OLED Monitors and 3D Display Tech
Flexible Displays and Energy Efficient Computer Monitors
How are OLED monitors and displays manufactured and where will they be used? Is the dream of a roll-up computer screen in our future?
Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) are nothing new, but very few monitors or electronic displays have been released thus far that incorporate the new technology. OLED monitors however hold a great promise in energy conservation and flexibility of application. Other recent articles have talked about the promise of OLED monitors. This article goes into more detail on how these displays are made and what their potential applications are for the future.
How OLED Monitors and Displays Are Made
OLED monitors and displays can be made from several different flexible and inflexible materials. In all cases the individual pixels are sprayed or evaporated directly onto the substrate material. For more information about just how complex this process can be check out an excellent video documentary by Gizmodo.
Desktop OLED monitors often use ordinary glass as the substrate. Flexible or even transparent OLED displays are being manufactured with other, more flexible and transparent polymers. Three layers of the organic compounds are applied to the substrate, one for each color (red, green, and blue).
Some of the largest hurdles to OLED technology are the degradation of the blue pigments used in their manufacture, but advances in the manufacturing process are making OLED's last longer to be on par with conventional LCD or plasma-based displays.
Amazing OLED Display Technologies of the Future
Thanks to the continued development of the OLED industry, the future may be more like the science fiction movies of past decades. In Arnold Schwartzenegger's movie, Total Recall, homeowners were able to turn entire wall surfaces into a giant video displays. This OLED wallpaper idea may not be that difficult to imagine in the coming decades. In the movie Red Planet, martian astronauts use a flexible, roll up video display. Devices such as these are already in development but are several years away from being sold to the public.
For computer users, one of the more interesting applications of OLED technology is the idea of creating 3D video displays. The idea begins with a traditional LCD monitor, over which are sandwiched additional layers of transparent OLED films. When used together, it should be possible to give the perception of depth without the need for 3D glasses or laser optics.
The future is truly bright for OLED displays, monitors, and other emerging technologies. The benefits and flexible applications which they could be used in will change the way we interact with computers and with each other over the coming decades.
