Today I have an interview with Erich Strasser from OLED Web-Company. His company owns and operates the leading OLED technology websites. He just got back from CES 2010 and I thought I’d ask him about his trip.

Admin: Can you please introduce yourself and tell us about your websites?
Erich: Our websites http://www.oled.at (german) and http://www.oled-display.net are the leading OLED information websites. Our goal is to inform our visitors about the newest products, findings, forecasts about and with OLED Display technology.

Admin:  How long have you been involved in OLED TV technology?

Erich: We started www.oled.at and www.oled-display.net about 7 years ago.

Admin:  Do you think OLED TV will eventually take over from plasma and LCD technology?

Erich: Yes I am sure about this. OLED is the future in the HDTV technology. OLED TV promises Superior picture Quality, High Efficiency, very thin and in future also cost effective. The first OLED TV XEL-1 and the LG 15 inch hitting the market today are very expensive, but those prices will fall dramatically as the technology matures and volume ramps up. OLEDs will prove more cost effective because they require fewer materials and fewer processing steps than LCD and Plasma Tvs.

Admin:  What are your thoughts on the emergence of LED backlit TV? Can OLED compete against it anytime soon?

Erich: Not soon because the companies must build more OLED fabrication labs.

Admin:  Can you please tell us what impressed you most at CES 2010?

Erich: Sonys 24.5 inch 3D OLED, and the 14 inch transparent AMOLED Notebook from Samsung mobile Display.

Admin: Who, in your opinion, will first produce a consumer ready OLED TV with a decent screen size?

Erich: Sony is in some financial troubles, LG Display introduced the 15 inch AMOLED TV and have big plans. Samsung wants to bring out larger Displays only if they compete with LCD and Plasma at the price segment. So my opinion is LG Display will be the first with larger sizes.

Thanks to Erich for this interview on the latest OLED TV news. You can see more at his site, just click on this link: OLED Television

At CES 2010 in Vegas, one of the top items must be the new Samsung 3D OLED TV. This 14″ wonder is not yet available to consumers, perhaps not until 2013. Hopefully by then screen sizes will increase and the prices will come down a bit. Check it out..

Thanks to my friend Erik for posting these CES videos. His site is http://www.oled-display.net/

Sony engineers are facing technological hurdles in producing larger sized OLED TVs. This is according to Sony Corp. Executive Deputy President Hiroshi Yoshioka.

At a press conference on Nov 19, Yoshioka stated that their TV division is facing challenges. Sony currently buys LCD panels from Samsung and despite releasing the first OLED TV 2 years ago, has yet to come out with a reasonable sized OLED model that would be attractive to consumers.

“The business is tough without our own displays,” Yoshioka said in an interview at Sony’s headquarters.

“For the short term, Sony has been bullish about 3-D TVs, one area where rivals are also just getting started, and Sony is promising products next year.

With 3-D TVs, images appear to have depth and give an illusion of almost jutting out from the screen, although they require special glasses.”

Lots of talk about OLED TV lately but when will we see someting bigger than 15″ in stores?

Full story at: ajc.com

There’s an interesting analysis comparing LCD TV manufacturing to OLED TV manufacturing.

There is currently a short supply of LCD panels and manufacturers are expected to increase production to meet demand for improved LCD technology and demand from China.

However, the analysis reveals that this may serve to slow down the manufacturing and production of large sized OLED TV models.

“Meanwhile there are announcements on OLED panel for TV. Samsung announced that their 31″ OLED TV is ready for production. LG announced their 15″ OLED TV will be sold in Korea in Dec 2009. Sony repeatedly announced on the release of 21″, 27″ OLED TV. All these OLED TVs will require OLED panels. LCD manufacturers are also OLED manufacturers. These companies may adopt certain financial and technical strategies. Building 7 gen or 8 gen plants for OLED manufacturing is capital intensive like LCD Gens. In the past the backplane for OLED was trivialized as a simple modification of the LCD backplane. Later it was found that was not the case. ”

More information on this analysis at: www.glgroup.com

Here’s a press release from Samsung Mobile Display describing their display at SID 2009 in San Antonio, TX.

SAN ANTONIO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Samsung Mobile Display (SMD), the world’s largest manufacturer of OLED displays, will exhibit an extensive range of OLED and mobile LCD displays here at Display Week 2009, hosted by the Society for Information Display (SID), June 2-4.

Featured at the Samsung booth are:

Production-ready AM OLED TV

SMD is exhibiting 14.1-inch and 31-inch diagonal OLED TV panels. The 31-inch is the world’s first OLED display that features full HD resolution (1920 x 1080), a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, a color gamut of over 100% NTSC and a ultra-slim design of only 8.9mm – providing outstanding brightness and exceptional image quality. The OLED TV panels can be mass produced through the use of Fine Metal Mask (FMM) technology.

Active Matrix (AM) OLED for the Future

SMD is showing the world’s thinnest “flapping” OLED panel, one that can flutter in a breeze. The super-thin panel is only 0.05mm thin, about one tenth the thickness of OLED panels with a normal glass substrate. It features a high contrast ratio, is polarizer-free and has a pixel resolution of 480 x 272.

SMD also is showing 4.82-inch and 12.1-inch transparent, foldable and ID card displays as well.

AM OLED for Mobile

OLEDs have become an important consideration in mobile design as set makers require smarter displays to accommodate multi-functions.

SMD will exhibit a full line up of mobile displays from a 3.2-inch “real” WVGA to a 7-inch WSVGA. The 3.2-inch WVGA on exhibit is the world’s first OLED display with 310ppi. (pixels per inch).

A significant benefit of OLED panels is that they do not require backlighting, can be made much thinner than traditional displays and consume far less power. Other factors that will drive the expected exponential market growth of OLED technology include faster response time, blur-free motion, a 180-degree viewing angle and potentially lower manufacturing costs.