TV Display Innovation History from CRT to OLED Technology TV has become an important part of our everyday life. How was early TV display technology different from current technologies? How will our TV display technology evolve in the coming future? Here s an overview of display technology advancements in the last 50 years from CRT technology to cutting-edge OLED! TV Display s Ancestor, CRT Technology! CRT (Cathode-ray Tube) technology involves electron guns that produce beams and a mask that works together to create images on the TV Screen. This historic breakthrough (CRT TV display) is also known as the Braun Tube because CRT was invented by a German physicist, Karl Ferdinand Braun. CRT technology is very simple. CRT technology uses electron guns that emit electron beams back and forth across the screen. These electrons react with phosphorus material, lighting up the screen to create images. However, CRT Technology has disadvantages as well. To prevent images from being distorted, the CRT TV sets are bulky and heavy in size. In addition to inconvenient size, CRT TVs cause strain in eyes of the viewers, emitting a lot of harmful electromagnetic waves. Best flat panel display LCD TVs, Popularized by wall mount option PDP TV, and LED overcomes shortcomings of LCD LCDs are the most widely produced and used form of display. LCD displays depend on liquid crystals to create images. These liquid crystals have characteristics of both solid and liquid elements. The crystals are arranged between two reflectors and a backlight. They twist and untwist to varying degrees and change the amount of light passing through, depending on the applied electrical current. Plasma display panels (PDP), known as wall-mount TVs, use electrically charged ionized gasses to show images. Inside a PDP display, thousands of tiny gas cells are placed
between two plates of glass, and electrodes create an electrical discharge to light up these tiny gas cells. Because PDPs require electric discharge to create images, they consume a lot of energy and heat. LCD and PDP displays work very differently. In the early stages, both technologies had very strong advantages, and, at one point, PDPs dominated sales numbers. However, over time, consumers began to favor LCDs over PDPs, because LCDs had structures much more favorable for improvement. Response time Brightness Energy consumption PDP LCD PDP TVs has become obsolete since LCD technology has become mainstream technology with its advancements. LG Display has implemented IPS technology which provides wideviewing angles and fast response times to different types of devices such as Monitors, Laptops, TVs, and more. In addition, LG display has opened the era of large LCD TVs by introducing the 100 inch TFT-LCD display which was considered impossible based on the coefficient of friction in 2006. LED technology has evolved from LCD TVs. LCDs use cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) as backlights to light the panel. In LED displays, LED lamp is used instead of CCFL. The CCFLs used in LCDs are great because their production cost is relatively low. However, the lamp has a short life span and consumes a lot of energy. On the other hand, LED backlight screen has long life span and has an ability to illuminate the screen consistently. There are three different LED backlighting technologies: RGB method, Edge-lit method, and direct method. The RGB method has red, green, and blue LED layers that selectively light up in appropriate areas. The edge-lit method has backlight LEDs in the sides of the TV facing toward the screen. On the other hand, direct-lit method has LEDs positioned directly behind the screen, under which these LEDs turn on and off when needed. LG Display has advanced from the RGB method LG display has added a white LED layer on top of red, green and blue LED layers. The advanced WRGB technology has superior color range and color contrast. In addition, WRGB consumes less energy displaying white images. The Ultimate Display OLED OLED TV is superior in every way. OLED TV boasts a great viewing angle because OLEDs work by creating light directly from the panel with no change in color brightness. In addition, OLEDs have incredible response time. An OLED's screen refreshes in less than 0.1 microseconds, which allows clear and blur-free images, Also, OLED TV gives less eye strain even with prolonged viewing times.
LCD WRGB OLED RGB OLED Image Quality/ Design High Definition Ability to create large screen Productivity ROI In addition, OLEDs have a capability to switch each specific pixel on and off which can create true blacks and whites and reproduce high-definition images that are very rich in detail. Market research firm, Display Search," predicted that market size of OLED TVs will increase from 100,000 units to 1,000,000 units next year; and further increase to 2,000,000 units in 2016 and up to 4,000,000 units in 2017. 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Flat Screen 218,473 225,157 235,870 248,550 257,920 TV OLED TV 5 100 1,000 2,000 4,000 Flat Screen TV & OLED TVs Marketshare and prediction (unit: 1,000s), DisplaySearch 2014
Moreover, LG Display has developed flexible and transparent OLED technologies, and which led the company obtained infrastructure to develop large, transparent, and flexible OLED display technology. LG Display was one of the pioneers in the OLED TV market and is moving ahead to cultivate future OLED technology. This is an overview of TV Display innovation history from CRT to OLED Technology. LG Display predicts that the company will dominate the OLED Display market with upcoming future products. LG Display strives to increase productivity to meet the market needs by increasing new product lines. Stay tuned for future OLED Display products with differentiated and advanced technology from LG Display!