OLED TV: Introduction and Industry News - Page 2

Rrings.com posted a very interesting article, in which they detail the results of their ongoing TV longevity test, in which they test 102 TVs to see which one lasts the longest. The test has been going on for three years. In general - most TVs were fine for the first 10,000 of use, but 20 TVs died during the test and 24 suffered from some sort of damage.

The most interesting takeaway is that OLED TVs actually suffered from less failures than LCDs. Most people assume that the lower lifetime of the organic materials (compared to the in-organic LEDs and LCs used in LCDs) means that the TVs are less reliable. But OLED burn-in has been consistently shown to be mostly a non-issue for most consumers, and the LED backlighting has a much higher chance of failure.

Researchers from Yonsei University, in collaboration with LG Display, have finally understood why magnesium fluoride improves the performance of OLED devices. LG Display has been using the material in its WOLED TV panels as a hole injection layer, but it was not understood what is the actual mechanism behind the performance improvement.

Magnesium fluoride has been known as an insulator material, which should have made it a poor HIL material. However, it was now discovered that when magnesium fluoride mixes with organic semiconductors it actually pulls electrons from the organic molecules. Even without external stimuli, electron transfer occurs naturally the moment organic materials and magnesium fluoride are mixed.

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

LG Display reported its financial results for Q3 2025, with revenues of $4.87 billion USD, up 25% from the second quarter, and up 2% from last year. LG reported an operating profit of $300 million, and a small net profit of $0.7 million (due to one-off expenses related to workforce optimization) . The company is on track for a profitable year in 2025, for the first time in 4 years.

LG Display's strong revenues in the quarter were driven by higher OLED panel shipments - in all of its segments, both large-area panels and mobile AMOLED displays. OLED products accounted for 65% of total revenues, the highest proportion to date.

According to a report in Korea, LG Display has decided to adopt stainless steel in more of its OLED displays, as the company aims to reduce production costs. Specifically, it will start to adopt the new material in its mobile AMOLED displays

Last year LGD started to use stainless steel instead of invar (a combination of steel and nickel), applied to the top of the (bottom-emitting) WOLED displays. These foils protect the screens from water and oxygen. Invar was easier to use (as it has the same thermal expansion coefficient of glass), but it is estimated that a 55-inch invar metal foil costs about $15, and about $2 more than a stainless still foil. 

Samsung Electronics says that its 2025 S95F OLED TV was certified as offering a deep black color under bright environments through its glare-free technology by the Verband der Elektrotechnik (VDE) institute.

The certification acknowledges that Samsung's TV delivers reflection-free black images, measured at below 0.005 nits in dark environments, while also offering clear colors under direct sunlight.

LG Display announced that its fourth-generation WOLED panels have been verified by UL Solutions for Perfect Reproduction technology under lighting conditions of up to 500 lux, which is the brightness of a living room in broad daylight.

This verification is for displays that most perfectly reproduce original content, including color and brightness, even in bright environments. It recognizes that LG Display’s fourth-generation OLED panels accurately reproduce over 95% of original images, based on 4K video (approximately 8.3 million pixels). Last year LG's WOLED displays earned UL Solutions’ Perfect Black and Perfect Color verifications.

Stacked, or tandem, OLED architecture involves integrating multiple OLED emission units vertically within a display panel, rather than just one as in traditional OLEDs. By stacking these layers, each can contribute to the overall light output, enabling higher brightness and efficiency – and also longer lifetime as each OLED device is driven at a lower current. Technically, a tandem device includes exactly 2 layers, but this term is now loosely used to describe any stacked OLED.

Standard RGB OLED stack, vs Tandem RGB stack (source: Excyton)

The stacked OLED structure is particularly valuable for applications where high brightness (including in HDR scenarios), efficiency (although this is not dramatic) and durability are essential – mostly IT devices (laptops and tablets), microdisplays and automotive displays. OLED TV panel makers have also adopted stacked architectures, but for slightly different reasons (which we will discuss below). Companies are developing novel stacked based architectures. In this article, we discuss:

• The advantages and disadvantages of stacked architectures
• The current architecture used by OLED panel makers
• The stacked designs of LG’s WOLEDs and Samsung QD-OLEDs panels
• The latest innovative technologies
• The future of the stacked OLED industry and markets

UBI Research says that Samsung Display's mid-large OLED panel shipments reached 4.9 million panels, up 58.2% from Q1 2025 (3.1 million). In the mid-large panel category, UBI includes panels for IT devices (monitors, tablets, laptops), TVs and automotive applications.

The main market for these panels for SDC is laptops with 2.5 million units, more than double than the shipments in the first quarter. UBI believes SDC will ship around 10 million laptop OLEDs in 2025, and over 15 million in 2026 when it starts shipping panels to Apple's MacBook Pro series.