In the wake of the mass production and general affordability of plasma and LCD screens, television manufacturers are now looking further afield for innovations which may revolutionize the market.<\/p>\n
One such innovation is OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology, which uses organic compounds sandwiched between two conductive layers to give off light when excited by an electrical current. Colour is produced by applying a number of different textures to the organic layer because different compounds have been found to create different shades.<\/p>\n
Today OLED screens are available in two varieties, namely AMOLED and PMOLED. Passive matrix OLED screens produce a picture by controlling entire rows of pixels and switching them on and off again. In turn the sequence produces an image. Active matrix OLED’s control each individual pixel directly.<\/p>\n
Although PMOLED are cheaper to produce, AMOLED are more reliable and consume less power which makes them ideal for larger screens.<\/p>\n
OLED’s most significant benefit is that it does not require a backlight to function. This makes the screen much thinner and can potentially be twisted to fit contoured surfaces. OLED power consumption is also considerably less than LCD and Plasma devices, these screens are also far lighter in terms of weight.<\/p>\n
Because OLED devices do not require a backlight they can potentially offer a far superior picture. LCD televisions use polarisers which filter the light emitted from the backlight to produce different shades of colour and blacks. As a result this prevents an LCD set from ever displaying ‘true blacks’.<\/p>\n
AMOLED controls each pixel individually turning it off and on when needed and thus producing richer colours, darker blacks and faster response times.<\/p>\n
Despite the positive aspects there are disadvantages to OLED technology. The devices have a shorter lifespan when compared to LCD and Plasma sets, mainly related to the organic compounds within the OLED layer. Current devices can however achieve lifetimes of up to 50 000 hours or more, according to OLED Info.<\/p>\n
The biggest drawback currently is price. Sony’s 11 inch XEL-1 commercial OLED screen retails at $2499.99 (R20 000) in the US. This high pricing should however reduce when the technology begins to mature and reach the mass production state.<\/p>\n
Despite this Andrew Joubert of Sony South Africa believes that this may take some time. “OLED is currently still a concept technology. Commercially, they have been able to get up to 23 inch, but such technology has a price tag of around $8000 (R63760) which makes it non affordable for the average consumer.”<\/p>\n
Currently OLED technology is widely used in a number of mobile phones including the Nokia N86, the Samsung Omnia i8910 HD and multimedia players such Microsoft’s Zune HD. <\/p>\n