OLED monitors and TVs could get cheaper soon thanks to TCL’s inkjet breakthrough

TCL has begun production of a 21.6-inch inkjet-printed OLED panel
Inkjet-printed panels are cheaper to produce and more efficient
Larger IJP panels still remain at the prototype stage

The OLED panel in your next monitor, and TV could be made by an inkjet printer. It’s a technology that TCL has been talking about for more than a decade, but the Chinese panel-maker has finally made its screen-printing ambitions a production reality.

TCL has officially begun mass-production of inkjet-printed OLED panels. Their first application isn’t something you’re likely to see in your living room, mind: a 21.6-inch 4K OLED display that’s intended for professional medical use.

TCL also unveiled a prototype 27-inch inkjet-printed OLED panel for monitors. It joins the catalog of prototypes we’ve already seen from the manufacturer, including the folding 65-inch OLED TV shown off at Display Week in Los Angeles last year.

What makes the production news exciting is that it indicates TCL has finally made the leap to real-world implementation of the prototype technology. It’s the first concrete evidence that the OLED panels of the future could be produced by inkjet printers.

TCL has long touted the benefits of panels made this way. The new production method has lower costs and produces OLEDs that last longer and require less power. The question has always been whether the technique is viable for mass production, and whether it’s capable of producing the larger panel sizes that feature in our list of the best OLED TVs.

What’s new?

Traditionally, OLED panels are made by depositing organic materials on a glass layer through a stencil. This is achieved by a process of evaporation inside a vacuum chamber. In contrast, inkjet-printed (IJP) OLEDs use large printers to precisely deposit the material.

This significantly reduces the amount of production waste, which in turn means that IJP panels can be made for less money. TCL reckons that its IJP panels are 20% cheaper overall and can be made 30% faster than traditional OLED displays, and also that the materials used have a longer lifespan.

It also claims that its printed RGB OLED loses 50% less light due to internal reflection, resulting in “higher light output efficiency compared to traditional OLED displays”. According to TCL, this means it can display brighter images using the same amount of power.

(Image credit: TCL)

That improvement in efficiency doesn’t mean IJP panels are brighter, though. With a maximum brightness of 350 nits, the 21.6-inch display that TCL has put into production is significantly dimmer than rival OLED panels from LG and Samsung, which peak north of 1,000 nits.

The consumer benefits are instead a potential reduction in the cost of OLED displays. IJP panels should be cheaper to run and last longer. And assuming that the lower cost of production is reflected in retail prices, TVs with IJP screens could significantly reduce the cost of owning an OLED display.

Question marks remain over whether the technology can be effectively applied to produce larger panels. While TCL has demonstrated larger prototypes, there’s a long way to go from its 21.6-inch production panel to the 55-inch and 65-inch panel sizes required by the best OLED TVs.

Still, with a 204PPI density and 99% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, TCL’s IJP panel is otherwise competitive.