New nanofilm enhances LCD television performance

Sara Ver-Bruggen - 24 May 2011

Quantum dots (QD) technology firm Nanosys has introduced a film that can enhance colours reproduced by LCD televisions.

The QD Enhancement Film (QDEF) can increase colour gamut by as much as three times. It is applied as an optical film, which can be scaled up to any dimension to include large size flat-panel LCD screens.

According to Jason Hartlove, Nanosys CEO, the QDEF technology will enable display makers to achieve colour clarity of photographic quality.

Display makers can integrate QDEF into current manufacturing without retooling an existing line.

QDEF is made by using Nanosys' QD materials dispersed in a polymer matrix and suspended within an optical film. The advanced material creates an improved quality white light with a wide range of colour hues when excited by a blue LED. The result is better colour and lower power consumption than when using white LEDs.

Televisions

In the next 12-18 months more television display products exploiting QD materials to enhance picture quality will enter the market. UK-headquartered Nanoco is working with a Japanese consumer electronics company that will bring out an LCD television later in 2011 incorporating Nanoco's QD materials in its LED backlight unit.

In 2010 Nanosys commercialised its QD materials in the display industry by launching the QuantumRail, a process-ready component for smaller format LCDs that improves color gamut and power efficiency.

Evident Technologies, another US-based QD technology company, recently entered a patent agreement with Korea's Samsung Electronics, granting Samsung worldwide access to Evident's patent portfolio. This included all products related to QD LEDs, from manufacture of these nanomaterials to final LED production.
The agreement builds on an existing relationship between Evident and Samsung Electronics.

Evident was the first company in the world to commercialise quantum dot LEDs with products launched in 2007, and counts customers in the display and biotech industries.

Evident is now focused on developing next-generation thermoelectric applications using its QD material technology. Thermoelectric devices can be used for solid-state heating and cooling, as well as for converting waste heat into electricity directly.

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