New OLED display drivers advance smartphone designs

By Jean-Jacques DeLisle, contributing writer

South Korean designer of mixed-signal semiconductor platform solutions, MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation, recently developed a groundbreaking third-generation 40-nanometer (nm) OLED display driver integrated circuit (DDIC). This advancement is set to usher in a new age of smartphone OLED displays, as the new OLED displays will allow for features that were previously impossible.

Image source: Synaptics.

MagnaChip’s rigid OLED DDIC allows for multiple configurations including FHD to FHD++. Other features include a wider aspect ratio up to 21:9 as well as bezel-less, edge-type, and notch-type OLED displays (a bezel is the small strip of material on a smartphone screen that is not part of the display and is used to hold the touchscreen in place). But MagnaChip is not the only company using this technology. California-based company Synaptics also released two new drivers for sampling that include many of the same features like extra-long 20:9 infinity display support, rounded corners, and bezel-less displays.

This groundbreaking OLED display technology also allows for lower power consumption, a boon for the smartphone industry, in which battery life is a huge selling point. The displays also feature stronger protection against electrostatic discharge (ESD) and electromagnetic interference (EMI), making them more reliable and with a better picture quality and color gradient.

OLED technology is quickly becoming the display of choice for the smartphone industry because it allows for larger displays, brighter colors, and no longer uses bezels. The bezel-less displays also offer a variety of other benefits including a wider color gamut, higher contrast ratio, faster response time for video, and lower power dissipation to reduce heat and preserve battery life compared with older digital display technologies. OLED displays are more flexible and far less likely to shatter under pressure. Furthermore, the displays don’t require a backlight, adding further to their flexibility and efficiency.

With all of these advancements, there’s no doubt that OLED displays are going to be a key component in the next generation of smartphones. The massive array of features that OLED brings to the table puts other display technologies such as micro LEDs to shame. Not to say that mini LEDs and other display technologies don’t have their place in select applications, but OLEDs are the obvious choice of display for the smartphone of the future.