OLED import commercialization impact consumer electronics field

Sony and Samsung are committed to organic LED (OLED) display into more commercial consumer applications. Sony aims at the TV, while Samsung Corp is locked in portable devices.

Sony is about to launch in December of this year, the first to launch a OLED panel with 11 inches of ultra-thin flat TV; the product is said to be the first to use OLED technology tv. In the current $82 billion market dominated by LCD and plasma, OLED will strive for a place.

At the same time, Samsung SDI, and announced that the company will use Clairvoyante's PenTile sub pixel imaging technology (subpixEL), plans to create the world's first 3 inch WVGA (480 x 800) (AM) OLED active matrix panel.

Sony OLED TV will be a major breakthrough in commercial products. OLED technology has the characteristics of high efficiency, thin size and light weight and the like, and to provide a clear picture, Sony said, this technique is quite suitable for playing sports and action movies such as fast moving images.

"I hope that the world's first OLED TV Sony represents the outstanding technical ability of the recovery; and that it has become a banner leading the Sony events. Nakahachi Ryoji, President of Sony (Ryoji Chubachi) at a press conference in Tokyo headquarters so expect.

However, size is still a limitation of OLED technology.

"It looks more like a technical lead, rather than a real impact on the TV market," said Paul, vice president of market research firm iSuppli display technology, Semenza. Semenza said that when Sony was on display at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) at the beginning of the year, the OLED prototype was a sensation! But in 2007, 11 inches is not a TV, it is more like a mobile device. "

Sony is now the world's second largest LCD TV maker, second only to Samsung Electronics, the company estimates that the price of this $11 OLED TV is about $1700, which is equivalent to some of its own Sony 40 inches LCD retail price.

The large OLED panel is extremely difficult to manufacture, which limits the prospect of OLED as the next generation TV universal display. The LCD panel is currently dominant, and the LCD and plasma prototype panel size shown on TV makers is much larger than the size of the current OLED. LCD TV manufacturers are from the previous market accounted for the mainstream 30 inch TV upgrade, launched a 40 inch TV products, and even Matsushita can provide a 103 inch plasma tv.

"I don't think OLED TV will soon replace LCD TV. But I think this is a promising technology, it will be in the following LCD TV to become the protagonist, "executive vice president of Sony Ihara Katsumi (Katsumi Ihara) told the media at a press conference in Tokyo.

Ihara said that the Sony price of $1700 and did not consider the profit, which may mean that Sony is willing to bear the cost of the sale of each TV caused, at least at the beginning of the sample. The TV will be on sale in Japan in December 1st.

Value for money?

The OLED TV service life of about 30 thousand hours, which is about half of the life of Sony LCD TV company, but by watching TV for 8 hours a day to calculate, enough to see for 10 years, Sony said. Relative to the Sony company plans to reach 10 million units in March next year, the average annual sales of LCD TV, the company will only OLED TV monthly production limit of 2000 units.

"The price is clearly a problem, from $1700 for a 11 inch OLED TV is still unable to gain this point of view, it shows that the OLED in terms of cost competitive there is still a long way to go," said iSuppli Semenza. He pointed out that if 30 thousand hours of life cycle refers to the user began to feel the brightness and color shift, then its life is not short. However, he said, Sony may be cited as the overall life expectancy, which will mean that users will be 10 thousand to 20 thousand hours, will feel the image changes, then such indicators are not so satisfactory. "

"AM OLED is facing the biggest limitation is the production process is not yet mature, as well as the overall extremely limited manufacturing capacity," Semenza. In contrast, the LCD industry has a number of six generation, the seven generation and (shortly after) the production line of the eight generation, each production line can produce millions of pieces of the 30, 40 and 50 inches LCD TV panel. While engaged in the production of AM OLED only a handful of leading manufacturers and few few fourth generation production lines. These lines may have an impact on mobile phones and PMP, but will not affect the production of television, Semenza pointed out.

Samsung's wise choice

By working with another giant OLED company in the field of Clairvoyante, Samsung Corp hopes to overcome the challenges faced by high resolution OLED panel performance and manufacturing.

Samsung Corp integrated Clairvoyante PenTile RGB technology, intends to develop the first handheld WVGA RGB OLED panel. Up to now, the market can be used for portable computers and mobile devices OLED display, are only supported to QVGA (240 x 320) format. PenTile is by eliminating 1/3 sub pixel, and the realization of the WVGA (480 x 800) level of performance, and maintain the same display resolution.

Samsung is expected to form a strong demand for OLED technology, it has recently expanded investment capacity. DisplaySearch, an industry research firm, expects the AM OLED market to grow from $220 million 500 thousand in 2007 to $5 billion 580 million in 2011