The market for organic LED panels continues to grow, for small panels in mobile phones and similar devices, as well as in lighting. The trend is accelerating as the possibilities for large OLED panels open up, and a new market for 20-inch and larger OLED TVs may emerge in 2010 or beyond. Development of technologies for larger screens at lower cost is surging ahead. This article probes the shape of the next generation of flat screen TVs.
The OLED panel boasts phenomenal performance, including displays that surpass those of CRT, superlative blacks, and ultra-thin bodies only a few millimeters thick. They have been called the ultimate display panel for flat screen TVs. Sony Corp. became the first in the world to volume-produce an 11-inch OLED TV in October 2007, but the technology never took off. At the time, television manufacturers like Toshiba Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced plans to volume-produce OLED TVs, but as of the end of 2009, at least, neither company shows any signs of shipping.
Development in large-size OLED panels has seemed stagnant for some time, but all of a sudden it has picked up speed again.
One of the most active firms is the LG Group: LG Electronics, Inc. announced a 15-inch OLED TV in August 2009, releasing it to the Korean market in December of the same year for three million won.
The OLED panel was manufactured by LG Display Co., Ltd., another group firm, and delivers a peak brightness of 450cd/m2, a contrast ratio of at least 100,000:1 and a color reproducibility range of 98% of the NTSC standard. The TFT drive device uses poly-silicon crystallized in a high-temperature process known as solid-phase crystallization (SPC). Each of the red, green, and blue OLED-emitting films is created by vacuum-depositing material via a shadow mask. A cavity structure (multiple reflection interference) is used to expand the range of color reproducibility.
LG Display is already working on a small OLED panel for mobile phones. The company announced plans to ramp up a new OLED panel manufacturing line in the first quarter of 2010, and has continues to boost production scale. In June 2009 it entered into a tie-up with Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd., securing OLED material supplies, and in December 2009 it announced the acquisition of the OLED business of OLED panel pioneer Eastman Kodak Co.: LG Display is clearly strengthening its R&D capabilities.
Building on this foundation, LG Display announced it would volume-produce 20-inch class large-size OLED panels in 2010, 30-inch class in 2011, and 40-inch class in 2012. Vice President Won Kim, in charge of OLED Sales & Marketing at the firm, is confident: "They may be expensive, but it will be possible to buy a 40-inch class OLED TV in 2012."
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