MagnaChip Semiconductor announced Tuesday it plans to partner with companies to develop and standardize OLED-based human-interface capabilities for smart touch, stylus and fingerprint technologies based on its OLED display driver integrated circuits. The first partnership is with Elan, developer of smart human machine interface applications, including capacitive touch-screen controllers, capacitive trackpads and fingerprint sensors. The companies plan to expand capabilities of OLED displays for next-generation consumer, communication, computing, industrial products and automotive displays, it said. Referencing customer demand for stylus inputs on screens, MagnaChip said it will work with Elan to bring its stylus technologies to rigid and flexible OLED displays. Elan supports pen protocols defined by Huawei, Microsoft and Wacom.

Among Samsung’s product highlights at the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas this week are 8K, outdoor and double-sided displays, said the company Wednesday. The company’s 82-inch QLED 8K Signage has artificial intelligence upscaling technology and HDR10 Plus. The OMN-D series of 46-and 55-inch displays, designed for storefront windows, has a double-sided screen: one side with 3,000-nit brightness, designed to maintain brightness in sunlight, and the store-facing display with 1,000-nit brightness, it said. Samsung outdoor signage displays are built to withstand rain, sunlight, dust or motion, while offering ultra-high brightness, mobile app compatibility and slim depth, it said.

After steady declines in Q4, interactive 75-inch display prices fell 5 percent worldwide in February, and average selling prices for displays in the commercial market fell 20 percent year on year, PMA Research reported Tuesday. Interactive 86-inch display prices were 11 percent lower last month on “aggressive pricing” from brands supplying the education market, it said. In the 98-inch display segment, average selling prices fell by half during the period, while unit volume grew 60 percent. Sales volume of displays with ultra-narrow bezels designed for video walls grew nearly 30 percent in February vs. the previous year, while unit sales of models with a brightness rating between 650 and 800 nits nearly doubled. Unit volumes of displays 32 inches and larger with 4K UHD resolution jumped 40 percent year on year.

Though “oversupply” dominates large-display panels, it’s expected to moderate toward a “more balanced” supply-and-demand curve by Q3, said IHS Markit Monday. The current imbalance is causing panel prices to fall, “which is weighing heavily on profitability of panel makers,” said IHS. Large-panel plant capacity has been growing “at a faster rate than demand for more than a year now,” with several Gen 10.5 fabs coming online in China, plus “productivity improvements at legacy factories,” it said. Pricing has “deteriorated continuously” since 2017's second half, it said. “The combination of low prices and growing inventories is finally causing panel makers to lower factory utilization rates.” Some also will close legacy LCD facilities or convert them to OLED lines, while still others “will postpone their planned investment in new facilities,” the researcher said. Delayed investments to 2020 in new panel fabs likely will bring a significant revenue hit to the Applied Materials display business for 2019, said the supplier of deposition systems for LCD and OLED display manufacturing on its Q1 call last month (see 1902150002). Capacity reductions and the shuttering of existing fabs “looks like a harbinger of a growing trend,” said IHS now. “With so much new capacity currently being built out, substantial amounts of uncompetitive legacy production capacity are expected to be taken offline, as the industry works to balance supply and demand.”

Copper could be used for more than just casing or circuit board material in future smartphones. Researchers at the University of Southern California, funded by Universal Display, found a way to replace iridium, a rare element, in OLED screens, with cheaper copper, said a Friday Science article. “The current technology that is in every Samsung Galaxy phone, high-end Apple iPhone and LG TV relies on iridium compounds for the colors and light on OLED screens,” said Mark Thompson, chemist at USC, in a Friday news release. Iridium, found primarily in South Africa and parts of Asia, is used for its efficient light emission, but researchers have been looking for an alternative more abundant source, Thompson said. Previous attempts failed because copper complexes used weaker structures, and molecules were “unstable” with shorter life cycles than the iridium compounds. Researchers’ new copper complex is a more-rigid molecular complex, he said. The new compound’s rate of light emission also matches iridium’s, so the energy is converted efficiently into light and color, which could also improve blue light performance in OLEDs, described by researchers as a “bane” of OLED technology due to the short lifetime of blue emissive OLEDs. Rasha Hamze, the study’s lead author, said achieving efficient blue emission out of copper compounds “opens up entirely new possibilities for tackling the problem of short lifetimes.” The USC team submitted a patent application; next, it will test its ability to create more energy-efficient lighting, Thompson said.

