Jose Fermoso
Gear

Samsung to Preview Large and Ultra-thin OLED Screens at CES

The highly efficient display technology known as OLED, which is currently found in many small portable devices, is now on the verge of growing up. According to a report in Reuters today, Samsung announced the creation of a 31" ultra-thin organic OLED screen that might place it in the mix of the competitive TV hardware […]

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The highly efficient display technology known as OLED, which is currently found in many small portable devices, is now on the verge of growing up. According to a report in Reuters today, Samsung announced the creation of a 31" ultra-thin organic OLED screen that might place it in the mix of the competitive TV hardware landscape and could be available in stores as soon as 2009. The prototype of the TV will be displayed at CES next week, and we'll make sure to get a look at it and post some pictures.

Sony_oled_tv_sc001If you've been following our recent Pre-CES reports, you would have seen that the early lines in the LCD and Plasma battle tend to favor LCD screens because of their falling prices and improving features. However, this doesn't mean that the major LCD supporters are just taking one side: Among the major manufacturers, Samsung is also the leading maker of LCD displays, and Sony recently started to sell 11" OLED TVs (see pic at right), which are among the largest mass-produced OLED screens available. Toshiba, on the other hand, appears to be moving away from OLEDs because of their high-production cost.

For perspective, here are the principles of OLED technology, from The Science of Spectroscopy website:

OledAn OLED or Organic Light-Emitting Diode is a light-emitting device based on the principle of electrophosphorescence. Several types of organic material that will glow red, green and blue are placed between two layers of conductive material and covered with glass or another translucent protective material. When electric current is applied, the conductive layers act as anode (positively charged) and cathode (negatively charged), enabling the flow of energy from the negative layer to the positive layer and stimulating the organic material to emit a bright light.

As a result of this setup, OLEDs generate light organically and are even more efficient and green than LCDs, which are in turn considered more efficient and longer lasting than Plasmas. This is also why OLED
displays, unlike LCDs, do not require a backlight. According to the report, the Samsung OLED prototype takes up about half the electricity of a regular 32-inch LCD.