OLED is a new display technology, made from organic materials. OLEDs are efficient, thin, provide a great picture quality, and can even be made flexible and transparent. LG is developing and producing OLED TVs - it's actually the world's first company to offer large sized OLED TVs. LG is also working towards flexible OLEDs for mobile devices and OLED lighting panels via its LG Chem subsidiary.
LG OLED TVs
LG is the world's only commercial producer of OLED TV panels. LG's display arm (LGD) currently produces several OLED models - ranging in size from 55" to 77". Some of these are flat, and some are curved (and the high-end 77EG9900 is a bendable TV).
| LG55E9C300 | LG 55EG9600 | LG 77EG9900 |
 |  |  |
| A 55" Full-HD curved TV ($2,200) | A 55" 4K curved TV ($5,499) | A 77" bendable 4K TV |
LG's cheapest OLED TV is currently the 55EC9300, a curved 55" Full-HD TV released in 2014. It can be found at around $2,200 at some online retailers. All of LG's 2015 OLED TV models support 4K resolution. The curved 55" 4K 55EG9600 is now shipping for $5,499, the 65" EG9600 will soon ship for $8,999 and other 2015 models will be released soon.
LG Display also supplies panels to other companies (including Skyworth, Changhong, Haier, Konka and KTC in China) and is also collaborating with Panasonic and Grundig and Sony.
LG's TV is based on LG Display's Oxide-TFT white-OLED with color filters (WOLED, or WRGB, more on this below) OLED panel. LG are quite excited of this new TV - they call it calling it the "Ultimate Display" and they say that this is the "most transformational moment" in the TV industry since the introduction of the color TV 60 years ago. LGD currently produces OLED TV panels at its Gen-8 OLED TV fab - which has a monthly capacity of 14,000 substrates. The company announced plans to grow this to 34,000 monthly substrates by the end of the year. In terms of OLED TVs, LG will be able to produce 600,000 panels in 2015 and 1.5 million in 2016.
LG small Flexible OLEDs
LG are also producing Flexible OLEDs. These displays are made on a plastic (polyimide) substrate, and use an LTPS backplane and an RGB (direct-emission) architecture. LGD's current production capacity in its 4.5-Gen fab is 14,000 monthly substrates. LG is making flexible OLEDs for mobile phones (for example the 5.5" FHD display used in the G Flex 2) and also smaller flexible OLED displays for wearable devices (for example the G Watch R circular smartwatch and reportedly for Apple's Watch)
LGD was also selected by the Korean government to lead a project that aims to produce 60" flexible and transparent UHD OLED panels by 2017.
LG Transparent OLEDs
LG are also working on transparent OLEDs. As part of the project that we mentioned before, in 2014 LGD unveiled a new 18" transparent OLED prototype. These panels are not yet in production, but hopefully LG will start producing these eventually.
LG OLED Lighting
LG Chem is developing and producing OLED lighting panels, and the company is one of the leaders in OLED lighting. The company produces several panels, including the world's largest OLEDs (at 320x320 mm) and the world's first flexible OLEDs (on a glass substrate). LG Chem's panels are efficient (at around 80 lm/W) and last for 40,000 hours (LT70).
LG Chem currently has a small production line, but the company plans to construct a larger one by 2017 which will enable them to increase production volume and cut prices dramatically.
Kodak's OLED technology
Back in December 2009, LG bought Kodak's OLED business - mainly for the OLED IP. LG paid $100 million for the OLED unit. Kodak had many basic OLED patents as they were the early pioneers behind this technology.
LG's WRGB (White-OLED with color filters, or WOLED-CF) design used in their upcoming OLED TVs is based on technology developed at Kodak. WRGB TVs are less efficient than direct-emission OLEDs (because the color filters absorb some of the light) but they are easier to fabricate because there's no need to pattern subpixels. LG indeed managed to start producing OLED TVs before Samsung.
