OLED brings out the shine

The age of the good old cathode ray tube has long since passed. According to the German Federal Statistics Office, by 2011, almost every other German household had a flat screen television. The question, however, is how long our boob tubes – measuring just a few centimeters thick – will manage to hold onto the moniker “flat.” Rigo Herold of the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Organics, Materials and Electronic Devices COMEDD is already thinking in totally different dimensions in any case: “In 2008, the first manufacturers introduced displays that were less than a millimeter thick.” The technology behind these incredibly narrow matt screens is called OLED. The abbreviation stands for “Organic Light Emitting Diode.” “OLEDs emit light themselves, and unlike the ordinary liquid crystal display screens of today, they work without background lighting. For this reason, it will soon be possible to manufacture very thin and simultaneously very flexible, bendable displays,” explains Herold, who is in charge of “IC and Systems Design” at COMEDD. What you previously knew only from science fiction flicks could also change our everyday viewing experience within the foreseeable future: Screens as thin as paper, applied to clothing, curtains and even windows.

Further information: cordis.europa.eu