FOLED Display Technology

A flexible organic light emitting diode (FOLED) is a type of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) incorporating a flexible plastic substrate on which the electroluminescent organic semiconductor is deposited. This enables the device to be bent or rolled while still operating. Currently the focus of research in industrial and academic groups, flexible OLEDs form one method of fabricating a rollable display.

Samsung YOUM

In January 2013 Samsung officially launched their flexible OLED displays, calling them YOUM displays. YOUM panels are bendable - but it's likely that the first product to use those displays will actually be rigid. The display can be "curved" thought. A plastic based AMOLED will also be shatterproof, and also lighter and thinner compared to glass based OLEDs. Check out Samsung's YOUM demonstration from CES 2013 in the video below:

Indeed we expect that the first products with flexible OLEDs will be mobile phones. Those phones will be lighter and thinner than current phones, and the display will be much stronger ("shatterproof"). It's also possible that Samsung will indeed use a curved display.

The YOUM logo indeed suggests curved display panels:

When will we see the first YOUM product?

Samsung did not give an actual commitment, but it seems that the company is aiming to start producing YOUM panels in 2013. We suspect that the production volume will be low, and the panels will be considerably more expensive compared to glass based panels (more on this below in the technical section). The OLED Association says that the Note 3 smartphone/tablet will be the first product with a plastic OLED, 5.9" or more in size. It will ship in Q4 2013, but in limited quantities...

So it's likely that Samsung will indeed release some product in 2013, but this will not be for a mass production flagship mobile phone. Perhaps a more "niche" product - which might explain why Samsung unveiled an early prototype running Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 OS. As we said before we expect this product to have a light, shatterproof and thin panels, and it may or may not have a curved section.

How are YOUM panels fabricated

According to reports, Samsung is still using LTPS for their plastic based panels. The production process is too hot for the plastic substrate (it will melt) and so the LTPS transistors are deposited on glass and the glass is later delaminated. The encapsulation technology is Vitex's multi-layer technology which is very slow (the panel has to enter the evaporation chamber 6 times). All this means that plastic displays will be more expensive than glass ones, at least until Samsung can use better production technologies.

http://www.oled-info.com/samsung-youm