Sony, Panasonic confirm OLED TV partnership

Sony, Panasonic confirm OLED TV partnership: Apple, Samsung set in sights?
By Zack Whittaker | June 25, 2012

Summary: As expected, Sony and Panasonic have agreed to partner up to take on Samsung
and likely Apple as the OLED television industry sets its sights on a shift away from LCD technology.

Japan’s two largest television set makers, Sony and Panasonic, have agreed to join forces on OLED displays, following a rumbling that the two could partner up by the end of June.

In a statement, the two companies said they will establish mass-production technology for OLED panels by 2013 by integrating their unique technologies.

The plan was aimed at Samsung, the monopoly holder of the television business, following its LCD unit spin-off last year to make way for an OLED television production line.

It also strategically ramps up efforts to take on an expected Apple television set, thought to be released early next year or as far away as 2014, depending on which analyst you call.

OLED televisions are as thin as half-a-centimeter and display dazzling colour and picture quality, while using a fraction of the power consumed in an ordinary LCD display.

Analysts predict the OLED television market could rocket to 16 percent of the overall market up by 4 percent today to $20 billion by 2018.

Samsung has been ahead of the curve, despite Sony pioneering the first OLED display in 2007. But the greatest threat to the wider television building industry is Apple, even though it has yet to announce a television set of its own.

Apple’s forthcoming announcement on an expected television could include OLED technology but rumours have been few and far between. As is the case with almost anything Apple, no-one is quite sure what the Cupertino-based technology giant has up its sleeve.

The defensive move could revive the television market and prepare Sony and Panasonic for an expected battle in the coming years as televisions are expected to increase in pixel density, colour and picture quality, while selling for a lower price than where they are now.

South Korean scientists claim development of "true blue" for OLED displays

It's no secret that OLED gurus have had the toughest time improving the life of blue luminance to match the lifespans of its red and green counterparts, but a team of South Korean scientists have purportedly stumbled upon (or developed, as it were) a breakthrough "true blue" material that can "accelerate the development of next-generation organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays." Up until now, scientists have been able to create highly efficient green and red OLED materials, but the inability to make a true blue OLED material was really holding things back. So, now that this little hurdle has been hopped, how's about we get some big screen OLED HDTVs out to the people?

-engadget

Sony's Super-Thin OLED HDTV: Now at Amazon

Amazon.com is now selling Sony's new 11-inch, super-thin OLED HDTV for $2,499. The set, which is based on the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology, is just one-eight of an inch thick, compared to today's Plasma and LCD flat-screen sets which measure up to four inches thick.

While the set will only feature an 11-inch screen, Sony believes that OLED HDTVs could eventually compete with LCD and Plasma in the big-screen category. In addition to the thin panel, the OLED set promises to be more energy efficient and offer better pictures of fast-moving images.

Note: Amazon.com prices change regularly due to supply and demand.

Samsung Develops OLED Window Display

The picture you see above is a window - a window made of 12.1-inch OLED panels. These panels are not your ordinary OLED displays; they're especially crafted by Samsung as translucent "Window Display" types exhibiting 30 percent transmittance. The resolution is a less impressive 840 × 504 pixels and its luminance is measured at 200cd/m2.

While the OLED window is merely an exhibit for now - not something that actually has a practical application - it represents technologies that could be in the future. Think windows that could automatically be dimmed to save energy on heating and cooling or boutique glass windows flashing adverts. The translucent OLED "Window Display" was showcased by Samsung at the FPD International 2008 along with the company's other new technologies including a 0.05mm depth flapping OLED.

-gearlog

Crazy Casio Camera Phone with 8.1 Megapixels, 3.1-inch WVGA OLED

Casio Japan has a new camera phone that pushes a few limits to glorious new territory. Borrowing components from Casio’s digicam technolgy is the Casio Exilim W63CA.

According to Casio, the Exilim W63CA is the first 8.1 megapixel camera phone in Japan, but that’s not where the goodness ends. It’s also got six-axis vibration compensation, a 28mm wide angle lens, 10.2x digital zoom, 600MB internal memory, microSD expansion, YouTube compatibility, Bluetooth, and face detection. The brilliant 3.1-inch OLED display features an impressive WVGA (800×480 pixel) resolution as well.

