Smartphone AMOLEDs to be Cheaper than LCDs in 2 years

In two years, 5-inch AMOLED screen panels will be cheaper than their LCD equivalents according to market researchers at NPD DisplaySearch.

The drop in price will be realised as the yield from AMOLED production lines increases and finally reaches 90%. Currently an AMOLED smartphone display is 10-20% more expensive than an LCD screen.

This difference will disappear over the next two years, as advances in production technique increase yields of small screen fabrication. A benefit will also be felt if the price of AMOLED materials can be brought down.

Jimmy Kim, a senior analyst at NPD DisplaySearch, says: 'If AMOLED costs fall below LCDs, as expected, it would lead to more opportunities for the OLED display industry, greater competition with LCD, and more choices for consumers.'

Wearable technology rolled out for card-less payment at US music festival

The organiser of Lollapalooza 2014 has announced that it will be issuing wearable technology wristbands to music fans at this year's event on 1-3 August.

The plastic wristbands will each contain a unique RFID chip. Once inside the popular music festival, visitors will use the wristband to make payments at stalls and bars by touching a terminal and entering a pin, rather than handing over money or credit cards.

Prior to entering the Lollapalooza site in Chicago, festival-goers will have to upload their credit card details on the festival's website. The wristbands will be sent out ahead of the festival and will also be used for monitoring entry to the event.

C3, which organises Lollapalooza and other concerts, believes that this solution will soonbecome the norm at other festivals too. 

Fraunhofer plastic electronics and electron beam divisions merge

German applied research organisation Fraunhofer is merging its Centre for Organic Materials and Electronic Devices (COMEDD) with its Institute for Electron Beam and Plasma Technology (FEP).

Uwe Vogel, deputy director of the Dresden-based COMEDD, says: 'The merger of COMEDD and FEP is a ground-breaking step for future developments. Through this merger, new approaches and research focuses - for example in flexible electronics can be handled more efficiently.'

The move was completed on 1 July 2014. The step has been taken to allow the COMEDD and FEP to cooperate more closely in technical areas where there is increasing scope for crossover. For example FEP electron beam sterilisation technology will be deployed to enhance the production of OLED-on-silicon biosensors made by COMEDD.

FEP director Volker Kirchhoff says: 'Compared to FEP's current focus on technologies and processes, COMEDD is concentrating on components and applications. I am looking forward for significant advances, especially in the area of barrier films for flexible organic components with COMEDD's know-how. Also, OLED-based microdisplays will take advantage of many years of work in the process technology and market relations at Fraunhofer FEP.'

Evrythng deal to push Thinfilm’s NFC labels as key IoT component

Thinfilm has signed a collaboration deal with Evrythng, to gain access to the company's Internet of Things (IoT) software system.

Under the agreement Thinfilm will work to develop its products - including the world's first Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled smart label - to endeavour to make them one of the fundamental building blocks of the IoT.

Evrythng
Evrythng is a high-profile UK-based software development company. Its business model is built on a software-as-service model, for a program package that can give and manage individual active digital identities for real world objects. The software engine is cloud-based and scalable. It includes application programming interfaces (APIs), semantics, temporal data storage, active computational capabilities and access control.

Giving a unique digital identity means any physical item with an electronic tag or QR code can be identified, tracked and managed on smartphones, computer and other connected devices.

Thinfilm
With NFC, Thinfilm is fast developing the capacity to print labels with electronics that can hold and wirelessly communicate these identities at an economic cost. In January 2014, it acquired a series of patents for using NFC on printed electronics when it bought US developer Kovio. In late May, this was combined with the company's existing expertise in printed memory to produce its - and the world's - first demonstration NFC-enabled smart labels.

The initial commercial NFC-labels systems are due for release in 2015.

Thinfilm has already enjoyed penetration with its labels carrying printed electronics sensors in some niche markets, like monitoring the temperature exposure of drugs. However to display the output from the sensors' it has been necessary to integrate a screen, which is costly and increases the size of the label.

NFC
The NFC protocol offers a wireless medium for communication, and printing electronics is a mechanism to produce these tagging circuits, at a cost low enough to make them economically feasible.

Evrythng CEO, Niall Murphy, says: 'Thinfilm is leading a paradigm shift in the way digital interactivity is delivered to the market - even at the level of disposable items. The use of printed electronics specifically addresses the traditional cost and scalability barriers, while NFC connectivity significantly improves the ease of initiating interaction with a connected product.

