Thursday, January 8th, 2009
Samsung has launched a new press release for “super-thin LED monitors” (http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090107006252/en) that are really LCDs with LED backlight units (BLU). The company’s new P2370L is just 16.5mm thick and uses white LED instead of cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) illumination. Compared to CCLF units, LED BLUs consume 30% less energy, are constructed without mercury, and allow for monitor thickness reduction. The LED BLU is claimed as the reason that the monitor has a 2M:1 contrast ratio, and reproduces more vibrant colors with higher contrast ratios than other monitors, at a $399 MSRP. The P2370L display will ship in late 1Q09.
White LED backlight unit (BLU)
These white LEDs are manufactured by combining blue-emitting InGaN chips and a suitable fluorescent converter. So not only is this “LED monitor” not an LED monitor, but strictly speaking, the light from the LED chip itself is never seen. What is seen is the emission from the excited white phosphor layer (after being filtered), which is not conceptually different from the white phosphor layer inside a CCFL found in a standard LCD display.
Samsung has been working on white LEDs for at least 12 years, since Aixtron delivered MOCVD reactors for this application to Samsung in 1997 (Ref: http://www.aixtron.com/press/semi01.htm). In 2008, Aixtron reports excellent MOCVD business for high-brightness LED applications (http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2008/AUGUST/AIXTRON_080808.htm).
In addition to it’s internally developed technology, Samsung has also received licensed technology from Osram GmbH, the lighting company based in Munich, Germany. In 2004, Samsung entered into a royalty-bearing license agreement with Osram to manufacture and sell white LEDs using Osram’s patented conversion technology. Osram has also signed a patent cross-licensing agreement with Nichia, and also licensed its white LED technology to Rohm, Everlight, and Lite-On (http://compoundsemiconductor.net/cws/article/news/19101).
Greater volume of white LED manufacturing should continue to lower prices. Eventually the world will move to all LED lighting (http://www.pennwellblogs.com/sst/eds_threads/2008/01/080121-smc-highlights-pv-led-and.php?dcmp=WaferNEWS_ARCH), and the light bulb will be the last vacuum tube component to be made obsolete by a solid-state device. –E.K.
Tags: backlight, BLU, FPD, InGaN, LCD, LED, lighting, MOCVD, Osram, Samsung