In light of Sony’s recent announcement that they will ship the first commercial OLED television this December, now is a good time to look at the impact of this technology on consumer electronics, particularly portable electronics. The big announcement may be about the new 11-inch viewable, 3mm thick television, but in reality the big news is that mass market OLED is coming soon and it will change the face of portable technology immensely.

Before we look at that, let’s look at OLED technology itself. OLED stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode. It is not a brand new technology, having been developed by Eastman Kodak in the early 1980s. OLED displays are basically a series of organic compounds that are between two conductors; when current is applied through the conductors a bright light is emitted. Eastman Kodak has developed films of the primary colors; some are more efficient then others. The resulting matrix of colored compounds provides the colored lights as required. Kodak describes OLED thusly:

OLED displays stack up several thin layers of materials. They operate on the attraction between positively and negatively charged particles. When voltage is applied, one layer becomes negatively charged relative to another transparent layer. As energy passes from the negatively charged (cathode) layer to the other (anode) layer, it stimulates organic material between the two, which emits light visible through an outermost layer of glass.

That is a lot of techno-speak but at its essence OLED displays are ultra-thin, incredibly high contrast ratio displays that require no backlight as the organic compounds provide their own luminescence and color when an electrical current is applied. Comparing this to LCD displays which require a backlight to display images (which requires an extra layer, equaling a thicker display), a current OLED display requires 40% less power than a conventional LCD display and the OLED panel will also deliver a much higher contrast ratio (the higher the better as a higher ratio gives you truer blacks). The announced Sony 11-inch display features a 1000000:1 contrast ratio which blows their premiere LCD displays 52" BRAVIA XBR series LCD – 18000:1 dynamic contrast ratio/2000:1 on-contrast ratio) out of the water. The image and viewing angle on this display is phenomenal and it brings to mind other more compelling reasons to adopt OLED.

Look around your home or think of portable electronics you see every day – cell phones, MP3 players, pocket PCs, PSP, DS Lite, laptops, LCD displays, even electronic components like receivers, microwaves, and coffee makers have LCD or LED displays. The common downfall of all LCD displays on portable electronics is that the display when backlit requires a great deal of battery power. Let’s look at the PSP as an example (since I just got a PSP Slim and Lite ). With the new battery the manual says you can play games for 4-6 hours. If the PSP had a current generation OLED display (that uses 40% less power the LCD) not only would the PSP Slim and Lite be even slimmer and lighter (hey the new Sony 11” TV is just 3mm thick), you could be playing games for up to 8½ hours!