US researcher DisplaySearch has produced a roadmap for OLED screens, the new technology expected eventually to sweep aside LCD technology, due to its high contrasts and low power consumption.
OLED stand for Organic Light Emitting Diodes and is effectively millions of separate CRTs lined up next to each other, which are millimetre thin. Active Matrix OLEDs are dominating the market right now (AMOLEDs).
Currently we are seeing OLEDs invade devices like the new Zune MP3 player and some top of the range handsets.
DisplaySearch said ‘While most AMOLED display developers are focused on mobile phones as their initial application, they have plans to move into notebook and TV panels in the future (see figure in pdf version).
The roadmap shows that most OLED devices are about to move from 3.1 inch screens to 4 and even 5 inch screens in the coming two quarters, and then rapidly move to Laptops and some TV sets by the second half of 2010.
Today DisplaySearch says that mainstream sizes are in the range of 1.8 inch to 2.4 inches, that 3.0 inch plus is growing fast, driven by the surge in smart phones and reduced power consumption for multimedia usage. Other technologies being developed include ALS (ambient light sensor), CABC (content-adaptive backlight control) and in-cell touch.
OLEDs are now common in the digital still camera market and are shifting to wide aspect ratios for sharing and for HD formats. The digital phone frame market is also about to go OLED in sizes ranging from 5.6 inches to 10.2 inches. Production is moving to 5th generation, LED backlighting for lower power consumption is increasing, and new driver ICs are being adopted for lower cost. That sub-market right now is dominated by InnoLux, CPT and HannStar, but LG Display is working on mirror functionality, which is an innovative technology for digital photo frames.
In the portable navigation device with screen sizes between 3.5 inches and 7 inches the market is dominated by Samsung, Sharp and AUO. The automotive market is just about to go through a phase of putting circular OLEDS into dashboard gauges, as well.