Samsung Display has concocted an ambitious plan to improve the energy efficiency of its QD-OLED display panels by more than 50% in order to meet the increased demands of world that it believes will be increasingly dominated by AI-generated content.
The company’s plan to boost QD-OLED power efficiency was unveiled at the IMID 2024 conference that took place in South Korea last week, but was only reported on by The Elec on Monday. According to that publication, Samsung Display believes it can achieve its goals without impacting on the overall image quality of its displays.
"The display panel maker was developing technologies that remove all factors that influence power consumption in its display,” The Elec stated, citing comments from Samsung Display executive vice president Yi Chung.
After deciding to quit the LCD display market, Samsung Display’s main focus is now on OLED displays. The bulk of its revenue comes from smaller displays for smartphones and tablets, but it also has a growing segment that’s focused on larger, QD-OLED displays for televisions and monitors. In this industry, it has emerged as the main rival to LG Display, which was for years the only company capable of making OLED displays for TVs.
The company believes that reducing OLED power consumption is key to improving picture quality, as devices that use less power run at a cooler temperature, meaning there’s less impact on the sensitive pixels. It also opens the door to higher brightness, and means that the lifetime of the displays can be extended.
For mobile devices, lower power consumption also means extended battery life, which is likely to be one of the main motivations behind its ambitions. That’s because battery life is one of the main areas where smartphone brands like Samsung Electronics and Apple compete with one another.
As for the methods Samsung Display will employ to achieve its power efficiency goals, it said the first step, which it has already perfected, is to develop QD-OLED panels without an external polarizer film that’s used to reflect external light. In creating its so-called "Eco OLED" panels, it claims it has been able to reduce power consumption by 25% already.
The next step, which it is working on now, involves perfecting a technique known as “multi-frequency driving”, which is somewhat similar to variable refresh rate technology. The idea is that different parts of the display – like moving and still areas – can be driven at different refresh rates, in order to reduce the amount of overall energy used.
In addition, the coming switch to phosphorescent blue, or “Blue PHOLED” materials can also help to reduce the amount of power used by its displays, Samsung Display said. The company has been working on this technology for some time, and it’s hoped that it could be ready for mass production as early as next year. Blue PHOLED is said to be more efficient than the existing materials used to make blue pixels. While LG Display is also working on this technology, it’s likely that Samsung Display will benefit more, as its QD-OLED displays use a higher concentration of blue pixels.
Finally, Samsung Display said it’s working on “tandem OLED designs” that feature two or more emissive layers. This is another technique that can improve the overall efficiency of its displays.
Although some of the steps outlined are complete, it’s clear that Samsung Display still has a lot of work to do before it can achieve the full 50% energy efficiency improvement it’s aiming for, and the company has not provided any kind of timeline for when it might get there.
