Analyzing the past, present and future of QD-OLED architecture

QD-OLED is an OLED display architecture, that is based on single-color OLED emitters and color conversion using quantum-dots. This relatively complex architecture was invented years ago as a way to solve the challenges of large-area OLED RGB device deposition.  

In recent years, we have seen successful full-scale commercialization of QD-OLED panels (by Samsung Display), but now in 2025, is there a place for this interestingly but complex device architecture? In this article we discuss the following topics:

• QD-OLED technology and architecture, its advantages and disadvantages
• Samsung's QD-OLED technology, and how it evolved in recent years
• QD-OLED projects at other companies
• Samsung's QD-OLED production capabilities, panels and products
• The future of QD-OLEDs technology

QD-OLED technology and architecture, its advantages and disadvantages

QD-OLED technology first came to the public attention at around 2018. Samsung Display has been looking for ways to produce OLED displays on large substrate. The company did not want to rely on LG's own WRGB (WOLED) technology (which was originally developed at Kodak), and so it turned to the QD-OLED architecture. The basic idea is to use only blue OLED emitters, and deposit quantum dots to convert the light into red and green. For the blue subpixel, the blue light from the blue OLED emitter is unchanged.

As blue is the most challenging OLED emitter, using a single blue emitter will not enable a long-lasting (or bright enough) image, and so it is needed to utilize a stacked architecture. Samsung itself looked at different architectures, and different ways to deposit the OLED and QD materials.