Is OLED Already Dead?

The TV Market in 2010

Today, LCD keeps becoming more refined. Recently, LED-backlit LCDs have become all the rage. Rather than using the fluorescent backlights (CCFLs) that have dominated the LCD TV scene since the termination of rear-projection units, manufacturers have now turned to LED technology in an effort to not only reduce energy consumption, but also increase black-level depth. Unfortunately for the confused consumer, LED-backlit LCDs have become known at some retailers as “LED TVs.” Yikes.

Does all of this mean an end to plasma? Not yet. Many still believe plasma sports the finest picture available, and plasma prices have recently dropped substantially in an effort to keep pace with LCDs. Moreover, most of the perceived disadvantages of LCD (comparatively poor viewing angles, flawed translation of fast motion, etc.) are still with us even today.

Then again, plasma isn’t yet completely free of the long-term burn-in issues or the higher energy costs that have dogged it since its birth. Nor was it a good sign when Pioneer Electronics, one of the world’s foremost proponents of plasma, exited the TV market altogether in 2009. Nevertheless, the truth is that most consumers shopping for a TV today will end up with a better, more energy-efficient, and far less expensive set than they would have even a year ago.

There is, however, room for improvement. But from whence will that improvement come? Might it come from Canon’s SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display), a technology unveiled in the mid-2000s but almost instantly wrapped up in litigation that has only recently ended? What about Laser TV, a concept that debuted at just about the same time as SED and currently pushed by Mitsubishi in its “environmentally friendly” LaserVue line? We have our doubts.

The Promise of OLED TV

Certainly nothing has captured as much interest in recent years as OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode). Not to be confused – though we can’t blame you if you do – with the LED-backlit LCD technology we referenced earlier, OLED is a completely different animal that is, in theory, ridiculously promising.

OLED displays consist of several ultra-thin layers (films) of carbon-based organic polymers sandwiched between two conductors. When electrical current is applied, one layer becomes negatively charged relative to another transparent layer. This process stimulates organic material between the two, and a bright, electroluminescent light is produced.

OLED has a ton of stuff going for it. It doesn’t, for example, require backlighting. A “white” OLED element is white because it glows, and a “black” OLED element is black because it’s simply “off.” LCD, in contrast, doesn’t switch off its light to produce blacks – it temporarily blocks the light it’s already producing. Thusly, OLED screens are far more energy efficient.

For the same reason, OLED produces extremely bright whites and exceedingly black blacks. The whites are so white because the pixels produce light themselves rather than relying on backlighting, and the blacks are so black because they are, as we said earlier, switched off.

The lack of a backlight also makes OLED screens are also far thinner. Indeed, in this age where the slimness of TVs is one of their chief selling points, nothing can compare to OLED. We’re talking just a few millimeters here, not much thicker than a piece of cardboard. Some OLED screens are so thin and so flexible that they can be rolled up like an area rug and so lightweight they can be hung on a wall by one person using a single screw.

If you think OLED sounds too good to be true, you’re not alone. Yet head on down to your local electronics retailer and you’ll see examples of the technology already hard at work in portable devices such as smart phones and personal music players.

Unfortunately, OLED on a larger scale has been much, much rarer. And here’s why.

In late 2007, Sony Electronics announced the first of what would apparently be an oncoming barrage of OLED TVs. It was called the XEL-1, and it soon grabbed more attention than virtually any other TV released this millennium. Images of it, particularly from the side, where its wispy profile seemed so thin as to be almost translucent, swept across the Web as consumers clamored to catch a glimpse.