Environmental issues
Samsung introduces new low-blue-light AMOLED displays
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.
UL awards Samsung's laptop AMOLED displays with its GREENGUARD Gold Certificate for low chemical emissions
Samsung Display announced that its latest AMOLED laptop displays achieved UL's GREENGUARD Gold Certification for low chemical emissions. This is the first laptop display to achieve this certification (UL 2819).
This certification is awarded to products such as electronic and medical equipment that meet its volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particle emission standards. With LCDs, the backlighting unit can be a major VOC origin due to its use of multiple plastic substrate sheets. According to UL, Samsung's OLED panels reduced the emission of VOCs to about half of LCD's emission.
LG Display details how OLED TV production is more environmentally friendly than LCD production
LG Display says that OLED TV production is more environmentally friendly than LCD TV production. A 65-inch LCD requires around 5.2 Kg of plastic, while a similarly-sized OLED uses only 0.43 Kg of plastics.
LG Display says that in Q1 2021 alone its plastic consumption was lower by 71,550 tons compared to what it would have been if it produced LCD TVs instead of OLED TVs.
LG's OLED TV panels received SGS' Eco-Product certification
LG Display announced that its OLED TV panels have received Eco-Product certification from Swiss-based SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance). LG's OLED TV panels have been recognized as eco-friendly products with low emissions of hazardous substances.
SGS evaluated the overall environmental aspects of OLED TV panels and found their environmental friendliness to be especially notable in three categories covering the lowering of indoor air pollutants, the reduction of hazardous substances, and high recyclability.
NTHU starts producing candlelight OLED lighting desk lamps
Excessive exposure to blue light has been linked to many health issues (including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity and insomnia). Researchers from Taiwan's National Tsing-Hua University, led by Prof. J.H. Jou, have been advocates of candle-light OLED lighting for a long time, as part of their fight against the hazards of LEDs and white light. We recently posted on Prof. Jou's latest research on smartphone display risks and the benefits of OLED displays.
In 2015, Taiwan's PMOLED maker WiseChip Semiconductors licensed National Tsing-Hua University's blue-light free OLED lighting technology (called Candlelight OLEDs), with an aim to mass produce these OLEDs by the end of 2017. That project faced delays, however and now NTHU announced that following a collaboration with China's OLED lighting maker First-o-lite it is now ready to commercialize its technology and NTHU demonstrated the first device to use these new panels - the OLED lighting desk-lamp you can see in the video above (and photo below).
Are OLED smartphones better for your eyes? NTHU researchers say yes
Excessive exposure to blue light has been linked to many health issues - including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity and insomnia. Children, especially, have delicate retinas that are highly susceptible to the dangers of blue light.
Researchers from Taiwan's National Tsing-Hua University, led by Prof. J.H. Jou, have been advocates of candle-light OLED lighting for a long time, as part of their fight against the hazards of LEDs and white light. In 2015, the researchers published a call out to consumers to be aware of the hazards of LEDs and to governments to enact new rules to enforce light-based products to show the light spectrum.
Fraunhofer researchers find that flexible OLEDs are safe for light treatment
The Fraunhofer Institute is working on alternative light sources for photo therapy, and Flexible OLED technology is prime candidate because it is light weight, can be flexed and does not produce almost any heat (unlike LED-based lighting).
Before flexible OLEDs are actually used in such treatment, though, it is important to know if OLEDs carry any potential toxic risks. The Fraunhofer FEP performed an initial study on in vitro cell cultures afflicted by defined damage. The researchers used flexible 10x10 cm green OLEDs, and found that the OLEDs positively stimulated the damaged cells, as expected. The tests showed now cytotoxity in the material systems, including when the OLEDs were bent (this increases the chance of material leakage from the OLEDs).
Researchers from Taiwan urge consumers and governments to watch out from white LED lighting
Taiwan's National Tsing-Hua University is continuing its fight against the hazards of LEDs and white light - a research team from NTHU published a call to the public to think carefully about television, computer, phone, tablet and other LED-based display usage as the white light produced by LEDs can be hazardous.
The researchers say that people should consider new candle-light style lighting sources for reading, residence and street light. They also urge governments and legislators to enact new rules that will force light-based products to show the light spectrum emitted by the product.
Wisechip's candle-light OLEDs installed as street lights in an aboriginal Taiwanese village
Earlier this month, we reported that Taiwan's WiseChip is entering the OLED lighting market with plans to produce candle-light emitting OLEDs using technology developed at Taiwan's National Tsing-Hua University.
Wisechip already started to produce sample panels, and the first ones were setup in an aboriginal village as street lights - embedded inside a bee-hive like mask taken from rotten wood. This tribe, Tai-Yah (also called Atayal), has been without electricty until 1979 (they were known as the "dark tribe"), and currently the use CFL street lights, but rejected a suggestion by the government to install LED lights.
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