Researchers have discovered an innovative solution for preventing the burn-in issue that affects OLED display panels. While the adoption of OLED technology continues to grow throughout a number of industries ranging from enterprise use, gaming, mobile technology, and even day-to-day office work, its vulnerability to burn-in from prolonged static images remains. Numerous manufacturers including MSI, Samsung, and LG, have incorporated solutions to prevent such damage from occurring but it appears that an underlying technological root cause is to blame and there could now be an answer to fixing it.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have published a paper in the Journal of Nature explaining how blue LEDs have been the culprit for burn-in. Blue LEDs are a little late to the game when it comes to display technology, having only just been invented by Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura in 1992, who won the Nobel Prize for their efforts. Blue LEDs heralded a new era for display technology afterward but most would not know that they too have been playing a large role in this annoying issue with OLED technology. Researchers have discovered that by making a change in the OLED manufacturing process it is possible to eliminate the damage being caused. In layman’s terms, simply adding alkylene straps to insulate the LEDs will solve this issue.
Per Journal of Nature (via Tweaktown):
“When doped into a pristine TADF host with no additional matrix, transient absorption (TA) studies directly indicate that Dexter transfer can be substantially curtailed by decorating a terminal emitter with insulating alkylene straps. Owing to Dexter transfer suppression, negligible efficiency loss is observed in MFHF OLEDs compared with non-doped TADF devices, with external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) as high as 21.5% and narrow true-blue electroluminescence (EL) (14–15 nm full-width at half-maximum (FWHM)). Hence, simply structured MFHF devices with narrowband blue emission and high efficiency have been realized for the first time.”1
- Citation: Cho, H., Congrave, D. G., Gillett, A. J., Montanaro, S., Francis, H. E., Ye, J., Chowdury, R., Zeng, W., Etherington, M. K., Royakkers, J., Millington, O., Bond, A. D., Plasser, F., Frost, J. M., Grey, C. P., Rao, A., Friend, R. H., Greenham, N. C., & Bronstein, H. (2024). Suppression of Dexter transfer by covalent encapsulation for efficient matrix-free narrowband deep blue hyperfluorescent OLEDs. Nature Materials, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01812-4 ↩︎
As with any new discovery, folks shouldn’t be expecting to see this solution to be implemented any time soon. Display panel manufacturers will, of course, need to conduct their research. It is also probable that new manufacturing technology will need to be created or current processes significantly altered, in order to facilitate such changes. However, it has been noted that this discovery could also improve manufacturing efficiency which could also incentivize manufacturers to implement changes more quickly.
Discussion (6 replies)
Join Discussion →Whew glad my budget approval office has said no to OLED definitely waiting on this now.
Yeah, I'm set for a while too so it'll be nice if they can get this out in the next 3 years or so.
I always roll my eyes when I see articles where "researchers" have invented new technology or discovered a fix for something.
I remember in ~1993 reading a n article in a computer magazine about this new technology that was going to revolutionize storage. It was was fast as RAM, but nonvolatile so it could be used as a hard drive. I was excited. Pretty soon we'd have amazing storage speeds...
...but it wasn't until ~17 years later I was able to buy my first SSD, and it was limited to SATA speeds. It wasn't until 2015 - 22 years later - I got to actually experience the full promise of the SSD when I bought my 400GB Intel PCIe SSD750.
This article makes it sound like a simple change, so maybe this one will be quicker, but changing an electronics manufacturing line over to a new design is not an overnight thing. We are still likely talking several years, and we live in a world where monitors usually last people ~5 years or so (at least in front line service, the spare monitors sometimes hang around forever, but you don't buy them for that second life, you buy them for your current needs. Anyhting after that is just an incidental bonus.)
So, I'd say go ahead. Buy an OLED today. Replace it later. It's going to be a while.
Yup. You'd get a full life out of any OLED you buy today, almost certainly, before this hits commercial availability.
Just like hydrogen fuel, the next breakthrough in batteries, flying cars, and fusion.
Yeah, my dad used to get me Science Digest subscriptions when I was a kid and I can't even begin to remember all the things I read in them that either never came to market, or took decades doing do. I think there's a chance of 3-5 years for this but might as be playing bingo with that since it's also possible something else could pop up out of nowhere making it obsolete before it even hits the ground.
On the plus side though. So glad to see display tech moving ahead. Not saying that it was ever really static much in the last couple of decades but still nice to hear of new things.
I'd bet on this one perhaps sooner than later; OLED advancement has become a high priority. Even the stuff that has been planned out for the next few years dwarfs what we have now in terms of quality.