April 2009

Yesterday we published a story about a video of Samsung's 23" OLED monitor by First Look Review... A recent comment on our post claimed this is a fake (thanks Nuninho1980!)...

And I believe that indeed this is true. This is not an OLED monitor, but a regular one, probably the P2370L. Let me tell you why:

• You can see in the video that the monitor looks like a product ready to ship. It does not look like a prototype ready for 2010 - it even got the energy-star sticker on./li>
• Usually when companies show an OLED prototype, it's a big thing... but here Samsung has a good looking product but with no PR? Just one video by First Look Review? Unlikely...
• I'm not sure they would have let that girl pick up a new OLED prototype that should be out by 2 years... it'll be extremely expensive and probably fragile.
• The video says that the OLED monitor has a contrast of 2,000,000:1 and is 1.6cm thick. Exactly the same as the P2370L!
• In fact 1.6cm is not so exciting for an OLED. The XEL-1 is 3mm thick for example, and Sony's new 21" prototype is 1.4mm thick.
• When viewed from the side, the Samsung monitor doesn't look so good. OLEDs have a much better viewing angle. See the next photos to see how it compares to LG's OLED:
   
  

So I don't know if this is an honest mistake by First Look Reviews (thinking that LED means OLED), or not, but it any case - I'm quite certain that this monitor ain't OLED...

UPDATE: TechRadar reports that they got word from Samsung saying that indeed this is the P2370L, and that the error originated from Samsung's own communication. So this is it... we're still waiting for a large OLED product from Samsung.

A few years ago we reported that UK researchers are working on OLED-light as a cure for cancer. The technology was incorporated into Lumicure, and reportedly they are making good progress.

Lumicure OLED-light plaster

Now we hear that another UK company is trying to do a similar thing, Polymertronics. They are also working on OLED-light-plasters, which will be used in photodynamic
therapy - applying light sensitive drugs, which are activated when red-light is present. The drugs are supposed to destroy the tumors in the skin.

Polymetronics already showed that the OLEDs are working in the laboratory, and will soon begin human trials. They hope to launch the plasters as commercial products in two years.

PhoneArena has posted an interesting review of the Samsung OMNIA HD i8910. Basically they think the phone is great for geeks - with so many features built in. There are some concerns over voice quality (which personally I think is the single most important thing in a phone, no?) and that the phone is a bit sluggish at times. The sure love the display: "The OMNIA HD sports an awesome 3.7-inch touch sensitive AMOLED screen".

Samsung i8910 HD

This is the largest OLED display in a mobile phone to date, it'll be interesting to see how the phone sells. We're sure waiting for more OLED smartphones, not just from Samsung...

Read the full review here

Today Universal Display is showing their PHOLED technology at EcoFocus NY. 

UDC Flexible OLED Display Concept

Among the product prototypes will be Universal Display’s wrist-worn,
flexible PHOLED display, developed jointly with LG Display and L-3
Communications for the U.S. Department of Defense. In addition, the
company will showcase a scaled white PHOLED lighting atrium, transparent
PHOLED pixels, and commercial products that currently use Universal
Display’s PHOLED technology.

We don't have any new photos yet, but hopefully we'll get some during the day.

According to Smarthouse, Panasonic has confirmed that they are working with Toshiba towards an HD OLED TV. It will be ready within 18 months to 2 years. Toshiba has confirmed this as well.

The last we heard about Panasonic is that they are still skeptical about OLED TVs. Also they have sold their stake in TMDisplay (who is focusing on OLEDs) to Toshiba. According to Smarthouse, Panasonic are concerned about the lifetime of OLEDs, but the technology has improved much in that respect

Smarthouse are also behind the Apple-LG-OLED rumors. Time will tell if they are right...

UPDATE - I now believe this video is a fake - sort of, it's actually showing a LED monitor and not an OLED one. More info here. The video has been removed since, in any case.

First look reviews has released a short video showing Samsung's new 23" OLED Monitor Prototype. Here's a photo first, and some info:

Samsung 23 inch OLED Monitor

This OLED monitor has got a contrast of 2,000,000:1,
is only 1.6cm thick, and should be out in 2010. It is very light,
should save around 40% of the energy compared to normal LCDs, and has
HDMI and DVI Inputs.

Organic Lighting Technologies developed a more efficient OLED design. Here's how they describe it:

"When OLEDs are driven at high current densities to increase the light output, it is widely known that fraction of holes leak towards the electrode without participating in recombination. This reduces the optical efficiency. To prevent this, the current state of the art employs ‘hole-blocking’ layer to impose energy barrier to holes. This is a fixed barrier and at high current densities, there can still be holes crossing this barrier. The patent issued to Organic Lighting Technologies LLC discloses a unique electrical method of applying electrical bias to retard the holes leaking to the electrode (cathode). This is accomplished through an electrically conductive and transparent porous layer in place of
‘hole-blocking’ layer. The advantage of this method against the traditional ‘hole-blocking’ layer is the bias that can be varied to exercise control over the holes leaking to the electrode. In fact the leakage of the holes can be modulated on demand. In addition, the electrons can also be prevented from leaking towards anode (without participating in recombination). This is done through the incorporation of an electrically conductive and transparent porous layer on the anode side. Suitable bias is applied across these two porous layers and the electrons and holes can be continuously modulated on demand. The trick here is to deposit these critical layers in the thin film organic stack without appreciably reducing the optical transparency."

This can be used for both lighting and displays (but will be especially useful in lighting because of the high-current densities used).

OLT has been issued a patent on this technique, and they plan to either license or sell this technology. We don't know yet how much more efficient will those OLEDs be. We'll have to wait for some company to license it...

Dai Nippon Printing has developed a transparent conductive film baed on silver for the conductive particles. The film can be forms with patterns, and it is also flexible. It is designed to replace indium tin oxide (ITO) films.

DNP will start shipping samples in May 2009, and plans to start producing it full scale during the fall of 2009. DNP expects sales of 30M$ yearly of the new film by 2012.

Last month we heard of several european companies working towards OLEDs without ITO, as part of the Fast2Light project.

Kenwood is showing an ultra-thin stereo speaker that is also an OLED white light panel.

Kenwood OLED speakers

This is only a prototype, developed jointly by Kenwood and Prof Junti Kido from Yamagata University in Japan. Kenwood is also showing an evacuation sign, that is lit by an OLED, and is also a speakers for emergency announcements.

Kenwood OLED evacuation sign

The Samsung S8300 "Tocco Ultra" is now available in the UK. Contracts can go as low as 20GBP (around 30$). The S8300 is a 3G slider phone with a 2.8" touchscreen AMOLED, 8Mp camera, A-GPS, FM radio and a microSDHC slot.

Samsung S8300 Tocco Ultra

The S8300 is also available on Amazon (in the US it is called S8300 Ultra Touch), for around 500$ unlocked.