In 2023 I wrote about NanoLED — a new type of display technology that uses directly visible quantum dots to form the base of the screen. While others use competing types quantum dots to help backlight produce color, the dots in this case are actually self-illuminating – they Are the screen. This technology, which is so new it doesn’t have an official name, promises thinner, brighter and more colorful screens than what’s even possible with quantum dot-enhanced OLED.
Also known as QDEL (and ELQD and QD-LED), it will still be a few years before we see this technology in real products, but it will be interesting to see how quickly things develop. It was only 2 years ago that I saw an early prototype that was only 6 inches. Now there are working 14-inch screens in a laptop and monitors up to 18.2 inches. Here’s why that’s exciting.
Electro-what?
An exploded diagram of a nanoLED pixel.
We’ve talked about electroluminescent quantum dots a few times This top secret prototype rendering will blow your mind, What is NanoLED? The next technology explained on the big screenAnd The Quantum Dot TV of the future takes a big step forward. Here’s the explanation of why this technology is so interesting and could potentially become the next big thing in displays.
All displays, whether on your phone, laptop, or TV, require two basic things to create an image: light and a way to manipulate that light into something useful. All LCD TVs, which make up the majority of the TV market and currently anything that isn’t OLED, have these two aspects separated. There’s a backlight that creates the light, and then a layer of liquid crystals that manipulates it into an image. OLED screens integrate both into one. Each pixel creates its own light and can be manipulated to create an image. There are pros and cons to each technology we cover OLED vs. LED vs. MiniLED vs. LCD: Which is Best?.
A cross-section of how different technologies create light. Please note that the star rating is subjective and comes from a manufacturer.
Most modern mid-range and high-end TVs use this quantum dots in this mix. Quantum dots are microscopic particles that can convert one wavelength of light (one color) into another. For example, blue light becomes red or green. Because of their efficiency in this area, quantum dot TVs can be cheaper to build, brighter and more colorful.
Vials with glowing quantum dots illuminated by a UV flashlight.
Until now, all quantum dots used in displays have been photoluminescent, meaning they use one color of light to illuminate another color. For example, blue LEDs are used to create the TV’s blue light and, via quantum dots of different sizes, also the red and green light. Electroluminescent quantum dots create light directly with electricity, cutting out the middleman. QDEL screens potentially offer the picture quality of OLED TVs, less complexity than LED LCDs, with theoretically lower production costs than either. The technology isn’t quite at that level yet, but several companies are working on that capability, several of which showed off their latest at SID Display Week.
Bigger and bigger
Understandably, most companies don’t publish their prototypes and research. I was one of the first journalists to see the QDEL prototype in 2023, and I couldn’t reveal who the manufacturer was at the time (it was Sharp). I had followed their more visible partner, Nanosys, for years. They are still one of the largest manufacturers of quantum dots, and I toured their factory last year (it looks like a microbrewery). Although Sharp didn’t publicly show off any new developments during this year’s Display Week, behind the scenes they had a 1.39-inch screen with 326ppi, which is a similar resolution to many phone screens. They also had a 12.3-inch 167ppi screen, which is about the screen resolution of a laptop.
TCL’s QD-EL (their name for the technology) laptop screen prototype. It has a resolution of 2880×1800, with a claimed brightness of 350 nits and variable refresh up to 120 Hz. It is built using inkjet printing, which has the potential to be an extremely cheap means of production.
Laptops are the least surprising first use for QDEL displays, as there are high-end laptops that have the latest technology and no “high-end” tablets that do the same (even Apple only has one OLED in a tablet this year). Along those lines, TCL CSOTthe production branch of the company that makes some of our favorite TVsshowed a 14-inch screen, presented as a laptop screen. TCL says this is 2-3 years after production. The potential is for even thinner, lighter laptops, possibly with longer battery life, all with better image quality than today’s LCD screens.
Samsung showed off a huge (for tech) 18.2-inch monitor:
Samsung Display, the manufacturing arm of Samsung, showed what they call QD-LED. At 18.2 inches, this is a huge screen for this next-generation technology. It has a resolution of 3200×1800 and a claimed brightness of around 250 nits. Like the TCL screen above, it is built using inkjet printing.
Seeping forward
You can’t buy products with QDEL yet, but progress continues behind the scenes. Many of the biggest names in display manufacturing are investing a lot of R&D into this technology, and it’s easy to see why. They all see the potential of displays that perform as well or better than current technology, while being easier and cheaper to produce. In many cases it even leverages some of the experience and expertise used with the quantum dot technology used in today’s TVs.
Eventually we’ll see phones and hopefully eventually ‘paper-thin’ TVs and more. I wouldn’t be surprised if even larger models are publicly shown at CES 2025 in the coming months. I can’t wait.
In addition to audio and display technology, Geoff does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, medieval castlesepic Road trips of 10,000 kilometers and more.
Also check out Budget Travel for Dummieshis travel book and his bestselling science fiction novel about city submarines. You can follow him Instagram And YouTube.
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