The emergence of Micro LED does steal some of the limelight from OLED that has been dominating the television market for the past few years, but can Micro LED really challenge OLED?

Samsung will be hosting a product launch event in New York. The announcement draws the world’s attention for Samsung did not unveil all the new TVs at CES 2018 and it is considering some changes to its product strategies.

Samsung Display and Air Products has signed new long-term contracts to supply gaseous nitrogen and oxygen, and liquid argon to Samsung's Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) manufacturing complex in Tangjeong, South Korea.

Since Apple joined to share some of the OLED supply for its iPhone X in 2017, the shortage of OLED panels has become intensified. Because of the agreement Apple signed with the exclusive supplier Samsung, Apple always stays in the list as the top priority that a large proportion of the OLED supply goes to. Other smartphone manufacturers struggle as they also want to use OLED panels for their products but the supply is simply not enough. Thus, they, the Chinese smartphone brands in particular, turned to Mini LED.

Pixelligent Technologies, inventing PixClear® high-index nanocomposites for the OLED Display, HD Display, and Solid State Lighting markets, announced the release of a joint whitepaper with Fraunhofer ISC and Osram Semiconductor. The white paper demonstrates the dramatic efficiency impacts achieved by combining Pixelligent’s PixClear® high-index inks with Fraunhofer’s ORMOCER® inorganic-organic hybrid polymer matrix that are suitable for numerous optoelectronic applications.

LG Display reported unaudited earnings results based on consolidated K-IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) for the three-month period ending December 31, 2017.

To be fair, none of the products launched in 2017 can arouse such a heated discussion as the iPhone X did. Its futuristic appearance, including the notch at the top of its OLED screen, attracted a lot of attention. Apart from that, the public also anticipated it to launch Apple Watch Series 3 featuring a Micro LED display but it did not happen.

Competition between QLED TV and AMOLED TV has continued in CES this year, and resolutions of the latest TVs include both 4K and 8K specifications. Major TV brands now focus on video processing chips in addition to constant improvements of HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging technology, says WitsView, a division of TrendForce. Together with AI technology, TVs are now featuring “smart” video processing capability and superior image quality.

Whether you are at CES 2018 at the moment, you’ve probably already learnt that Samsung is exhibiting its gigantic Micro LED TV ‘the Wall’ at its First Look event.

Kopin Corporation will demonstrate its high-brightness Lightning™ organic light emitting diodes (OLED) microdisplays including its new 720p resolution (1280 x 720) OLED display at CES 2018. Kopin’s Lightning 720p OLED microdisplay is 0.49-inch diagonal size, has high brightness of over 1000 nits and has low power consumption.

Solar-Tectic LLC ("ST") and Blue Wave Semiconductors, Inc., ("BWS") announced that a breakthrough material for dramatically improving the performance of thin-film transistors (TFTs) used in almost all displays on the market today, such as LCD, LED and OLED, has been patented by the USPTO.

LG Display announced that it has developed the world’s first 88-inch 8K OLED display. This industry-leading product will be showcased at LG Display’s booth at CES 2018 in Las Vegas this month.

Appearing to be strapped for cash, smartphone screen manufacturer Japan Display (JDI) is currently in talks with Chinese panel makers, including BOE, Tianma, and CSOT, over an investment more than  USD 1.8 billion. The Japanese company hopes to seal the deal by the end of March 2018, reported Kyodo News.

Universal Display Corporation announced an OLED evaluation agreement with Royole Corporation, a developer of advanced flexible OLED displays, flexible sensors, and smart device electronics. 

Samsung (SDC) currently dominates the small-sized OLED panel supply globally. As for the large-sized TV panel segment, SDC decides to focus on QLED, a quantum dot display technology. SDC used to promote curved TVs, but now it decides to change its course.

Recent advances in the design of high-performance phosphorescent emitters have led to the leap-forward development of organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) and their applications in commercial electronic products, including computer monitors, cellular phones, and high-density televisions. With the dedicated efforts of the team during these five years, a significant impact to the fields of OLEDs and organic photovoltaics (OPVs) has been made.

Universal Display Corporation, enabling energy-efficient displays and lighting with its technology and materials, announced the signing of long-term OLED Agreements with Chinese display giant BOE Technology Group.

Light Polymers is announcing a next-generation circular polarizer for OLED displays based on lyotropic liquid crystal technology. Light Polymers’ proprietary nanochemistry creates a circular polarizer at 45 µm, thinner than any competitive offering.

The global research company TrendForce held 2018 Forum on Key Trends in Electronic Components Industry on December 7, 2017. Here are the key excerpts from the forum.

The US Patent & Trademark Office this month published a patent application related to the foldable iPhone from Apple. In this patent, the iPhone maker includes Micro LED as one of the display materials for the model and liquid metal as the bendable part of the phone structure.

Solar-Tectic LLC announced a breakthrough OLED display technology that promises to revolutionize the industry by replacing the standard LTPS (low temperature polysilicon) process used world-wide by the major display manufacturers and thereby solving the industry's "backplane problem."

Vice Chairman of Korean panel maker LG Display (LGD) Sang-Beom Han announced in July that by the end of 2017, LCD panel Fab P2, P3, and P4 in Gumi would be shut down. Fab P4 is officially closed. Sources pointed out that LGD is accelerating the transformation to pare down LCD Lines.

Mini LED has a high chance to help Taiwanese LED manufacturers reclaim the leading position in the high-end backlight market in 2018. It rekindles Taiwanese firms’ hope against the ‘OLED attack’ from Korea, expected Bingjie Li, Chairman of Epistar.

At 2:29 p.m. on November 15 of South Korea's local time (1:29 p.m. of Taiwan's local time), a 5.5-magnitude shock struck Korea's east coast. The epic center is located at 9 kilometers north to Pohang City, North Gyeongsang Province. Its depth was about 9 kilometers deep. About this surprising incident in Korea, WitsView, a division of TrendForce, analyzed that it influenced very little to the entire panel industry.

OLED technology and materials supplier Universal Display on November 2nd registered 3Q17 financial results with burgeoning growth in every aspect, due primarily to the incremental demand for OLED in consumer electronics and lighting applications.

2017 Micro LED International Symposium, organized by the Consortium for Intelligent Micro-assembly System (CIMS), is held today (November 3) at Taipei Marriot Hotel to look into the value chain of Micro LED and discuss its business opportunities and connection with AR/VR devices in the era of artificial intelligence (AI).

Industrial gases supplier Praxair announced it has signed a long-term agreement to build, own and operate an air separation plant that will supply 700 tons per day of nitrogen to Samsung’s display manufacturing complex in Tangjeong, South Korea.

OLED patent holder Samsung Electronics now also steps into the realm of Micro LED, reported the Investor. It is also looking to acquire PlayNitride, a Taiwan-based Micro LED developer in an attempt to offset the sluggish sales of its QLED TVs.

OLED panels manufactured by LG Display are regarded as high-quality products, which has already been proven by LG's OLED TV and recently-launched V30 smartphone. However, LG did not limit the adoption of its OLED panels in the range of consumer electronics. Recently, LG has presented OLED lighting panels as desk lamps.

Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) together with the world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies imec and Holst Centre, showcase an ultra-high resolution display realized by photolithography patterning of organic light emitting diode (OLED) arrays. The results pave the way to cost-effective manufacturing of fine, side-by-side pixels in OLEDs, and will be presented at the annual International Smart Display and Touch Panel Exhibition, Touch Taiwan, in Taipei, Taiwan ROC, Sep 20 – Sep 22.