'Our partnership with Thinfilm extends Evrythng 's ability to make physical products smart, interactive, and trackable by connecting them to the web.'

IoT
A forecast published by International Data Corporation on 3 June 2014, estimates that the number of internet-connect items will rise at an annual rate of 17.5% from 9.1 billion in 2013 to 28.1 billion in 2020. There will be a corresponding expansion in the market, from a global value of $1.9 trillion (€1.3 trillion) in 2013 to a predicted $7.1 trillion (€5.3 trillion) in 2020.

Thinfilm and Evrythng are each developing a separate key element for enabling this massive expansion of the IoT. If successful this will move the IoT away from its current limitation to high-value industrial and consumer equipment to include even mundane or disposal items like food packages - transforming it into an Internet of Everything. Though this will only be possible if digital identifies can be assigned and managed cost-effectively.

Davor Sutija, CEO of Norway-based Thinfilm says: 'Evrythng has built a powerful software engine and intuitive interface to help companies create and manage engaging digital extensions of physical products.

'Combined with Thinfilm's printed memory, sensor-equipped Smart Labels and NFC Barcode technology, [it] will enable digital and mobile interactivity in applications where connectivity was previously neither economical nor practical. Our shared vision in bringing intelligence and digital interactivity to the billions of physical objects in the world makes Evrythng an ideal partner for us.'

nTact offers economical slot die coating as organic electronics moves to pilot production

US equipment manufacturer nTact is reporting an increase in interest in its line of slot die coating machinery.

As a number of nTact's customers are looking to take plastic electronics production from the R&D to pilot line production, the economic case for slot die coaters is becoming more evident.

Slot die advantages Miguel Friedrich, vice president of sales and marketing at nTact, says: 'Slot die coating is becoming more and more popular because it is typically significantly less costly than vacuum machinery. Big organisations are getting interested and they are starting to move toward pilot production.'

Slot die coaters are versatile and offer very high material utilisation rates. These are important advantages as companies across the world assess the commercial viability of scaling up production of OLEDs, organic photovoltaic cells and other printed electronics.

New techniques
Texas-based nTact has developed its slot die coating technology to meet the demands of the nascent printed electronic industry. This has included improving the uniformity of deposition of thinner films, and evolving specialised macro-patterning and selective area coating capabilities on its machines.

Misfit Wearables allies with Pebble and Beddit

In the past month Misfit Wearables has announced two partnerships with other companies in the wearable device segment.

These provide an insight into the likely business outlook for early entrants into the market as larger device makers look to move into the wearable technology.

Pebble Watch
Pebble has been one of the most successful early wearable technology companies. Having received $10 million (€7.8 million) worth of pre-orders after it launched on Kickstarter in 2012, it is now an established presence on the market.

On 24 June, it was announced that an app is now available for integrating Misfit activity tracking experience and algorithms onto its smartwatch platform. Misfit CEO, Sunny Vu, says: 'We are delighted to provide our fitness tracking technology to Pebble; we want to see this capability offered to as many users as possible.'

Beddit
In a second move Misfit has agreed to work with Beddit, a Finnish firm that makes sleep sensors based around a thin film ballistocardiography (BCG). This will enhance the sleep monitoring capacity of the Misfit system which has previously been based around its own Shine activity tracker.

Holst allies with BOM to maximise connection to SMEs

Dutch research organisation Holst Centre has signed a new accord with the Brabant Development Agency (BOM).

The agreement's aim is to ensure maximum leverage of Holst Centre's expertise in plastic electronics and wireless sensors to turn Belgium and the Netherlands into a hub for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) working in these disciplines.

BOM connections
Peter Visser, programme manager for high tech industry at BOM, explains: 'The south of the Netherlands is one the most innovative regions in Europe. Especially Eindhoven region that is renowned for its high number of patent applications. Holst Centre also generates a lot of patents, but making optimal use of the knowledge in those patents is another matter.

'As a regional development agency BOM has very good connections to SMEs in the high tech arena. We need to reach out and tell these companies that the technology is ready and available to use.'

Holst support
The SMEs that BOM is able to connect with Holst will receive support in three ways. Firstly, licencing agreements will grant them access to the patents Holst has built up over the past 9 years. This intellectual property covers interesting discoveries in thin film processing, lamination, large-area printing, and roll-to-roll production of plastic electronics.

Secondly staff at SMEs will be offered dedicated training either at Holst Centre headquarters in Eindhoven or their own facilities.

Finally, individual SMEs or clusters which operate through the new relationship with BOM will be eligible for the financial support its gives to innovative companies through BOM Capital.

