Competing technologies - Page 44

Smarthouse (responsible for a lot of rumors lately) are claiming that Sony is working on a new 'secret' TV technology. This new tech is not OLED and not LED backed LCD, but rather a 'spin-off technology' that is reportedly easier and cheap to make than current display technology. It is also power efficient. Smarthouse say that this new technology is the reason that Sony decided not to release a new OLED TV.

Smarthouse says that they talked to a Sony insider who told them this. They also base this on an AP interview with a Sony executive a couple of days ago - but personally I think that they mis-read that interview. The executive indeed says that Sony needs their own technology, but he is talking about the ability to make their own TV panels and not buy them from Samsung like they do for LCDs.

It's possible that Sony are indeed upgrading their OLED TV technology, making it suitable for larger panels. They recently stopped their pilot production line, which was loss making, and are supposed to launch a new larger OLED TV soon (the KDL-ZK)

Uni-Pixel are working on MEMS films, to be used in time-multiplexed optical shutter (TMOS) displays, which should be available next year. These displays are 10-times brighter than LCDs, and are also cheaper to make (60% according to Uni-Pixel). They can be fabricated on the same manufacturing lies as LCDs. They use a single-layer of MEMS film, between the top and bottom glass sheets, in the same structure as LCDs (that use 5 layers between the glasses). The films are made using roll-to-roll manufacturing lines, and can be made transparent.

Samsung Electronics is working with Uni-Pixel on the display tech to make 4" TMOS displays. In the future, TMOS can be used to make larger displays. These will feature a faster refresh rate than LCDs.

Alexx Henry's photography studio has made a 'living cover and spread' of the October issue of Outside Magazine. This can only be viewed on-line, but Alexx thinks that some day we'll magazines that can display motion-videos - using technologies such as OLED and E Ink. Here's a short clip that they make, showing the actual cover and spread, and discussing the technology that they use to make these and what they think it can look like in the future:

I'm not sure if OLEDs will ever be used in newspapers - it's more likely that even in the future we'll continue to have e-readers that be loaded with different content. It makes more sense than to use a disposable display...

When the Zune HD launched, there was an interesting blog post on the Apple-Insider site. They wanted to 'smash' five myths on the Zune HD, and one of the Myths is about the OLED display. They claim that OLEDs consumer more power than LCDs, are less bright, do not last long and are bad in direct sunlight. Barry Young from the OLED Association has responsed in his own blog post - basically saying that OLEDs look better, have even longer lifetime than most LCDs and consume less power.

Barry also says that when Steve Jobs first saw an OLED display, he said that's the best looking display he had ever seen. We're all waiting for Apple's first OLED product...

The only truth in the Apple-Insider article is probably about the sunlight visibility. We have discussed this issue before, and Zune HD users are indeed complaining.

The Zune HD has actually got great reviews, and it was sold-out within days of its launch. Some consider it as the first real competitor for the iPod touch, and most people love the OLED display. The Zune HD costs 290$ for the 32Gb version, and 219$ for the 16Gb.

Update: the video has been removed from YouTube...

Here's a nice video showing the Zune HD's OLED (3.3", 480x272 multi-touch AMOLED) vs the iPhone's LCD display. The colors come out better on the OLED, and the overall picture and video quality is better (although it's not easy to see this when viewing it on an LCD, of course).

OLED is an emissive display technology - which means that it emits its own light, in contrast to a reflective display - which uses an external light source - an ePaper display for example, or an LCD which is a display that blocks light from a backlight unit.

OLEDs are bright, and provide great image quality, and as of 2021, these displays perform very well under direct sunlight.

But this was not always the case. In early AMOLED displays, sunlight readability was very poor. The 2008 Nokia N85 for example, one of the first products with AMOLED displays, behaved very poorly in direct sunlight, as can be seen in the image below:

The problem in early AMOLED displays resulted from reflectance from metal electrodes in addition to relatively low brightness. Display makers however, soon upgraded their OLED displays to increase performance. Helped by new technologies and materials, OLED displays quickly overcame the sunlight readability problem. Today OLED displays actually perform better than the best LCDs in direct sunlight.

For more information on OLED display technology click here.

Researchers from China, Singapore and the US has created new inorganic-LED based displays, that are brighter and more versatile than OLEDs, and can also be made flexible and transparent.

The team first created what they call a "sacrificial layer" in the manufacturing process. It's a weak adhesive that holds the LEDs in place while they form, but then it's partially dissolved away by an etching liquid. Next, a rubber stamping device presses down on and grabs hold of a bunch of the crystals. The stamping device picks up the LEDs and deposits them onto flexible sheets of glass, plastic, or rubber, where they are integrated with the conductors and insulators that will allow the lighting array to function. The result is a thin, flexible array that's much brighter than conventional OLED arrays.

Rogers says the material for the inorganic LED arrays, square centimeter by square centimeter, is still more expensive than its organic LED counterparts. But because the inorganic diodes are so much brighter, far fewer are needed to create a display of equivalent brightness--and therefore the cost of the inorganic LED arrays is comparable.

It seems like the rumors about Apple and OLEDs will never die. It seems very likely that Apple will soon launch a new tablet computer, which will also double as a book-reader (which will compete with Amazon's new Kindle DX).

Smarthouse reports that the new tablet will have a 10.6" display, made by LG Display. It will either be an OLED, or a LED-based LCD. Smathouse seems to be running these rumors for a long time now, claiming Apple will have an OLED iPod, or monitor, or netbook... 

There will be an interesting battle here between Amazon and the E Ink based Kindles, vs Apple with their color LCDs or OLED. E Ink displays are much more power efficient, are readable in the sun, and are easy on the eye. But they are slow (cannot display video for example) and of course do not have color. So will people want a dedicated reading device, or will they prefer a general computer that can also be used for reading?

Research and Markets has released a new report on low-power next-generation displays. The report highlights the basic structure of the low power consuming next generation display market and its various sub-segments.

Technologies covered in this report includes electrochromic displays, electrophoretic displays, electrowetting, thermochromic, LED, OLED, Field Emitting Displays (FED) and electroluminescent.

Quantum Dots are getting a lot of attention lately, especially as a new SSL lighting technology. One of the companies that is working on this new tech is QD Vision. Their co-founder and CTO, Seth Coe-Sullivan has agreed to explain the technology, introduce the company, and answer a few questions.

Seth received his Ph.D in electrical engineering from MIT in 2005, writing a thesis on incorporating quantum dots in hybrid organic/inorganic LED structure. That's the technology basis of QD Vision. Seth was chosen as one of the top young entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by BusinessWeek.

QD Vision is a quantum-dot product company that delivers highly differentiated lighting solutions to major industries where color, power and design matter - these include lighting, displays, signage and defense. QD Vision’s Quantum Light™ platform enables step-change advances over other display and lighting solutions such as LCDs, plasma displays, LEDs and even organic LEDs (OLEDs). QD Vision is privately held, based in MA, US, and has several first-tier patents originating at MIT.

Q: Hello Seth, and thanks for agreeing to do this interview. Can you explain your technology? What exactly *are* quantum dots?
Quantum dots are tiny bits of semiconductor crystals with amazing optical properties that are determined not only by their material composition, but their size. QD Vision synthesizes these materials in solution, and formulates them into inks and films that we sell to our customers, enabling step-change performance and cost benefits. Our first products are Quantum Light^TM optics for solid state lighting devices, and our customers offer the most efficient, highest color quality LED lighting solutions on the market today.