The future outlook of AMOLED TV/OLEDTV

In order to impact the TV market, AMOLED TVs must be competitively priced with identically sized AMLCD and PDP TVs. In addition, certain milestones must be achieved, such as 40.000 hours of lifetime, a color gamut exceeding 80% of the NTSC standard, a peak luminance higher than 400 nits, a darkroom contrast ratio higher than 5000:1, and no image burn-in after a least 10 days of continous operation.

This issues that must be resolved include the attainment of a TFT threshold-voltage change of less than 0,2 V for the lifetime of the display, the elimination of fine mura, and a brightness uniformity of more than 80%.

To be cost-competitive, AMOLEDS must maintain a production yield comparable to that of AMLCDs, and the TFT backplane should be produced by using a process consisting of four or five photo-masking steps.

With the current pace of innovation and technological development, we anticipate that large-sized AMOLED Tvs will enter the market in about 2-4 years and dominate the TV market in the near future.

DisplaySearch, the worldwide leader in display market research and consulting, reports in its OLED Technology Report that sales of OLED displays are expected to surge 69% to more than $826.5 million in 2008, and then grow by 83% in 2009 and 53% in 2010 as Active Matrix OLED (AMOLED) displays become mainstream. According to DisplaySearch's Senior Advisor and Consultant Barry Young, "2008 will be a break-out year for AMOLED displays as Samsung SDI, LG Display, Sony and CMEL deliver almost 17M displays, which is up over 380% compared to 2007. The displays will be used in products such as mobile phones, digital cameras, digital photo frames, handheld TVs and free standing TVs." Young added, "By 2009, OLED display manufacturers are expected to commence shipments of displays for notebooks and then move rapidly into TVs, building on the success of the Sony XEL-1, arguably the TV with the most vivid and realistic image."