Huge OLED TV to be Larger than King Size Bed
The display industry has long teased us with the benefits of OLED (organic light emitting diode) TVs, but have failed to produce a commercially viable model in normal sizes. Mitsubishi has a new OLED technology to show at Integrated Systems Europe 2010 (ISE-2010) that might change that.
The company will showcase a 149-inch (diagonally) OLED display at the ISE-2010 conference this February. This TV is considerably larger than a king-size bed but is made out of smaller panels. These panels have OLED pixels edge-to-edge and can be fit together to create a seamless display that is much larger.
OLED technology uses a special kind of pixel that functions similar to those seen in LED TVs, but gives greater color reproduction, better contrast and consumes much less energy than current TV technology. The problem preventing it from coming to market has been price. Production costs have made it difficult to make an OLED TV in sizes large enough for consumers.
Mitsubishi's new take on the OLED problem has been to break up the screen into smaller sections (10 x 10cm squares) that can then be fit together edge-to-edge to create a much larger display. The economy of scale for producing smaller panels that fit together makes it possible to create an OLED screen that's cheaper than other OLED manufacturing methods. The method of patching panels together also means the TV doesn't have to be rectangular. It's possible to make the edges of the device curved or wavy.
Currently, most TV manufacturers don't produce TVs much larger than 60-inches, though there have been commercial TVs in excess of 100-inches. Commercial OLED TVs are much smaller. The Sony XEL-1 was the only OLED TV available for purchase for quite some time, and it was only 11-inches and still more expensive than 55-inch LCD TVS. LG announced last year intentions to make the world's largest commercial OLED TV: It will be 15-inches.
The Mitsubishi model to be shown at ISE-2010 is not a production model, so don't expect to see it for sale. But it could herald a new breakthrough in the way OLED TVs are made, which means bigger OLED TVs could be hitting shelves soon.
