A research team led by a National Tsing Hua University professor yesterday announced that their cost-saving method that makes displays show brighter colors would be used in products being launched later this year.
Existing LCD screens are limited to only 30 percent of visible colors, OLED screens show nearly 50 percent and QLED screens can show 90 percent, materials science and engineering professor Sean Chen (陳學仕) said in a news release, adding that their breakthrough could push that even further.
Despite their better color reflection, quantum dots — semiconductor particles only 3 nanometers (nm) wide that are used in QLED screens — are susceptible to moisture and oxidation and can lose light emitting function, he said.
Photo courtesy of National Tsing Hua University
One of the solutions adopted by Samsung Electronics to stabilize them is to protect them in barrier layers, but the layers might become ineffective if there are cracks, he said.
His team developed shell-like structures around individual quantum dots that resist the effects of water and oxygen, which is an idea inspired by comic book superhero Captain America’s shield, Chen said.
They also control the size difference of the dots within 0.5nm, allowing them to emit different colors evenly, he said.
As the materials involved are delicate, a 60-inch QLED TV could cost NT$160,000, but their method might bring down the production cost, he said, adding that QLED could become the standard for TVs, wearable devices and cellphones.
The research led to the start-up HsinLight Inc (新華光能) in 2018.
The technique is valuable, as every gram of quantum dots costs nearly NT$150,000, said company chief technology officer Liu Meng-chi (劉孟奇), who previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Chen’s laboratory.
The company expects to apply the technique to produce commercial displays by next quarter, he said, adding that China, South Korea and Japan would be their target markets.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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