these folds, whereas most of the flexible-display devices of today do so in the opposite direction. Nevertheless, the company has reportedly announced that this same product is ready for manufacture at a commercial scale.

It will be no stranger to distributing it, either: BOE"s flexible AMOLED displays reportedly accounted for 20.3% of all shipments in this market since their own transition to mass production. Those panels have been bought by companies such as Huawei, LG, Motorola, Nubia and OPPO thus far. Therefore, R5 200.000 may see just as much success in the near future.

OLED is an emerging display technology that enables beautiful and efficient displays and lighting panels. OLEDs are already being used in smartphones, laptops, wearables, tablets and TVs, and many of OLEDs are flexible ones.

A flexible OLED is based on a flexible substrate (usually polyimide). The first generation of OLEDs produced on these were not really flexible from the user perspective. The device maker bends the displays, or curves it - but the final user is not able to actually bend the device. These first-gen flexible OLEDs are adopted many premium smartphones, for example the Samsung edge-type Galaxy phones or Apple"s latest iPhones. A plastic-based OLED has several advantages especially in mobile devices - the displays are lighter, thinner and more durable compared to glass based displays.

Second generation flexible OLED displays can be bent by the user - these can be used for example to create foldable smartphones - the first range of which started shipping in 2019. Rollable OLEDs are also now entering the market for both TVs and smartphones.

While several companies (including Samsung, LG, BOE and others) are producing OLED displays, it is not straightforward to find a good and reliable supply of these displays.

If you are interested in buying a flexible OLED panel for your project or device, look no further. Our OLED Marketplace offers several flexible OLEDs, which can be ordered through us with ease.

OLED is an emerging display technology that enables beautiful and efficient displays and lighting panels. OLEDs are already being used in smartphones, laptops, wearables, tablets and TVs, and many of OLEDs are flexible ones.

A flexible OLED is based on a flexible substrate (usually polyimide). The first generation of OLEDs produced on these were not really flexible from the user perspective. The device maker bends the displays, or curves it - but the final user is not able to actually bend the device. These first-gen flexible OLEDs are adopted many premium smartphones, for example the Samsung edge-type Galaxy phones or Apple"s latest iPhones. A plastic-based OLED has several advantages especially in mobile devices - the displays are lighter, thinner and more durable compared to glass based displays.

Second generation flexible OLED displays can be bent by the user - these can be used for example to create foldable smartphones - the first range of which started shipping in 2019. Rollable OLEDs are also now entering the market for both TVs and smartphones.

While several companies (including Samsung, LG, BOE and others) are producing OLED displays, it is not straightforward to find a good and reliable supply of these displays.

If you are interested in buying a flexible OLED panel for your project or device, look no further. Our OLED Marketplace offers several flexible OLEDs, which can be ordered through us with ease.

Planar® CarbonLight™ VX Series is comprised of carbon fiber-framed indoor LED video wall and floor displays with exceptional on-camera visual properties and deployment versatility, available in 1.9 and 2.6mm pixel pitch (wall) and 2.6mm (floor).

From cinema content to motion-based digital art, Planar® Luxe MicroLED Displays offer a way to enrich distinctive spaces. HDR support and superior dynamic range create vibrant, high-resolution canvases for creative expression and entertainment. Leading-edge MicroLED technology, design adaptability and the slimmest profiles ensure they seamlessly integrate with architectural elements and complement interior décor.

From cinema content to motion-based digital art, Planar® Luxe Displays offer a way to enrich distinctive spaces. These professional-grade displays provide vibrant, high-resolution canvases for creative expression and entertainment. Leading-edge technology, design adaptability and the slimmest profiles ensure they seamlessly integrate with architectural elements and complement interior decor.

From cinema content to motion-based digital art, Planar® Luxe MicroLED Displays offer a way to enrich distinctive spaces. HDR support and superior dynamic range create vibrant, high-resolution canvases for creative expression and entertainment. Leading-edge MicroLED technology, design adaptability and the slimmest profiles ensure they seamlessly integrate with architectural elements and complement interior décor.

Planar® CarbonLight™ VX Series is comprised of carbon fiber-framed indoor LED video wall and floor displays with exceptional on-camera visual properties and deployment versatility, available in 1.9 and 2.6mm pixel pitch (wall) and 2.6mm (floor).

