OLED, or Organic Light-Emitting Diodes, are becoming part of the newest of technology applications for displays. This challenging industrial science is being perfected in laboratories all over the world, and the race is on to make this new high tech knowledge a part of the electronics market.
Organic light-emitting diodes are unlike their more mechanical cousins, the LED (light-emitting diode) or LCD (liquid crystal display). The organic light emission is a specially designed compound, modeled after natural light-emitting biochemistries such as fireflies or plankton. Scientists and biologists could not exactly replicate the light emitting behavior of the natural compounds, so they had to synthesize their own.
The special compounds mix with a polymer, which has light emitting behavior of its own, and then electricity passes through them. This excites the molecules to emit light. Different configurations of the molecules emit different wavelengths of light when subjected to various voltages. This is oversimplifying to a very high degree, but an overall picture is all that is required.
There are many advantageous factors that make an OLED display such a great piece of equipment:
BY ITS OWN LIGHT
OLEDs emit their own light. This gives, say a flat panel computer display, no need for a backlight, which are in LCD displays. This means less power consumption. After applying the organics to a board, you can get all the colors of the visual spectrum in the display, all emitted from each molecule. This gives a depth and resolution that is getting larger and larger as the technology advances.
COST EFFECTIVE
Because OLEDs can be printed using inkjet or even silk-screening printing technology, on any suitable substrate, this drives the price down in comparison to LCD's. LED and LCD displays use much more power than OLED displays. No backlight means less power, which means less power consumption.
NATURE FRIENDLY
This is definitely a green product. Another factor is its recyclability. The polymers used can be recycled using today's methods and reused to make more displays. Manufacturers are betting on this technology as the "eco-friendly" product of the next decade.
CONVENIENCE
Thinness is also a factor. Organic LED's can be as thin as you need, and manufacturers are currently looking into roll-up, or flexible display products. Can you imagine: A display you can fold and put in your pocket, only to retrieve and unfold to a whopping twenty-four inch square? You could hang it on the wall or drape it across a table. The applications are limitless.
OLED display advantages are clear: Price, economy, ecology, and versatility. As the technology progresses, the resolution will become more and more clearer, and soon it will be beyond anything we have today. The future is now; the future is OLED.
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