Available in four different colors

-mobile magazine

The German Fraunhofer Institute IPMS developed an OLED light source with touch interface.
Aside from displays, OLED technology is also getting a lot of attention in light source development. As OLED is a cold light source it is safe to touch. The Fraunhofer Institute took this property and turned it into a feature to control the OLED light.

Switching and dimming the light could be easily controlled by a hand movement, which overcomes the traditional controller function.
The cool thing about this Touch OLED light is that the OLED itself is used to read the hand movements. There is no additional layer necessary for the touch interface.
I wonder if the same technology can be used for OLED displays. If you can use the display OLEDs also for reading the touch information future touch screens would get slimmer and cheaper.

-i4u.com

Car remote starter and alarm features 1.3in OLED panel

Taiwan – Tesor Plus Corp. is offering a two-way remote car alarm and starter that has a 1.3in OLED panel with 262,000 colors and eight vehicle graphic backdrops. The unit supports up to four auto/manual transmission vehicles with gasoline/diesel engines.

The remote car alarm and starter uses FM transmission and features silent arm/disarm, panic and anti-hijack alarms and four-language voice and vibration alert functions. It features eight trigger zones and two four-pin sensor ports. Receiving/transmission range is up to 1km.

The remote car alarm and starter comes with an MP3 player, a tachometer, voltage and temperature sensors, a programmable timer and an oil pressure circuit.

The car alarm unit has remote engine start, door lock/universal central lock and light flash relays. It supports button beeper, vibration, voice and button lock. A secondary unlock function with disarm and secondary auto engine starter is available.

The remote car alarm and starter provides settings control for time, alarm clock, daily start time, countdown time, passive arm, passive lock, lock timing, ignition lock, PIN override and new PIN assignment. It provides parking time and parking position information.

Other functions include truck pop and dome light control, remote start in valet mode and car call.

The unit’s built-in battery can be recharged via USB connection or adapter.


globalsources.com

Kodak orders OLED panels for digital photo frames

Kodak has opted to use Chi Mei EL OLED displays in their digital photo frames.

In fact, the 7.6-inch OLED displays, made by CMEL, which is owned by the standard LCD maker Chi Mei Optoelectronics, will begin to enter production in September.

This should provide plenty of time for the completed displays to be delivered to Kodak and to prep for the much anticipated holiday season.

And even though digital photo frames run the gamut of price ranges, these OLED offerings are thought to be quite pricey.

Chi Mei EL digital photo frames Kodak oled

40 Inch Panasonic OLED TV By 2011?

While the OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) revolution continues to hot up, it has been announced that Panasonic expects to be in a position to market its first 40 inch OLED TV in 2011. This is a step up from the original target of a 37 inch TV in the same timescale but one which has caught the eye of many OLED enthusiasts.

For those not aware of the OLED revolution, this is a new style of lighting system which is both organic, easier to manage, creates a better TV picture and uses a fraction of the power that systems of today use. There had been initial problems with the quality of the TV picture which added to the stop start stop start revolution that first came to the fore in the late 1990s.

However, the last 12 months has seen a number of major breakthroughs with the likes of Sony and Panasonic leading the way in the TV market. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg as OLED technology has the potential to change the whole electronic industry landscape. The leaders in the sector have been quick to appreciate the potential for the immediate future and literally billions of dollars of investment is pouring into the sector.

Breakthrough Yields Brighter OLEDs, Could Be Used For Lighting

New competitor may enter the lighting fray thanks to new research

The future of LED lighting is looking bright. Endorsed by a $20M USD U.S. Department of Energy "L Prize", commercial powers and startups alike are eying LED lighting as a replacement for the decrepit incandescent light bulb technology, which is only 10 percent efficient and has remained almost unchanged for over half a century. Recent breakthroughs, which may allow LEDs of all kinds to be processed on silicon wafers, may help to bring down costs.

One player that remained largely unconsidered in the LED v. fluorescent/incandescent battle was LED's organic brethren: OLEDs. OLEDs have many advantages over LEDs -- the ability to flex, improved color, and the potential to be manufactured by cheaper organic ink printing processes. However, they also have a couple key disadvantages. One, lifetime, has been steadily chipped away, and with the first generation of OLED TV displays, the problem has become almost a nonissue. However, one key obstacle to OLED lighting remained -- brightness.

