According to the NewScientist, full-colour photonic crystal displays could be on the market within two years. A team of Canadian researchers have developed a reflective display based on silica microspheres which can produce the whole visible spectrum without the need for colour filters.
The researchers stretch the crystals by bonding them to an electroactive polymer that expands when a voltage is applied to it, causing a change in the crystal structure. “By gradually increasing the voltage, we can span the whole visible spectrum, and even the UV and IR ranges. Such full-colour tuning is unprecedented,” says Arsenault, who has co-founded a start-up company called Opalux to commercialise the technology.
The crystals could be used to make full-colour flexible electronic paper, small displays, and large roadside billboards, say the researchers. But this will involve scaling up the process, a task that has proven challenging for other display technologies.
[Update:]
The Opalux web page has a few more details on the P-Ink (photonic ink) display technology:
The materials are based on highly reflective synthetic opal. Colors produced are brilliant and pure. Other features:
1. Full color display from single material for low materials and production cost.
2. Meet signage needs in size from shelf edge to highway billboards.
3. High brightness, peak reflectivity up to 95%.
4. Low power consumption.
Low voltage and current during switching.
Minimal power consumption when image is static.
5. Sub-second switching speed.
6. Heat management through controllable IR reflectivity.
7. Applicable on rigid or flexible substrates.
8. Lightweight, rugged, durable, and damage tolerant.
9. Costs scales only linearly with size.
Sumitomo Chemical Company (Sumitomo Chemical) and Cambridge Display Technology (NASDAQ: OLED) (CDT) today jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement whereby Sumitomo Chemical will acquire CDT, a developer of technologies based on polymer organic light emitting diodes (P-OLEDs). Under the merger agreement, Sumitomo Chemical will acquire all outstanding shares of CDT common stock at a price of $12 per share in cash, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $285 million. The merger consideration represents a 107 percent premium over CDT’s 90-day average closing share price and a 95 percent premium over CDT’s closing share price of $6.15 on July 30.
The NewScientist is reporting on colloidal photonic crystals consisting of dispersions of magnetic iron oxide particles with a charged surface coating, developed by Yadong Yin and colleagues at the Department of Chemistry at University of California, Riverside.
The charged particles repel each other but their packing can be influenced by applying a magnetic field. Tuning the spacing of the particles in the colloidal crystal, by varying the magnetic field strength, changes the wavelength of the reflected light.
The crystal reflects brilliant colours from red to violet as the magnetic field strength increases (see image, right). But, when the field is switched off, the crystal reverts back to its original brownish colour.
“This is the first report of a photonic crystal that is fully tuneable in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum,” says Yin.
“We see applications in various areas, including sensors, optical switches and flexible colour displays,” he told New Scientist. “For example, the system can be used to make extra-large displays or posters to replace expensive LCD monitors. And, because the colour is based on reflection, it is better for outdoor applications than current LCD displays that perform poorly in direct sunlight.”
According to DigiTimes, Chi Mei EL Corporation (CMEL), a Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) subsidiary,
started [to] volume produce active-matrix (AM) OLED (organic light-emitting diode) panels in May, with monthly capacity able to reach 500,000 2-inch equivalent panels at present.
Zhe-yang Chen, president of CMEL, said the company has begun shipping 2-inch AM OLED panels to China- and Japan-based customers and end products adopting CMEL’s panels will hit the market in July at soonest. […]
The company now sees related yields at 60%, which will be improved to 80% by year-end, said Chen. Achieving high yields in the AM OLED industry is not easy; even leading makers such as Samsung SDI only targets yields at 60-70% initially, he pointed out. […]
Prices for an AM OLED panels now are still 1.8 times higher than those for the same-size TFT LCD panels. The company expects to see the price gap between the two segments narrow to 1.5 times in the future, according to Chen.
The 2.5-inch prototype display supports 16.8 million colors at a 120 x 160 pixel resolution (80 ppi, .318-mm pixel pitch), is 0.3 mm thick and weighs 1.5 grams without the driver.
