I had the opportunity this week to present at the QLED/HDR10 Summit in Hollywood, CA. The Samsung sponsored event was a gathering of experts in quantum dot display technology, and next-generation display content and the technology behind it. While my contribution was focused on quantum dots on LEDs, the topics covered were far broader and more opened my eyes to the breadth of technology and amazing people involved in the display community. Here are some highlights.
Quantum dots
Samsung kicked off the QD session with an in-depth look at their QD materials development. Still committed to InP QDs, they have made amazing progress in improving the optical properties of these materials, inching closer and closer to the performance of Cd-based materials. Samsung claims that 2017 QDLED models will include red and green QDs with <40 nm full-width half max! Pretty amazing progress considering that 3 years ago InP QD performance was insufficient for displays.
Nanoco presented their work on quantum dots to replace current color filters. While there are some clear advantages to a technology like this (brightness, viewing angle, and efficiency just to name a few) there are a lot of problems still to be solved for this application. It was certainly a hot topic with many people debating its feasibility. More on QD color filters in a future blog post.
Other topics in the QD session included perovskite QDs (an amazing new material, but still contains heavy metals), as well as EMD/Merck detailing their plans to create Cd-free materials for QD displays.
Wide color gamut
The reason Samsung and others are using QDs in place of traditional phosphors is to improve the viewing experience by expanding the colors available to display while improving brightness and efficiency. There was a lot of discussion surrounding BT-2020 gamut and heated debates about if a color gamut larger than DCI-P3 is really necessary. Will the average viewer be able to tell the difference? Is it even possible to reach BT-2020? Will this throw a wrench in the video production/post-production/broadcasting of content? I don’t claim to know the answers, and by the spirited discussion, I can tell you that other experts in this field don’t know all of the answers yet either. You can tell from the gamut comparison that displays that contain QDs have a MUCH larger gamut than those without (but you all knew that). And while comparisons like this might be a good sales pitch, what the consumer will actually see with their own eyes is a far more complicated story. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
HDR (High Dynamic Range)
Thanks as always for reading!
