Transparent OLEDs

Back in April 2011 Corning produced a nice video called A Day Made of Glass, showing future designs made with durable, transparent and even flexible glass displays. Now Corning is back with a sequel, showing the same family but with some new ideas in the home, car, classroom, outdoor and work environments:

A lot of these displays can be achieved with OLEDs, although OLEDs aren't specifically mentioned in those video. Just a few days ago Corning announced an OLED glass joint-venture with Samsung. Corning also released an unpacked version of this video- that includes explanations about the technology shown in the video:

Remember Daimler's Smart Forvision concept EV? That car has a transparent solar-panels on the roof, see-through dashboard and transparent OLEDs for internal lighting - on the roof of the car. We knew that Daimler was collaborating with BASF on this concept, and today BASF released a press release saying that indeed they developed those panels together with Philips.

The OLEDs are transparent when switched off, allowing for a clear view outside the vehicle, yet providing light only within the vehicle when switched on. The transparent OLED sandwich structure can be combined with equally transparent solar cells, as was demonstrated in the Smart Forvision. This development was achieved as part of a longstanding cooperation (since 2006) between BASF and Philips in the research and development of OLED modules.

Back in October 2011 Futaba bought out TDK's part in their joint OLED company, which is now a subsidiary of Futaba. Today we got hold of Futaba's OLED roadmap for 2011-2015. For the consumer market, Futaba is currently offering small (around 2") PMOLED displays. They are also offering 2.4" transparent panels, but it seems to be made in small quantities. The company plans to start producing 4.3" QVGA AMOLED displays by 2014 (mass production in 2015), transparent PMOLEDs in 2013, and flexible PMOLEDs by 2014-2015.

Futaba is also planning to start using OLEDs in printer heads. They currently use VFD technology and will adopt OLEDs in 2012-2013. For the automotive market, Futaba currently offers 0.9", 2.0", 3.4" and 3.5" monochrome panels, and they plan to use the flexible and transparent OLEDs in the "center stack" - basically anywhere inside the vehicle - steering wheel, dash up, windshield and on curved surfaces. The company is also interested in round shaped OLEDs. Products for the automotive market will arrive by 2014.

Samsung Mobile Display produced a short Video (in Korean) showing a transparent, flexible 3D AMOLED display based tablet. This is obviously just a concept device, and it'll take years before they'll be able to commercialize something like that, but it's still cool:

Flexible OLEDs are still not available, but Samsung does plan to start producing these in 2012. The first screens will probably not be bendable ones, but Samsung will be able to produce them on curved surfaces. Several other companies (including Sony, AUO, LG, HP, Toshiba, TDK and others) are working towards flexible OLEDs. This technology is exciting device makers, too - check out Nokia's Kinetic prototype - a completely flexible mobile phone. Apple is also interested in such displays.

Apple filed a new patent describing a new display system which incorporates a transparent OLED on a solid white background. The idea is to conserve battery use - and when there's a need to display a white pixel, you simply switch the OLED pixel off, which then shows the white background beneath. The system also includes a switchable layer between the OLED and the white background. This layer can be either transparent or black - which will allow to see black pixels (which is not possible in normal transparent OLEDs).

Apple has filed several OLED patents in the past years. In July the company filed a patent for a 3D multiple transparent OLED displays device, and in February the company filed three different OLED patents, the main one being an OLED with an integrated touch sensor.

A few days ago we reported that AUO will show a 6" transparent OLED panel, and today we have some more details and nice photo of this display. The display features 400x300 resolution, 36% transmittance and 400 cd/m² brightness. Both the cathode and anode are transparent - and so light is emitted in both sides.

AUO unveiled a new 4.3" AMOLED panel offering 257ppi. The company actually said they "launched" the new product, but it seems that they aren't mass producing it yet (this will probably happen in early 2012). But the company is reportedly shipping samples already.

The company has also demonstrated a 6" transparent OLED display (with a transparency rate of over 35%), and a 4" Touch AMOLED display that features 30% less energy consumption compared to other AMOLED. We assume that this display includes an in-cell touch panel - similar to Samsung's Super AMOLED displays. AUO unveiled their AMOLED in-cell touch technology back in June 2010.