A new type of LED display technology could revolutionize the way we use laptops and other devices in direct sunlight.
As part of a European project called ULTRA-LUX, researchers have developed a new technology using an abundant and cheap material called perovskite to create light-emitting diodes (LEDs). much brighter than current OLED screens.
OLED (organic light-emitting diode) displays are widely used in top TVs and laptops today. They have the advantage of being thin, flexible and energy efficient because each pixel can emit its own light. However, OLED displays also have a major drawback: they are not very bright, especially compared to conventional LEDs which use inorganic materials. This is why current MiniLED displays often offer much higher brightnesses.
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Our screens could soon become even brighter
The ULTRA-LUX project, led by technology company Imec, has found a way to overcome this limitation by using perovskite as a semiconductor material for LED displays. Perovskite is a class of materials whose special crystal structure allows them to absorb and emit light efficiently. Perovskite is also cheap, abundant and easy to process, making it an ideal candidate for solar cells.
However, perovskite has not yet been used for LED displays because it was not easy to make it stable and reliable under high currents. However, the ULTRA-LUX team solved this problem by designing a new architecture that combines the perovskite with transparent electrodes and transport layers. This allows perovskite LEDs (PeLEDs) to operate at very high current densities, up to 3 kA cm-2, tens of thousands of times more than OLEDs.
The result is a display technology that can produce up to 1,000 times more brightness than OLEDs, according to an article published in Nature. This means that PeLED displays could be easily viewed in all lighting conditions, without having to give up the thinness, flexibility and efficiency of OLEDs. The ULTRA-LUX team has demonstrated the feasibility of PeLED displays in the lab and plans to build a prototype display soon, but obviously don’t expect this technology to be adopted for at least several years.
Source: Nature