The FCC opened an expanded call center to help broadcast TV viewers rescan their sets as channels relocate in the repacking, said a release Monday. The repacking is in its second phase and many stations have moved; eight phases remain and consumers need to rescan each time an outlet moves to receive all channels. Phase 10, the final phase, ends in July 2020. The new center can be reached by calling 888-CALLFCC and pressing “6” to speak to a help desk representative. The center is staffed daily, 8 a.m.-1 a.m. EST, “to enable consumers throughout the country to obtain assistance during evening and weekend hours.” The call center is funded out of the $50 million allocated by Congress for consumer education efforts during the repacking (see 1812280047). The agency has more information on rescanning and the repacking schedule on its TV rescan website.

Global shipments of large-screen LCD panels increased in 2018 despite oversupply concerns, reported IHS Markit Wednesday. Shipments increased 10.6 percent from 2018 to 197.9 million square meters (236.7 million square yards), it said. Fierce price competition in 65- and 75-inch display panels was “ignited” when panel maker BOE started mass production of its Gen 10.5 factory in Hefei, China, in close collaboration with Corning, which is supplying the mother glass, it said. “With BOE operating the 10.5-generation line, panel makers have become more aggressive on pricing since early 2018 to digest their capacity. Large panels are still more profitable than smaller ones.” In area terms, LG Display led the world’s panel makers in 2018 with 21 percent share in 2018, followed by BOE (17 percent) and Samsung Display (16 percent), said IHS. In unit terms, BOE led all suppliers with 23 percent, followed by LG Display (20 percent) and Innolux (17 percent), it said.

Quantum-dots technology supplier Quantum Materials is close to being able to demonstrate to potential OEM clients its “remote phosphor, cadmium-free QD-LED solution” for large-screen TVs capable of rendering in excess of 90 percent of the Rec.2020 color space, said CEO Stephen Squires Wednesday in a presentation to shareholders. It’s trying to get the technology to work in a 65-inch display for demo to “OEM groups” in February, he said. The company was hoping to showcase the technology at CES “and worked many late nights to try to accomplish this,” but in the end decided to wait to “get this technology just right” for its public debut, he said. “I’ll be the first to admit that the company has experienced several false starts over the past as we have attempted to commercialize our nano-material platform,” he said. “This has certainly been a difficult journey for all of us” who work at the company, and “an arduous journey for our shareholders as well,” he said. The company has moved “into a position that will allow us to finally fund the anticipated scale-up and commercialization of this disruptive technology,” he said. Various missteps in recent years caused investors to abandon the stock in droves. The stock jumped 23 percent higher Wednesday, closing at only .033 cents a share.

Top executives at Display Supply Chain Consultants expressed doubts Monday that quantum dots on glass (QDOG) technology, introduced commercially at CES in a 27-inch HP monitor (see 1901140008), will ever find a viable home in premium large-screen TVs. “The premium TV space requires full-array local dimming to get better contrast, and the QDOG can't do that,” emailed DSCC President Bob O’Brien. “There's a growing premium monitor market, though, that puts a little more emphasis on thin to save desktop space.” In that application, “the Iris glass product is attractive, and QDOG is a good step-up,” said O’Brien, a former Corning executive, in reference to Corning’s glass-based light guide plane technology for ultra-thin LCD displays. “While I agree that QDOG can do some local dimming, I will continue to hold that they can't do full array local dimming, because the edge-lit backlight does not have a full array.” DSCC also is aware of industry cost “concerns” about the “Iris QDOG solution,” emailed CEO Ross Young, the former DisplaySearch founder. Iris glass is expensive, and QDOG may well have missed its opportunity in large-screen TVs because the market has moved to full-array local dimming with QD enhancement film, at pricing that’s comparable with QDOG using edge-lit backlighting, said Young. Samsung Display is the lone supplier of QDOG panels using Iris glass it sources from Corning, QDOG technology owner Nanosys told us at CES. Nanosys expects QDOG costs will come down as more panel makers supply the product, it said.

Year-to-date unit volume and revenue for 32-inch and larger flat-panel displays through the professional AV channel grew double digits vs. 2017, said PMA Research. Unit sales tracked 15 percent higher, revenue 14 percent vs. November 2017, PMA said, but unit sales growth dropped from over 20 percent last year. November sales of 98-inch displays more than tripled year on year, and 4K UHD displays were 57 percent of total unit volume, 63 percent of revenue, it said.