Quantum dots are the most important technological development that no one has heard of. At least not when compared to the buzz about 4K, curved displays, the Internet of Things, or other Consumer Electronic Show (CES) titans.
It’s not exactly a new technology as scientists first discovered the tech back in 1981. This technology has made cameo appearances at SID Display Week and other optoelectronics events, but CES 2015 was the first to showcase quantum dots on so large a platform.
The quantum dots display at CES 2015 was notable because it was the first show where the difference between this technology and other displays was qualifiable.
The building blocks of a colorful revolution
Quantum dots are essentially semiconductor nanocrystals designed to emit light in a very efficient, lifelike manner. Efficiency is key. High-energy blue light is directed onto phosphorescent “dots” that convert the blue light to either red or green light, depending on their size, and they can be configured to deliver only the color of light desired and little else.
This results in sharper colors at a fraction of the cost, which opens a floodgate of potential applications. Quantum dots found their way into transistors, solar cells, medical imaging, and even quantum computing. Just recently, researchers at Princeton used quantum dots to design a tiny microwave laser (a “maser”) the size of a rice grain with the eventual goal of constructing quantum-computing systems out of semiconductor materials.
Getting into your home
It’s the consumer market where quantum dots figure to shake up the established order, and QD Vision’s unique “Color IQ” technology is at the forefront of this revolution. While most color displays produce only 60 to 70 percent of the National Television System Committee (NTSC) standard for color quality, QD Vision’s IQ optics achieve over 100 percent of the standard.
QD Vision offered ECN a private demo of its Color IQ tech at CES and demonstrated a palpable improvement over existing technologies. Most quantum dot TVs were hit or miss, but, TCL, a China-based electronics company, exhibited QD Vision’s tech in a standout commercial display.
And believe it or not, the company’s original plans were actually far more ambitious.
A brand new paradigm or a complement?
Originally, QD Vision toyed with the idea of Quantum Dot LEDs (QLEDs) replacing today’s LED panels, but after a number of tests, determined the quickest path to commercialization was as a complement to existing LED technologies.
And by integrating their quantum dots with existing solid-state lighting technologies, QD Vision put their own unique spin on these semiconductor nanocrystals. Most iterations apply the dots to the layers of films beneath a display. But this is expensive. According to John Volkmann, Chief Marketing Officer for QD Vision, barrier film can add over $100 to a typical 55″ display’s bill-of-materials (TCL’s H9700 quantum dot TV happens to be of the 55-inch persuasion). The H9700 takes a different route.
With the H9700, QD Vision uses edge optic packaging to dramatically reduce costs. “By definition, edge-lit solutions are going to be lower cost, because of how seamlessly they integrate into today’s fully-depreciated LED manufacturing processes,” says Volkmann.
The company applies a thin glass tube – which looks like a long, yellow thermometer – along the edge of an LED display, often behind the bezel. And the results speak for themselves. You could readily detect the sharp improvement (see figure 1) over “regular” LED and OLED displays.
To date, TCL is the only manufacturer utilizing QD Vision’s optics – and the H9700 is only available in China (for now) – but Philips and AOC have each announced monitors based on these edge-lit quantum dots for the first half of this year. And other OEMs should follow suit throughout 2015.
The consumer display market is frantically searching for the “next big thing.” Stereoscopic (and auto-stereoscopic) 3-D crashed and burned after it failed to connect with the public – who weren’t convinced it was enough of an upgrade over their “obsolete” LED and OLED TVs. Quantum dots – with its sharp color palate and integration with existing technologies – could be that demonstrable upgrade, and QD Vision should be at the forefront of that “colorful revolution.”