Carbon fiber-framed indoor LED video wall and floor displays with exceptional on-camera visual properties and deployment versatility for various installations including virtual production and extended reality.

a line of extreme and ultra-narrow bezel LCD displays that provides a video wall solution for demanding requirements of 24x7 mission-critical applications and high ambient light environments

Since 1983, Planar display solutions have benefitted countless organizations in every application. Planar displays are usually front and center, dutifully delivering the visual experiences and critical information customers need, with proven technology that is built to withstand the rigors of constant use.

Most display panels are sandwiched between layers of glass making them rigid and also pretty breakable. Samsung Display has just filed a patent application for a new flexible AMOLED display technology, called “Youm”, that does away with the glass layers, replacing them with a special plastic film. The result is a flexible display, which can even be rolled up or folded, that according to Samsung is unbreakable and lighter than conventional displays.

This isn’t the first flexible display technology we’ve seen and Samsung has been toying with flexible panels for a while, but the company is said to now be ready to mass produce the panels with a probable 2012 release.

Now as far as applications go you can put your imagination at work as the possibilities are endless. The screens can wrap around curvy gadgets and take all kinds of different shapes. We are also imagining foldable tablets or even ‘tube-form’ tablets where you pull the display out of the enclosure. The key is that now manufacturers could pretty much integrate a display into anything.

What is Micro OLED? Why Micro OLED is good choice for AR/VR devices. Apple"s first VR/MR headset will be launched next year. This headset will be equipped with three screens, two of them are micro OLED displays.

FFALCON innovation released the new generation of consumer XR glasses FFALCON Air 1S. uses BirdBath+MicroOLED technology to create a 130-inch high-definition screen experience for users.

Now LCD is the most common VR device screen on the market, and a few VR  products use OLED screens and  Mirco-OLED screens. Micro OLED is unfamiliar for VR players. Arpara 5K PC VR, the world"s first VR device,  is using the micro-OLED display.

This enhanced IPS LCD Screen is 2.9 inch 480*720, Panox Display`s convertor board on FPC make higher resolution compatible with GBA circuit board. This makes 3*3 pixels display one pixel as the original display.

Leica has released a new thermal camera for modern hunting, it has extreme precision and maximum repeatability, superior image quality, and an extra-large field of view. Which use using a 0.39 inch 1024x768 pixels Micro OLED with a 50 Hz refresh rate.

BOE responded to investors about the development of AR/VR display panels, saying that BOE has provided VR/AR/MR smart applications display solutions, including high PPI, high refresh rate of Fast LCD and ultra-high resolution, ultra-high contrast of Micro OLED (silicon-based OLED) and other representative display technology.

As the new energy vehicle market continues to develop in ways that exceed initial expectations, the automotive industry continues to promote the trend towards "electrification, intelligence, Internet connection" and other technological innovations that, when combined, are driving the continuous demand for on-board displays.

SID Display brought together the industry’s biggest players – including BOE, Samsung Display, Tianma, TCL Huaxin, LG Display, Visionox, AUO and Innolux, among others.

According to India"s latest report, Samsung"s Image Display Division purchased about 48 million panels in 2021 and shipped 42 million units. In 2022, meanwhile, it plans to purchase 56 million panels and ship 48 million units in 2022. The panels it purchases will be made up of 53 million OPEN Cell LCD TVs, 1 million QD OLED panels, and 2 million WOLED TV panels.

With the explosive growth of new energy vehicles and vehicle intelligence in 2021, in-vehicle display technology has also undergone a period of rapid development. First, end-users and OEMs have begun to pursue multi-screen, high-resolution, and large-size displays. And, secondly, major panel manufacturers have actively adopted diversification strategies based on their own particular strengths and adjusted their own layouts accordingly.

Lens Technology began to conduct R&D research on AR/VR products, and to develop related products, around five years ago. As such, it was not only one of the first companies in the industry to develop optical, structural, and functional modules, but to also begin mass production of AR/VR products. It also boasts rich technical reserves and global high-quality customer resources.

