Flat Panel Displays - The Future OLED, SED, & FLCD

If you have little space or a low ceiling in your home theater, these displays can be just the
ticket. Flat panel displays are typically available in sizes up to 63" diagonal, however there
are a few models larger than 70" but they are very, very expensive. For example, LG
Electronics' large plasma is over $70,000.00 USD. In the consumer areana, Plasmas have
been the display of choice in sizes 42" and over, with LCDs dominating under the 40" size.
Larger displays have been shown at trade shows, with Samsung showing a 102", and
Panasonic a 103" plasma at the 2006 CES. Sony showed an 82" LCD as well.

As funny as it seems now, one day in the near future, plasma displays will be a quaint
reminder of an antiquated technology. Although plasma displays have experienced a
dramatic improvement in image quality and lifespan, they will be supplanted by much
better looking flat panel displays that consume far less power, are thinner and less
expensive to manufacture. This will truly lead to a flat panel display revolution, with flat
panel displays throughout most homes.

The leading candidates to supplant plasma and traditional LCD display technology for flat
panel video displays are Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED), Surface conductor
Electron emitter Display (SED) and Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Display (FLCD). As noted,
these three types of displays offer advantages over the plasma and LCD displays in use
today.

OLED - Organic Light Emitting Diode is an emissive technology, meaning the
display emits its own light. This exciting technology shows incredible promise. One
advantage is that it will be manufactured by actually printing the display onto a
substrate with a special ink jet printer. This type of manufacturing process will
shrink costs dramatically. OLED has some definite advantages over traditional flat
panel technologies. It feels kind of funny already talking about traditional flat panel
technologies. It just highlights the pace of change in the consumer electronics
industry.

As noted, OLED displays will be cheaper to manufacture. They also offer

extremely

fast response time, on the order of 1,000 times faster than a

traditional LCD. They

require far less power to operate, on the order of 25% -

30-% of that required by

an LCD of the same size. They can also be very thin,

about 2 to 3 centimeters, or

roughly 1/3 the thickness of a traditional LCD or

plasma display. Everybody loves a

thin video display. The colors and image

quality on units shown to date have been

extremely impressive. They have

CRT like black levels and very nice, saturated

color. In the near future,

OLEDs

will be able to be produced on a flexible substrate,

allowing the display to be

rolled up for easy transport.

Recent

OLED D

volopments

Samsung showed a 40", wide screen

prototype

ate May of 2005. One of

the last

major hurdles to be worked out now is the life span. The blue polymers

don't quite

have the lifespan of the red and green ones yet, but the blue ones

are rapidly

gaining ground.

In mid 2004, Dutch electronics giant Philips Electronics announced they had built a

high precision ink jet printer for producing OLED flat panel displays. However, in

August of 2005, Philips sold it's OLED research and production facilities to OTB

Display. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Philips retains the key patents

for the technology. The Philips employees devoted to OLED were transferred to

OTB as well for continued R&D. The companies also entered into a joint licensing

agreement for OLED displays.

On December 12th, 2005,

Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) announced two

major milestones in the development of long lifetime, high efficiency light emitting

polymers for full color, video capable OLED displays. The first was a

phosphorescent red device has been produced by CDT and Sumitomo Chemical

which has a lifetime of half a million hours from an initial luminance of 100cd/m(2);

this is a record for lifetime of any colored solution-processable materials, not just

red.

They also had a breakthrough in the lifetime of blue, with a material lifetime of

150,000 hours for a fluorescent blue device

using

a new material developed by

CDT. The pace of progress is staggering. In just a year and a half, the lifetime for

blue material used in OLEDs has tripled. Both materials also demonstrated

improved efficiency and had great color values.

On Jan. 30, 2006,

Universal Display Corporation (UDC) (NASDAQ: PANL),

announced that they had been awarded a significant patent covering ink-jet

printing of phosphorescent OLED displays, US Patent No. 6,982,179, titled

“Structure and Method of Fabricating Organic Devices”. This is a very br

oad patent

and will help Universal Display capitalize on the adoption of OLED as a mass

produced flat panel display

technology

. The patent specifically addresses the

company's

proprietary phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED™) technology. It is yet

another step in

the commercialization of OLED display technology.

