LG Display says that it has become the world’s first company to successfully verify the commercial-level performance of blue phosphorescent OLED panels on a mass production line.
That's all a bit of a mouthful, but what it means is this: Eight months ago, LG Display partnered with UDC to develop blue phosphorescence, and now it reckons that mass production is go. This brings us a significant step closer to realizing a 'dream OLED' display.
Dream OLED refers to an OLED panel that achieves phosphorescence for all three primary colors. "OLED panel light emission methods are broadly categorized into fluorescence and phosphorescence," LG Display explains. "Fluorescence is a simpler process in which materials emit light immediately upon receiving electrical energy, but its luminous efficiency is only 25%. In contrast, phosphorescence briefly stores received electrical energy before emitting light. Although it is technically more complex, this method offers luminous efficiency of 100% and uses a quarter as much power as fluorescence."
Given that even blue LEDS are comparatively new compared to the other colors, it's little surprise that blue phosphorescence has remained a major challenge even more than two decades after the commercialization of red and green phosphorescence. Blue has the shortest wavelength and thus demands the greatest energy.
LG Display and UDS have solved this issue by using a hybrid two-stack Tandem OLED structure. This puts blue fluorescence in the lower stack and blue phosphorescence in the upper stack. By combining the stability of fluorescence with the lower power consumption of phosphorescence, it consumes about 15% less power while maintaining a similar level of stability to existing OLED panels.
Critically these panels can be mass produced, and people will be able to see a blue phosphorescent OLED panel featuring two-stack Tandem technology at SID Display Week 2025. This is the world’s largest display event and takes place in San Jose, California from May 11.
Interestingly the first demo will be on a small and medium-sized panel that can be applied to IT devices such as smartphones and tablets.
"As more and more products require high definition and high efficiency such as AI PCs and AR/VR devices, the application of blue phosphorescence technology is expected to expand rapidly," says the company.