Samsung Display’s mobile panels could become fully phosphorescent in the second half of 2025. Although it has a similar name to POLED (Plastic OLED), PHOLED (Phosphorescent OLED), which is completely different, is a type of material that Samsung Display’s AMOLED panels currently use for green and red pixels. Still, the company’s AMOLED displays use blue fluorescent materials instead of a blue phosphorescent solution. However, the transition to blue PHOLED may occur in the second half of 2025.
Those who follow the industry initially predicted that Samsung Display would start using blue phosphorescent materials in foldable displays in mid-2024. However, as The Elec reports, the development of the blue phosphorescent material appears to be experiencing problems.
Therefore, the second half of 2025 is stated as the new target, but it is not yet clear whether foldable phones will be the first products to use blue PHOLED. In theory, Galaxy foldable phones like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 could be the first phones to benefit from this upgraded PHOLED technology. However, there are also some durability concerns that may prevent Samsung from using PHOLED in mainstream devices.
At this point, you may be wondering what the advantages of PHOLED are. Samsung Display’s current blue fluorescent solution for AMOLED has an internal luminous efficiency of 25%, while the company’s red and green PHOLEDs have an efficiency of 100%. Samsung Display can reduce overall power consumption by replacing blue fluorescent OLEDs with PHOLEDs.
However, blue PHOLED materials currently in development are said to have a 55% lifetime compared to blue fluorescent materials.
Because of this durability concern, UBI Research Deputy Director Daejong Yoon says that “after research with companies developing blue materials,” popular opinion is that Samsung Display’s first implementation of blue PHOLED may not become mainstream. It is currently unclear whether foldable Galaxy phones to be offered in 2025 are still likely to adopt blue PHOLED materials.
Nevertheless, UBI Research believes that Samsung Display will continue the development of blue PHOLED, as it would be a tremendous achievement for the company to become the world’s first manufacturer capable of mass producing AMOLED panels with blue phosphorescent pixels.
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