eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
LG Display, a manufacturer of thin-film transistor LCD technology, announced that it has developed what it calls the world’s largest organic LED TV panel, measuring 55 inches and just 5 millimeters thin. The company will showcase the TV at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.
The OLED, a medium that controls pixels, is a departure from LCD panels, which use liquid crystals. The new technology allows LEDs to self-generate light, and features a reaction velocity to electric signals over 1,000 times faster than LCDs.
The panel adopts an oxide TFT technology for backplane, which is different from the low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) type generally used in existing small-sized OLED panels. The oxide TFT type that LG Display uses is similar to the existing TFT process, with the difference lying in replacing amorphous silicon with oxide. Moreover, the oxide TFT type produces identical image quality to high-performance LTPS base panels at reduced investment levels. OLED panels also allow diodes to be turned on or off, which enables lower power consumption than conventional LCD panels.
“Our objective has always been to actively define and lead emerging display technology markets,” said Sang Beom Han, CEO and executive vice president of LG Display. “Although OLED technology is seen as the future of TV display, the technology has been limited to smaller display sizes and by high costs, until now. LG Display’s 55-inch OLED TV panel has overcome these barriers.”
Additionally, LG Display uses white OLED (WOLED), technology, which vertically accumulates red, green and blue diodes. With white color light emitting from the diode, it displays screen information through color layers below the TFT base panel, which LG said leads to a lower error rate, higher productivity and a clearer Ultra Definition screen via the benefits of small pixels. It is also possible to realize identical colors in diverse angles via color information displayed through a thin layer. Lower electricity consumption in Web-browsing environments for smart TVs is another key attribute of WOLED technology.