TFT-less IR-driven OLED Display

­BACKGROUND

TV screen sizes are getting bigger and bigger every year. However, manufacturers using organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology face a big challenge in fabricating TV screens over 100 inches at reasonable cost. Unlike the OLED process which is compatible with low-cost, low-temperature, and large area processing methods including roll-to-roll printing processes, the thin film transistor (TFT) backplane used for active matrix (AM) driver circuits requires a batchto-batch vacuum process with a limited substrate size. Currently, the largest mother-glass size for a TFT backplane process is Gen 10 (3 m × 3 m), from which there is currently no way to make multiple 100-inch TV screens at a time, thus resulting in a tremendously expensive TV price (>$50,000 for a Sony 100-inch TV). Therefore, providing a solution for fabricating an extremely large-screen TV at a significantly lower cost will be very attractive to display panel manufacturers.

SUMMARY OF TECHNOLOGY

In this technology innovation, OSU researchers invented the innovative TFT-less OLED-based projection display system as shown in Figure 1. The TFT-less OLED-based projection display system is realized by combining an infrared projector and an infrared-sensitive self-emitting OLED projection screen. This novel projection display will use invisible infrared light instead of visible light for delivering the display image information to the projection screen. Then, the infraredsensitive self-emitting OLED projection screen will self-emit visible images stimulated by the invisible (infrared light) display information.

POTENTIAL AREAS OF APPLICATION

• Large TV screen manufacturing

MAIND ADVANTAGES

• TFT-less, IR-driven projection (no bright visible light needed)

STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT

• There is a Proof of Concept for this technology.