Blue light hazard

LG Display announced that its third-generation WOLED META TV panels have earned UL Solutions' Platinum eye safety rating and the UL Mark for low blue light. LGD's panels earned a score of 36%, the lowest among all existing TV panels (conventional LCDs range from 70-80%, and lower scores are better). 

This year, UL Solutions has implemented more stringent criteria for measuring blue light emissions in an effort to give consumers more reliable information, with program ratings now classified as Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. The top rating, Platinum, is awarded to display products with blue light wavelength emissions that sit below 40% of the total blue light wavelength emissions.

During iMID 2023, Universal Display discussed the company's RGBB display architecture, highlighting the advantages regarding color gamut and color reproduction.The RGBB architecture basically adds a fourth OLED subpixel, a light-blue (or cyan) one to a standard RGB deep-color stack.

The current approach to achieve a large color gamut (UDC targets BT.2020) is to use emitters with a narrow spectrum, which enables high color gamut. But there's a catch - each person has a different color perception, and some people are less sensitive to certain colors compared to the "average observer". This causes a display that is based on narrow-spectrum emitters to suffer from distorted perceived colors.

Independent testing and certification leader TÜV Rheinland has awarded LG's OLED TV and monitor panels with its 'Circadian Friendly' certification. LG's OLEDs are the first displays to ever receive this award. 

TÜV Rheinland new 'Circadian Friendly' certification is given to products that meet the standards of minimizing their impact on people's quality of life during the day and promote better sleep at night. These products undergo rigorous testing based on the 'Circadian Stimulus' metric, designed by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center.

Samsung has demonstrated new AMOLED display panels that offer a lower blue-light emission compared to its current low-blue-light AMOLEDs. Samsung says that the new display reduces blue light emission by 70% compared to 'conventional' displays (which probably means LCD displays, not standard AMOLEDs).

Samsung brands these new displays as Gen-2 LBL (low-blue-light) AMOLEDs, and says that the lower blue light emission was achieved by a combination of the latest OLED emitter materials and advanced AI software. Samsung is mostly targeting laptop displays, saying that the new Gen-2 LBL displays can achieve a brightness of up to 2,000 nits. Samsung will start producing Gen-2 LBL AMOLEDs by the end of 2023.

Blue light management expert Eyesafe, togethe with LG Display, published a white paper that examines the major display technologies for television, including LCD and OLED, and their potential influence on eye health and circadian rhythm. Exposure to blue light affects sleep cycles by suppressing levels of melatonin in the brain.

One of the benefits of OLED TV is its naturally low blue light emissions as compared to those of traditional LCD TVs on the market. "Even while maintaining perfect black and high contrast characteristics with excellent picture quality, OLED provides the user with better eye comfort and viewing experience".

Taiwan's National Tsing-Hua University (NTHU) Professor Jou and Dr. Wen have been developing OLED lighting technologies for many years, focusing on healthy bluelight-free OLEDs (so-called candle-light OLEDs) due to the hazards of modern lighting.

The researchers now report they have developed a new tandem-OLED device that improves the efficiency and lifetime of their candle-light OLEDs. The OLED's emission is totally blue-light free, which makes it even safer compared to NTHU's first-gen candle-light OLEDs.

Taiwan's National Tsing-Hua University (NTHU) Professor Jou has been researching the hazards of blue light for many years, warning us against the hazards of modern lighting and focusing on OLED lighting as the technology that enables low blue-light emission lighting. In 2015, NTHU started to develop its low blue-light candle-light orange-type OLED technology, initially in collaboration with Wisechip and later with China-based OLED lighting producer First-o-lite.

NTHU has been promoting these candle-light OLEDs for the Smangus tribe in Taiwan's Jianshi Township which has been avoiding artificial light pollution. NTHU and the tribe managed to raise money to produce 240 OLED lamps, 90 for street lights and the rest to light up more than 100 cabins in the tribe's village. This is a beautiful project and hopefully will bring more attention to the hazards of blue light and the advantages of OLED lighting technologies.

NTHU professor Jou has been researching the hazards of blue light for many years, warning us against the hazards of modern lighting and focusing on OLED lighting as the technology that enables low blue-light emission lighting.

In 2015, NTHU started to develop its low blue-light candle-light orange-type OLED technology, initially in collaboration with Wisechip and later with China-based OLED lighting producer First-o-lite.

In 2010 Universal Display announced a new AMOLED display architecture called RGB1B2 that uses two blue sub-pixels - a fluorescent deep-blue and a phosphorescent light blue. The introduction of a light blue sub-pixel can significantly extend the operational lifetime of an OLED display and reduce the display's power consumption by as much as 33%.

The RGB1B2 was never adopted (one of the reasons is that adding another sub pixel complicates the TFT backplane and has other disadvantages - but the architecture is now again on the table and UDC presented it again at OLED Korea 2019.

In 2014 we reported that the Tai-Yah (also called Atayal) tribe, the "dark tribe", has started to test National Tsing-Hua University's blue-free OLED lighting panels (produced by WiseChip).

These early candle-light street OLEDs were not suitable for that environment, and NTHU researchers say that mountain dew rapidly shorted the wires. But not NTHU has stepped up its efforts and teamed up with First-o-Lite to produce a new version of its panels. This time the researchers are positive that its new panels will enable the entire village to adopt blue-hazard free lighting,