Fed up with hard-to-read displays?
A nanotech breakthrough, discovered by Professor Zhenghong Lu of the University of Toronto, may help you ‘see the light’. The University of Toronto Innovations Foundation (UTIF) and Norel Optronics Inc. are bringing to market a new generation of Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays that use a nanomaterial known as fullerene — a recently discovered form of carbon different than diamond or graphite — that until now has had great promise, but no mass market applications.
Conventional LED technology is not suitable for high-resolution displays, and liquid crystal displays are difficult to read in bright light and require backlighting, which burns lots of power. OLED displays avoid many of the problems associated with LCDs, and are being touted by some firms as the technology that will make LCDs obsolete. But still they require performance improvements before they can displace LCDs.
Professor Lu’s nanotechnology innovation is claimed to revolutionize OLED performance, including the delivery of 50 to 100 percent more power efficiency, lower drive voltage and power consumption, improved lifetime and stability, and better colour tunability.
“Many consider this to be a breakthrough enabling technology and may very possibly be the first nanomaterial application to make it to mass production” said Adi Treasurywala, President and CEO of UTIF. One year ago, UTIF entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Norel to commercialize the patent-pending technology. Commercialization is now well underway.