Planar Displays has announced that it will show a 55″ transparent OLED prototype at ISE. The company has built part of its business proposition around transparent displays, but until this point all units have been LCD.
OLED technology will be used to improve the transparency of see-through displays – mainly due to the lack of a backlight. Viewing angles are said to be ‘very broad’, with ‘exceptional’ colour performance (transparent LCD displays often look washed out) and high energy efficiency.
Planar anticipates offering transparent OLED screens in early 2016.
Analyst Comments
We are pretty certain that Planar’s screen uses a panel from Samsung Display (SDC), which – as far as we know – is the only company producing large-format transparent OLEDs (if you know different, let me know! – Man. Ed.). LG Display was developing a 60″ model early last year (Display Monitor Vol 21 No 8), but hasn’t released any updates since then. Samsung, however, has shown transparent OLEDs at several events, including 14″ and 30″ models at its own Investor Forum (Samsung Shows 30″ Transparent OLED and Foldables, Display Monitor Vol 21 No 47).
We got an update on SDC’s work at CES (Samsung Display Backs OLED – subscription needed) this year, when we saw a 2×2 videowall of 55″ transparent OLED screens for public displays – possibly using the same panel as Planar is utilising which is said to have transparency of 30% and a wide colour gamut. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures. (TA)
