Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has developed what it says is the world's first organic light emitting diode (OLED) display that measures 40-inches across the diagonal.

After launching its OLED development initiative in 2001, Samsung developed a 14.1' WXGA (1280x768) OLED panel in 2004, followed by the 21' HD-class (1920x1080) OLED panel in January, 2005. The Korean company had also produced a 40-inch panel in the past but had done so by combining 4 of its 20-inch panels to create a larger screen. The new Samsung prototype is a single panel.

The high-definition-compatible OLED prototype has a wide screen pixel format of 1280x800 (WXGA) driven by an amorphous silicon (a-Si) AM backplane to permit faster video response times with low power consumption.

Manufactured on Samsung's fourth generation (4G) production line with a mother-glass size of 730mm x 920mm, the new OLED prototype combines all of the traditional features of emissive OLED technology, including wide viewing angle, thin package size, no color filter and no backlight, with the enormous production infrastructure advantages of standard a-Si techniques.

Shattering traditional AM OLED size limitations, the new prototype offers a maximum screen brightness of 600 nits; a black-and-white contrast ratio of 5,000:1; and, a color gamut of 80 percent. The ultra-thin shape of the panels will allow future TV set designers to create televisions with a total thickness of only 3cm or less.

Samsung's 40-inch OLED panel will be demonstrated for the first time at the world's largest display industry event, Society for Information Display (SID) 2005 International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition in Boston, May 24-27.