Super K Organic Material improves OLED visibility
OLED-T has patented a contrast enhancing layer; initial testing indicates this technology has the potential to remove the expensive polarizing layer in OLED displays with significant improvements in efficiency and cost.OLED-T has developed a new material, the Super K Layer that can be deposited by vacuum evaporation between the electron transport and cathode structure as one additional layer during the production of the device.
This contrast enhancement layer has the potential to reduce strongly the reflections from ambient lighting without significantly affecting the direct light output from the OLED emitter or the efficiency of the electron transport layers. As a result, an OLED device made with the Super K Layer can exhibit a higher efficiency than a device integrating a front polarizer. The Super K Layer has the potential to reduce the reflection by up to 70 per cent with only a 10 per cent reduction in efficiency. In contrast, reflection reduction by external polarizer will reduce the efficiency by 50 per cent. In addition, the technology is expected to deliver a reduction in display thickness by around 0.3mm due to the removal of the external polarizer layer. The new material is currently under evaluation by four display manufacturers to establish if the initial highly encouraging test results can be replicated under mass production conditions.
"We are very encouraged by initial results for the Super K Layer technology" said Myrddin Jones, Chief Executive at OLED-T. "Removing the external polarizer with its poor efficiency and high cost with a more effective internal solution could significantly improve the price/performance ratio of OLED display devices."
If results under manufacturing conditions prove to be successful, the Super K Layer technology will be introduced to the market in 2008.