Typically with OLEDs, only 20 percent of the light generated by the device is emitted. This makes there brightness inferior to LEDs, making them a poor choice for lighting. However, in a significant breakthrough, researchers at the University of Michigan and Princeton University have developed an OLED/microlense combination material that boosts illumination by over 60 percent, bringing it into the realm of respectability.

The research was led by Stephen Forrest, a professor of electrical engineering and physics at Michigan, and Yuri Sun, from Princeton University. The pair observed that in OLEDs light is generated by applying electricity to a thin organic layer, analogous to the semiconductor in an LED. However in OLEDs the material character internally reflects the light, forcing it to run parallel, instead of perpendicularly out of the bulb.

To get the light to come out, researchers first use an organic grid meshed into the material. The light is guided by this grid to 5 micrometer domed microlenses, which focus it and project it out as rays.

The results are respectable. The researchers reported that the device produced 70 lumens per watt, compared with 15 lumens per watt for incandescent lighting, and 90 lumens per watt for fluorescent lighting. While it might seem that fluorescent beats the new OLEDs, fluorescent has other problems -- harsh light, less longevity, and the use of environment-damaging substances like mercury.

The team plans to next scale the technology to more efficient OLED designs. They are confident the process can be affordably adopted for mass commercial production.

The DOE is curious about the new technology, seeing as a way to possibly more affordably reach its LED adoption goals. If LEDs are widely adopted, according to the DOE, U.S. energy consumption for lighting could be cut to a third of current levels, resulting in a 10 percent total reduction in power use and a 258 million metric ton reduction in carbon emissions.

As both LED and OLED technologies are rapidly advancing in terms of production and efficiencies, it remains to be seen which will ultimately prove themselves the eventual victor via performance and cost. However, in Professor Forrest's eyes, the future of OLEDs has never looked better. He is confident that OLEDs will thrive, and that his team's breakthrough will aid in that success. He states optimistically, "Luckily, OLEDs are the light that just keeps giving. There is so much to be done and so much that's been done, but this is nonetheless a quite exciting advancement."

OLED-based Optimus Maximus Keyboard

Despite its innovative approach to keyboard design, the OLED-based Optimus Maximus keyboard is best considered an expensive novelty. Its $1,600 price tag keeps it out of the hands of the average consumer, and we also question the practical benefit of using 113 customizable OLED screens as an input device. There is something undoubtedly unique and appealing about the degree to which the Optimus Maximus gives you complete control over its keys' appearance. But even for gamers, designers, and others who tend to demand more from their input hardware, the Optimus Maximus offers insufficient utility to justify its high price.

The Optimus Maximus is a product of the Art. Lebedev Studio, a design firm in Russia. To purchase a board you can order directly from the Art. Lebedev store, or you can refer to one of five U.S.-based retailers listed on the Art. Lebedev Web site, of which ThinkGeek is perhaps the best known. Ordering from the Art. Lebedev Studio appears to be the most expensive option, presumably because your order will come from Russia directly, rather than through a U.S. distributor.

Physically, the Optimus Maximus is a bit clunkier than a standard keyboard. Its 6.75-inch depth and 1.25-inch height isn't that extraordinary, but at 21.25 inches wide, the Optimus Maximus is only one quarter of an inch less broad than Logitech's older G15 gaming keyboard, which is the widest modern keyboard we're aware of.

The Logitech board crams in 125 keys compared with the Optimus Maximus and its 113 keys. Considering that each key is in fact a small OLED display wrapped in a transparent plastic enclosure, it's perhaps easy to understand why the Optimus Maximus has a less efficient key density-to-width ratio. If the tiny screens were any smaller you'd lose visibility, and the plastic surrounding each display must be thick and durable enough to offer adequate protection. The keys are also removable, which makes for easy cleaning and replacement, but which also requires sturdy construction so that the connective parts hold up. The unfortunate side effect of such bulky keys is that the Optimus Maximus is terrible for touch-typing. The tightly packed keys make for lots of mistaken presses, and the mushy responsiveness slows down your words per minute.


