Researchers developing OLEDs as cheap as newspapers?
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Aug 31st 2009 1:26PM
posted Aug 31st 2009 1:26PM
Sure, it'll probably be a good while before you get your hands on an OLED TV, but don't lose heart, young gadget-head! Techno-wizards at the RIKEN center in Japan have concocted a new way to fashion OLEDs that eschews the standard spin-coated films for something called electrospray-deposited polymer films, incorporating "a novel dual-solvent concept" that makes the 'em "smoother than before, thereby enabling [...] superior devices." We'll skip a few details that don't mean anything to those of us who aren't Advanced Materials subscribers (hit the read link for more info) and get to the good stuff: Yutaka Yamagata, the guy who developed this technique, says it will lead to displays "manufactured as inexpensively as printing newspapers." Is that a promise, Yutaka? If so, we're holding you to it.
[Via OLED-Info]
[Via OLED-Info]
It would certainly be nice to see cheap OLEDs in the future, but my main concern is their ultimate size. Now that LCDs have effectively killed off the RPTV, the maximum screen size we can realistically get in a (non-front-projector) TV is only 60". I sure hope they can make these OLEDs reasonably priced at 70", or preferably higher, because I definitely don't want to have to downgrade from 72" when I'm ready to retire my DLP RPTV.
Room wide screenpanels anyone?
If you'd like to learn more about the science behind the story, you don't have to be an Advanced Materials subscriber----you can access the original paper free at http://ow.ly/nzaw.
Dave Flanagan, Deputy Editor, Advanced Materials
Sorry, broken link in my previous post. You can access the article for free here at http://ow.ly/nBVp .