Using OLEDs in Mobile Phone Displays Lowers Power Consumption

Dialog Semiconductor has announced its new SmartXtend technology that will allow the main displays of many mobile devices - particularly those offering W-QVGA and QVGA resolution - to utilize passive matrix OLED displays rather than LCD or active matrix OLEDs. Passive matrix OLEDs are available at a much lower cost compared to active matrix OLEDs while providing the same advantages in terms of video quality and performance.

The new SmartXtend technology, which utilizes a number of design techniques including a unique multi-line addressing scheme, dynamic current matching and power management, will form the basis of a new family of display drivers to be developed by Dialog Semiconductor for passive matrix OLEDs. SmartXtend is designed to significantly extend the lifetime of passive matrix OLED displays; it reduces the peak current by up to 30 percent and power consumption by up to 30 percent compared to the conventional passive matrix driving scheme.

Manoj Thanigasalam, general manager of Dialog's displays system business unit, said, "As OLEDs increasingly replace active or passive matrix LCD displays, we believe SmartXtend allows Dialog to develop a roadmap of products that give mobile device manufacturers an alternative to the current trend of using active matrix OLEDS in the primary display. SmartXtend, which is being evaluated by a number of our customers, will allow the use of lower power and lower cost passive matrix OLEDs to be extended to higher resolution main displays on mobile devices."

Posted to the site on 7th February 2008