Samsung OLED 40-inch HDTV Announced

[Gregg Lengling]

Seoul, Korea – May 19th, 2005 -- Samsung Electronics, the leader in TFT-LCD technology, today announced that it has successfully developed the world's first single-sheet, 40-inch active matrix (AM) OLED ( organic light-emitting diode ) for emissive flat panel TV applications. The high-definition-compatible OLED prototype has a wide screen pixel format of 1280x800 (WXGA) driven by an amorphous silicon (a-Si) AM backplane to permit faster video response times with low power consumption.

Samsung's 40-inch OLED panel will be demonstrated for the first time at the world's largest display industry event, Society for Information Display (SID) 2005 International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition in Boston, May 24 – 27.

Manufactured on Samsung's fourth generation (4G) production line with a mother-glass size of 730mm x 920mm, the new OLED prototype combines all of the traditional features of emissive OLED technology, including wide viewing angle, thin package size, no color filter and no backlight, with the enormous production infrastructure advantages of standard a-Si techniques. To date, AM OLED prototypes have used costly polysilicon approaches, which have limited production sizes.

Shattering traditional AM OLED size limitations, the new prototype offers a maximum screen brightness of 600 nits; a black-and-white contrast ratio of 5,000:1; and, a color gamut of 80 percent. Motion pictures with ultra-high quality images can be impeccably reproduced by skillfully employing OLED's rapid video response capabilities for image processing of HD-class resolution. The ultra-thin shape of the panels will allow future TV set designers to create televisions with a total thickness of only 3cm or less.

After launching its OLED development initiative in 2001 to secure leadership in next-generation display technologies, Samsung developed a 14.1" WXGA (1280x768) OLED panel in 2004, followed by the world's first 21" HD-class (1920x1080) OLED panel in January, 2005. This ambitious pace of innovation accelerated development of today's unusually large 40-inch OLED prototype, paving the way for large-size OLED TVs.

"Our development of a 40-inch OLED will provide a firm basis from which we can become the unassailable market leader in the flat panel display market of the future," said Dr. Kyuha Chung, vice president of Samsung Electronics LCD R&D Center. "We're taking an early leadership position in the next-generation display market, building on Samsung Electronics' success in the TFT-LCD market."

Samsung Electronics is the supervisory and lead research institution for detailed implementation of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Energy's (MOCIE) Next-Generation Growth Engine Industries Initiative. The latest round of development has been conducted as part of the project, "Development of Solution-Based AM OLED for Low-Cost 4G HDTVs using a-Si."

About Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2004 parent company sales of US$55.2 billion and net income of US$10.3 billion . Employing approximately 123,000 people in 93 offices in 48 countries , the company consists of five main business units: Digital Appliance Business, Digital Media Business, LCD Business, Semiconductor Business and Telecommunication Network Business. Recognized as one of the fastest growing brands, Samsung Electronics is the world's largest producer of color monitors, color TVs, memory chips and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit the web site, http://www.samsung.com.