Samsung’s display panel business has recorded a loss in last year on reduced revenue, compared to the prior year. The company noted that adopting measures for change and innovation, including business restructuring, are essential to improve its competitiveness for Display business. In a separate statement, Samsung said its Board of Directors approved that its unit Samsung LED, Ltd. will be merged into the parent and be dissolved thereafter. The merger, which is effective April 1, allows the company to nurture the LED business as the future growth engine of its component business.

The new entity will be called Samsung Display Co., Ltd and consider adopting various restructuring measures, including a merger with Samsung Mobile Display and S-LCD Corp. Samsung in January took the full ownership of S-LCD unit, previously a joint venture with Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony Corp. (SNE).

Samsung Display, following the spin off, will become Samsung’s wholly-owned subsidiary and will have net assets worth 13.6 trillion won. The new corporation will issue 150 million shares and shareholders’ equity would be 750 billion won. Samsung Display’s sales for the latest fiscal year was 22.01 trillion won.

Samsung, the world’s largest manufacturer of liquid crystal displays, while announcing its fourth-quarter results recently, had noted that Samsung outpaced market growth by a significant increase in TV panel shipments on the back of value-adding products such as LED and 3D TVS.

Meanwhile, the Display Panel business posted a 0.75 trillion won operating loss and 29.24 trillion won in revenue in the full year 2011.

Samsung today pointed out that an independent operation with specialization in display panels will enable its LCD business to achieve continuous growth. This is through strengthening its competitiveness, enhancing speed in investment/strategic decision-making process and establishing autonomous and responsible management.

The company is scheduled to arrange a general meeting for shareholder approval on March 16. The inaugural General Meeting of Shareholders of the new corporation would be on April 2.

In South Korea, Samsung shares closed Today’s trading at 1,175,000 won, down 1,000 won or 0.09 percent on a volume of 224.96 thousand shares.

The “Three to One Traffic Display” by Dutch industrial design student Dennis van Melick utilizes OLED screens to offer realtime, updatable traffic and lane information, even as they function as ordinary traffic lights. Dennis van Melick is currently in talks with production companies and city officials to potentially bring his patent-protected design and prototype to an urban trial. The project was on exhibition during dutch design week 2011 at the Design Academy Eindhoven’s graduation show and at the Klockgebouw Tower in the Strijp-s zone of the city.

Rather than relying on simply red, yellow, and green colours for information, the “Three to One Traffic Display” makes use of unique symbols for each designation, facilitating their use for the colourblind: a red square for ‘stop’, an orange triangle for ‘slow’, and a green circle for ‘go’. in addition, the signs can be dynamically converted to signify an emergency lane for the passage of ambulances, fire, or police vehicles; to close a lane in the event of an accident or other obstacle ahead; or to designate a bus lane. The signals themselves consist of a polycarbonate frame with a reflective border, in addition to the OLED panel.

The system relies entirely on existent infrastructure: the screens can be affixed to existing traffic frames, and the information to control their operation is already contained within the boxes inside existing poles, which already access many kinds of wireless data that goes unused. the efficiency of LED lights saves electricity, while an innovative suspension system makes installation easy and resistant to vandalism. because only the screen needs to be mounted, ‘three to one’ is easily adaptable to both freestanding and hanging display modules.

“Three to One Traffic Display” is just one part of a Traffic Control System designed by Dennis van Melick.

Construction OLED Traffic Light

Scientists at the IICT have achieved an efficiency of 11 per cent and research is on to improve the durability of the product to 10 years. The technology is likely to be available for commercial use in the next three years. There will be a saving of more than 50 per cent on domestic electricity bills. It can also be used for lighting streetlights. “We had a target of achieving 10 per cent but we achieved 11 per cent efficiency. The highest efficiency one can achieve is 33 per cent, which is at present quite difficult. We are working to improve the durability of the product to 10 years to make it more economical,” said Dr L Giribabu, scientist at the IICT’s nanomaterials laboratory.

IICT is one of the few research bodies in the world to conduct research on excitonic solar cells, dye-based solar cells and organic based solar cells. The Central government has sanctioned about Rs 100 crore for research on luminescence technology, which can be used for development of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Excitonic solar cells are a class of non-conventional solar cells based on organic and nanostructured materials. Dr Giribabu was speaking on the sidelines of the four-day 4th international conference on luminescence and its applications, organised by Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, IICT, Society for Information Display and Luminescence Society of India, here on Tuesday. Around 350 experts in light technology from different parts of the world are attending the event.

Prof K Somaiah of RGUKT said India has been in the forefront of luminescence technology and scientists from around the world visit the country to update their research knowledge. “Imagine painting your bed with an OLED and it lights up your bed room. This technology is also used in TV sets. A 52 inch TV can be folded up and hung on a wall anywhere,” he added.  Luminescence and luminescent materials now increasingly find important applications in display devices, radiation monitoring, lighting devices, medical applications like detection of cancerous parts in human body and drug delivery, solar radiation harvesters and infrared lasers for military needs.

“Samsung Mobile Display has led the global display industry by constantly seeking innovations and challenging current technologies’ limits. We are confident that combining our business powers with Corning’s technology leadership will deliver greater value to our clients”

Combining Corning’s Lotus™ Glass substrate technology and Samsung Mobile Display’s OLED display expertise, this new entity will be well-positioned to provide outstanding product solutions for current and future OLED technologies, from handheld and IT devices to large TVs and beyond.

