Epson stretches OLED life in new display
updated 12:10 pm EDT, Mon October 15, 2007
Long-life Epson OLED
The Japanese division of Seiko Epson says it has developed a new OLED technology with a much longer life, which it has already implemented into a prototype display. OLED is said to offer advantages such as fast response, large viewing angles and extreme contrast; one of the main problems however has been battery life, which while sufficient, has been less than that on CRT, LCD or plasma screens. Epson's new eight-inch screen should theoretically last over 50,000 hours, more than 13 years if viewed 10 hours per day; by contrast, Sony's upcoming XEL-1 TV set previously pushed the limit to 10 years.
Some tradeoffs have been made to accomplish the feat: maximum native resolution is 800x480, below even the 720p level, and brightness is merely a reasonable 200cd/m2. The contrast ratio remains high at 100,000:1, as much as 50 times greater than most LCD and plasma screens, but this is still inferior to the XEL-1's 1,000,000:1. Epson will publicly present its OLED panel at the FPD International expo on October 24th.
