At CES last year, I drove to Vegas just to see a prototype of a next-generation display called nanoLED. If you've never heard of it, you've probably heard of the technology behind it: quantum dots. While the prototype was cool enough for me to drive for eight hours over two days, it was still just a small prototype. The Nintendo Switch-sized screen was larger than a home theater.
Things have moved quickly in the past year. in Consumer Electronics Show 2024Nanosys showed off a much larger prototype. It's not as big as a TV yet, but it's a big step.
NanoLEDspecifically electroluminescence, also known as “direct vision” quantum dots, is more advanced than current television technologies such as LED, LCD or OLED. It features improved image quality, energy saving and manufacturing efficiency. In theory, they are very easy to produce, and could enter the sci-fi world of displays on everything from eyeglasses to windshields and windows, similar to transparent OLED and Micro-LED displays. Here's what we know.
Read more: The best TVs at CES 2024
Direct-vision quantum dots grow
Sharp's prototype has a modest 1920 x 720 resolution, though that will certainly be higher in the production model.
At 12.3 inches, the new nanoLED display is a very usable size. Not for TV, of course, but certainly for tablets, small laptops, and car uses. The new prototype's resolution was much higher too, at 1920 x 720. Sure, 167 ppi isn't an amazing resolution, but again, this is very much pre-production.
Although perhaps not as interesting as the pixel size and display, one of the most important aspects of this prototype is that it was manufactured under atmospheric pressure. The previous prototype required a vacuum chamber. This is a big step towards cost-effective manufacturing.
NanoLED technology has the potential to be thinner and more efficient than OLED technology.
Sharp is Nanosys' manufacturing partner and built this prototype. Although Sharp has been out of the TV business in the US since 2015, it has not abandoned the TV market completely and regained its brand name for use in North America in 2019. The company has many firsts in the TV market, including the first LCD TV, dating back to 1992, sold its first 8K TV in 2016. It's also worth noting that it's majority owned by a small company called Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Limited, also known as Foxconn, a huge manufacturer that makes iPhones. Kindle, PlayStation and more.
Some methods of producing nano LEDs.
What does the future hold? Neither Nanosys nor Sharp revealed this. It's not hard to guess that we'll see a larger prototype, perhaps even before the next CES, and perhaps with a higher resolution. Sharp has already revealed in a recent white paper that it has managed to achieve 3,994 pixels per inch on its silicon wafer, with promising results of up to 6,048 pixels per inch, which could give it a higher resolution than Apple's much-touted micro-OLED. TVs don't need that kind of precision, but it's promising for the scalability of the technology. Regardless, it will be a few years before we see nano-LEDs in production, and the first of these displays will be on smaller devices, but this is a promising technology that appears to be steadily moving toward production.
To whet your appetite, check out our tour of the factory where they manufacture quantum dots.
In addition to covering television and other presenting techniques, Jeff gives photo tours of museums and fascinating sites around the world, including nuclear submarines, massive aircraft carriers, medieval castles, epic 10,000-mile road trips, and more.
A. wrote Best-selling science fiction novel About city-sized submarines, as well Budget travel for dummies. You can follow him on Instagram and YouTube.