Clunky plastic keys impede fast typing.

The hallmark of the Optimus Maximus is that its software lets you customize the image on each tiny display. The default layout provides a standard alphanumeric layout, but through the downloadable configuration software you can change the color, font, and size of the letters. You can alter the background color, you can type words, reassign commands, and even tie image and video files to display on individual keys, or across multiple keys.

Open up an image-editing program through the configurator and you can draw freehand over an image of the keyboard layout. Whatever you care to draw on top of that layout will appear on the keyboard as soon as you save your new file. You can assign different layouts to appear on the keyboard when you open a specific application or with a certain key command. The software also comes with media controls, Gmail notification, and CPU performance presets to assign out, among others.

As the Optimus Maximus works with both Windows PCs and Macs, it will recognize each operating system automatically and load up the familiar Windows icon and Apple command keys by default, depending on the system. The default settings reside on an included 512MB SD Card, and you'll find an SD Card slot on the back of the keyboard. This lets you save custom layouts and bring them with you if you move the Optimus Maximus between different computers.


The SD Card slot on the back lets you take your custom layouts on the road.

As technically impressive as these capabilities might be, it's hard for us to imagine who might truly need them. Gamers, Web developers, and professional digital image or video editors might seem like natural customers. However, given the level of familiarity most of those kinds of users tend to have with their computing hardware, it's the configurability rather than the visual reminder afforded by the Optimus Maximus's OLED keys that's most important. Much more affordable, mechanical keyboards from Logitech, Razer, and others offer similar customization flexibility through dedicated hot keys, macro programming, and even keys you can physically remove and rearrange in the case of the Razer Tarantula.

We can't say that the capability to alter your keys' appearance is a negative, and it's hard to deny that the Optimus Maximus has a very high novelty factor. Custom visuals on a keyboard are at worst harmless, and we can picture plenty of scenarios where they might be relatively useful, from teaching someone how to use a program, to switching between control schemes for different applications, to driving a home theater PC. The problem is that its $1,600 price tag is so far out of whack with the other keyboards on the market, that we simply don't find what the Optimus Maximus has to offer enough of a benefit to offset its cost.


Reviewed by: Rich Brown

Institutes join forces for oled production

organic led, oled, roll to roll production The Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IPMS) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Electron Beam and Plasma Technology (FEP) have joined forces to develop process technology for roll to roll production of organic devices.
Fraunhofer has already established the Centre for Organic Materials and Electronic Devices Dresden (COMEDD) and the cooperation of the two Fraunhofer institutes is said to be a ‘significant milestone’ for COMEDD. The roll to roll equipment is located at the Fraunhofer FEP and used by both institutes.




“This plant is among the first types worldwide to develop and produce OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) lighting modules and organic solar cells,” said FEP director Professor Volker Kirchhoff. “This is an important step in the development of industrial scale manufacturing processes and the strategic cooperation enables a perfect combination of the competencies in the field of coating and device technology.”
Professor Karl Leo, director of Fraunhofer IPMS, added: “The new coating plant will enhance Dresden's standing as a cluster location for organic semiconductors and we should see the first oled demonstrators in early 2009.”

Sony ''awfully close'' to selling a 27-inch OLED TV

Sony is currently selling an 11 inch OLED TV (XEL-1) for about $2,500. This TV is more like an expensive executive desk decoration than a home entertainment product. Sony's COO Stan Glasgow said this week at a dinner event in San Francisco that Sony is "awfully close" to selling a 27" OLED TV.

What "awfully close" means in terms of time frames can only be guessed. I assume though that Sony will try to sell a 27 inch OLED TV this holiday shopping season, at least in Japan.

The biggest problem in producing OLED TVs lies in the amount of manual labor needed according to Sony. After the 27 inch OLED Sony plans to offer a 40 inch OLED TV.

read here

E-paper and OLEDs

LG e-paper



E-paper can also bend like the newest OLED and LCD displays, but is much more energy efficient as it is a bistable (only uses power when changing the image) system that does not require a backlight. Readable in any light regular paper is, e-paper promises to create a new means of accessing information that will challenge traditional paper media. This e-paper display (EPD) from LG Display uses e-ink core tech and LG driver and backplane technology.

e-ink tablet development kit



Here's an e-paper electronic notepad development kit from E-Ink. That means there will be a bunch of devices with e-paper pads just around the corner. This kit contains everything an engineer needs to integrate a daylight-visible bistable rewritable electronic sketch pad into their designs.

