A report by Ars Technica says that QDEL technoloy, short for ‘quantum dot electroluminescent’, is being viewed as the next landmark display technology after OLED.
image: Digital Trends
QDEL has gone by other names, such as QLED (before Samsung claimed that acronym for LCD-LED TVs that use quantum dots).
QDEL has also been referred to as QD-EL, QD-LED, or EL-QD. None of those technologies is actualy available to buy just yet. Suppliers suggest that could change in the next few years; Nanosys is targeting 2026 for commercial availability. Ars Technica feels that that timeline is rather ambitious.
David Hsieh, senior research director for displays at research firm Omdia, told Ars Technica he expects QDEL will most impact TVs, PC displays, and the automotive industry. If commercialised and mass-produced, QDEL can have a cost-to-performance ratio better than that of OLED, but it would still struggle to compete with LCD-LED on a cost basis.
Today’s OLED screens use OLED material as their light source, with QD-OLED specifically applying quantum dots to convert the light into colour. In QLED, the light source is a white backlight; QDEL displays apply electricity directly to quantum dots, which then generate light.
image: Ishida et. al/Information Display
QDEL uses a layer of quantum dots sandwiched between an anode and cathode to facilitates the flow of electricity into the quantum dots. QDEL displays have pixels made of a red quantum dot subpixel, green quantum dot subpixel, and—differing from today’s QLED and QD-OLED displays—blue quantum dot subpixel. QDEL displays use the same quantum dot cores that QD-OLED and QLED products use, Nanosys’ Yurek told Ars Technica, adding, “The functionalisation of the outer layer of the [quantum dots] needs to be changed to make it compatible with each display architecture, but the cores that do the heavy lifting are pretty much the same across all of these.”
Because QDEL pixels make their own light and can therefore turn off completely, QDEL displays can deliver the same blacks and contrast as OLED, but with the use of direct-view quantum dots, stakeholders are claiming the potential for wider colour gamuts seen in displays before. With fewer layers and parts, there are also implications for QDEL product pricing, longevity, and even thinness.
QDEL stakeholders claim that the tech could bring efficiencies like lower power consumption and higher brightness than OLED.
