Organic Light-Emitting Displays

In the past decade, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology has made tremendous progress. After an amazingly short period of applied research and development it has reached performance levels that are adequate for the implementation of OLEDs in a variety of display applications with an enormous commercial potential. Meanwhile first products, such as, displays for car-audio applications and backlights for cellular phones are appearing in the marketplace. Future extensions to large-area, full-color computer and TV monitors are expected which will make full use of the benefits of OLED technology, such as the attainment of an unbeatably wide viewing angle, high contrast ratio, low power consumption, and excellent video-rate capability. These attributes are difficult to achieve with other display technologies and are therefore likely to provide a prominent place for OLEDs in the flat-panel display (FPD) market of the future. This paper gives an introduction into the basic physics, presents the performance status, and points out the current hurdles of this promising new FPD technology.