Skip to main content

This inkjet printer could be the key to affordable OLED televisions

The future for OLED televisions just got a whole lot brighter thanks to a new creation by a company called Kateeva. The company has developed an inkjet printer called the Yieldjet, which uses a revolutionary method to produce OLED screens that is much more cost effective, potentially making the most brilliant screens in the industry cheap enough to go into mass production.

Kateeva unveiled its new device yesterday, which is essentially an inkjet printer that lays OLED particles on glass or plastic screens. The device uses three new innovations to create its displays that Kateeva says will allow it to create longer lasting OLED screens at high yield rates.

Recommended Videos

The first key to the Yieldjet’s design as outlined by Kateeva is a pure nitrogen processing chamber that encapsulates the printer, designed to extend the life of the screens up to double the current standard.  Reliability of OLED screens over longer periods is a problem that has plagued the technology since its inception, and one of the many reasons we’ve been seeing OLED on showroom floors and not in living rooms.

The printer also has the ability to lower particle contamination, reducing rogue particles by as much as 10x the current model, according to Kateeva. The company says it learned from semiconductor manufacturers, which employ cleanrooms to create a sterile environment when working with semiconductors and nanotechnology. The practice has resulted in what Kateeva calls “the most aggressive particle performance ever demonstrated by the print industry.”

The final ingredient to the Yieldjet’s secret sauce is advanced techniques in uniformity, which is accomplished through a processing window that is 5x wider than the current standard. Kateeva says the larger processing window allows its new tool to more easily adapt to the mass production environment.

Samsung and LG have been duking it out in the OLED arena for years, but while the technology has been the talk of electronics shows thanks to its dazzling color contrast and rich, deep space black levels, reliability and cost issues have kept OLED TV’s too expensive for the masses. 

The potential for low-cost, mass production OLED displays could have far reaching affects across the technology industry. From the TV on your wall, to the phone in your pocket, OLED could literally change the way you see the world. Kateeva’s new announcement of the Yieldjet may just be the catalyst we’ve all been waiting for to push OLED out from behind the curtain and into the spotlight. And that makes those of us lucky enough to have seen what this remarkable technology can do very excited.

Ryan Waniata
Former Home Theater & Entertainment Editor
Ryan Waniata is a multi-year veteran of the digital media industry, a lover of all things tech, audio, and TV, and a…
Topics
LG’s 2022 OLED televisions start shipping this spring
LG OLED G2 Gallery Edition.

LG today announced pricing and availability for its 2022 line of OLED televisions. That includes four series of 4K sets (we've got info for three of them, anyway), as well two 8K models.

The launches are staggered a bit, and there are plenty of indecipherable model names (they really reelect the size and series) tucked into each group. Here's how everything breaks down:

Read more
Should LG be worried about Samsung’s QD-OLED tech?
Samsung QD-OLED display at CES 2022.

QD-OLED has been making headlines since its introduction at CES 2022. Folks are excited about it, and for good reason. The new technology, made by Samsung Display, takes OLED technology to the next level and is a direct competitor to LG's conventional OLED TV tech, which has monopolized the consumer TV market since its introduction roughly 8 years ago.  So, does LG need to be worried?

The answer is yes, but not right away.

Read more
Samsung Display’s QD-OLED TV first look: Best. Picture. Ever.
Samsung QD-OLED display at CES 2022.

I was beginning to think it was the tech unicorn of CES 2022.: A quantum dot OLED display that, by specs and science alone, had the potential to revolutionize TV picture quality. Then I saw it up close, and I'm here to tell you it is the best-looking image I've ever seen from a screen. And not by an incremental margin, either. I hate the term "game-changer," but it absolutely applies here. I couldn't be more excited for this massive leap forward for TVs in 2022.

How I finally came to see Samsung Display's QD-OLED (important note: This is not a consumer television from Samsung Electronics) is an adventurous tale unto its own, and one best left for another story. Here, I want to focus on what I saw and why I am convinced that this latest adaptation to OLED display technology is the most exciting thing I've seen since the introduction of HDR TVs.

Read more