The prototype, as well as technical details were presented at the SID conferernce. Apparently the display is driven by pentacene TFTs with a mobility of 0.1 cm2/Vs.
Each subpixel (red, green or blue)is driven by a two-transistor, one-capacitor PMOS voltage programming circuit. The display operates at a frame rate of 60 Hz with a signal voltage of 12 V.
Sony uses a top-emission structure for its OLED displays, meaning they have driving transistors on the bottom and emit light from a top OLED layer. […] The structure reportedly allowed the engineers to fabricate the electrodes before fabricating the organic TFT layer, without damaging the semiconductor layer.
The latter is achieved by depositing the pentacene on a patterned, negatively-sloped layer acting as a “built-in shadow mask”.
E Ink announced the launch of a faster a brighter version of its electrophoretic display medium:
Previous Generation Imaging Film
Vizplex Imaging Film
Typical Switch Speed
1200 ms
740 ms
Peak Switch Speed (monochrome)
500 ms
260 ms
Brightness (typical reflectance)
32-35%
40%
Supported Grayscale Levels
4 levels (2-bit)
8 levels (3-bit)
Further:
E Ink and PrimeView International (PVI), the pioneer and currently the world’s sole active matrix EPD maker, jointly announced TFT modules built with Vizplex, in an expanded size range that includes 1.9″, 5″, 6″, 8″ and 9.7″ diagonal displays available this summer.
[…]
E Ink also announced the sampling availability of the MetronomeTM Display Controller, which adds new functions at a lower cost.
[…]
Active Matrix Prototype Kits
To accelerate customers’ evaluation and product development, E Ink will offer EPD prototyping kits in more sizes and with both Metronome and Apollo display controller options.
According to Reuters, Sony are planning to be the first to bring OLED TVs to the Market later this year.
At a display forum in Tokyo, customers, suppliers, and even rival TV makers turned their backs on 50-inch and bigger TVs to throng before Sony’s tiny 11-inch OLED TVs.
“LCD and plasma displays look faded in comparison,” said a Denso Corp. employee who declined to be named, fighting to take a picture of the new TVs. […]
The OLED TV to be launched this year will be made by ST Liquid Crystal Display Corp., a joint venture between Sony and Toyota Industries Corp., Sony spokesperson Daiichi Yamafuji said, declining to give unit targets or a likely price. […]
The Nikkei business daily reported earlier that Sony would begin by mass-producing about 1,000 of the 11-inch OLED sets a month?a fraction of its LCD TV business?and would aim to keep its price within a few times that of existing flat TVs. […]
Other companies investing in OLED displays include Seiko Epson, Canon, Samsung and a joint venture between Toshiba and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co..
Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida said on Thursday the company hoped to make larger TV-use OLED panels at the joint venture, Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., by 2009, taking aim at the $35 billion flat TV market, which is currently dominated by LCD and plasma display technology.
Japan’s Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) will commercialize OLED (organic light-emitting diode) panels before the end of fiscal year 2008, according to the company.
Jointly with a research institute, the Japanese vendor plans to develop technology to extend the lifespan of panels by ten times that of conventional products to 10,000 hours, with a brightness at 1,000 cd/m2, the company said.
The maker will start by offering light-emitting sign displays and aims to proceed with development of traffic advertisement applications, DNP noted.
the market for OLEDs used in displays and lighting applications is expected to reach $10.9 billion ($US) by 2012 and grow to $15.5 billion by the year 2014.
The report discusses the use of OLEDs for mobile devices, flexible/rollable displays, and lighting applications.
[via CNET news]
MicroEmissive Displays (makers of P-OLED microdisplays) announced that
the PDG – Personal Display Glasses, the world’s first mobile TV viewing experience employing the MDDI standard, is on display at 3GSM 2007 in Barcelona from 12 – 15th February.