AM-OLED shows the current is still in the technology leading period, folding, screen camera, narrow frame, high refresh rate, low power consumption, ultra-thin display technology popular with the market, terminal application penetration accelerated, and gradually from smartphones, smart wear small main penetration areas to the car, laptop size expansion, industry in rapid expansion period, no previous display industry facing cyclical fluctuations, the overall industry pattern initially formed.

Yanshun Chen, BOE’s chairman, recently revealed at the performance exchange meeting that BOE"s flexible AMOLED product shipments totaled nearly 60 million pieces in 2021. According to consulting agency data, the company enjoys a global market share of 17%, meaning it ranks second in the world. The company’s goal in 2022 is to ship more than 100 million pieces, a figure which constitutes full production capacity. Production capacity will then be boosted further in 2023, when the company’s Chongqing"s flexible OLED production line starts mass production.

The webinar will feature CEO Michael Robinson, who will update the Company’s operations and outline Ynvisible"s accomplishments, the business perspective around these accomplishments, and what to anticipate from Ynvisible and management going forward.LEARN MORE>LEARN MORE>SIGN UP TO WEBINAR

Printed e-paper displays from Ynvisible is an enabling technology for digital signage and the retail sector. Join the webinar on April 28 and hear directly from our lead customers the reasons why.read more & sign up

We have seen enough ugly segmented LCDs and LEDs. The time has come to try something more visually appealing. Experiment with different shapes, forms, and colors whilst being cost-effective.Learn more 

Choosing our e-paper displays will reduce cost at both the component level and the system level. Roll-to-roll screen-printing processes mean ultra-low-cost mass production.Read more about mass production 

“With the TempSafe Electrocard, we now expand our solutions offering with a temperature measuring electronic smart-label, a fully customizable time/temperature indicator solution, that can achieve sub-zero temperatures, as well as visually indicate Above and Below thresholds with Ynvisible´s e-paper displays."

"We are very pleased to be able to join forces with Ynvisible to fuel the development of our digital sensor labels. After recent breakthroughs with our sensors, we are now ready to take the next step to produce a prototype, and we believe Ynvisible to be the optimal partner for this because of their experience and cutting-edge technology within printed displays and electronics."

"Our clients are waiting for the first deliveries of the Mimbox. We will start industrial-scale production after the upcoming pilots. We"ve already found Ynvisible to be a great partner and value their services in design, system integration, prototyping through to production of the e-paper displays."

During the summer it was my pleasure to work with two interns from local universities. As part of their instruction I asked each of them to pick a topic of their choice, and to generate a patent landscape report on the area. For each project the interns were asked to research the technical aspects of their topic, suggest a patent search strategy for identifying documents, reduce their collections to remove family duplicates, cleanup various data fields, categorize the collection into a variety of facets, conduct relevant analytics on the data, and finally generate both a written report and a PowerPoint presentation to summarize their results. I am excited to publish the first of these projects produced by Riley Collins who did his project on Flexible Electronic Displays. So without further ado here"s Riley"s project:

Unlike traditional flat panel displays OLEDs, one of the more popular types of flexible electronic displays are solid-state devices composed of thin films of organic molecules that create light with the application of electricity. OLEDs can provide brighter, crisper displays on electronic devices and use less power than conventional light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or liquid crystal displays (LCDs) used according to HowStuffWorks.com.  Using glass substrates, flexible technology OLED‘s utilizes plastic substrates, which allow the display to bend and twist. Flexible OLED‘s only need one sheet of substrate while LCD‘s require two and a separate backlight. Because of this, OLED‘s are able to be paper thin and lightweight, a perfect candidate for mobile phones and wearable electronics. The challenge for manufacturers currently is allowing the device to be repeatedly deformed while keeping the internals intact. Currently, electronic flexible displays are being used to make curved phones and televisions. This is possible because while the display may be “flexible”, the internal components remain fixed. Figure 1 shows a diagram of the layers in different types of displays. Samsung refers to their flexible OLED display as FAMOLED.

Electronic paper displays are the oldest type of flexible display. They differ in that they reflect light and have a wider viewing angle. E-paper is used predominately in E-readers and signage because text can be read in direct sunlight without fading. Similar to flexible OLED and LCD, it also uses plastic substrates, allowing display to bend like paper. E-paper displays are not ideal for phones and tablets because they have a very low refresh rate, ghosting problems, and are yet to be mass-produced in color.

