Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor
of Projection Monthly

SGS deposits a "cap layer" of nitrogen-rich material over amorphous silicon that provides a layer of seeds around which small crystal grains form and grow. The growing grains impinge on each other when they grow to approximately 20µm, and grain boundaries form. The result is a semiconductor material for the TFTs that has better performance than amorphous silicon, but whose fabrication is not excessively expensive.

While traditional 3D systems divide the resolution into left and right eye displays cutting the total number of pixels in half, the Samsung prototype avoids this by allowing the "same level of resolution even when users convert 2D images into 3D." To do this, Samsung applied what it calls a "Time Division Parallax Barrier Method" that uses an optically controlled birefringence (OCB) method in a liquid crystal barrier that shifts between left and right images using a high frame rate.

Using this approach, Samsung has developed a very compelling 4.3-inch 2D and 3D AMOLED display with much higher 3D resolution (WQVGA and 128 dots per inch) than previously seen. The panel boasts 16.7M colors, a 300 cd/m2 brightness, and over 1000:1 contrast with a viewing angle of 170 degrees.

As if giving us a glance into the future, Samsung also showed some next-generation products with OLED panels as the main display. These include a multi-media player with an 11-inch WVGA display (800 x 480 pixel resolution) that the company said used a small molecule, bottom-emission OLEDs. In this panel the company incorporated the Nuelight technology that uses an optical feedback circuit to measure sub-pixel luminance and compensate for TFT and OLED variations.

Suffice it to say SID demonstrated that AMOLEDs are marching down the path to product deployment as manufacturers continue to innovate with this unique, emissive technology whose fundamental characteristics continue to entice major display and support component companies to invest in what could be the next decade’s chief LCD rival.