OLED - the future display technology

A very promising technology on the display market seems to be the one of the OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes). Extremely flat, flexible, luminous, true in colour and rich in contrast – these are the main advantages of the OLED technology.

History
The effect of electroluminescence in organic materials is known since the year of 1953. Pioneers in the research of the use of electroluminescence in displays are Kodak and Pioneer, who started to invest money into this new technology in 1987. In 1990 they found out that there are certain polymers which could be used as organic LEDs and research was intensified. More information about the history at oled-display.net

Function
The technique is based on the effect of electroluminescence. This effect is known from nature e.g. the lightening bug. A tin film of the right polymers is put between two electrodes. When there is a voltage of a couple of volts the organic semiconductor starts to emit light. More information to how it works at wikipedia.

How OLED works (picture source)

Advantages of the OLED-technology
OLED displays offer a big viewing angle and a short reaction time as well as a good colour truth and a good contrast. Moreover they don’t need backlight what means that very thin displays can be produced and compared to today’s LCD displays they save up to 40% of energy.

Possible applications
The main field of the OLED technology should be the display market. Because of the materials OLED displays are made of, flexible displays are possible and likely. Another possibility is to use big, laminar OLED elements for room lighting. The applications for transparent OLEDs are even bigger. They could for example be put onto every kind of glass element like a glass dividing wall in offices.

Flexible OLED-prototype from SONY (youtube video)

Products with OLED
The number of products with integrated OLED-displays is increasing. The main application area is confined to small sized displays like in cell phones or MP3 players. Sony plans to sell the first TV with an 11` OLED display by the end of 2007.

SONY XEL-1 - 11' OLED TV (youtube video)