FPSLabs : OLEDs: What they are and what you need to know

Ever get tired of having to lug around your monitor, but don’t have the cash for a twice as expensive, lower quality LCD? The answer is just around the corner…

OLEDs. What are they? First and foremost, they are acronyms, which stand for Organic Light-Emitting Diodes. Why do you care? Because they are quite possibly the greatest advancement in display technology since the first LCD screen came off of the assembly line. Imagine your best 19” CRT screen. Now think of that same screen, except only an inch deep, and using the tiniest fraction of the power, without losing any quality of color, vibrance, contrast, or reliability. That is what OLED displays will be.

How does it work?

Organic Light-Emitting Diodes are large, carbon-based molecules. They feature certain atoms in the chain of molecules that allows them to absorb energy that is sent through it, such as an electrical current. Once it has this energy absorbed, the molecule goes through a change in its own energy, a change which takes nanoseconds. Then the energy absorbed is once again released, but instead of releasing it as electricity, it is released as light. As long as there’s a steady supply of energy, there will be a steady supply of light coming out of the molecules as it converts it. The wavelength, and therefore, the color of the emission depend on the molecule itself. Therefore, an OLED display requires sets of three separate molecules: A red one, a green one, and a blue one. These sets of three molecules then can create a single pixel. OLED displays then put millions of these pixels onto a bed that provides electrical current. This, combined with some sort of protective screen, leads to a fully-functional OLED display.

OLEDs vs. CRTs

Image Courtesy of Samsung

CRT monitors have two main drawbacks. They are gigantic in comparison to any other display technology in existence, and they suck up tremendous amounts of power. On the flip side, you get an image that’s very precise and crisp. However, you get this same image with OLED displays. The chemistry involved in generating light on a CRT as opposed to making light on an OLED is actually quite similar. Both involve catching electrons and then converting them via a process known as phosphorescence into light. So OLED’s can turn their pixels on and off just as fast as CRTs, providing images that are just as crisp. Additionally, OLED pixels are, in fact, much smaller than CRT pixels, which allow you to fit more onto the screen, allowing for support of wider resolutions, while still maintaining the same crispness. From an image quality standpoint, they’re very comparable, with the edge going to OLEDs. However, OLEDs take the huge lead over CRT for not having ANY of the drawbacks that CRTs are famous for. OLED displays will be just as thin as any flat panel around today, at around 2”. Also, since power is converted to light at nearly 100% efficiency, OLEDs use dramatically less power than CRTs do, who are forced to arc electrons over a cavity of several inches, losing much of them in the process.
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OLEDs vs. LCDs

This match up is an even more lopsided battle than the one against CRTs. As we all know, LCD technology has progressed quite a bit in recent years. However, it still hasn’t reached the quality of an old fashioned CRT display, and, due to technology limitations, it never will. LCD images are very, VERY dull, and require a powerful light behind the screen (called a backlight) to make the images vibrant in any way. This backlight is a large power hog, though obviously not to the extent of a CRT. Also, due to the technology used on LCDs, it takes several milliseconds for a pixel to switch colors or to turn on at all; which is a million times slower than CRTs or OLEDs. OLEDs can generate colors naturally, without a backlight, that are as bright as a CRT. Since there’s no backlight, power use is dramatically cut, resulting in longer lasting laptops with CRT quality displays. It simply isn’t even a competition. OLEDs do everything LCDs do better.

Costs

Of course you’re thinking, yeah, I can get a plasma screen too, but those are ridiculously expensive. Well, this isn’t an issue with OLEDs. Using current manufacturing methods, OLED displays will cost the same as a comparatively sized LCD panel. However, by the time OLEDs will be available for purchase on newegg, there will be a new manufacturing process that will make them one of the least expensive display methods available. Basically, this process involves literally printing a screen of OLEDs with a high resolution, specialized inkjet printer. It is as simple as that. You print off the screen, mount it on its electronic base, add a protective cover, and sell it. Costs for displays made using this method promise to be on par, if not less than, current CRT prices.

Final Words

OLED screens are actually already being made, but only on a small scale. They’re popular among PDAs and MP3 players due to the fact that they use much less power than a typical LCD screen. As far as when you’ll be browsing Newegg.com’s latest OLED display menu, it will probably be a year or so, and about a year after that before prices drop to where they ought to be, once manufacturers have covered their development costs. But it is worth the wait, and you won’t be disappointed when you get yours.

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