While OLED may have staked a claim as the next generation display technology to beat, Sony has chosen CES 2012 to unveil a new display technology called "Crystal LED." Instead of an LED or CCFL backlight shining through an LCD layer to produce an image, the Crystal LED display technology is a true LED TV that uses a layer of tiny self-emitting LEDs to directly produce the image - think of it like a high resolution shrunk down JumboTron like those found at sporting stadiums.
With each pixel in the 1080 x 1920 Full HD resolution display made up of a red, green and blue LED, the 55-inch prototype model on display at CES uses over six million individual LEDs to create an image. Sony says mounting the LED light source directly on the front of the display results in greater light use efficiency and produces higher contrast images in both light and dark viewing conditions. It also produces a wider color gamut and wider viewing angles compared to existing LCD and plasma displays.
In fact, the display's technical specifications list a brightness of approx. 400 cd/m2, a color gamut of more than 100 percent compared to NTSC, a viewing angle of 180 degrees, and a contrast in dark environments that is "more than measurable limit values." Additionally, Sony says the prototype display has a video response time that is 10 times faster than its current LCD models.
While the Japanese electronics giant says it will continue development of OLED TVs, it will be working in parallel to develop and commercialize its new Crystal LED Display technology with an eye on both professional and consumer products.
Here's a video from Sony detailing the new technology - somewhat embarrassingly, the audio cuts out half way through.
excellent.
So, an inorganic LED display is a significant advance :o)
\'Course now many plastics and chemicals traditionally made from petroleum can be made from various plant oils, though the durability of the plant based stuff often is not as good.
From the first LED until the invention of plastic LEDs, they were made using a specially treated chunk of silicon which dissipated some fraction of waste energy as visible light instead of heat. The first ones were really small and so dim they could hardly be seen in a completely dark room. For years an LED was \"Any color you want as long as it\'s red.\".
Yellow and amber/orange came next, followed by green. The RGB LED display was a long time coming because it took decades to figure out how to make a blue LED that was bright and reliable and actually blue instead of a bluish-green. One of the problems was the compounds required for blue tended to crack.
One day a researcher in Japan noticed that the light from the cracks in the die was brighter than from the rest of it. An inspiration came to him, \"What if we deliberately make it crack all over?\". That did the trick and the blue LED industry took off.
The next \"holy grail\" of the LED was white. Once the blue LED barrier was cracked ;) some \"white\" LED modules were made by putting red, green and blue dies into the same housing. (Such are still made for variable color LEDs.) The big white breakthrough was putting a yellow phosphor over a blue LED die that also emitted ultraviolet. The UV excites the phosphor, which emits yellow light which mixes with the visible blue and appears white.