Competing technologies - Page 28

Sharp is showing new 7" MEMS-Shutter Display prototype at Ceatec 2013. MEMS-Shutter displays are similar to LCD in that they have a LED backlighting unit (BLU), color filters, and a component that blocks the light. But instead of liquid-crystals and polarizers, these displays use MEMS shutters.

A MEMS-Shutter Display is about 6 times more efficient than a regular LCD. This is mostly due to the fact that you do not need a polarizing filter like in LCDs. The displays also use a WRGB structure in which there is a white subpixel which increases brightness and efficiency. The panels on display had a resolution of 800x1,280 (220 PPI). The backplane is an IGZO. Sharp co-developed these panels with Qualcomm.

DisplayMate, the display testing, measurement and calibration experts just got their hands on a pre-release Galaxy Note 3 production unit, with its 5.7" Full-HD Super AMOLED display (386 PPI, PenTile). They put the unit to extensive testing (and also compared it to the Note 2). The conclusion? This is the best performing OLED display ever and it beats LCDs across the board!

The most notable advancement in this new panel is the high brightness. It can achieve 660 cd/m² in high ambient light. It's not just 55% brighter than the Note 2, it's actually the brightest display ever tested at DisplayMate. A very notable achievement for Samsung's OLEDs, which were lagging behind LCDs in brightness.

Yesterday I posted about UCLA's new EPLED device, a highly-flexible elastic polymer light emitting device. At first I thought it was an OLED (they state so several times in the UCLA press release). But it turns out that it is actually a LEC device (a polymer LEC, or PLEC) and not an OLED.

The researchers explain that they chose P-LEC (polymer-LEC) device architecture and not OLED because it's simpler, there's no need for specific electrode work functions for charge injection and it has a straightforward fabrication process, compatible with conventional polymer processing technique.

Nanomarkets released a new report on Quantum dots (Market Opportunities for Quantum Dots in Lighting and Displays) in which they discuss, QD-Enhanced LCDs, light-emitting QDs (QDLEDs) and QD in lighting. They say that QDLEDs may challenge OLEDs in the future as they are more efficient and last longer. Nanomarkets forecasts that in 2018 QD-LED sales will reach $7.3 billion.

The Quantum Dot material market will reach $200 million in 2018 and this will grow to $560 million by 2020. QD-Enhanced LCDs (which are already by sold by Sony) will grow to reach $10.5 billion in retail by 2016. Most companies will license the technology although some big display companies are dong their own R&D.

Update: It turns out that this device is actually a polymer LEC device and not an OLED.

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) developed transparent elastic silver-nanowire based electrodes that enabled them to create a polymer based elastic LEC device that can be repeatedly stretched, folded and twisted (at room temperature) without effecting its shape and lighting properties. They call the new device EPLED (elastomeric polymer light-emitting device) and they managed to fabricate a 5x5 pixel Passive Matrix one:

The EPLED is the whole device, and it include electrodes made from a rubbery polymer with the silver nanowires embedded in it and a polymer LEC. The EPLED can still emit light even when exposed to strains as large as 120% and can survive repeated continuous stretching cycles. The researchers say that their solution-based fabrication process, used to create the prototype above, is scalable.

Last month I posted about the new wave of UHD (4K) TVs. 4K resolution usually means 3840x2160 and offers four times the pixels of FHD (hence the 4K name). In my post I quoted DisplayMate's Raymond Soneira that said a human being can't really tell the difference between 4K and FHD panel in a 55" TV viewed from a normal viewing distance.

LG UHD OLED TV prototype

This sparkled a lively debate. Some people say that 4K images are superb to Full-HD ones. Only today Paul Gray, DisplaySearch's director for EU TV research posted his thoughts on the IFA exhibition - and he says 4K provides a completely new way of viewing and enables immersion even better than 3D.

AUO's president Paul Peng says that large-size OLED panel will not challenge LCD panels in the next few years due to low yields and high costs. In fact, he says that OLED TVs may end up like SED and FED TVs which never really entered the market.

AUO 65-inch AMOLED panel prototype

As far as we know AUO is still struggling with small-size OLED panel production, but Peng claims that the company already produces those panels. In the past few months AUO demonstrated several small OLED panels - a 4.4" 1900x600 (413 PPI) panel,  a 5" Full-HD (443 PPI) AMOLED panel and their newest 5" HD720 AMOLED panels which seem to be closer to production. If Peng is right and the company indeed started production this will be great news. Earlier reports suggested that HTC and Sony are both waiting to integrate AUO's AMOLEDs in the mobile devices.

So the IFA 2013 event is now over - and there has been a lot of interesting OLED TVs on display, so I thought I'd post a short summary post. The most impressive OLED TV was probably LG's 77" curved UHD (4K) WRGB one. I don't think this huge OLED panel will enter production soon, but it was still an impressive feat and it's the world's largest OLED panel ever. LG also showed their new flat-panel Gallery OLED TV.

LG 77-inch curved OLED TV prototype

Samsung also unveiled 4K OLEDs - one curved and one flat. These were smaller at 55", and Samsung says this is just a "proof of concept". Samsung had curved LCDs on display as well, 55" and 65" in size and both offering 4K resolution. Sony also unveiled a curved LCD: the S990A curved LED-backlit LCD. Sony's panel is 65" in size and only offers Full-HD, but it is closer to market (they are accepting pre-orders now for $4,000) and it features the color-enhancing Triluminos display technology (QDVision's Quantum-Dot films).

Apple introduced two new iPhone smartphones: the high end 5s and the "colorful" 5C. Both phones use the same display used in the iPhone5: a 4" 1136x640 (326 ppi) Retina LCD display.

The new iPhone 5s sports a 64-bit A7 CPU, the new M7 chip (monitoring motion data in real-time), LTE, a new image sensor 15% larger than before and a 170-micron-thick fingerprint sensor built into the Home button. The 5C is a plastic polycarbonate colorful phone that basically has the same hardware as the iPhone 5.

A few days ago Sony announced the new PS Vita (PHC-2000, or Vita 2013). This new device uses an LCD display that replaces the OLED used by the original PS Vita. Both screens are 5" 960x544. Now someone took a couple of photos comparing the two devices. Here's on of those photos, the original OLED is on the top:

On this picture it seems as if the OLED is better, but on the other picture it's not so clear.Hopefully we'll get some reviews of the new Vita with a display comparison to the older device. I think it's highly likely that Sony opted for an LCD either to save costs, or simply because Samsung does not have enough capacity to supply them with a relatively large (5") OLED panel at the moment.