Researchers develop cheaper OLED technology

"There is no good solution to make OLED electronics that can be scaled up inexpensively," says Andrew Rinzler, professor of physics at the University of Florida. Rinzler led the work on developing a type of electronics for OLEDs that he hopes will provide such a solution. The work was funded in part by the venture capital firm Nano Holdings.

The pixels in OLED displays use transistors to stimulate organic molecules, which then emit different colors of light. OLED displays do not need the light-wasting filters that make LCDs such energy hogs. But LCDs dominate the market in large part because the amorphous-silicon transistor arrays used to drive LCDs can be made over areas as big as a single-car garage door and then sliced into smaller pieces to make displays for TVs and other devices. Manufacturing at this scale helps keep costs down.