OLED Screens: Yet Another Technology Revolution

Yesterday I wrote about a revolutionary new technology that is going to make a dinosaur out of Edison's light bulb. That technology is called OLED, short for organic light-emitting diode. Not only will it change the way we light up our lives but also the way we watch TV and interface with our computers. Today I'd like to conclude our discussion of this marvelous new technology by looking at how OLEDs will revolutionize screen technology and the companies that are working to make this so.

What's so exciting about OLED screens?
Computer and TV screens based on OLED technology offer many advantages over today's flat-panel LCD (liquid crystal display) and plasma technologies, including the following:

1. Lower power consumption, making them a better choice in portable devices where energy efficiency is at a premium. Also, many countries and a few states including California either have or are considering banning large plasma screen TVs because they're such power hogs.

2. Faster refresh rate and higher picture contrast.

3. Greater brightness and a wider viewing angle.

4. Greater durability with the ability to operate over a broader temperature range.

5. Thin, light weight, flexible and even transparent which will make for exciting new displays. (The Sony (SNE) flex-screen prototype is shown in the photo at the top.)

It's the last feature that's generating the most buzz. Imagine a widescreen TV that you can roll up, tuck under your arm, and unfurl anywhere—how cool is that? This is why there's so many entities interested in developing this technology as quickly as possible.

Of course, there are obstacles that must be resolved first. As I mentioned yesterday, OLED technology is already being used in small-screen devices such as cell phones, digital cameras, and PDAs. Problems arise in translating the technology to larger screens. One of the main challenges is display lifetime especially with the color blue, but with the number of players all racing to develop this technology, industry experts feel that these problems will be conquered within a few of years.

The major OLED players
Governments, universities, and industry have come together around the world to fund joint research ventures into this promising and potentially vastly lucrative technology. In yesterday's article, I mentioned General Electric (GE) being at the forefront of developing OLED-based lighting. Also in that field is Energy Conversion (ENER) and Universal Display (PANL). (I forgot to mention Philips (PHG). See below for more info.)*

















The major industry players in OLED screen development are the usual suspects: Sony (SNE), Panasonic (PC), LG Display (LPL), Samsung (SSLF.PK), and Toshiba (TOSBF.PK) (these last two trade as bulletin board stocks in the US). Sony was the first company to bring a larger screen TV to market, the 11” XEL-1. The super-thin TV (shown above) was introduced late in 2007 at a price of $2500. A 27” model is in the works with plans to be introduced sometime in 2009, according to Sony CEO Howard Stringer.

Samsung has sent out mixed messages regarding its release of wide screen OLED TVs. First the company said February that they are committed to OLED technology giving a 2009 release date for OLED TVs and laptops and a 2010 time frame for the release of flexible OLEDs. Yet, a month later the VP in charge of Flat Panel Development said that the public shouldn't expect any OLED TVs from them anytime soon. Nobody is sure what happened—whether the company is getting its wires crossed or that it's reconsidering its commitment to OLED TVs. There's a good case for the latter scenario as advances in LCD technology has significantly lowered power consumption and they're much cheaper to make.

Toshiba has also put development of large-screen OLED TVs on hold citing high manufacturing costs. On the flip side, LG unveiled a 15” OLED TV at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in January. They're hoping to get it to market sometime this summer. No pricing structure has been set as yet.

A brief glance at the charts
The non-bulletin board stocks--Sony, Panasonic, and LG--are all trading off multi-year lows. LG's chart is the most compelling. It's trading near $12, double the price of its November low. Volume has been heavier than normal and Friday it broke out of its base.

Summary
There seems to be an exciting and profitable future in store for OLED-base technologies, especially in lighting. Right now there are a lot of technological and cost impediments to widespread production of OLED computers and TVs, but I do believe that day will come. And I hope it's soon because I sure hate lugging my heavy laptop everywhere!

*One company I neglected to mention yesterday (because I just discovered it today) is Philips Electronics which is also racing to develop its own line of OLED lighting panels under the Lumiblade name. It plans to offer architects and lighting designers OLED starter kits to introduce them to this technology. Sounds like an excellent marketing plan. Philips stock has been stuck in the $15 - $20 range, trading well off its recent high of $45. A convincing break above $20 would be a good entry point.

Comments

[GoldMoney:]

Samsung and Sony are by far the quality leaders in LCD. Samsung seems to have a price and selection advantage over Sony (in LCD TVs), but Sony was obviously first to market with an (admittedly small) OLED TV. I wouldn't touch GE no matter what. The others are decent, but not great.

It is so nice to read about something that is not financial-markets-cras... Thank you!

Apr 05 01:32 AM

[Ron Mertens:]

More info on OLEDs can be found here:

www.oled-info.com

Ron

Apr 05 03:57 AM

[ECONOMICS 101:]

Great, this is coming just as I bought two 42" LED's last week.

Apr 05 09:40 AM

[zapman59:]

LED grow lights made by Grow Master in Reno Nevada are leading the way we use lighting for greenhouse, aquatic and lab work. These are very intense lights, low wattage, long life and safe low voltage and they are manufactured locally.

Apr 05 10:07 AM

[La Marque:]

Everything she says is correct; but, until the costs come down to being near competitive, OLEDs are just pie-in-the-sky.

Johnathan Vrozos: 42" OLED tvs would probably cost about $10,000 apiece today.

Apr 05 11:13 AM

[Ergo:]

Super cool tech. OLEDs are the future. The tech of making these things is fairly complicated, so it will take a while to efficiently make large screens. But it's all just tweaking the engineering to see what works, so it will happen.

Apr 05 09:42 PM

[Moon Kil Woong:]

OLED is a very old technology. I covered it in 2000. The biggest issue is longevity. It used to also be that the blue light patent technology was overly expensive thanks to super high patent costs. Apparently the patent holder wasn't interested in letting this technology flourish at the time.

Anyway, other technologies passed it by for most applications making it's name more like O-shucks.

Apr 23 04:58 AM

[DUP:]

A 42" LED sure needs a large fixture to use it in how many lumens/watt does it do? LED tv is using LED for backligting correct? It's still an LCD panel for display correct? it's now about less than a 10 year technology cycle sumptin' new all teh time better, cheaper brighter. Remeber when Plasma (obsolete) was introduced as flat tv $15K they now are well under that ain't they and have become much better. Though LCD is teh way to go, many improvements, less power, lighter etc. Plasma is fini'. Old technology in 5 years OLED is gonna be it, PHILIPS has lotsa technology in this area, Sony makes nothing, it's a copy machine, they never did invent anything. It's a marketing company. Stick to technology makers, not copy machines. OLED lights are already out by Philips, of course first is pricey, then it drops.


On Apr 05 09:40 AM Johnathan Vrozos wrote:

> Great, this is coming just as I bought two 42" LED's last week.

May 25 09:20 AM