Bert Gyselinckx, co-managing director of Holst, says: 'Through this new collaboration with the BOM, we can more quickly reach a much larger selection of high-tech SMEs and share our latest developments. Moreover, with its network, expertise and financial possibilities, the BOM can offer our international partners essential support.'

SMEs
Visser explains why, despite its good track record working with major firms like DuPont, Fujitsu, BASF and Sony, Holst Centre called on BOM to help it target smaller firms through the new initiative.

He says: 'A lot of large companies all have the same problem - they first need to see a €100 million market opportunity before they look to move on products.' SMEs are better positioned to exploit nascent demand for plastic electronics in fields like healthcare sensors, body area networks, low power gas sensors, and light out-coupling to increasing the luminescence of OLED lights.

Visser says: 'The good part of the story for companies that are not part of the Holst Centre family already is they now can make use of this knowledge to jump start their businesses, and build their own competitive edges on top of it. For cluster around plastic electronics people should think about integration of technologies available and making whole products.'

Local knowledge
Visser, who until November 2013 worked in the Lighting division of Philips, says: 'At the moment we are trying to establish clusters around the Holst knowledge centre. In order to have a solid working collaboration in this new domain you need to be within a certain geographical distance.' This means the new support will be limited to companies in the Netherlands and Belgium - the two states who initially contributed to the establishment and development of Holst Centre. 

Kateeva launches Silicon Valley production of inkjet print tool for OLEDs

Announcing the creation of a new production line in Silicon Valley in June 2014, US start-up Kateeva continues its progress to supply tools for the manufacture of flexible OLEDs.

The company outlined its roadmap for supplying tools to customers in consumer electronics, to enable the production of flexible displays and low-cost OLEDs, in an exclusive interview with +Plastic Electronics.

UDC and BOE Expand PHOLED Development Accord

Universal Display (UDC) has announced an extension of its development partnership with BOE Technologies, China's largest LCD panel producer.

Hefei
The agreement will see New Jersey-based UDC supplying additional samples of its phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED) materials and expertise to BOE. The PHOLED materials will be used in BOE's new AMOLED pilot line at its factory in Hefei.

The Hefei fabrication site is currently focused on producing Gen 8.5 (2,200mm x 2,500mm) LCD sheets. At Display Week 2014 at the beginning of June it showed the first prototype 55-inch (1,397mm) television module made using this equipment.

Steven Abramson, UDC's CEO, says. 'We are very pleased to broaden our partnership with BOE, the leading Chinese manufacturer in the display industry, to further evaluate our PHOLED materials. Extending our collaboration demonstrates BOE's commitment to provide advanced display solutions using our high performance, energy-efficient PHOLED materials and technology.

Chinese OLEDs
BOE Chairman Wang Dongsheng says: 'UDC is the leading phosphorescent OLED material supplier. Through establishing close partnership, we hope to push forward the development of OLED industry together with UDC and other industry partners.'

BOE is not alone among Chinese companies trying to break into commercial OLED production. Shanghai's EverDisplay Optronics plans to have a fabrication line capable of making 15,000 OLED display screens in operation before the close of 2014.

Moves by Chinese companies to create their own AMOLED production facilities was a topic covered in a piece of +Plastic Electronics exclusive subscriber content analysing Taiwanese producer AUO. To read this now, please log in or sign up today.

Trousers That Recharge a Mobile Phone Launched by Microsoft

Microsoft has highlighted the potential of clothes incorporating electrical systems by producing a pair of trousers that can inductively charge a mobile phone.

The US software firm has produced the trousers in collaboration with British fashion designer Adrien Sauvage.

The garment works by embedding a Nokia DC-50 wireless charging plate into a front pocket of the trousers. This uses inductive charging, generating an electromagnetic field to recharge a mobile phone or similar device, when it is inserted into the pocket.

The garment has been demonstrated with the new Nokia Lumia 930 handset, but could be used to power any device equipped with the Qi wireless charging capability. The DC-50 plate itself is recharged from the mains via a micro-USB connection.

The trousers will be made available for sale via Amazon later in the 2014, prices will begin at $340 (€250). 

OLED Desk Lights to Illuminate Green Buildings in Japan

Lumiotec will supply its OLED lighting panels to provide interior illumination of a new demonstration centre for energy efficient buildings in Japan.

The building is being made by Japanese construction conglomerate Taisei.

Lumiotec
The lights are reported to be based around Lumiotec P09 OLED panels which were launched in January at Lighting Japan 2014. They will be manufactured by the Okamura Corporation.

