Big-screen OLED TVs made possible

Breakthrough technology from Seiko Epson will allow for big-screen televisions with organic light-emitting diode screens, the company announced.

OLED screens are sought after for being lightweight and more energy-efficient than LED screens. That’s because the electrodes glow when electricity is applied (hence the name) and therefore don’t require backlighting.

The problem is, the most widely used current technology, called Vacuum Thermal Evaporation, isn’t practical for creating uniform layers of diodes over a large conductive surface. Epson said it has developed inkjet technology for the uniform deposit of organic material in TV screens.

The underlying technology of "Polymer Light-Emitting Diodes" isn’t new, but it appears that Epson has found a way to apply the technique to big screens in a way that’s suitable for mass production. The result will be high-definition OLED displays of 37 inches and larger.

Seiko Epson isn’t saying how long it will take for this technology to reach the market. A 14-inch prototype — with a resolution equivalent to that of a 37-inch screen — will be on display next week at the Society for Information Display’s international symposium in San Antonio, Texas.

This development fits nicely with other advances we’ve seen in OLED technology. With other companies developing cheaper and longer-lasting methods, it shouldn’t be long before predictions of an OLED takeover come to fruition.