Samsung SDI and LG Philips LCD separately announced new active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) displays.  LG Philips announced the development of the world's first full-color, flexible AMOLED that uses amorphous silicon (a-Si) technology, while Samsung announced the mass production of its new ultra-thin displays.

The Samsung AMOLED display touts a 2.2-inch screen at a 320x240 resolution, 262, 000 color reproduction, a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, with a 100% NTSC color gamut, and a life span of around 50,000 hours when set at 200cd/m2 brightness.  The display also has a thickness of 0.52-mm.

While the LG Philips display holds the same resolution as the Samsung model, this model can reproduce 16.77 million colors.  This 4-inch display stands at a thickness of 150-nm, barely thicker than a human hair.  Its durability and protection against heat is due to a stainless metal foil substrate, improving the manufacturing process and product stability.

“This display capitalizes on the strengths of OLED technology and its image quality is really something to behold,” said Hyunhe Ha, executive vice president and the head of the Small & Medium Displays Business Unit at LG.Philips LCD. “Although we are still in the initial stages with this technology, we expect to make some exciting advances in the near future. LG.Philips LCD is focused on customer-centered technology development to introduce products that customers want.”

Using the a-Si backplane technology, LG is allows to use its existing TFT-LCD production line for the AMOLEDs, making the product commercially viable.  Samsung is starting mass production on its displays, and LG will be showing its display at the Society for Information Display (SID) 2007 in Long Beach, California on May 20th.