Two different versions of the panels will be delivered to provide the primary illumination for an office floor at the Taisei net-zero energy building (ZEBs) centre in Yokohama.

Interior illumination accounts for 20% of energy use in a modern office building and OLEDs are 10 times more energy efficient than conventional bulbs.

Size concerns
By using smaller desk-mounted panels Taisei are attempting to bypass the production limitations that have prevented larger OLED panels being made for conventional overhead architectural lighting.

The OLED lights will also give superior performance to conventional LEDs, which have been judged unsuitable for this application.

Other OLED manufacturers are initially focusing on desk lamp units too, while governments around the world are channelling funds into research projects to evolve technology to allow large-scale fault-free production of OLED lighting panels.

LG to supply OLED displays for next generation of German smart cars

On 26 June, LG signed contracts with several German car makers to supply OLED panels for use in future electric vehicles and smart cars.

The move will see OLED displays replacing glass LCD screens which currently dominate the market for dashboard displays in vehicles like Daimler Benz's Fortwo ED. LG is now conducting reliability tests on its OLED display panels for this automotive application.

LG currently accounts for 13% of the supply of such screens. LG Display president Han Sand-Beom says: 'For the next three years we plan to increase our sales for automotive display panels by 30 percent a year to take the leading position.' In 2013, the Korean company's revenue from these products was ₩500 billion (€360 million), though it plans todouble this by 2016.

This will compliment LG's existing strong working relationships with companies like BMW to bring OLED lighting technology into the automotive sector.

Double-decker OPV cells roll-to-roll printed in Denmark

Danish academics have successfully printed sheets of tandem organic photo-voltaic (OPV) cells on a roll-to-roll process for the first time.

Tandem power
By printing an OPV stack with two light absorbing layers and junctions resting on top of each other the team from the Technical University of Denmark are challenging a key limitation of printed photovoltaics.

Although existing OPVs are relatively easy to print, the power they yield relative to surface area is low, limiting their application. A lot of research has been focussed on optimising the output but the top performing cells can still only convert 9% of the sunlight that strikes them.

Stacking two OPV layers on top of each other would help nearly double the conversion rate per square metre. The system can be further enhanced by optimising the materials in each layer to concentrate them on absorbing light with different wavelengths.

Roll-to-roll
The team in Denmark has now been able to print such tandem cells in a roll-to-roll process for the first time. The OPV sheets that have been produced have 14 alternating layers of PEDOT:PSS, PFN, PCBM, zinc oxide and silver circuitry.

In trials this could be produced at the rate of one tandem cell per second on the printing equipment. It did not require an expensive vacuum process to make. The research has been summarised in a paper published in the Journal Energy and Environmental Science.

Commercial production
Low-cost volume production would go some way to eliminating the problem that have hitherto hamstrung a wider deployment of organic solar cells. The research team leader, Frederik Krebs says: ''If I [can make] a kilometre of solar cells, then I am not interested if one module has an efficiency of 10% and the rest are 2%. I am the guy that makes a lot of it and tries to look for the average and what is practical.'

A key next step will be adapting the tandem roll-to-roll technique to print layers with materials calibrated to convert light of different wavelengths.

Samsung Launches Galaxy Gear Live on Android Wear

On 25 June, Samsung unveiled the latest addition to its line of smartwatches - the Galaxy Gear live.

Initially selling for €199, the first orders of the new smartwatch will begin shipping on 7 July.

Performance
The Samsung Gear Live has a 1.63-inch (41mm) AMOLED screen, and a battery rated at 300mAh. It is driven by a 1.2GHz processor, with 512 MB of RAM and 4GB of internal memory.

It weighs just 59g and has a 4.0 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) module to tether it to a smartphone.

Android Wear
Perhaps the most significant development is that the Gear Live will run on Google's Android Wear operating system. Designed specifically to run a simplified interface on the small screens of smartwatches this software was launched alongside the Gear Live at Google IO on 25 June.

Two other smartwatches which operate on Android Wear were also shown at the event in California; the Moto360 and LG's G Watch.

Moving to Android Wear will permit the Gear Live to sync with any phone running Android 4.3 or better - not just Samsung handsets.

Foundation
The support Android Wear is receiving could see it become the industry standard in the booming wearable electronics market.

However Google plans to keep a tighter grip on its wearables platform than it has on the smartphone version of Android. This will pose challenges for manufacturers, app developers and Apple's iWatch.