Real price of OLED displays? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: ratatax
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 22, 2023, 01:40:48 pm
content: For a product I'm making I look for OLED displays, about 3" size.I found a manufacturer in China which seems good, but the quoted price for 1000 pcs is $13/pc, it's a monochrome yellow 3.2" display.I'm not familiar with OLED but I thought the price would be way lower than that. Is that in the normal range for an OLED display? Would like to have realistic price examples for 1 inch display, 3 inch, etc, to get an idea of what this technology costs and if I'm getting a good deal or not. I talk about parts sourced from China in low-ish quantities, not Mouser/Digikey prices.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 22, 2023, 06:50:42 pm
content: If anything, $13 is cheap.You haven't stated if you want AMOLED or PMOLED. If monochrome, you may get away with PMOLED, but these tend to have pretty bad ghosting on the image, so only really useful for control interfaces, text, etc. For greyscale graphics, forget about it, you almost certainly need AMOLED.A cheaper OLED will also likely be overdriven at high brightness and have a short lifespan. We've seen as short as 1000 hours from some displays before they're burned in so badly that they are unusable. And those are $300 parts, though micro-size type.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 22, 2023, 08:54:30 pm
content: Well, that's an average price we can get these days per 1000 for something like this. Could one get much cheaper before the whole covid drama? Yes, about half that price or less.These days it's tough. You may need to spend a lot of time finding an alternative supplier.See:https://www.buydisplay.com/serial-3-2-inch-graphic-oled-display-256x64-module-yellow-on-blackThat's pretty much the average price you can get as a western customer, which they see as cash cows now more than ever.

author: ratatax
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 22, 2023, 11:37:41 pm
content: Yes I guess that's the reason. I don't consider $13 cheap, especially if you want to make a consumer product below a few hundred dollars.I'll still try their sample but I think I will go for the LCD alternative, quoted $2 from another manufacturer, and that includes backlight and controller chip.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2023, 12:15:04 am
content: That sounds fairly cheap to me, 1,000 pieces is a small order, you can get small OLEDs like 1.5" for a lot less but there is not much on the market above about 2.5".

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2023, 05:00:41 am
content: Quote from: ratatax on May 22, 2023, 11:37:41 pmYou can probably end up with around $3 to $4 /1000 if you find the right reseller and can negotiate - even if you buy them per 1000, you'll probably have to project a much larger order over a couple years if you want to be able to negotiate that.Note that these 3.2" OLED panels are typically 256x64 and many of them are 16-grayscale (with a SSD1322 controller or equivalent), which looks great (I've used these in a couple projects) but is more expensive, If you can make sure to get a strictly monochrome version, that'll be a bit cheaper.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2023, 07:22:12 am
content: In general it's always good to reexamine requirements with a cold eye.Can it actually be smaller, can it be bigger, does it really need to be color, OLED etc.People often design the product first, even if it's just in their head.Then they get all excited about exactly what they imagine it looking like.Then they start looking for parts that fit their idea of what it 'should' look like and get pulled into expensive custom parts/tooling.It's much better to see what is available first, for cheap and in all form factors. Enclosures, Displays etc..Then design the product to fit those parts.It's especially true for home/diy/side hustle jobs. Where you cant really afford to buy huge volumes or get custom parts.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2023, 08:09:50 am
content: That's pretty big for an OLED. For things like this, size of the glass is the dominating factor in cost ( more than resolution) , as processing costs for a manufacturing sheet will be similar, but they get fewer per sheet, and defects have a larger effect on yield.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2023, 09:29:03 pm
content: Quote from: ratatax on May 22, 2023, 01:40:48 pmYou can do a quick search on Aliexpress.1 to 1.5" monochrome OLEDs are dirt cheap, maybe $2.Anything over 2" the price shoots up. This is the cheapest one I see, $11 for 2.4":https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832779519371.html

author: dkonigs
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 26, 2023, 04:22:38 am
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on May 22, 2023, 08:54:30 pmI've found BuyDisplay to be one of the best go-to options for these things if you want a decent price, but still want the experience of buying from a normal vendor with an organized storefront. (as opposed to a random AliExpress seller, or a crazy-price option on Digi-Key/Mouser)But yeah, once you get into this size class, prices on OLEDs shoot way up. Also, there really don't seem to be any OLED options in-between 3.2" and "full-blown smartphone display". I'd love to be able to get a similar display in a 4" size, but no such thing really exists. (Okay, there's sometimes an oddball option with an insane price and no product variety, but even those are hard to find.)Of course my application involves good visibility in a dark room, which is one area where OLED really does work a lot better than a backlit LCD.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 26, 2023, 05:50:34 am
content: There used to be larger (like 4" to 5") RGB OLED panels available, but they have almost disappeared. Guess there is no sizable market for these.These days, if you can go down to 2.08" (2.08" 256x64 OLED panels are easier to source).In any case, I have dealt directly with EastRising in the past and got pretty good deals, so that's something to consider if you can project reasonable volumes.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 27, 2023, 12:40:27 am
content: There used to be QVGA RGB OLED panels too and these have vanished in all sizes, it's really a shame because they looked great. All of the color OLEDs now are either tiny or large high res smartphone and TV panels.