A new energy-efficient organic LED (OLED) that glows a deep blue is finally close to meeting the most stringent U.S. video display brightness requirements, researchers say.
OLEDs have enabled a new generation of bright, high-quality, low-cost, power-efficient, flexible, lightweight flat panel displays. Each pixel in an OLED display typically consists of red, green, and blue OLEDs that shine with different brightnesses to produce any desired color.
Phosphorescent OLEDs (PHOLEDs) use only one quarter the energy of conventional OLEDs. Green and red PHOLEDs are already used in smartphones and TVs, leading to longer battery lives and lower electricity bills, but developing the kind of bright deep blue PHOLEDs needed for video displays has proven challenging.
Now scientists have developed what they say are the brightest deep blue PHOLEDs reported so far, work sponsored by Universal Display Corporation and the U.S. Air Force. The researchers added their new lights nearly meet the most stringent requirements of the National Television Systems Committee (NTSC), the video standards used across most of the Americas.
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Samsung is investing an additional ₩13.1 trillion ($11 billion) in the R&D and production of quantum dot-enhanced organic light-emitting diode (QD-OLED) panels:
The QD-OLED technology promises to simplify (i.e. lower the cost of) production of OLED-based televisions and monitors, as well as enabling wider color gamuts, which is something expected from next-generation content. Contemporary WOLED panels from LG Display use a blue or white (yellow + blue) OLED emitter stack, and a WRGB color filter system on top with a variety of additional layers behind, between, and ahead of them. By contrast, a QD-OLED panel uses an OLED emitter stack (some believe, with two emitting stacks) with a quantum dot RGB color filter (also called quantum dot color converter, or QDCC) system on top.
Today's OLED panels feature 22 layers, whereas a QD-OLED panel may cut the number to 13, which means fewer deposition stages, lower material and production costs, and, perhaps, better yield. The QD-OLED technology is still considered to be rather challenging as Samsung has to solve light management issues. Meanwhile, according to Display Supply Chain, one square meter of an QD-OLED panel will cost around $26, whereas one square meter of a contemporary OLED panel costs approximately $95.
Related:
Claims of Industrial Espionage Plague OLED Development
Bright Blue PHOLEDs Almost Ready for TV
SEL Develops 8K OLED Displays for Tablets and Laptops
VESA Expands DisplayHDR Specification to Include OLED and Emissive Displays
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday October 22 2015, @06:09AM
The story gave no clue how or why the air force would be involved in blue led research.
But the story did mention these LEDs have a severe longevity problem.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2015, @10:28AM
It's simple. The air force does their work in the air. The sky is made out of air. The sky is blue. Hence, blue LEDs. Q.E.D.
(Score: 1) by Osamabobama on Thursday October 22 2015, @05:25PM
Active camouflage is what you are describing.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Friday October 23 2015, @12:52AM
>But the story did mention these LEDs have a severe longevity problem.
Thanks for reading TFA for me. As soon as the summary mentioned "phosphorescent", alarms bells started ringing.
I suppose on one-year disposable smartphones display life isn't as big a problem as battery life, so blue PHOLEDs will have practical applications (for short-sighted values of "practical").
What's so special about blue, anyway? Regular blue LEDs also took a long time to develop, and now with PHOLEDs too.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 4, Informative) by deimtee on Friday October 23 2015, @10:50AM
A photon of blue light is on the edge of having enough energy to disrupt a molecular bond. This makes it tough to make materials that are both stable and have an energy level transition that energetic.
200 million years is actually quite a long time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2015, @08:25AM
Maybe systemd could put Lennart Poettering on the game grid and rename itself to pholed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2015, @12:15PM
National Television Systems Committee (NTSC).
Damn, you learn something every day. I always thought it stood for Never The Same Color.