Semiconductor Energy Laboratory, a technology developer from Japan, has developed the industry’s first 8.3 and 13.3-inch OLED displays featuring an 8K resolution. The monitors use crystalline oxide semiconductor technology and they are likely preliminary designs for future product commercialization. The company also recently showcased a bendable 8.6-inch OLED panel, potentially for a foldable tablet or smartphone.

Size Resolution PPI Refresh
Rate
Bendy
8.3-inch 7680 x 4320 1062 60 Hz -
13.3-inch 7680 x 4320 663 120 Hz -
8.6-inch 1900 x 1200 263 60 Hz Yes

Both of SEL’s OLED panels featuring a 7680×4320 resolution use a color filter that relies on CAAC-IGZO (c-axis aligned crystalline indium gallium zinc oxide) material. The 8.3-inch 8K panel can boast with a rather high pixel density of 1061 pixels per inch and has a refresh rate of 60 Hz. The larger 13.3-inch 8K panel features a pixel density of 662 PPI, but has a refresh rate of 120 Hz, which is particularly high for an OLED. The 8.3-inch 8Kp60 OLED was demonstrated last month at SEMICON Japan, whereas the 13.3-inch 8Kp120 OLED currently exists only in SEL’s labs.

The 8.3-inch display is 1062 PPI. For comparison, Sony's Z5 Premium with a 5.5-inch display and 4K resolution was 801 PPI. At 8.3-inches, it's a little big for a smartphone, so it will be interesting if that size can come down a little bit. 8K at 6.5-inches would be 1355 PPI, so the power draw would be quite interesting.

Other notable developments of SEL include a foldable 8.6-inch OLED panel with an 1920×1200 resolution rated for 10,000 bend/unbend cycles (that is 27.4 folds per day over a year) as well as OLED panels capable of displaying the BT.2020 color space.

The primary focus of Semiconductor Energy Laboratory’s work is development of crystalline oxide semiconductor technologies for various applications including chips and displays. CAAC-IGZO is recognized as one of next-generation materials that enable high-resolution low-power displays, so SEL is working on its practical implementations. Being an IP-licensing company, SEL does not have its own production capacities, so it will need a partner to make CAAC-IGZO-based 8K OLEDs a reality.

Related Reading

Source: Optronics Online

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  • edzieba - Friday, December 21, 2018 - link

    Computational displays. Such a high pixel density means even a naive lenticular lightfield display would have an acceptable angular resolution.
  • norazi - Saturday, December 22, 2018 - link

    VR...
  • Samus - Saturday, December 22, 2018 - link

    Could be really good for VR headsets, but even Carmack stated that 4K was mostly unneccessary for a VR headset a few years ago. Maybe he'll change his tune when the tech becomes viable.
  • Oxford Guy - Friday, December 28, 2018 - link

    AMD had a scientist publish a whitepaper that claimed 16K is needed for full VR fidelity.

    People, though, should remember that foveated rendering is absolutely essential for VR realism so 16K of pixels won't need to be fully rendered in any scene. It's not the way the eye works. In fact, the highest-resolution part of the eye can only see a small portion of the overall visual image we see at a time.
  • Oxford Guy - Friday, December 28, 2018 - link

    According to tftcentral's Visual Acuity article, this sharpest part is the foveola, which is a subset of the fovea:

    Wikipedia:

    "The foveola is approximately 0.35 mm in diameter and lies in the center of the fovea."
  • zodiacfml - Sunday, December 23, 2018 - link

    For OLED with the pentile design sure does. I find Nexus 5 display sharper than my Samsung S8 which has higher DPI. My eyes are not perfect anymore in my 30s.
  • NXTwoThou - Wednesday, December 26, 2018 - link

    If they are able to get the higher refresh one and same pixel density and make it any size they want, sure. Screens for VR headsets.
  • Gasaraki88 - Thursday, December 27, 2018 - link

    VR headset displays.
  • theuglyman0war - Friday, December 28, 2018 - link

    should be a boon to VR enthusiasts hoping for resolution race in small screens so they can benefit with immersive fidelity.
  • nagi603 - Friday, December 21, 2018 - link

    ...so is the table correct (and thus the title incorrect, as those are only 4K, which is not an achievement today), or the table is screwed up totally?

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