Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
LG Display unveils new OLED TV panel
An LG Display employee presents the company's OLED TV panels made in various sizes ranging from 97 to 27 inches at its booth during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Las Vegas, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul
By Baek Byung-yeul
3rd-generation OLED brighter, consumes less energy
By Baek Byung-yeul
LAS VEGAS ― LG Display unveiled its third-generation OLED TV panel that is brighter with a wider viewing angle and consumes less energy than its predecessor, the display maker said during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Wednesday.
The company said its third-generation product has dramatically improved its brightness by 60 percent and viewing angle by 30 percent compared to the previous one by applying what it calls Meta Technology.
The company elaborated that Meta Technology improves energy efficiency by about 22 percent by combining ultra-fine lenses that maximize light emissions of organic materials and luminance enhancement algorithms.
Compared to the previous generation, the third-generation OLED TV panel significantly increases the maximum brightness from 1,300 nits to 2,100 nits. A nit is a unit measuring the brightness of a surface or object.
OLED TV panels are considered advanced as each pixel of the panel self-emits to express colors more accurately, especially deeper black colors, compared to LCD TV panels. As panels minimize the use of blue light, which can damage one's vision, OLED TV panels are more comfortable to the eyes.
With Meta Technology, third-generation OLED TV panels are able to show deeper black colors ― a strength of the OLED panels ― and to convey colors more accurately.
The existing OLED panels have difficulty in emitting high-luminance light because the considerable amount of light generated by the organic emission layer is not able to come out of the panel due to reflection inside the panel.
LG Display said it overcame this issue by using ultra-fine micro lenses called Micro Lens Array (MLA) technology. The company said its third-generation panel uses 5,117 micro lenses per pixel. For example, a 77-inch 4K panel features a total of 42.4 billion micro lenses so that a greater amount of light can be emitted from the panel.
LG Display plans to supply the third-generation OLED TV panel to premium OLED TVs such as 55-, 65- and 77-inch 4K TVs and 77- and 88-inch 8K TVs that will be launched this year. Then, the latest TV panel will be expanded to other OLED lineups.
Lee Hyeon-woo, head of the Large Display Business unit at LG Display, said the company will continue to retain a super gap over other companies.
“The success of developing Meta Technology means that the quality of our OLED TV panel has evolved to a new dimension that cannot be compared to existing products,” Lee said.
An LG Display employee introduces the company's 8-inch 360-degree foldable OLED display for smartphones at its booth during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Las Vegas, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul
The company also showed teasers of various display platforms made by its OLED panels such as 8-inch 360-degree foldable OLED display, which can be folded both in and out, and various sizes of OLED TVs including a 97-inch model, which is the largest OLED TV panel.
On the sidelines of the CES, LG Display and LG Electronics also held a ceremony to commemorate the 10th anniversary of launching its OLED TV panel on the same day.
LG Electronics and LG Display jointly advanced OLED technology during the past 10 years and made the new category of TVs a premium one in the market.
Jeong Ho-young, CEO of LG Display said in a video message that the company “will continue to create a history of innovation through OLED,” adding that he believes “the recent macro situation and market difficulties will be a valuable foundation for a great leap forward.”