Worldwide OLED shipments grew by over 60% in H1 05 after a slump in H2 04, reaching 24.5 million units.
11 million units were shipped by Taiwanese suppliers, with Korea in second place at 8.5 million units and Japan third with 3.2 million units. However, Korea had a much higher value of shipments than Taiwan.
In terms of applications, 65% of total units (16.3 million units) were for sub-displays in mobile phone handsets. MP3 displays grew by nearly 300% to reach 6.4 million units, while main displays for mobile phones were at 0.5 million units, and car audio displays accounted for 0.7 million units.
The leading suppliers were Samsung SDI and RitDisplay, which both had a shipment share of just over 25%, followed by univision (13.15) and Pioneer (12.5%). Samsung SDI accounted for 31.7% of the total market value versus 20.7% for RitDisplay and 15.6% for Pioneer.
The mainstream products were still 96 x 96 and smaller panels. However, 128 x 128 shipments represented more than 6% of the total, and 128 x 160 PM-OLEDs were introduced for the first time.
Higher resolution OLED displays are likely to gain prominence in H2 05, while the future for AM-OLEDs looks uncertain in the short term. Growth will continue to be driven by the MP3 and mobile phone markets.
Displaybank forecasts that shipments will grow significantly to reach about 40 million units in H2 05, putting the total at 65 million units for the year. The full-year market is likely to be worth nearly $700 million.
Novaled develops LED with high power, long life
OLED manufacturer Novaled GmbH (Dresden, Germany) has developed a red top emission OLED that produces 10 lumens per watt at 500 candelas per square meter, with a projected lifetime of more than 100,000 hours.
According to Novaled the OLED achieves a breakthrough by combining the highest power efficiency and longest lifetime for a top emission OLED, using transport layer doping technology. The part uses a red phosphorescent emitter from Covion Organic Semiconductors GmbH with molecular dopant materials from Novaled.
The company said the power efficiency for the very deep red color translates into a current efficiency of 14 candelas per amp and an operating voltage of 3.0 V. It increases available light up to 50 percent over other forms of lighting.
“The Novaled PIN OLED top emission performance opens the way to large OLED displays,” said Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth, chief technology officer of Novaled. “Novaled is actively working on green, blue, and white top emission emitter systems as well.”
LG Electronics, Kodak sign OLED deal
LG Electronics, South Korea's second-largest consumer electronics maker, has signed a contract allowing it to use Eastman Kodak Co.'s patented technologies on OLED panels for portable electronic gadgets.
The agreement is expected to set the stage for LG to speed up its entry into portable display operations and to heat up a competition here with another display maker, Samsung SDI, the source said on condition of anonymity.
American film giant Kodak holds core technologies for organic LED panels.
LG is currently operating its first production line capable of producing one million organic LED panels a month. The company plans to begin mass production on its second organic LED line by the end of this year.
Highest performance test equipment now available for emissive display devices
Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) has announced an upgrade to the specification of its Eclipse range of digital test equipment for use in the characterisation of emissive display devices including polymer light emitting diodes (P-OLEDs).
The new specification includes remote calibration which allows the systems to be re-calibrated in situ, and pulsed IVL testing, which combines the ability to test device lifetime and opto-electrical response in one system. CDT has also announced a new 'entry level' Eclipse system with only eight channels, and this is expected to appeal to smaller companies and academic institutions.
