After an expected launch of OLED TVs with micro lenses in 2023, phosphorescent blue could markedly improve efficiency in OLED TVs in 2024-2025.

OLED emission can be divided into two types; fluorescence and phosphorescence. Red and green OLEDs in displays have already transitioned to phosphorescence (PHOLED) which has up to 100% internal luminous efficiency. Blue OLED is still a fluorescent which has around 25% internal efficiency.

The industry has for years been researching switching blue OLED to phosphorescence as it can markedly increase efficiency to enable higher brightness at the same energy level or similar brightness at a reduced energy level – or something in-between.

The leading OLED material company Universal Display (UDC), which is a supplier to BOE, LG Display and Samsung Display, announced at the Global Material Parts Equipment Tech Fair that it expects to meet the target specification this year and commercialize phosphorescent blue in 2024.

- "UDC expects to meet the target specifications for phosphorescent blue by the end of the year," said Mike Hack, Vice President of Universal Display, according to Korean newspaper ETNews.

It is unclear if commercialization of blue PHOLED in 2024 will happen in time for the 2024 OLED TVs that typically launch in the spring.

Samsung Display's QD-OLED display, for example, uses blue OLED as the base for all three primary colors. Red and green primaries are created with the help of quantum dot color converters.

Before blue PHOLED arrives, micro lenses applied to existing OLED TV panels might deliver a 20% improvement in brightness in LG Display's WOLED to around 1200 nits. This could happen in 2023.


Plasmonic for longer lifespan
One issue is that, historically, the average lifespan of blue PHOLED has been significantly shorter than that of red and green PHOLED.

At the conference, Universal Display said that it is researching plasmonic technology to further improve things.

- "Using plasmonic OLED technology, phosphorescent OLED efficiency and lifespan can be evolved to the next level," said Mike Hack.

- Source: ETNews