As flexible displays become cheaper to manufacture we will likely see new functions of this technology. While curved devices are the first to hit the market, recent patent filings by top display manufacturers suggest that foldable, bendable, and rollable devices are not that far away. Foldable displays will likely come first to accommodate the growing demand for larger displays and the need for portability. As the wearable device market grows, bendable displays could be used to wraparound an individual’s wrist. Finally, displays that can be rolled up may be used in televisions and eventually a tubular device with a retractable roll out display.

Some benefits of flexible displays are better durability, lighter weight, thinner dimensions, and unique software commands. The use of a plastic substrate and the ability to flex locally when dropped makes the device less likely to crack, saving the users the trouble of having their screen replaced or being forced to buy a new device. Flexible devices will also be lighter and thinner than their rigid counterparts because they use plastic instead of glass. The ability to deform the device may allow the user to access a set of commands in their devices user interface. For example, when the device is folded it will go into sleep mode.

Demand for flexible displays is on the verge of a sharp increase. According to a new IHS report, “Global Flexible Display Technology and Market Forecast” (Figure 2 above). It is estimated that the flexible display market will grow to $1.1 billion in 2015 and will continue to develop at rate of 226% to $42 billion by the end of 2020. Units sold are projected to rise from 3.2 million in 2013 to 792 million in 2020. This means that in 2020, flexible display market will have captured 13% of the total display market. Even though smartphones with flexible displays have not yet achieved their desired potential, it is probable that they will soon capture the market by storm.

The search was started by locating as many Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) codes that referred to flexible displays.. A sample of highly relevant documents were used to cross-reference and make sure that no CPC codes were left out.. The codes used were are:

OLEDA family reduction was conducted, but all unique US application numbers were retained. Foreign inventions were reduced to one invention per extended family. This list of CPC codes produced 2156 documents. After manually sorting the files, 177 were on E-Paper, and 1218 were Flexible OLED/LCD technologies. Many of the relevant documents included the key words flex*, deform, roll*, curve, bend* or bent, fold*, and a flexible or plastic substrate.

The objective of preforming this research is to complete an analysis of the Flexible Display IP landscape and assess the position of leading display manufacturers. According to the total number of applications by publication year, the patent filings for flexible displays are increasing at an exponential rate. They increased from 48 publications in 2010 to 566 in 2014/2015. This represents more than a 100% increase on average each year. Even more impressive is that almost 60% of the filings between 2010 and 2015 have came in the past 18 months. An initial look at the top companies by publications shows Samsung with the most at 271, LG with 97, and SEL with 85. Trailing behind are Creator Technology, Nokia, Apple, and Blackberry. Samsung and LG are likely to have the most filings because they are the only companies on this list that manufacturers portable devices and displays. Flexible displays are a relatively new technological field and because of this, the majority of the publications have not gone on to grant yet. It remains to be seen how much legal coverage will be given to these companies. The requirements for protection may still be uncertain and this could lead to lawsuits down the road.

When looking at the patent filings by type, the display component, electronic device, and display panel publications all increased sharply after 2013. Display panel filings surpassed electronic device filings in 2014/2015. Samsung is the clear leader in flexible display panel with 95 publications in 2014/2015 alone. Comparatively, LG and SEL both produced slightly more than 30 in this same time. The story is very similar for the display components except instead of SEL, Nokia trails slightly behind LG. The device patents have increased considerably since 2013 with Samsung going from 11 to 49, LG from 5 to 32, and Apple from 4 to 19. Blackberry has also increased their device patents steadily. The findings suggest that devices are already being specially made utilizing this new display technology. Companies such as Apple and Nokia who have few patents on the flexible display are perhaps exploring future licensing deals if they plan on releasing a device that contains a flexible display.

Samsung, SEL, Creator Technology, and Philips have most of their filings on the display, while LG, Nokia, Apple, Blackberry, Pantech, and Motorola have more patents on a device that uses a flexible display. Some other display-oriented companies include Sony, Sharp, ITRI, Toshiba, Universal Display Corporation, Fujifilm, Kodak, AU Optronics, and Boe Technology. To emphasize how much of a force the top two companies in this landscape are, a chart is included of Samsung and LG combined vs. all other companies. In 2014/2015 the top two combined surpassed all remaining companies in number of publications with 276 vs. 248. This shows the push that the leading display manufacturers are making to protect their intellectual property before this technology is mass-produced.

