Japan Display wants to start producing OLED screens in 2018
Japan Display says it will start mass production of OLED screens in 2018. Recently, the manufacturer showed a flexible 5 “OLED screen with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. Japan Display will probably focus on panels for smaller devices such as smartphones.
Japan Display’s bendable OLED panel is fifty micrometers thin and weighs ten grams, according to a report in Nikkei Business Publications, based on statements made by the manufacturer during a technology session in January. The OLED panel has an RGBW pixel format, with extra white pixels next to the red, green and blue ones. This allows lower consumption and higher screen brightness.
Japan Display uses its low temperature polycristalline silicon technique as the backplane behind the OLED panel. The manufacturer uses the same ltps technique for making high pixel density LCDs. In the coming years, Japan Display wants to reduce energy consumption by lowering the refresh rate when a static image is displayed. Between 2016 and 2017, advanced ltps panels should appear, which can switch back from 60 to 30Hz. In 2018 that should be 15 to 5 Hz.
Japan Display has already shown OLED panels. For example, the manufacturer showed a 5.2″ RGBW panel with full HD resolution in 2013. However, such screens have never gone into production. According to rumors, Apple wants to use OLED screens in its iPhones from 2018. Samsung and LG would use the panels. for that, but if Japan Display has a production line up and running by then, there is a third alternative: Apple is now using LG OLED panels in the Apple Watch.
Japan Display, a joint venture between Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi, further states in its presentation that ltps LCD panels currently best meet the market demand because of the high pixel density. The manufacturer says that the ltps technology enables panels with more than 800 pixels per inch. Most likely, Japan Display is the maker of the 5.5″ panel with a resolution of 3840×2160 pixels in the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium, which has 806 pixels per inch.