UDC OLED




There must have been a rule at the show for every vendor to have at least one flexible (or at least bendy) display at their booth. This prototype media player with curved OLED display was a joint venture between Universal Display and LG Display. Due to their high brightness and contrast, OLED displays will dominate high-performance portable device applications. (That market niche is also very forgiving of OLED's aging issues, as a portable device's lifetime is significantly shorter than a traditional home display product.

samsung pad

As we pointed out, OLED's thin profile, high brightness, color saturation, and contrast make it a very good display for small-form-factor devices and interesting configurations. This OLED notepad concept piece from Samsung SDI had a lot of people drooling.

kodak OLED

One of the issues of OLEDs is their sensitivity to oxygen and moisture, resulting in color shift as the phosphor degrades over time. One way to get around that is to use the OLED as backlight. A white OLED BLU-driven display will not have the color-shift issues of an RGB OLED, but still be extremely thin with excellent color saturation due to the higher quality of white light provided by the OLED. This prototype from Kodak uses an OLED BLU with advanced color filter technology.

samsung OLED



Even though aging issues make larger OLED displays problematic, that doesn't mean that there aren't any large OLEDs around. This collection of 32-inch OLED displays from Samsung SDI shows that large OLEDs are not just one-off samples, but are truly on a commercialization process that will result in a finished product.


-Alix Paultre
Ecnmag.com

Sony CEO Stringer promises 27-inch OLED TV within the next year

According to CEO Howard Stringer, Sony plans to launch a much larger version of its impressive OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) television within the next year.

Sony launched its first OLED TV, an 11-inch model, in late 2007. The set, which also has the distinction of being the first commercial OLED TV in the world, won great acclaim thanks to the smoother, sharper and more richly colored images it offered over today's LCD (liquid crystal display) and PDP (plasma display panel) technologies.

At the same time Sony began showing a prototype 27-inch OLED screen and last month in Tokyo showed an OLED screen that was just 0.3 millimeters thick. Stringer, speaking at The Wall Street Journal's "D: All Things Digital" conference in Carlsbad, California, on Wednesday, introduced the thin prototype and talked about commercialization.

"This is 0.3 millimeters wide, it's a glass, we can produce this in plastic and you can wrap it around your arm, we're not quite sure why you would want to," Stringer told Walt Mossberg, a columnist for the newspaper and co-host of the event. "We're looking for applications for the next generation of the plastic version but this will come out in a 27-inch version fairly soon."

"Within the next 12 months, we haven't given a date," he said when asked to be more specific on timing.

The set would no doubt be released in Japan first, and be released much later in North America like it's younger brother, the 11-inch model.

Stringer didn't give much away when it came to pricing. The 11-inch model, which Sony calls the XEL-1, carries a relatively high price-tag of US$2,500.

"It's a complicated process and obviously we are working very hard to find out how to mass-produce it but until then it's very expensive," said Stringer.

Stringer's reference to a plastic OLED panel was to a prototype announced by the company in May 2007. Then it showed a small 2.5-inch OLED manufactured on a plastic substrate. The screen has a resolution of 160 pixels by 120 pixels and showed full-motion video while being bent and rolled.

Sony hasn't announced any sales targets for its OLED televisions but said earlier this month that it plans to sell 17 million LCD televisions in the fiscal year from April. That's a jump of about 7 million sets on the previous year. Sony hopes to achieve this by producing more models for the mid-market based on panels it will procure from Sharp. High-end sets will continue to feature panels produced by S-LCD, the LCD panel manufacturing joint venture it has with Samsung Electronics.

Samsung's new OLED laptop

Samsung's new OLED laptop shows a thin body and odd, buttonless half-sized keyboard.

The picture of the newest Samsung OLED laptop concept suggests Samsung may actually be prepared to fight for a triple-spike in sales.

