OLEDs: Displaying the Future
In the year 2020, Jerry the average American worker, yawns and wakes up to a dark room as his alarm goes off. Sitting up in bed, he hits a switch on the wall by his bed adjusting the opacity of his windows, to let in more light. As he walks to the bathroom, he taps the wall causing it to start to glow and light up the room as he gets ready to go to work.
As Jerry tries to prepare his morning breakfast before he leaves, he opens the refrigerator to find the label on the milk carton flashing, signaling that it has expired. He sits eating his milk-less breakfast, watching the character on his cereal box wave to him, and decides to check the morning news. Jerry unfolds his newspaper, a large transparent display folded into quarters much like an old-fashioned paper newspaper. The morning news streams across the display, and an article catches his interest. He taps the headline and the article quickly expands to full size. Five minutes later, it’s time to go, so he quickly powers down the display and folds it back up, tossing it casually into his briefcase.
As Jerry is driving to work, a small message pops up in his windshield-display, warning him about a traffic jam and offering a possible alternate route. Jerry accepts, and his gps reroutes him by changing the lit path he is following on his windshield. Jerry follows the route suggested by the map and successfully avoids the traffic jam arriving to work on time. At work, Jerry goes into his office and turns on his desk displays. His virtual inbox is full, but it’s time for a meeting, so with a flick of his wrist he slides his mail program aside onto a wall display to deal with later. During a meeting, Jerry finds his attention wandering, so he takes out a pen and unravels a transparent display from the side of it, and checks his e-mail under the pretense of taking a few notes.
Later that day, when work is finally over and Jerry heads home. Upon arrival, he goes to his living room, and taps a panel on the wall, turning the living room windows opaque once again so he can enjoy a movie on his TV wall.
So what’s all this? A work of science fiction, a flight of fancy? Not quite. All the technological wonders utilized by Jerry are within the realm of possibility. The key? OLEDs.
What’s an OLED?
OLED stands for organic light emitting diodes. A diode is a solid state device, which is simple a piece of hardware that contains no moving parts and is largely made up of circuitry. A diode is a semi-conductor device that only allows electricity to flow in one direction. Thus, as the name OLED implies, OLEDs are diodes that utilize a thin film of organic molecules to create light. The intensity of the light depends on the amount of electricity supplied, and the color of the light depends on the type of organic molecule used in the film.
OLEDs and Displays
The most publicized application of OLED technology is in displays. OLED displays have many advantages over LCD displays. The displays have higher contrast, lower power consumption (up to 40% right now), and, when the manufacturing technology has been fully developed, will be easier to produce than LCD displays. Using OLEDs in displays will enable the production of thinner and even flexible displays in the near future.
Thin Displays
Unlike LCD displays, OLED displays do not need a backlight, which is why they can be made much thinner. Thin OLED displays in production today are small compared to the LCD displays available. When OLED display technology becomes mature and cost-effective, it will not be difficult to imagine a home where walls can be used as interactive displays.
