Making OLED displays using age-old inkjet printing (IJP) technology could reduce the cost of manufacturing by up to 35%, new research suggests.
Unlike more common backlit LCDs, OLED displays produce light from the pixels themselves and can produce images with greater dynamic range due to the elimination of “light bleed”.
OLEDs have most commonly been made by heating organic molecules in a vacuum chamber until they evaporate and condense onto a substrate through a fine metal mask (FMM), which ensures that the red, green and blue materials land exactly where they belong.
IJP technology has long been touted as a more efficient way of making the displays, but has languished in small-scale projects and laboratory prototypes until recently, hampered by its somewhat inconsistent output compared to traditional manufacturing techniques.
However, industry research by Omdia suggests that the technology is mature enough to be deployed more broadly and could reduce OLED notebook panel manufacturing...