Big OLED Screens Back On The Radar Again
OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. It's been touted as an possible future improvement over plasma, LCD and standard LEDs for a while now. Since it doesn't require a backlight to display images, it uses less electricity than its competitors and displays better in sunlight, which makes it a favorite for small handheld screens where battery life is king and OLED's shorter usable life are not a factor. Now panel makers in Taiwan, Korea and Japan are warming up to the idea of OLED again for larger screens, too.
While Hitachi, Canon and Matsushita Electric Industrial yesterday in a press release announced an alliance to strengthen their LCD panel businesses and technologies, the three Japan-based companies have also decided to work on OLED technology together.
Canon aims to accelerate ongoing development of OLED displays by teaming up with Hitachi through Hitachi's wholly-owned subsidiary, Hitachi Displays.
Matsushita said it is planning to construct a next-generation plant at IPS Alpha Technology (IPS Alpha), a joint venture held by companies including Matsushita and Canon. Matsushita sees the new IPS Alpha plant as a possible future base for production of OLED displays, according to the press release.
Seiko Epson announced it has developed an 8-inch OLED panel, according to the company in October. Epson was successful in lengthening the life of the device to more than 50,000 hours, a level appropriate for practical applications, the company claimed.
Increase in interest in OLED was jump-started a bit when Sony announced last October that it was offering an eleven inch wafer-thin OLED television. HotHardware featured that news here.
While Hitachi, Canon and Matsushita Electric Industrial yesterday in a press release announced an alliance to strengthen their LCD panel businesses and technologies, the three Japan-based companies have also decided to work on OLED technology together.
Canon aims to accelerate ongoing development of OLED displays by teaming up with Hitachi through Hitachi's wholly-owned subsidiary, Hitachi Displays.
Matsushita said it is planning to construct a next-generation plant at IPS Alpha Technology (IPS Alpha), a joint venture held by companies including Matsushita and Canon. Matsushita sees the new IPS Alpha plant as a possible future base for production of OLED displays, according to the press release.
Seiko Epson announced it has developed an 8-inch OLED panel, according to the company in October. Epson was successful in lengthening the life of the device to more than 50,000 hours, a level appropriate for practical applications, the company claimed.
Increase in interest in OLED was jump-started a bit when Sony announced last October that it was offering an eleven inch wafer-thin OLED television. HotHardware featured that news here.
