Researchers developing transparent OLEDs

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany are working on the next generation of OLED technology, including the ability to create displays that can become completely transparent and be turned on and off at will. Uses envisioned for the displays include OLED overlays on top of LCDs that could be used to display specific information without interfering with the main picture and automobile windshields with built-in displays that can display information as needed and turn off when not in use. Of course, what we really want is a transparent window that turns into an HD display when we flick a switch, but that may just be a little too much to ask for at this point.

[LS @ Jan 27th 2006 9:14PM]

Sounds sweet!

Are they still limited to manufacturing these things at like an inch squared?

[charlie @ Jan 27th 2006 9:31PM]

ummmm... http://www.universaldisplay.com/toled.htm

they've been making them for years.

[charlie @ Jan 27th 2006 9:32PM]

http://www.universaldisplay.com/toled.htm

[XGM @ Jan 27th 2006 10:10PM]

Nice, if there gona be better then my LCD id love one of those :)

[Kevin @ Jan 27th 2006 10:21PM]

Sounds like a HUD for car windshields. Pretty cool.

[robin @ Jan 28th 2006 12:27AM]

It's so funny, Germany tried to take over the world twice with the two WWs.

In the late 90, they got so mad, they released the MP3 (developed by Fraunhofer Institut in Germany :D) and destroyed a whole industry :D.

R

[furtim @ Jan 28th 2006 1:23AM]

I often ask myself, "Is there any way for technology to make OLEDs even sexier?"

Apparently, yes.

[ikkedus @ Jan 28th 2006 7:13AM]

i think i see a dead pixel

[Road Tester @ Jan 28th 2006 8:43AM]

Just the other day I mentioned on autoblog it might be nice to have a windshield that portrayed objects seen in nightvision, instead of having a separate screen for the nightvision. Seems, like this might be the solution.

[Jon @ Jan 28th 2006 10:09AM]

This is fine for Universal Display - Universal Display Corp. has the basic patents on TOLED (Transparent OLED) and has been demonstrating them for years! (Invented at Princeton OCM - the research funded by Universal Display).

[anonymous coward @ Jan 28th 2006 12:23PM]

"..including the ability to create displays that can become completely transparent and be turned on and off at will."

I'm not sure this second part is a big selling point. My LCD monitor can be turned on and off at will.

[charlie @ Jan 28th 2006 12:24PM]

yeah, UDC has a crapload of intellectual property. transparent OLED, flexible OLED, white OLED lighting (even more energy efficient than white LCD lighting), and Organic Vapor Phase manufacturing technology. Thats why I own a few shares :P

One of the cool things about transparent OLED that UDC has been talking about is the possibility of layers reg, green, and blue, instead of clustering them. In LCDs and current OLED screens, each pixel's emitters of either red, green, or blue light are clustered together. By having three transparent sheets- one each for blue, red and green, you could easily triple resolution while providing truer color.

[Jane Foster @ Jan 28th 2006 1:20PM]

oh this is kinda cool i was waiting for a long about this idea.

[Reid Sorenson @ Jan 28th 2006 3:18PM]

I can't believe nobody's commenting on their transparent HDTV remark. How cool would it be to have a big 60" picture window in the wall of your house, that could become the TV when you turn it on? The problem in a lot of living rooms is that the TV is hit by glare from a window on the opposite wall. If the TV actually was the window, no more glare! And during the day, you could save on power by using natural light as the backlight for a display like that. (Do OLEDs have backlights?)

[tiuk @ Jan 28th 2006 3:32PM]

Re: the backlight question

No, I think each OLED emits it's own light (hence "Organic Light Emitting Diode").

[nuffGigs @ Jan 28th 2006 6:06PM]

Cool stuff... This might be a nice replacement for those neon lights on store front windows. Or maybe ad companies would go nuts with it. Maybe parked cars will display ads on the windshields. GPS would help in displaying local ads maybe. Rental car companies can partner with Google... hmmm.

[Alexander Micek @ Jan 28th 2006 10:46PM]

This is an exciting technology (lower power consumption, especially) that, unfortunately, has some issues to work out if it is to become more widespread. Consider the blue OLED life-span problem:

"Everybody got all hot and bothered about Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) screens a year or three ago, but the darn things still don't seem to last much longer than 2000 hours. Well, technically it's just the blue OLEDs that don't last very long; green lasts a lot longer and red lasts for ages. But people don't seem all that crazy about paying for a TV that turns yellow, then red."
- http://www.dansdata.com/gz044.htm

[Matthew Baggett @ Jan 29th 2006 7:10AM]

I can't wait to have a giant sheet of glass covered in them and a touchscreen module layered over the top.

and plug it all into a mac mini.

*drools*

[jason @ Jan 29th 2006 1:53PM]

That is sex.

[James Naberhaus @ Jan 29th 2006 2:04PM]

I can't believe anybody has commented on the big use for transparent OLED's...3D Monitors. Place three TOLED's in line with each other and then place elements in thier respective planes and you've got a synthetic 3D image. Since the moving images will cast shadows on the TLOED's in the back, the 3D image will appear even more 3D. 3DTV is not that far away.

[Yale R @ Jan 30th 2006 12:38PM]

Let's layer a thousand of them together, and then we have a 3d display cube.

[Tom Kirkpatrick @ Jan 30th 2006 1:22PM]

Everybody is missing the point. What is the main problem with Internet connected cell phones? It's the display. Having a transparent display built into glasses takes the cell phone and other like commodities to the next level. And being able to turn it off is important, too. Think of this as a personal heads-up display. Also for medical staff, having records right there, and so much more. Bottom line: forget big, think small and personal!

[israfel @ Jan 30th 2006 2:14PM]

You are way wrong, Alexander Micek. Okay, not way wrong, but off by a bit, I think.

From www.oled-info.com (yes, I've had this site bookmarked for almost a year, so what?):
12 January, 2006: Universal Display Announces Advances in Blue Phosphorescent OLED Technology
"[Universal Display] will present a proprietary new blue PHOLED with CIE (0.16, 0.29), excellent luminous efficiency of 21 cd/A and over 17,500 hours of operating lifetime at 200 cd/m2. This corresponds to over 3,000 hours at 500 cd/m2, a target luminance for commercial applications." And that's just referring to "deep blue," the company has already maxed out the a lighter, "sky blue" so a deep blue was the only challenge remaining... well, that and *mumble*mumble*, but because of the way these displays are made a lot of companies are saying that they will be able to use the same fabrication lines as they currently use for LCDs.

I think charlie is right too about picking up some shares of UD, they seem like a good company, they are at the front, they hold a lot of the cards. Of course, Kodak has a lot of the key technology locked up too, but I think UD is probably the best bet we have right now in the OLED field - they roxxor! I just wish I wasn't so poor or I'd gamble on them too.

[Eric @ Dec 28th 2007 4:54PM]

"Let's layer a thousand of them together, and then we have a 3d display cube."

Brilliant!

"What is the main problem with Internet connected cell phones? It's the display."

The main problem with all portable computing devices is *input*. Nothing's as fast as a real keyboard. Flawless voice recognition in portable devices would be ideal, but that raises other issues (privacy, noise pollution, etc.)

"Having a transparent display built into glasses.."

Your eye can't focus on something an inch away. Try it. Even if you could, you'd probably go half blind within 10 minutes. *lol*

[jord @ Feb 17th 2008 11:16PM]

"Your eye can't focus on something an inch away."

Actually, most HUDs would compensate, "tricking" your eye, and causing the image to appear to be floating any where from one foot to several yards infront of the viewer.