New LG with 60-inch OLED displays

LG Display has been telling anyone who will listen that organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology is the wave of the future, and apparently the company’s enthusiasm is contagious. So contagious, in fact, that the Korean government has chosen LG to spearhead a project to develop transparent and flexible OLED displays.

The initiative is part of Korea’s Future Flagship Program and the task at hand is to create ultra high-definition (UHD, 8K) 60-inch flexible OLED displays by 2017. Korea’s Ministry of Knowledge Economy, which is overseeing the program, is hoping this initiative will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and bring in billions of dollars of annual income through exports, according to The Korea Herald.

LG’s role is to lead a consortium that will develop the 60-inch flexible display. It will get some help from Avaco, which makes equipment used to produce displays and who reportedly received a $6.7 million order to supply LG with the tools and parts it needs to build flexible OLED panels. An even bigger contract was given to Jusung Engineering, which will provide another $10 million worth of encapsulation equipment to LG.

While initially this technology will target the home consumer, LG has other applications in mind, including a window displaying information at bus stations, and in retail store settings where a curved display might dangle from the ceiling or wrap around a column. It all sounds good in theory, but is LG putting the cart in front of the horse?

OLED technology remains an expensive proposition even though we’ve been hearing about it for roughly a decade now.Cost isn’t the only hurdle. Short diode lifespans and screen burn-in are two additional challenges standing in the way of large screen OLED displays making a move into the mainstream.

On top of these challenges, three LG executives were recently indicted for allegedly stealing OLED-related technology from Samsung, the Wall Street Journal reports. LG denies the charges and contends that its intellectual property (IP) is “totally different” from Samsung’s, but depending on how this plays out, it could seriously stymie LG’s ability to deliver the promised goods by 2017.

Challenges notwithstanding, LG and Samsung aren’t the only ones optimistic about OLED’s future. In a report released earlier this year, NPD DisplaySearch wrote positively about OLED technology, noting that it’s already a mass-market technology in small and medium sized displays (think smartphones). DisplaySearch predicts OLED will become a competitive technology in larger size applications, like TVs and mobile PCs, within the next two years, well ahead of LG’s 2017 target date.