Charts and graphs associated with these analysis as well as a few other views on the data can be found in a PowerPoint presentation summarizing this research. The presentation can be downloaded by clicking on the following link: Flexible Electonic Displays Patent Analysis.

In January 2013 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Samsung showcased prototypes of their flexible YOUM brand displays. In October of 2013, they released their first product using a flexible display. It appears that Samsung abandoned the YOUM branding because the Galaxy Round now uses a Flexible Super AMOLED display (FAMOLED). The Korean company then released the Galaxy note edge in September 2013. The note edge utilizes the curve to display information on the side of the display. Samsung’s latest installment of a flexible display device was the Galaxy S6 Edge in March 2015. The S6 differentiates itself from the note edge because it has two curved edges. Samsung announced in August of 2015 that they will be investing $3 billion to expand their OLED plant in Vietnam.

LG showed one of its 6 inch flexible prototypes in June of 2013 at the Society for information Display (SID). They then announced the release of the G Flex, a curved phone, shortly after CES in January 2014. The new and improved G Flex 2 would be released a year later at CES. In a private showroom at CES 2015, LG unveiled a prototype phone with a dual edge display, similar to the Galaxy S6 edge, which was released a few months later. In June 2015, at SID, LG released an 18 inch rollable display prototype at SID. LG has plans to make a 60 inch version by 2017. In July 2015, LG announced that it was investing $905 million into a 6th generation flexible OLED production line in South Korea. The project is said to finish in 2017 and will allow LG to meet the increasing demand for flexible displays in phones and wearable devices.

Nokia and SEL have released a two 5.9 inch foldable OLED prototypes at SID 2014. One of which folds like a book and the other with a tri-fold design. With Nokia and SEL partnering together, a functional foldable device may be released in the near future. http://news.oled-display.net/nokia-showcase-three-fold-oled-displays/

Originally a spin off from Philips Electronics, Polymer Vision was acquired by Wilstron Corp in 2009. The original Polymer Vision patent portfolio is now owned by the Netherlands company Creator Technology. Polymer Vision was trying to release a product called the readius which is essentially an E-reader with a 5 inch roll out display. Creator Technology may become a force in the flexible display industry, especially in regards to roll out displays. http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/03/wistron-reportedly-closes-polymer-vision/

In August 2014, Au Optronics released a 5 inch flexible AMOLED panel at a trade show. They also released a similar prototype in August 2015 that can detect how the user bends it. http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s6-and-zenfone-2-top-charging-test-636708/

Boe Technology has recently created a prototype 9.55 inch flexible display that can be rolled into a tube, they have also created a 55 inch UHD flexible AMOLED display, the largest of its kind. Boe Technology also has an ongoing partnership with Universal Display Corporation. http://company.boe.com/portal/en/chuangxinkeji/boechuangxin/wenzhangxiangqing/dynamic/pecbwd264.html

ITRI is using its FlexUpTM technology to create foldable and rollable AMOLED panels. They displayed some of their latest innovations in August, 2015 at Touch Taiwan. https://www.itri.org.tw/eng/Content/NewsLetter/contents.aspx?&SiteID=1&MmmID=617731531241750114&SSize=10&SYear=2015&Keyword=&MSID=654530737004101325

There are still challenges to overcome before truly flexible devices hit the market, as the machinery behind the display is not meant to be bent. While plastic has its advantages, it is not as good as glass when it comes to encapsulating the thin-film-transistor and other components from moisture, oxygen, and other unwanted particles. Phone technology need to become tough enough to handle the stress of daily flexing over an extended period of time. Another barrier of a flexible device is the battery. Batteries are typically rigid in nature and until these batteries can be manipulated to flex, the notion of a bendable phone is unlikely. Similar to the battery, the silicon circuit board and its components are also not malleable. Device manufacturers will have to find cost effective alternatives to these problems before these new gadgets hit the shelves.

