Already having developed a 21 inch OLED display prototype, Toshiba and Matsushita have now announced that they will release via their joint venture, Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Company, an OLED television, probably 30 inch, by 2009.

Some Quick facts on OLED displays

• OLED substances are electroluminescent – they emit light when a current is applied
• do not require a backlight
• greater color gamut possible
• require far less energy than LCD or Plasma displays
• panels can be very thin
• OLED films can be deposited on a display substrate by a process similar to ink-jet printing promising lower manufacturing costs
• provide very wide viewing angles
• excellent contrast – unlike LCD displays with a backlight OLED films emit no light when off
• the display technology and the manufacturing process do not present limits to possible screen sizes or resolutions
• flexible displays are possible by printing OLED films onto flexible display substrate

Some of the lifetime issues of OLED organic material seem to have been resolved with discoveries like that of blue PHOLED which has a 20,000 hour lifetime. However, displays will have to be well sealed or protected otherwise as moisture can damage organic display materials.

It seems that Toshiba and Matsushita are being realistic about the difficulties of bringing a new technology to the consumer market. ToshibaToshiba’s President and CEO Atsutoshi Nishida has commented that, “We don’t expect that the organic EL can compete from the beginning on the equal footing with the LCD TV, which is released from many manufacturers across the world, but we believe its superiority will be recognized as production volume rises.”

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Company won’t be alone in bringing OLED technology to the television market as Sony has already manufactured OLED display prototypes and is also developing OLED displays for televisions.