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Will lighter displays edge out LCDs?

New screens that glow on their own are taking on LCDs by producing sharper video images for smartphones, game consoles and portable media players.

Necessity is the mother of invention. That probably explains the sweeping changes in display technology which didn’t look beyond the cathode ray tubes for decades. Ever since hand-held devices like cell phones and MP3 players became widespread, there’s been a need for power-efficient displays. The objective is clear: Displays consumes battery power the most, so the search for that ultimate screen which prolongs battery life in hand-held devices goes on. Right now, LCDs are ruling the roost, but they need backlighting which consumes more power.

Now, a new generation of super-thin displays is making its way to the market, stretching battery life to new limits. Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens use as much as 40 percent less power than a comparable LCDs and could be twice as thin because they don't need backlighting. It's already being used in some music players from Samsung and a thin mobile phone from Kyocera. Sony is also planning to sell small-sized TVs using the OLED technology later this year.

However, OLED producers have to improve the organic material used between the two electrodes which illuminate the screen and costs will have to come down before OLEDs become widely used in cellphones, PCs and flat-screen TVs. A rival to OLED technology are bi-stable displays, which retain images without power, making them suitable for public displays and sub-screens on devices, although bi-stable displays have image quality issues and need much more refinement to become popular.

[Via reuters ]