Samsung and LG are likely to be the first manufacturers of the next generation of flexible display devices. They have both proven that they have the expertise to create flexible display devices, as evidenced by the S6 edge and G Flex2. Nokia, Apple, and Blackberry are likely the next manufacturers to produce a flexible device based on their elevated number of patents.  However, they will likely have to license the display technology in order to incorporate their devices. There is currently a need for lighter and thinner devices that are extremely portable and durable, a flexible device that can change its form for convenience appears to be the solution. It is simply a matter of time before manufacturers cross these last barriers and release a new wave of flexible devices that will flood the market.

Airbus demonstrated three flexible display prototypes for aircraft cabins at Airshow China in Zhihai last week, which it says could represent the ‘human-machine interface of the future’. The flexible displays are ultra-thin and ultra-light, and can be adapted to any cabin surface with minimum integration efforts. Such displays can be used in new ways to improve the passenger experience, such as re-imagining inflight entertainment, and for creating new spaces and opportunities for advertisers to exploit.

The displays have been developed by Royole Corporation, a leader in flexible displays and sensors, with which Airbus partnered in 2018. The company is known for several flexible technologies, including developing the world’s thinnest, full-colour fully flexible display, the world’s first mass production facility for fully flexible displays, and the world’s first commercial foldable smartphone with flexible display to be brought to market: the FlexPai.

“Utilising fully flexible displays instead of traditional liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) in aircraft can reduce both cost and weight, saving fuel and reducing carbon emissions in airliners, which will provide new paths to improving the sustainability of our world,” said Hong Zhao, COO of Royole Corporation.

Royole’s flexible displays meet the aviation industry’s strict quality and safety standards, passing the AS9100 and DO160 tests for flammability, toxicity and smoke. Royole says it is the only flexible display manufacturer with hardware ready to install in aircraft cabins.

BOE, the biggest display manufacturer in China, is preparing to supply its OLED displays for Samsung Electronics’ smartphones for the first time. Particularly, the company’s OLEDs will be “flexible OLEDs” that are one of major products of South Korean display manufacturers. BOE’s supply of OLED displays is expected to have a significant impact on South Korea’s display industry as the industry is seeing a rapid growth of China’s display industry and as Samsung Electronics has chosen OLED panels from BOE that is the biggest competitor to South Korea’s display industry.

According to the industry on March 21, it is reported that Samsung Electronics plans to use BOE’s flexible OLEDs for part of the Galaxy M series models that are expected to be released in the second half this year.

It is almost certain that Samsung Electronics will use BOE’s flexible OLEDs as the specific standard has been set for displays that will be used for the models and Samsung Electronics also selected relevant components such as driver IC and touch IC. Schedule for production has also been set for July.

Flexible OLED indicates an OLED that is based on a flexible substrate. Instead of a rigid glass substrate, it uses a plastic material (polyimide) which allows the display to be bent. Flexible OLED is categorized as a premium product. Due to its light weight, thinness, and degree of freedom in design, it can be used for edge smartphones that have the edges bent or foldable smartphones that can have the screens folded and unfolded.

South Korean display manufacturers have been the leaders in flexible OLED. Samsung Display became the first in the industry to develop flexible OLED and commercialized it for the first time through Samsung Electronics’ smartphone “Galaxy Round” in 2013. LG Display also succeeded in mass-production of flexible OLEDs in 2017 which allowed the company and Samsung Display to be the leaders in the global market for small and medium-sized OLEDs.

Although BOE also entered the flexible OLED market, it has yet to succeed in making its brand known. As flexible OLED requires advanced techniques, the company had faced issues such as yield and quality despite making aggressive investments. BOE started to run its OLED business through Huawei. Its strategy was to gain competitive edge in its OLED business by working with other Chinese companies.

However, BOE faced another setback when the U.S. government imposed sanctions on Huawei. BOE needed an alternative and it turned to Samsung Electronics to find a breakthrough. Because Samsung Electronics is the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturer, it is the biggest customer for display manufacturers.

