Interested In Science?

OK, very quick post as just about purely B-E-A-utiful technology. Below is the newest prototype OLED screen from Sony, as recently (today) mentioned on GIZMODO.com.

STUNNING. At 0.01inches thick and a still impressive resolution of 960×540, it makes me, quite frankly, sick.

Read more at GIZMODO.

interestedinscience.com © 2008

I missed this last week whilst on holiday, but on 18.03.08 Chem. Comm. published a Chinese group’s work on the development of an Iridium dopant for OLEDs which allows, potentially, 100% conversion of energy into light!

The inclusion of the dopant highlights the importance of heavy metals in (ironically termed??) OLEDs. Fully organic LEDs cannot achieve better than 25% due to the nature of the excited states being formed and the ratio of emissive:non-emissive ‘excitons’ (N.B. this isn’t the best use of the word but allow me some poetic license here please!!). Inclusion of the heavy metal (sometimes platinum, more often iridium) allows conversion of the non-emissive ‘excitons’ to be converted to emissive ones (intersystem crossing - see a jablonski diagram for more info on this!).

Ha ha! At last some certifiable published research/progress on the flat-screen/organic electronics-printing front (sorry for that appauling intro…it’s early).

Japanese scientists have published in PNAS (see citation at bottom - next edition) a method to reliably print flat screen panels using a fancy new inkjet style printer (see also BBC News). The technique allows them to circumvent the problems of todays silicon-based flat panel printing processes which in order to obtain maximum purities and performances have yielded to higher processing temperatures, increased manufacturing costs, and thus a higher price for the consumer - exactly what plastic electronic technology is designed to help combat.

The inkjet printers are able to print dots of 1 micron (a millionth of a meter, 1×10-6m, a thousandth of a millimeter…very small!) on to a flexible organic semiconductor. Current printing techniques are limited in their abilities to replicate the resolutions achieved by silicon-based devices and other lithographic techniques for several reasons - one being surface tension of the inks. This new printing technique allows droplet volumes of less than 1 femtolitre - a millionth that which recent techniques allowed.

All in all…yes! Very happy with this development.
See citation below for full article…

Sekitani, T., Noguchi, Y., Zschieschang, U., Klauk, H., Someya, T. (2008). Organic transistors manufactured using inkjet technology with subfemtoliter accuracy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0708340105

interestedinscience.com © 2008

This gadget is superb. I can’t vouch for the quality of the screens produced, the resolution is stated but I wouldn’t like to even offer an opinion on them, but they look fantastic!

A friend of mine who is a bit of a computer-boff told me about the keyboard a couple of weeks ago, but I’d clean forgot about them until I was just surfing whilst waiting on a reaction to heat up

Here are the image and links to where these amazing devices can be purchased from.

http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/

It looks the part…and unfortunately will probably cost more than the computer with which you’re using it. But oh good god it’s a piece of style.

For the record I am not in the employment of the designers or sellers of this keyboard - I actually believe that these keyboards need no selling, as they sell themselves quite well I reckon!

If anyone who reads this blog has one or has ordered one, please leave a review when you’ve seen just how good it is!

interestedinscience.com © 2007

OK, so not directly a development in science but more good impetus for the industry and general research.

Universal Display Corporation have been awarded US$200K by the US DOE (Department of Energy) to aid their research into SOLED™ (stacked organic light emitting diodes) technology, in an attempt to produce WOLED™ technology (white OLEDs) of high efficiency. Also described by a second grant is the aim to increase the performance of their PHOLED (phosphorescent OLEDs) technology with increased size of display panel. Says President and Chief Operating Officer of UDC Steven Abramson:

“We are pleased to continue our work with the US Department of Energy to demonstrate further advancements in our white OLED technology.”

I bet they are! OLEDs are the science behind a new flat-panel screen technology that will soon take over LCD (liquid crystal display), TFT (thin film transistor) and Plasma screens.

Many scientists envision a highly flexible, paper-thin sheet of organic material which can be used in much the same way as todays TFT screens are, but which display a higher resolution for a wider viewing angle, as well as being cheaper to process. Screens made of such material are already being incorporated into consumer electronics, such as phones and PDAs, flat screen televisions and, my favourite, the Aston Martin DB9 instrumentation panel.

The science behind these screens is fascinating (I know, my thesis is partly based on it!) and the fact that such an advanced technology, only conceived at most 12 years ago, is now in full production is simply fantastic. The futuristic look and the projected low costs is a massive attraction with this technology, but nothing is as attractive as their potential power efficiencies.

Example OLED device, taken from www.mygadgetbag.com

Keep checking these pages as this is one subject I will definitely be coming back to.

interestedinscience.com ©  2007