SED - Surface conductor Electron emission Display was engineered jointly by
Cannon and Toshiba. They are putting about $1.8 billion (US) into a new plant
outside Tokyo to produce large, flat panel TVs and monitors using the new
technology. SED is notable because it allows a plasma-like, thin form factor
combined with impressive image quality, akin to a CRT device.

It achieves th

e impressive

picture

quality

because it uses basically the same

method to create an image

as the traditional CRT. Unlike a CRT, however, it uses

no large electron gun. The SED exchanges the CRT's electron gun for a system

whereby the phosphors are stimulated with an individual emitter for each pixel. The

emitters are in very close proximity to the pixel, allowing the display to be very thin,

about

2.5

" or so. Like the OLED, it will

bring

lightning fast response times, avoiding

image artifacts created by slower displays. It has the same dark, inky blacks and

rich colors associated with CRT displays. These image attributes have been missed

by so many video enthusiasts since the decline of the CRT.

some of the other

new flat panel technologies, the SED has a much lower power consumption than

plasma or LCD, on the order of a 30% - 50% reduction.

Toshiba plans to introduce a 50" or possibly a 55" SED set in mid 2006. The

Toshiba - Canon joint venture is known as SED Inc. Thier production is

expect

ed to

reach about 3 million units by 2010, according to Fujio Mitarai, CEO of Canon.

There may be some

obstacles

ahead, however In April of 2005 Nano-

Proprietary

Inc. of Austin, Texas filed suit against Canon, claiming Canon violated a licensing

agreement by transferring technology to Toshiba. The case is not scheduled to

actually go to court until

February

2007

! That is quite a ways down the road so

the impact of the suit may not be known for some time.

Both Toshiba and Canon showed the SED at the 2006 CES, with very impressive

results. The units displayed by Toshiba had only a fraction of the contrast and

resolution claimed to be available on production models of SED, but

looked

extremely nice. When this technology actually gets into production, later in 2006, it

will give other displays a real run for their money. Reports are that initially the SED

will be a premium priced product and will probably coexist with other flat panel

technologies in Toshiba's product line.

SED Update

Toshiba and Cannon announced on March 8th, 2006 that volume

production of SED sets would be delayed approximately 18 months, until July or

August of 2007. It blamed the delays on price pressure from LCD and plasma

displays. It has also been floated about that Toshiba wanted to be 100% sure that

yield and quality were up to customer and management expectations.

FLCD - Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Display is a relative of the traditional LCD
display that has become ubiquitous in the 32" and under display market. Traditional
LCD displays are usually of the Super Twisted Nematic (STN) variety. The FLCD
was introduced by Thorn EMI in 1992. The intervening years have seen
development solve initial problems with longevity, temperature sensitivity and
vibration sensitivity.

The FLCD is unique compared to the traditional LCD in that it does not need to

have a voltage continuously applied to a pixel in order to keep it off. With an FLCD,

a voltage is only necessary for the initial switching. This leads to a substantial

power savings, on the order of 75%. Another advantage of FLCD is the very rapid

response time, about 1000 times faster than a standard LCD. The rapid response

is essential to eliminating video anomalies when producing fast moving video

images. They have very wide viewing angles as well, which is quite desirable in a

consumer oriented, large screen display.

FLCDs don't need expensive, active switching electronics, which should reduce

costs for a large display. They

can use simpler, passive matrix switching systems.

Some work has been done on producing time multiplexed, 3D displays using FLCD

technology, and this would require the increased switching speed of an active

matrix design.

Plasma Display Update:
On December 13th, 2005, Five leading consumer electronics manufacturers; Hitachi
Home Electronics, LG Electronics USA, Panasonic Corporation of North America, Pioneer
Electronics (USA) Inc. and Samsung Electronics USA announced the launch of the
Plasma Display Coalition to promote the plasma display technology and counter some of
the myths regarding plasma display technology.

To date these manufacturers have invested over $10 billion into plasma displays and
related technology. They obviously want to recoup as much of that as possible and have
plasma displays as a profit center before a new technology takes over.

Sony, however, has announced they are moving away from the technology. In fact, at the
2006 CES, Sony showed no plasma displays. Instead, Sony showed a new LCD they are
marketing as the BRAVIA. It is available now in sizes up to 40", but was shown in sizes up
to 82" at the CES.