6. LED Display Technologies

Although LCD modulates the light from a backlight, LED displays permit light to be emitted only where it is necessary. There are two categories of LED display technologies, including Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) and inorganic Light Emitting Diode (iLED) displays. Although the manufacturing constraints for displays formed from each of these technologies differ significantly, many of the general electrical and light emission characteristics are similar. As we have already discussed many of the general performance characteristics of iLEDs in Chap. 3 when we were discussing lighting, this chapter focuses on OLED displays. However, the use of iLEDs to form displays are discussed. Interestingly each of these technologies suffer significant manufacturing challenges which must be addressed if they are to replace LCDs across the entire display market. We will also see that the manufacturing challenges associated with large format OLEDs has led to the development of multi-primary OLEDs to permit this technology to compete in the large screen television market.