OLEDs for Display Applications
Electronic Device Displays: OLEDs vs. LCD Screens
Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) for applications such as computer monitors; televisions; and screens for tablets, laptops, and handheld electronic devices.
Synopsis:
Organic light emitting diodes (OLED) create light on ultrathin sheets of material without the requirement for a backlight. Early OLED display uses include cellphones, digital camera displays, radio displays, game consoles, and high resolution computer monitors and TV screens. Advantages to OLED technologies include thin, flexible panels that give off virtually no heat when lit, greater brightness, high contrast, fuller viewing angles, truer and a wider variety of colors, a broader operating temperature range, faster response time to refreshing, better power efficiency, and lighter weight.
OLEDs are a potential replacement for LED (light-emitting diode) TV screens and monitors. LEDs work by placing a filter over a backlight source (red/green/blue). Colors that are not wanted for a given pixel are filtered out. In contrast, OLEDs make use of a process called electrophosphoresence to emit light in the presence of an electrical current. They display only the colors needed with no filter (E-Cubed Ventures, 2013). This means they convert more power into light with independent tests showing that OLED televisions consume only 50% to 60% of the power of LED TVs while delivering a higher quality image with a quicker refresh rate (Runde, 2015). OLEDs are thus superior for 3-D viewing technologies.
Early OLED displays had a shorter lifetime when contrasted with LEDs, but currently available products have lifetimes that are comparable to or even better than LEDs. Commercialization of OLED display and flexible lighting sources will be dependent upon costs. About 82% of the total OLED display market is mobile phones due to OLEDs high resolution and low energy requirements that provide for a long battery life. It is projected that costs should reach parity with LEDs when OLED makers develop economies of scale through switching to factories capable of producing larger substrates.
Energy Savings: 40%
Energy Savings Rating: Concept validated:
What's this?
| Level | Status | Description |
| 1 | Concept not validated | Claims of energy savings may not be credible due to lack of documentation or validation by unbiased experts. |
| 2 | Concept validated: | An unbiased expert has validated efficiency concepts through technical review and calculations based on engineering principles. |
| 3 | Limited assessment | An unbiased expert has measured technology characteristics and factors of energy use through one or more tests in typical applications with a clear baseline. |
| 4 | Extensive assessment | Additional testing in relevant applications and environments has increased knowledge of performance across a broad range of products, applications, and system conditions. |
| 5 | Comprehensive analysis | Results of lab and field tests have been used to develop methods for reliable prediction of performance across the range of intended applications. |
| 6 | Approved measure | Protocols for technology application are established and approved. |