We have the blues and it's because we don't feel it.
According to FlatpanelsHD, during its Q2 funding announcement, Universal Display Corporation (UDC), a leading developer and manufacturer of OLED display technology, announced that the commercial launch of its blue phosphorescent OLED technology would be delayed until the second half of 2025.
Previously, the deployment was planned for the second half of 2024.
According to Korean newspaper The Elec, Samsung announced last fall that it had pushed back the implementation of blue PHOLED TV technology to the second half of 2025. This matches the SVP's timeline and potentially puts the technology in homes in 2026 at the earliest.
PHOLED for everyone?
To understand why this delay is a problem for the TV industry—and potentially your home theater—let’s go over the basics. Red and green phosphor OLED technology has been around for a while now. If you already own one of the best OLED TVs, you may even have red and green PHOLEDs in your living room right now. In fact, part of the reason you may own an OLED TV today is a direct result of the development of red and green PHOLEDs, as they allow for energy-efficient and longer-lasting OLED displays due to their material composition.
Blue PHOLEDs have proven more difficult to develop, however, due to the large amount of energy that blue requires to be, well, blue. All that energy turns into heat, and higher heat means a shorter lifespan for your fancy new TV. No one wants to actively destroy their TV just by looking at it, right?
That’s why most OLED displays mix the two types. The LG C4 OLED, for example, combines red and green PHOLEDs with blue fluorescent OLEDs. A QD-OLED like the Samsung S95D uses blue fluorescent OLEDs exclusively, as it leverages quantum dots to create red and green. Each TV’s approach to creating red, green, and blue is different, but in both cases, blue is the one that just doesn’t pull its weight, comparatively speaking.
With integrated blue PHOLEDs, both of these TVs, and especially the QD-OLED, would be much more energy efficient. Your OLED TV would have been cheaper to manufacture and would most likely have a longer lifespan. There is even a chance that it would display a brighter picture. In other words, everyone wins.
For now, commercially available blue PHOLEDs remain out of reach – a blue dream, if you will. So don’t throw away your OLED TV just yet, is what I say.