Low Cost, High Definition Transparent Display Developed Through Nanotechnology

Researchers from MIT and Harvard departments of Physics, and the US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center have teamed up to develop a low cost, scalable, and high resolution display system using nanoparticles that can be displayed on transparent glass.

The system works by applying silver nanoparticles on a transparent glass screen. Like a filter, this allows other colors to pass through leaving the color used by the laser projector to show up on the display. The nanoparticles interact with a single color and lets others go through just like regular glass.

As an example, the transparent display in the picture above shows the blue MIT logo on the glass screen but not on the three cups behind it. (Image credit: Chia Wei Hsu and Bo Zhen)

Applications for this technology are varied from flexible and scrollable displays, 3D transparent screens, and even peel-and-stick projection foils. Windows of buildings can be used for advertising as it only entails applying the nanoparticle layer on it.

The transparent display is scalable allowing high definition images to come up even on large displays. It is even inexpensive. The demo unit only cost less than ten dollars to develop.

New OLED Developed: Spin Polarized Organic LED (Spin OLED)

Demonstration of a conventional flexible OLED device

Light Emitting Diodes (LED) uses a standard semiconductor to generate light in different colors. Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) uses an organic polymer or plastic semiconductors to generate light.

They produce light on their own, do not generate heat, and are thin and flexible.

OLEDs are currently used as display units in small devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players. Not to be confused with LCD screens, these type of dispaly screens do not need to be backlit with LEDs or lamps.

Some commercial visual displays also use OLED screens. Most of these screens use AMOLED (Active Matrix OLED) technology as they have a higher resolution than Passive Matrix OLEDs. An AMOLED screen has a thin-film transistor that switches each individual pixel on or off giving it better control and clarity of the image. Current manufacturing costs are what hinders this type of screen of breaking into the

University of Utah physicists invent 'spintronic' LED

University of Utah physicists invented a new "spintronic" organic light-emitting diode or OLED that promises to be brighter, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than the kinds of LEDs now used in television and computer displays, lighting, traffic lights and numerous electronic devices.

"It's a completely different technology," says Z. Valy Vardeny, University of Utah distinguished professor of physics and senior author of a study of the new OLEDs in the July 13, 2012 issue of the journal Science. "These new organic LEDs can be brighter than regular organic LEDs."

The Utah physicists made a prototype of the new kind of LED – known technically as a spin-polarized organic LED or spin OLED – that produces an orange color. But Vardeny expects it will be possible within two years to use the new technology to produce red and blue as well, and he eventually expects to make white spin OLEDs.

However, it could be five years before the new LEDs hit the market because right now, they operate at temperatures no warmer than about minus 28 degrees Fahrenheit, and must be improved so they can run at room temperature, Vardeny adds.