Supply of flexible OLEDs by BOE to Samsung Electronics is expected to have a huge impact on South Korea’s display industry. Although BOE’s OLEDs will be limited to few models of the M series, which is an economic smartphone series, BOE has now secured Samsung Electronics as its customer by supplying OLEDs. Also, because Samsung Electronics accepting BOE’s products indicates that BOE’s technical skills, quality, and price meet Samsung Electronics’ level, there is a great chance that there will be more transactions between the two companies in the future. There is also a chance that Samsung Electronics will expand its cooperation with BOE in order to secure competitive edge for its products’ prices.

All these possibilities are warning signs for South Korea’s display industry because Samsung Display has been the sole supplier of flexible OLEDs for Samsung Electronics. Samsung Electronics now has to compete with BOE to secure more orders from Samsung Electronics. Although Samsung Display’s technical skills, quality, and mass-production capability are all ahead of BOE, Samsung Display is concerned about a possible reduction in its profitability as it will be involved in a price war with BOE that is backed by the Chinese government.

While LG Display is not directly affected by this as it does not have any transaction with Samsung Electronics, it will have to compete against BOE once BOE improves its competitive edge in its OLED business based on its transaction with Samsung Electronics in order to secure other smartphone manufacturers such as Apple, OPPO, VIVO, and Xiaomi. BOE currently stands ahead of LG Display when it comes to flexible OLED production capacity and shipments.

“It is reported that BOE suggested a shocking offer to Samsung Electronics in order to secure an order from Samsung Electronics.” said one official from the industry. “There is a good chance that there will be more transactions between the two companies in the future.” In fact, BOE tried to supply its flexible OLED panels for Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S series.

Regarding BOE’s supply of flexible OLEDs, Samsung Electronics said that it cannot confirm any information related to its future products and supply of parts.

Printed electronics is an all-encompassing term for the printing method used to create electronic devices by printing on a variety of substrates. As demand for wearable devices and thinner electronics expands, printed electronics are being used to form flexible displays, antennas, sensors, soft energy devices and more. In this chapter, the background of printed electronics is addressed and the contents of this book are described.

Modern printing technology involves a number of interdisciplinary areas, including engineering, information technology, physics, chemistry and materials science. To date, printing technology has not been universally accepted as a strict definition, but broadly it can be said that printing is a process of transferring information from the printing ink to the printing substrates through a graphic carrier such as a printing plate (master) in order to realize information (including graphics, images, patterns and text) transfer, which is a large-scale replication process (see Box 1.1).1 According to the intrinsic features of printing technology, it can be divided into two types, printing with a master and printing without a master. The former mainly includes offset printing, gravure printing technology, letterpress printing technology (including flexographic printing technology), and screen-printing technology, while conventional inkjet printing technology is the main representative for printing without a master. Printing technology has long been used in the manufacture of traditional industrial electronics, such as in the manufacture of cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays, in which the shadow mask is produced by printing and etching. In the manufacturing process of a traditional circuit board, the line pattern is obtained by printing and etching treatment.

Recently, printed electronics technology has attracted the widespread attention of researchers in both basic and applied research because this technique could be used to fabricate large-scale flexible electronic devices.

Large-area electronic devices mean large device sizes, which are far larger than the current focus of traditional semiconductor technology, as well as overall integrated devices or device arrays of tens of centimeters or even tens of meters.2 As shown in Figure 1.1, traditional electronic manufacturing technology includes photolithography, vacuum evaporation, electroless plating and etching methods, which are used to manufacture radio frequency identification (RFID) antennas. The total preparation process is relatively complicated and the required equipment cost is relatively high. This process often requires a number of chemical treatments and more energy consumption. Because the production line is too long, it is difficult to achieve the fast and high-volume preparation of flexible electronic devices. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop new preparative techniques with high-speed, low-cost and environmentally-friendly features, which are beneficial to accelerate application in conductive patterns, transparent electrodes, RFID tags, thin film transistors, solar energy cells, sensors and other applications. Clearly, printed electronics technology becomes a strong candidate to meet these requirements. In addition, the development of printed electronics technology can also be used as an effective complement to the traditional preparation technology of electronic devices, and further realize the large-scale, high-speed preparation and large-scale application of functional micro-/nanoscale electronic devices.

The development of printed electronics technology will bring new opportunities for the transformation and upgrading of traditional print manufacturing enterprises. This is because the manufacturing of modern flexible electronic products requires the application of traditional printing manufacturing principles. As shown in