OLED-TV the next Flat-TV generation?

First appearing in 1999, the OLED display was expected to be the wunderkind of the flat-panel display world, the LCD killer that would quickly take over across a range of applications. Pundits cautioned, however, that it might take OLED technology until 2002 or even 2003 to scale up to 10 inches.

The primary benefit of OLED displays over traditional LCDs is that OLEDs do not require a backlight to function, and consume less power during operation. OLED displays are expected to be more efficiently manufactured than LCDs and plasma displays.

The AMOLED technology have full layers of cathode, organic molecules and anode, the anode layer overlays a thin film transistor (TFT) array that forms a matrix. The TFT array itself is the circuitry that determines which pixels get turned on to form an picture.
The fledgling technology of making ultra-thin displays using organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) is starting to bear fruit finally with Sony, Samsung SDI and other makers introducing new applications.

Sony says that it is going to sell XEL-1 11-inch OLED TVs for the first time in the world this year. Korean firms such as Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDI, LG Electronics, LG.Philips LCD and Neoview Kolon are also investing in the technology, which should replace the current LCD and plasma panels in the long term, becoming the norm for digital displays.

According to DisplaySearch, almost 90 percent of OLEDs shipping are for just two applications: personal media players and cellphones; in the latter, AMOLEDs are commonly the main cellphone display, while passive OLEDs provide the less-demanding subdisplay.

The most common OLED is 2.2- 2.4-inch, with a QVGA (320 x 240pixel) format, although some movement into the 2.8-inch to 3.2-inch realm is evident. CMEL, for example, recently expanded beyond 2.4 inches to release a 262,000-color, 2.8-inch AMOLED. The module shows off the advantages of OLED over LCD: a tiny 2mm profile, an essentially unlimited -90° viewing angle, and a wide -40°C to 85°C operating temperature range.