Here Comes The OLED
Here Comes The OLED
OLED (Organic.Light.Emitting.Diode) is a new display technology that promises to deliver thin, power efficient and bright displays. OLEDs (already popular in MP3 players and cell phones) have amazing potential - thin TVs, flexible displays, transparent monitors, white-bulb replacement, and more.
LCD works by having a backlight (white light) source, and then filtering this source to make colors. OLEDs however work by emitting color light. This has several advantages. It allows to make simpler and thus thinner and cheaper displays. It also means that OLEDs require less power. Think that when you have a screen that is completely black (but turned on), LCD will still require the whole white backlight to be emitted. With OLEDs, no energy is consumed in this stage! It is also possible to make flexible OLED displays, and even transparent ones, but this is obviously more challenging than a simple LCD-like display.
While OLEDs are heralded as the display technology of the future, they are already produced and used today. While making large panels is still a great challenge, smaller screens (up to 2″) are already produced in commercial quantities today. There are many MP3 players and cellular phones that use OLED displays. Companies such as Sony and Samsung use OLED displays in their leading models. The OLED market reached 500$ million in sales in 2005, and is expected to grow quickly in the coming years.
There are two main types of OLED screens