As you might expect with new display tech, though, cost is a major obstacle to greater Tandem OLED adoption. Apple is a good illustration of this, Virey said, saying that it’s expected that Apple will use single-stack OLED for OLED-based iPad Airs or iPad Minis (Apple hasn’t publicly confirmed such devices).
I also asked Virey about how Tandem OLED might compete with PHOLED, or phosphorescent OLED, and the analyst said he doesn’t view the technologies as competitors. Today’s OLED gadgets already use red and green phosphorescent OLED, but blue phosphorescent OLED has been elusive. LG Display has reportedly made recent developments in this area, though.
“Once blue PHOLED finally becomes available in 2025 or 2026, most display makers will integrate them in their OLED displays (single or tandem) and deliver further improvement in lifetime, brightness, and efficiency,” Virey said.
With Tandem OLED, MicroLED, and QDEL all limited to production costs and scaling challenges, some technologies may prove more popular with certain gadget types than others. For example, one interesting potential future application to consider is virtual and/or augmented reality. This summer, South Korean publication Sisa Journal reported that LG Display and Samsung Display are working on Tandem Micro OLED. When asked about the implications of this, Virey said tandem structures could help reduce motion artifacts and potential nausea by enabling brighter VR screens. For AR, however, Micro LED “will likely win,” according to Virey.
“For AR glasses, when the display competes directly with outdoor light and the image is being delivered through very inefficient optics, the display brightness must be in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of nits of brightness. No amount of material stacks will get you there with OLED,” Virey said.
As it stands, though, Tandem OLED is already starting to make waves among several device categories and with some big names in tech. OLED is also already a popular category among tech enthusiasts, so there’s a good chance we’ll see more Tandem OLED gadgets released in the near future.