The newly formed entity will supply OLED backplane glass substrates for Samsung Mobile Display, as well as for the broader Korean market.

According to a recent NPD DisplaySearch report, OLED technology advanced rapidly in 2011, setting a trend that is forecasted to continue through this decade. They estimate that OLED display revenues will exceed $4 billion in 2011 (approximately 4% of flat panel display revenues), and will reach more than $20 billion (approximately 16% of the total display industry) by 2018.

Samsung is playing a leading role in this emerging market through its Galaxy mobile device products and Super OLED TV technology introduced in January at the International Consumer Electronics Show. Corning’s ongoing advanced glass technology development includes a strong focus on high-performance displays. Most recently, this focus has been demonstrated through Corning’s new Lotus™ Glass substrates, which deliver the higher processing temperatures and improved dimensional stability needed to produce the new high performance displays.

“Samsung Mobile Display has led the global display industry by constantly seeking innovations and challenging current technologies’ limits. We are confident that combining our business powers with Corning’s technology leadership will deliver greater value to our clients,” said Soo In Cho, Samsung Mobile Display’s president and chief executive officer.

“Corning and Samsung have a long and successful partnership in the display industry, dating back nearly 40 years to the early days of television,” said Wendell P. Weeks, Corning’s chairman, chief executive officer, and president. “The strength of our business relationship is built on Corning’s ability to develop and make high-technology glass with the key attributes that enable Samsung’s next-generation displays. Together, we have led the evolution of displays – from the high-growth years of CRT, to our current successful business supplying world-leading substrates for today’s high-definition LCD TVs, and now to the launch of this important new venture to advance OLED technology,”

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Holst Centre and imec launch a new research program on next-generation flexible OLED (organic light emitting diode) displays. It builds on their proven technology track record and solid base of existing research partners in related fields such as Organic and Oxide Transistors and Flexible OLED Lighting. The primary objective of the new program is to develop an economically scalable route to high-volume manufacturing of flexible active-matrix OLED displays. The shared program will bring together partners from across the value chain to tackle challenges such as high resolution, low power consumption, large area, outdoor readability, flexibility and light weight.

The ambition of the new program is work towards flexible, high-resolution OLED displays. The program will tackle the individual challenges towards the next-generation of OLED displays: a mechanically flexible encapsulation film and TFT backplane; and printed, high-efficiency OLEDs. New materials and processes that allow for cheaper production, better quality, lower power, more robustness and more flexibility will be developed. Moreover, the design of the drivers, pixel circuits and TFT backplane matrix will be reconsidered as increasing display area influences the amount of pixels-per-inch or the refresh rates. Finally the program scope includes the development of new manufacturing equipment such as fine patterning equipment for backplanes and tools for integrated roll-to-roll manufacturing.

Gerwin Gelinck (Holst Centre), Program Manager of the OLED Display Program: ”Holst Centre and its partners continuously look for new application domains for the generic flexible electronic technologies that have been developed. This ensures our research stays tangible, application-oriented and relevant for industry and society. Flexible displays represent an enormous economic and technical opportunity for flat panel manufacturers and its supply chain. As such they are seen as an attractive landing place for many new technologies. Flexible displays are therefore becoming a top priority research effort for many companies worldwide, including many of our current industrial partners.”

Paul Heremans (imec), Program Manager of the OLED Display Program: “With this program in mind, we already have been working more and more towards integrating separate building blocks and have realized OLED displays using both organic and metal oxide TFT backplanes. Thin, plastic substrates were used, and the displays were fully encapsulated using our state-of-the-art barrier technology. Part of this was done with other research institutes in a European project called FLAME, but we could really pull this off because of intense collaboration with some of our industrial partners. We will demonstrate some of these display prototypes in 2012.”

Because of its high luminous efficiency, the panel might become a dark horse in the market for flexible surface-emitting lighting devices. Tazmo developed the panel in late 2011 and exhibited it at an exhibition in Tokyo.

Inorganic light-emitting diode technologies have been lagging far behind organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technologies in terms of luminous efficiency and losing attention from players in the industry. This time, Tazmo drastically improved luminous efficiency.

On the other hand, a coating process that is necessary for making flexible OLED panels has not been commercialized yet. As for coating process, some people consider that inorganic light-emitting diodes have an advantage because they have simpler element structures. And it is possible that inorganic light-emitting diodes have actually taken a lead over OLEDs in that regard with the development of the latest panel.

“We expect that the new panel will be employed for supplemental lighting and illumination for clothes first,” Tazmo President Toshio Ikeda said.

Inorganic light-emitting diode technologies use the EL (electroluminescence) phenomenon, in which light is generated by applying voltage to a thin film made of an inorganic dielectric material (or fluorescent material). The principle is different from the one for OLEDs, which, like LEDs, use the recoupling of electrons and electron holes at semiconductor pn junctions.

The Nokia Lumia 900 has a 4.3-inch AMOLED ClearBlack Display for rich, bright images both indoors and out, faster connection speeds based on cutting-edge 4G LTE technology, and a long-lasting 1830 mAH battery for enjoying content all day.  The primary camera includes Nokia’s exclusive Carl Zeiss optics, with large aperture (F2.2) and wide angle focal length (28mm) for high-quality, uncropped images even in low-light conditions. In addition, the Nokia Lumia 900 includes a front-facing cameraboasting a large aperture and a wide angle lens that ensures sharp, bright images for high-quality video calling, right out of the box.