The 12.1" laptop is an ultra-thin AMOLED from Samsung's display devision. The 12.1" screen measures in at 1280 x 768 with infinite contrast.

While the display is definately on the mark, the keyboard may not be. A touch-sensitive keyboard seems less than ideal, not to mention only being half size. Notice the flap on the back? My guess is you fold that over the monitor to protect the screen where the halfling keyboard cannot.

Samsung OLED Laptop Coming in 2009?

It looks like Samsung might be bringing OLED to laptops, and they look pretty darn cool. Engadget is reporting that consumers could see the AMOLED (active matrix organic light-emitting diode) concept as soon as 2009. Which consumers, is always a question—Japan? U.S.? Anyone? The 12.1-inch prototype offers a 1280 x 768 resolution and self-illuminating screen. Plans for the super-thin package include 14- and 15.4-inch models. Aside from an improved picture quality, it has a mystery panel around the back that’s quite the buzz on the web.



-electronichouse

Sumitomo set to produce 40-inch OLED panels in 2009

Not that there was any doubt that OLED is on its way to larger sizes (hasn't it been since like 2005?), but Japanese firm Sumitomo Chemical announced its plans to produce 40-inch OLED panels for HDTVs some time in 2009, meaning Sumitomo-based TVs could hit the market in 2009 or 2010. Samsung's old-skool 40-inch OLED HDTV prototype shown above for scale.



-engadget

AM OLED Panel market in the first quarter is dominated by Korea

Korean companies are dominating AM OLED market that has just been growing. It's because Samsung SDI began mass-producing 4G AM OLED for the first time , preoccupying world market in the second half of last year.

Display Bank (CEO Kwon, Sang-se), a market research company for display, surveyed shipments of AM OLED in the first quarter. The result showed that SDI shipped about 2.56million units, accounting for over 90% of entire market. LG Display produced about 120,000 units. If combining two companies, they accounted for 95% of world AM OLED market in the first quarter.

Especially, the shipment of AM OLED panel for the first quarter already surpassed 2.2million units of total shipment in the last year to reach 2.7million units. That demonstrates AM OLED market has started to mature this year. Among AM OLED set products, mobile phone took 90% of total shipment. In the first quarter, shipment of AM OLED panel for mobile phone recorded 2.4million units. Display Bank predicted that the number will grow to over 3million units in the second quarter.

Samsung SDI supplied AM OLED panel for mobile phone and MP3 player to Samsung Electronics, Kyocera, Iriver, Nokia, Toshiba, Hitachi and Sony Ericson. From this year, it has started to supply panels for digital camera to Samsung Techwin. Among AM OLED panel companies, the company has most corporate clients. LG Display supplied the whole quantity of AM OLED panel for mobile phone to LG Electronics. It is expected that shipment will be monthly average 100,000 units from the second quarter.

Sony that produced AM OLED panel for 11 inch TV from last November remained about 1000 units of shipment. It will focus on panel for TV for the time being.

AM OLED panel for 2 inch mobile phone has been supplied at twice higher price than LCD panel due to low demand but the demand will grow steadily with high quality mobile phone leading the growth. Display Bank predicted that AM OLED panel shipment will reach as many as 4million units in the second quarter.

-korea IT news

Nokia 6600 Fold: Elegant and Functional

Nokia want to make a new trend well known – mobile phones which combine elegant shapes with modern technology. This trend has actually been around for a few years, but Nokia are coming up with new examples of how to develop it. With the 6600 they have designed a chic folder phone, which although it may not have the most features, looks good and can be used with UMTS.

The inside display is 5.4cm and has a 320 x 240 pixel resolution. OLED technology on the monochrome outer display is invisible until the user taps the outside of the phone. The alarm and incoming calls can be silenced in the same way. The 2 megapixel digicam with its double LED flash is also worth mentioning. The radio, stereo-Bluetooth, and an optional GPS adapter complete the package.

Although it all sounds good, features-wise it is nothing special. The main attraction of this phone is the design: the high quality display, the smooth back casing and the shiny front case were all made to impress. The planned launch is in the last quarter of the year, and Nokia expect it to cost around 327 euros.

-idealo.co.uk