The PDG is the most advanced integrated personal display and mobile phone solution on the market. The PDG has been developed by Mobintech A/S from Denmark and is enabled by ultra-low power P-OLED eyescreenâ„¢ microdisplays from MicroEmissive Displays.
Polymer Vision (Eindhoven, NL) has announced its cooperation with Innos (Southampton, UK) to manufacture rollable displays:
Following 10 years of research, Polymer Vision has spent the past three years processing displays in its own pilot facility in Eindhoven to develop the technology to maturity. Polymer Vision and Innos will together transfer the process technology and finalise qualifications in Southampton, UK, where Innos has already started installing equipment in its newly built cleanroom. In line with their strategy to use mainstream Thin Film Transistor (TFT) equipment, Polymer Vision is confident that they will rapidly scale up to commercial volumes in 2007.
According to their press release, MicroEmissive Displays (MED, Edinburgh, UK)
will start commissioning and qualification of its new production plant in the Fraunhofer IPMS in Dresden early in 2007. The move comes following the on-time handover of the purpose built cleanroom and delivery of the tool set from ANS Korea.
The 350 m2 purpose built cleanroom is state of the art and is located within the substantial facilities of the Fraunhofer IPMS campus. Construction of the cleanroom was completed on time; equipment is in place and installation is already underway. The tool set, delivered from ANS Korea in December, comprises polymer OLED based deposition and thin film
encapsulation equipment for mass production.
it has received a £2m order for its new polymer-OLED eyescreen™ microdisplay. The order, from a manufacturer of consumer products in the Far East, will also be the first to ship from the company’s new manufacturing facility in Dresden.
The order relates to MED’s new eyescreenâ„¢ ME3204 microdisplay. The new device is a compact 6 mm (0.24â€) colour P-OLED QVGA display. The P-OLED technology is emissive and so does not require a backlight; as a result eyescreenâ„¢ ME3204 is ideal for portable applications such as video glasses or head-mounted displays, electronic view finders and night vision systems. The microdisplay can be combined with magnifying optics to produce a large virtual image that appears to the eye to be equivalent in dimensions to the picture on a TV screen or computer display.
In addition eyescreenâ„¢ ME3204 features a digital video interface together with an integrated display driver eliminating the need for additional driver ICs. This design feature saves space and reduces both power consumption and BoM costs.
that it is able to produce thin film encapsulated OLED devices that meet the shelf-life requirements for commercial use. Not only are these displays manufactured on OTB’s in-line mass manufacturing equipment, but also the deposition of the thin film encapsulation has been proven to render the same optical performance as the conventional, more expensive glass-can encapsulated devices. […]
Bas van Rens, CEO of OTB Display, explains: “Our integrated in-line mass manufacturing equipment now routinely produces displays which pass the accelerated shelf life of 504 hrs at 60oC / 90% humidity. In our development program we observe rapid progress and we expect to be able to announce shelf lifes exceeding 1000 hours at 85 oC/ 85% this year”
The two displays, bevels included, were just 5mm thick.
The first display is a compact, 11in model with a native resolution of 1,024 x 600. [..] It uses eight-bit per channel RGB colour and offers a contrast ratio greater than a million-to-one contrast. Its all-white brightness is 200cdm², peaking at more than 600cdm²
The second display is a larger model. With a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080, the 27in, 16:9 panel will be capable of displaying a 1080 HD image. The bigger screen has the same contrast and brightness as the small model, but it can display colurs defined using ten bits per channel.
Both screens are based on what Sony calls its ‘Super Top Emission’ technology.
Philips™ Incubator activity Polymer Vision will become an independent company – Polymer Vision Ltd., focusing on products for the rollable display market. Technology Capital has invested €21 million in the company and will become the major shareholder. Philips will retain a 20% stake in the new company.
The transaction will allow Polymer Vision to push ahead with its commercialization plans to meet strongly growing market demand from the mobile device industry. Volume production of its 5-inch monochrome rollable display will start this year in cooperation with existing partners. The company will continue to operate from its location at the High Tech Campus Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
