The market chances for OLED displays are promising. Very soon they will head the display technology. And even flexible film displays which are foldable and rollable at will may soon be reality.
Since the discovery of OLEDs an amazing development could be realized. The first
patterns of the new displays already offer a brightness of 150 candela per square
meter and contrasts above 100:1. Thus, the new technology starts at the level of
present high-value TFT monitors. The initially only weakly glowing layers in
laboratories became bright shining components which achieve luminosities of up to
200.000 candela per square meter - a brightness for which you need sun glasses.
While fixed organic displays slowly enter the market, flexible displays still
cause some problems. They must be encapsuled carefully since light emitting polymers
react sensitive to air humidity and oxygen. In flexible construction concepts this
is still a problem since the film compound is exposed to extreme mechanical stress.
The combination of organic LEDs with electronic circuits could allow completely
flexible displays which may be bent or rolled in at will. Today, every pixel must be
wired with conventional technology and must be triggered seperately. The goal is to
print the electronic circuit directly onto the back. Thus, displays become carrier
systems and even with a film computer behind them they will measure only milimeters.
Experts predict an OLED display market of up to 2 billion dollars by 2007. In the
future many consumer devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, PDAs, and DVD
players are going to be developed with the OLED technology.