OLED Excitement

摘要

This year will be an exciting one for organic light-emitting-diode (OLED) technology. At the end of 2003, a number of manufacturers, including Pioneer, RiTdisplay, Philips, SNMD, and TECO, were making passive-matrix OLED displays, and the Sanyo-Kodak joint venture was shipping an active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) product. According to Barry Young of DisplaySearch, worldwide sales for the year reached about $250 million, with the majority coming from sales of passive-matrix cellular-telephone sub-displays. As this article goes to press, a number of additional companies will have announced plans to launch OLED products; annual sales this year are expected to exceed $500 million, with an even mix of passive- and active-matrix products. In fact, many major active-matrix liquid-crystal-display (AMLCD) manufacturers have installed or are about to install OLED-manufacturing equipment and are scheduled to launch AMOLED products in the near future.