‘Bendable, transparent LEDs—-without organics’—but don’t count on them for e-books
“Organic light emitting diodes, or OLEDs, promise to bring a great deal of flexibility to where we can put a display—literally. Because of their organic components, it should be possible to create flexible and transparent displays, opening up a large number of potential uses.” – Ars Techica.
The TeleRead take: Bottom line? Cheap, rugged flexible displays for e-books?
Well, maybe not, as Paul Biba reminded me (updated at about 7 p.m. Eastern with new headline). See his April post, OLED technology not optimal for ebook readers.
August 21st, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Unfortunately not. I pointed this out in an earlier post. To save looking it up I’ll reprint the text:
I was in New York today for a press event that had nothing to do with TeleRead. While there I passed by the booth from the OLED Association. Since OLED displays are absolutely gorgeous, I asked the representative about using them for ebook readers.
He said that given the current way ebooks are presented OLED would not be an optimal technology. While OLED is extremely battery efficient compared to LED screens, it wouldn’t work well for ebooks. This is because OLED’s battery efficiency comes from the fact that only the driven leds require power. Black pixels, for example, draw absolutely zero current. So, since people like to read on a white background, all those white pixels will be drawing current to produce the background, and the relatively little space devoted to the black text would draw no current. Not very efficient. He said that if people wanted to read white text on a black background then OLED technology would be just perfect in terms of battery life.
August 21st, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Thanks Paul! I remember that earlier post now and have changed the headline and main text. While a lot of tech writers are still counting on technology like this for e-books, it’s a lot more iffy than people at first thought for the reason you mention.- David
August 21st, 2009 at 9:07 pm
OLED could still develop further, say, if someone figures out a way for white pixels to draw zero current, and black pixels to draw current… the tech might have more promise down the road.
By the way… isn’t that image you used that of a solar cell?
August 21st, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Actually, there is one very important ebook market segment where color+flexibility trumps power use (as long as price is reasonable): K-6 etextbook readers.