AMOLED Displays to be Economically Viable this Year

Submitted by Daniel Lamberti on Thu, 2009-02-26 10:33

Samsung has reiterated its commitment to AMOLED display technology at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona earlier this month, stating that the panels will reach an economy of scale in terms of production sometime during 2009.

Medium and large scale applications will become ever increasingly relevant for mobile phone technology, as production ramps up and cost-per-unit become more realistic. In fact production costs are currently the primary issue with AMOLED manufacture; Samsung SDI has a current capacity of 2M a year month. That figure is set to double this year, at which point, economies of scale will be reached; Samsung plans to double production capacity once again in 2010.

Currently AMOLED - or Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode to give it its full title - is usually found in small to medium scale applications such as cellphone and mobile device screens. However Samsung envisages monitor, notebook and TV displays all being suitable for AMOLED in 2009, while in 2010 flexible displays will be commercially viable.

AMOLED has also faced criticism for its higher power requirements than current LCD and PDP panels. However, predicted sales of OLED panels will surge by 69-percent this year. Shipments of panels by all manufacturers are expected to total 34-million in 2009, a massive 380-percent increase over 2008.

All the best,

Daniel Lamberti: Brand Manager – Samsung Mobile

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Daniel Lamberti's blog

OLED Displays

Submitted by Erik (not verified) on Thu, 2009-02-26 13:19.

Hello Daniel!

Thanks for the great post about AM OLED Displays. Our blog reports about Samsungs OLED Display activity since 2005. We are hoping that notebook and TV displays all being suitable for AMOLED in 2009.

Thanks
Erik
http://www.oled-display.net

blog

Submitted by Thomas Becker (not verified) on Thu, 2009-02-26 15:20.

Dave,

You state that Samsung's current amoled capacity is 2 million per year, don't you mean 2 million per month? And the 2 million per MONTH will double in 2009 and again in 2010?

Also, by using the phosphorescent red OLED chemical from Universal Display the power requirement should be less that than an LCD screen in small devices. Are they not using a red phosphorescent OLED chemical? If fluorescent red, green, and blue OLED chemicals are being used, then the power requirement would be more than a LCD screen.

Also, they would have even greater power savings if Universal Display's commercially available green phosphorescent chemical was used. Their phosphorescent green chemical has a long life time which should exceed any application requirement including OLED TV and can be tuned to you CIE requirement. Using green and red phosphorescent chemicals would show a significant reduction in power and would greatly extend the battery life in any mobile device. A feature most consumers need.

Could your information be dated or is Samsung not planning on using any phosphorescent OLED chemicals and if not, why not?

Tom Becker

I want a OLED laptop too :-) !!!!

Submitted by Nicolas DUJARRIER (not verified) on Fri, 2009-02-27 15:54.

Cork (IRELAND), Friday 27th February 2009 (2:00pm, Irish local time)

Hi Andy St. John,

I was VERY interested by your note on Daniel Lamberti's blog !!!!!

I am also VERY interested in OLED technology and I have been watching it's development at SDI and elsewhere for some time as well :-) !!!!!

I am ALSO anxiously awaiting the opportunity to buy my first OLED Laptop, and I would love to be able to buy one for Christmas this year !!!!

But, I unfortunately think that we may have realistically have to wait next year for seeing a OLED laptop computer on the market :-(...

Nicolas DUJARRIER

AMOLED Capacity

Submitted by Andy St. John (not verified) on Thu, 2009-02-26 18:32.

Hi Daniel,
Thanks for your blog. I am a big fan of AMOLED technology, and I have been watching it's development at SDI and elsewhere for some time.

Your post is really a bit confusing, and I was hoping for a little clarification. One part is definitely just a typo, but I'm still having trouble making sense of it.

As for the typo, you wrote 2 million screens per year. I presume you meant per month.

SDI (and now Samsung Mobile) has had one production line running at capacity for a while now. They have always described the capacity of that line as 1.5 million screen equivalents per month, but that was always based on a 2 inch screen. Obviously, the new phones and most every other product uses a much larger screen that that. It takes twice as much glass to make a 2.8" screen.

Just before the merger of SDI and Samsung Mobile was announced, they stated that they planned to open another line by the end of 2008. That line would double capacity to 3 million screen equivalents (2") per month. They had also announced a plan to triple capacity from that number by the start of 2010 to 12 million screen equivalents per month.

Is the 2nd line up and running? I guess that would make sense that 3 million 2" screen per month capacity really means something like 2 million actual screens produced. Is the plan to now double capacity this year from the current capacity with 2 lines running? That would be a bit less than the earlier plan to triple capacity by year end, but it would still show great growth.

I am anxiously awaiting the opportunity to buy my first OLED Laptop, and I would love to get it as a Christmas gift this year. In the meantime, I REALLY hope to get an OMNIA HD in a couple of months.

Thanks for your reply.

Andy

OLED (2m per year?)

Submitted by Scott (not verified) on Thu, 2009-02-26 22:36.

Hello Daniel,

Great comments, did you mean 2m year or 2m per month. I believe Samsung SDI statement they were at 1.5m per month for some time now.

Thanks Scott

Amoled

Submitted by Daniel Lamberti on Fri, 2009-03-06 12:25.

Good day all

Yes it was a typo, it is per month.

Kind Regards,

Daniel Lamberti