US-based Light Polymers announced a new coating material that improves the contrast and readability of OLED displays in bright sunlight. The material is based on the company's lyotropic liquid crystals, and can be coated on substrates such as TAC, acrylic and initially COP. The company also plans to enable reverse dispersion coatings directly on the OLED panel glass.
OLED behave quite poorly in bright ambient light - due to the reflective metal transistors. There are some solutions of course (Samsung's Super AMOLED and Nokia's Clear Black Display technologies are two examples) - and Light Polymers says that their solution is lower-cost, and can be coated directly on the OLED panel - something that cannot be done with other technologies.
Lyotropic liquid crystals are a unique class of materials, pioneered by Light Polymers. The materials come in a water-based solution that offers process flexibility. The coating methods are slot die and microgravure for coatings on substrates and slit coating for coatings on glass. The material does not need a secondary alignment process such as rubbing or photoalignment.
