Blog

OLED

SmartKem and RiTdisplay Sign Joint Development Agreement on OTFT-Based AMOLEDs for Small Displays

October 18, 2021

Organic TFT material supplier SmartKem signed a joint development agreement last week with RiTdisplay to produce a full color demo of an AMOLED display using SmartKem’s TRUFLEX backplane technology and ink materials and RiTdisplay’s OLED process, fab and drive electronics. RiTdisplay CEO D.C. Wang indicated that this partnership signifies RiTdisplay’s opportunity in AMOLEDs. RiTdisplay has built a nice business in PMOLEDs. Their PMOLEDs range in size from 0.42” to 3.8” in monochrome and from 0.95” to 1.8” in full color. They are targeting the industrial, IoT, wearable and other small display markets. They claim 15K substrates per month at 370 x 470mm. RiTdisplay likely sees AMOLEDs as a way to boost growth. But rather than compete with existing players with a similar process, they see a partnership with SmartKem to compete with a lower backplane cost and possibly higher performance as well. The OTFT process does not require expensive LTPS, implant or CVD steps. The release says that RiTdisplay believes the partnership with SmartKem will create displays with higher brightness, higher resolution, better reliability, larger sizes along with super slim and bendable characteristics.
Read More

TV

DSCC Advanced TV Cost Report Highlights New OLED Sizes, Cost Component Increases

October 18, 2021

DSCC has released its latest update of our Advanced TV Display Cost Report, with updates to OLED and LCD cost profiles. This quarter’s edition includes updates to all sizes of WOLED panels and 55”+ LCD sizes, including LCD with MiniLED backlights, and some cost profiles for new OLED sizes, including 97” UHD. The surge in demand for flat panel display panels and other electronic devices has resulted in shortages for several critical components, including glass substrates, driver ICs and PCBAs. These shortages have had a bigger impact on LCD costs than on OLED panel costs, which are still declining compared to 2020 as yields improve.
Read More

Materials

SCHOTT Challenges Corning’s Dominance of Cover Glass with Launch of “Nearly Unbreakable” Xensation α

October 18, 2021

In a direct challenge to Corning’s dominant position in smartphone cover glass, German glassmaker SCHOTT launched a new cover glass last week, Xensation Alpha (α), that they call “nearly unbreakable”. Xensation α is a chemically strengthened lithium alumino borosilicate (LABS) glass and the company believes it is the best of breed. According to SCHOTT’s, Xensation Alpha outperforms current aluminosilicate (AS) or lithium aluminosilicate (LAS) cover glass by up to 100% when it comes to drop performance and is less susceptible to scratches than commercially available AS and LAS glass substrates. SCHOTT also claimed that the new material offers significantly better drop performance from double the height compared to other LAS-based premium cover glasses. SCHOTT also claimed the new glass offers better scratch resistance than commercially available AS and LAS glass types and achieves the same performance whether its bent or flat.
Read More

Display Technology

New DSCC Report Quantifies OLED vs. MiniLED Competition in Tablets, Notebooks and Monitors

October 11, 2021

Last weekend there was a heavyweight championship fight between the UK’s Tyson Fury and the USA’s Deontay Wilder. But, DSCC has been working to quantify another heavyweight fight between OLEDs and MiniLED backlit LCDs in the tablet, notebook and monitor markets. The battle between OLEDs and MiniLEDs is expected to last for years. Both are likely to see tremendous growth and could be labeled winners as will the consumer who will enjoy better performing displays at lower and lower prices.
Read More

TV

Slowdown in TV Market Driving LCD Oversupply

October 11, 2021

The TV market in the second half of 2021 is slowing down, which is the main factor in an increasing oversupply in the LCD industry. Because of the long-time lag required to bring new capacity online, the pandemic-driven supply shortage that started in 2020 extended to the middle of this year, but panel supplies continued to increase in Q3 despite the industry shifting to oversupply. Even a slowdown in Q4 2021 will not absorb an inventory overhang which will persist into 2022.
Read More

Financial

Electricity Usage Now Restricted in China – Revealing the Impact to Display Industry

October 4, 2021

Last week, many provinces and states in China deployed a strict electricity usage policy with a significant impact to the entire country. Many publicly listed companies have had to shut down their plants partially or fully. The constraints in electricity usage not only affect manufacturers, but also extend to electricity for residents in some areas. The electricity constraints are likely to continue for the rest of 2021.
Read More

TV

LCD TV Panel Prices in Free-Fall in September

October 4, 2021

The latest turn of the Crystal Cycle has been characterized by several unprecedented developments: the largest price increase from trough to peak, the longest period of rising prices and the first time TV prices increased. Now we can add another item to the list: the largest price drop in a month. LCD TV panel prices fell in September at their fastest rate ever on a percentage basis and have now lost more than half the gains that they achieved in the long up-cycle from May 2020 to June 2021.
Read More

OLED

DSCC Releases Its Future of OLED Manufacturing Report, Reveals How OLED Technology, Manufacturing, Performance and Products Are Likely to Evolve

September 27, 2021

DSCC has released its 338-page report on The Future of OLED Manufacturing, which is really a look at how all aspects of OLEDs are likely to evolve with special attention paid to how OLED manufacturers are likely to address the IT display opportunity including the scale up of G6 FMM VTE-based RGB OLEDs to G8.5 and the migration from LTPS/LTPO to IGZO. This breakthrough report is divided into five sections: Commercial/Industrial History of OLEDs Historical and Current Technical Challenges Mobile OLED Manufacturing/Roadmap IT OLED Manufacturing/Roadmap OLED TV Manufacturing/Roadmap
Read More

Mobile

Apple Announces New Products Including the iPhone 13 Series with Higher Refresh Rates, Bigger Batteries, More Storage and Better Cameras

September 20, 2021

Apple announced several new products during their California Streaming event on Tuesday, September 14th. Apple announced a new iPad, iPad Mini, Apple Watch Series 7 and four new models of the iPhone 13 series. Let’s start with the iPad and iPad Mini. The iPad uses a 10.2” IPS LED display and uses the 7nm A13 Bionic chip (2020’s iPad used the 7nm A12 Bionic chip). Apple noted that the A13 Bionic chip brings a 20% speed improvement to the CPU, GPU and neural engine and is 3x faster than the top selling Chromebook and 6x faster than the top selling Android tablet. I have not seen actual test results and comparable products but will report on this claim when results become available. The iPad also has a 12MP ultrawide front camera with 122-degree field of view (similar to the front camera on iPad Pro). The feature named Center Stage that is in iPad Pro is now in the new iPad. The iPad starts at $329, with 64GB storage and for the education segment, the price starts at $299. A Wi-Fi + 5G option is also available that starts at $459.
Read More

Display Equipment

Display Equipment Suppliers Show Improved Financial Health on Semiconductor Surge, Display Eqpt. Bookings Surge

September 13, 2021

Display equipment suppliers continue to get healthy with all margins rising as revealed in DSCC’s latest Quarterly Display Supply Chain Financial Health Report. This is a result of the semiconductor side of the business enjoying record revenues and margins on strong demand from the semiconductor shortage with companies sold out and reporting extended leadtimes. In fact, some companies are reporting extended leadtimes for a number of components found in semiconductor and display equipment such as controller chips and materials such as quartz, ceramic and silicon carbide.
Read More

FREE INSIGHTS

DSCC’s popular weekly publication features data, insights and analysis on the latest developments in the display industry. Expert insights, free delivery.

Register

Blog Archives