According to a report on OLED Research Net, Samsung's Mobile Display division (SMD) is preparing for its generation 5.5 AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) plant to go online in 2011. The plant is expected to have the capacity to create OLED mother glass that can be used to create four 30-inch AMOLED panels or a single OLED panel as large as 42 inches diagonally.
As a self-emissive (self-illuminating) technology, OLED requires no backlight to create an image. This allows OLED to share the high performance picture quality characteristics of CRT and plasma technology, but with a remarkably thin form factor. How thin is thin? Sony showed off bendable OLED panels as thin as 2 business cards at the 2008 CEATEC show in Japan. OLED displays also feature excellent off-axis viewing as well as high energy efficiency.
OLED has been seen as the "great HDTV technology that almost was." Promising early results have been marred by hurdles in both the manufacturing process and in the longevity of the OLED screens themselves, with the different colored phosphors aging differently over time.
Samsung is a leader in the small screen OLED manufacturing space but so far has not announced formal plans for a large screen consumer OLED display. If a 42-inch or larger OLED HDTV is indeed in the cards, Samsung isn't publically talking about it... yet. The SMD web site does hint at future 40-inch Full HD display model, but with no details on pricing or availability.
Samsung reps were unavailable for comment at press time.
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