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LG Display announces world's 1st commercial phosphorescent blue OLED
May 1, 2025
LG Display has successfully verified the production performance of blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels for a mass production line for the first time in the world, the company said Thursday.
This success comes about eight months after the company developed an OLED panel based on a blue phosphorescence emitter with Universal Display Corporation (UDC), an important step towards the display makers' long-time goal of an OLED panel that implements all primary colors of light — red, green, and blue — using phosphorescence.
OLED panel emission methods are largely divided into fluorescence and phosphorescence. Fluorescence, which is technically simpler, emits light through immediately reacting to electricity, but has only 25 percent luminous efficiency.
On the other hand, phosphorescence briefly stores energy from electricity before emitting light, allowing for 100 percent efficiency. This technically more challenging method reduces power consumption by one-fourth compared to fluorescence.
Red and green phosphorescence were commercialized 20 years ago, but the display industry has been struggling with blue due to its short wavelength and high energy consumption.
A photo explaining a hybrid two-stack tandem structure / Courtesy of LG Display
LG Display used a hybrid two-stack tandem structure that stacks blue fluorescent material in the lower layer and blue phosphorescence in the upper.
By combining the stability of fluorescence with phosphorescence’s lower power consumption, it can reduce power consumption by about 15 percent while maintaining existing OLED panel stability levels.
LG Display said the latest achievement is significant because it is the first to reach the commercialization level, which required verified performance evaluations, demonstrating optical characteristics and processability on an actual mass production line. The company said it has already completed product verification with UDC.
"The successful verification of blue phosphorescent product commercialization will be an innovation milestone for next-generation OLED," the company’s chief technology officer, Yoon Soo-young, said. "We expect to enjoy preemptively securing the future market with blue phosphorescent technology."
PS If I am not mistaken, LGD and UDC are up for a contract renewal this April. Should be interesting. |
