OLED TVs, Pocket Projectors Face Abundant Barriers, Executives Say

Sony began shipping an 11-inch OLED TV in Japan this month, but many look to Samsung SDI for signs of progress in perfecting a low-temperature polysilicon backplane. Samsung is making 2.4-inch active matrix OLEDs for cellphones and digital audio players, with a monthly capacity for 1.5 million units. Samsung plans larger -- 3.8- to 7-inch -- AMOLEDs for personal media players in 2008, but its speed at turning out larger panels for TVs remains to be seen, industry officials said. Samsung SDI, which plans to produce a 14.1-inch AMOLED for TVs in 2008, has developed a 31-inch prototype using its existing 4th-generation production line, AMOLED business team director Chang Hoon Lee told us. “The future of OLEDs is in the hands of the LCD manufacturers and it’s a business decision” since many LCD plants could make OLEDs using low-temperature polysilicon backplanes, said Bo Polak, principal staff display engineer at Motorola, which uses OLEDs and LCDs for cellphone displays.

The market for AMOLED-based TVs won’t emerge until 2010, when sales top $100 million, industry officials said. That will reach about $1.3 billion by 2013, iSuppli Vice President Paul Semenza said. Much depends on LCD makers being able to free capacity for OLEDs, now twice the cost of similarly- sized LCDs, Lee said. Companies on the sidelines include Samsung Electronics, which makes LCDs. Samsung SDI, LG Electronics and Chi Mei Optoelectronics, in a venture with LG.Philips LCD, are expected launch AMOLED production this year, industry officials said.

Yield, brightness and cost issues also must be overcome in projectors weighing less than 2 lb., including those embedded in cellphones and other products, officials said. Initial specimens of cellphone-based projectors are expected to arrive in 2008 using technology from Microvision, Light Blue Optics, Injin and others. But pocket projector sales are forecast to be only about 220,000 units next year -- mostly standalone models -- growing to 1.7 million units yearly by 2012, iSuppli Senior Analyst Jennifer Colegrove said. Motorola has an alliance with Microvision and Polak mentioned Light Blue Optics in his presentation. Among so- called micro-projectors, brightness now hovers at around 10 to 15 lumens, with larger pocket projector brightness typically 20 to 50 lumens. That contrasts with front projectors able to deliver several hundred to several thousand lumens.

“It’s very difficult to estimate numbers” for the micro- projector market, said Edward Buckley, business development director at Light Blue Optics. Light Blue, which recently completed a $26 million Series A funding round, has developed a technology using computational algorithms and optical techniques to allow miniature lasers to display video images in real time capitalizing on laser light’s diffractive nature. “If the supply chain is there, then you will see the market grow very rapidly,” Buckley said. “It’s very difficult to make any promises when the technology is not ready to go to market until it develops more.”

Light Blue partnered with ferroelectric LCoS developer supplier Displaytech, providing Displaytech with a microdisplay customized to its light engine. Buckley declined to comment on specs, but Displaytech makes a 0.20- inch FLCOS panel with 300x224 resolution, 350 candelas and 80:1 contrast ratio. Light Blue replaced Displaytech’s earlier supplier, Fourth Dimension Displays, thanks largely to Light Blue’s experience in producing FLCOS microdisplays in volume through an agreement with Citizen Miyota in Japan. Displaytech supplied FLCOS panels to Samsung in the late 1990s for rear projection TVs, but the project stalled.

Light Blue has a pact with an unnamed vendor to supply 18-milliwatt red (wavelength of 620 to 650 nanometers), green (532 nanometers) and blue (440 to 460 nanometers) lasers, Buckley said. Light Blue, sampling since June, has released a PVPro evaluation kit. It’s working with Thales on defense applications for the technology.

iSuppli Conference Notebook

Correction: AOL and Yahoo were listed on a Sony slide at the iSuppli conference highlighting Sony’s Video Link partners (CED Dec 6 p3). Crackle, which recently changed its name from Grouper, also was on the slide.

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Injin Display Co. also is developing an LED-based microprojector platform using its 0.24-inch LCD microdisplay with 320x240 resolution, CEO Chris Kim said. It could debut in an accessory device ($300) in the first half of 2008 packaged with SK Telecom cellphones, Kim said. SK Telecom is working with suppliers to have a video-out added to cellphones to accommodate the accessory, he said. The goal is to embed the 0.24-inch panel in a cellphone combined with LEDs and Nichia-sourced laser by Q4 2008, Kim said. The laser would likely deliver blue, while the LEDs provide red and green, he said. Resolution will improve to 640x480 with the embedded product, he said. Injin also has had “close discussions” with Vodafone France and France Telecom, he said. Injin has worked with Samsung and LG Electronics in the past, Kim said. If telecoms are ready, “2009 will be the right time for the technology,” Kim said. “If we can provide a high-resolution display, then SK Telecom can increase their high-cost data services. The LED-based accessory will provide 10 lumens, increasing to 15 lumens with the addition of a laser.” The projector will deliver a 10- to 30-inch display, he said. Injin makes its microdisplays at a plant in South Korea that has annual capacity for 2 million 0.41- inch-equivalent panels.

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Westinghouse has limited distribution of its 52W LCD TVs ($2,799) to regional dealers after the company missed product resets for national chains like Best Buy, Vice President Rey Roque said. “The time in which we were able to launch the product and the availability of a planogram reset didn’t match.” Westinghouse sells LCD TVs up to 47W ($1,499) through Best Buy and other national retailers, he said. Westinghouse hasn’t decided whether it will move to 57- and 65-inch LCD TVs in 2008, Roque said. Westinghouse continues to ship 37W and 47W LCD TVs to Costco Japan along with a 24W LCD PC monitors, Roque said. Westinghouse also sells sets through the Yamada Denki chain in Japan. Meanwhile, Westinghouse’s 19W monitors with 1,440x900 resolution have been installed at about 200 gas pumps in the Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco markets as part of its PumpTop TV venture with AdtekMedia, Roque said. The ad- supported service delivers news, weather and other programming. PumpTop will expand to Phoenix by early 2008 and move to the East Coast with a goal having its LCDs installed in 2,000 gas pumps by year-end, Roque said. Besides these displays, Westinghouse also handles installation of the servers and wireless access needed for the service, Roque said.

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Chinese LCD manufacturer Tianma Microelectronics has started production at a new 4.5G plant in Shanghai using 730x920mm substrates, Sales Director Martin Mesmer said. It has produced 7W samples with 640x234 resolution and will add 4.8-inch panels for portable media players in 2008, Mesmer said. The plant has initial maximum monthly capacity for 30,000 glass sheets, he said. Tianma joins SVA-NEC and BOE in producing LCDs in China. SVA-NEC and BOE operate 5G lines.

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Corning will spend $795 million to build a 10th- generation LCD glass plant near Sharp’s Sakai City, Japan 10G facility that’s scheduled to start production in 2010, Corning officials said. Corning will incur a $400 million 10G-related capital expense in 2008 and spread the remainder over a 5-year period, the company said. Sharp’s 10G factory will use 2.85mm-by-3.05mm glass substrates. Corning has had a long collaboration with Sharp in the LCD glass area.