Samsung said Wednesday that it has developed a 31-inch
AM OLED TV prototype, which will be showcased at CES
2008 in Las Vegas next January.
The korean company said it has applied its own AM OLED
technology to this protoype. Samsung has been sharing
patents related to the OLED display patents since 2004,
when the Korean company signed a cross-license
agreement. Sony recently released its first 11-inch
OLED TV in Japan.
However, OLED TVs are still expensive and companies are
facing technical difficulties to produce them in big
quantities and of course, in larger display sizes.
Samsung claims that it has the technological ability to
produce 40-inch AM OLEDs, but mass production is
schedulled in 2010, when the investments in the new
technology will allow Samsung to offer the TVs at
lower retail prices.
AM OLEDs (active matrix-based) consists of two glass
substrates and light-emitting fluorescent organic
compound which fills the gap between two substrates. AM
OLED TV is much slimmer than LCD TV and much better
than LCD TV in terms of video quality, response time,
contrast, and power consumption. However, they still
have a product life less than existing LCD TVs.
It is not the first time Samsung announced AM OLED TV
prototypes. The company drew global attention by
developing a 40-inch AM OLED panel in 2005, but it
failed to commercialize it.
Samsung SDI Co has also recently announced that it
would double monthly output capacity of active-matrix
organic light-emitting diode (AM-OLED) displays to 3
million units by 2008 from 1.5 million now. The company
has also succeeded in the development of 31-inch OLED
panels.