A team of researchers from the Purdue University have managed to create the first Active Matrix display which consists of transparent transistors made of nanowires. These tiny circuits created the display using OLEDs because they can rival with the brightness of the pixels from a LCD screen.

David Janes, researcher at the Birck Nanotechnology Center of the Purdue University, said that this demonstrates that nanowires transistors can be used in displays and other applications. OLEDs were the best solution because they are already used in cell phone and MP3 displays, as well as in concept TV sets. Nanowires were chosen because they are low-cost and they resist to high temperatures therefore they can be used in practical applications.

Conventional TV displays can illuminate each pixel in any row, any column and unfortunately, OLEDs are emitting the light directly therefore the researchers managed only to illuminate a specific row of the active-matrix, but in the near future Prof. Janes hopes to develop “that can control individual OLEDs to generate images”.

The advantage of these new screens is their transparency given by the nanowire transistors that are made of transparent semiconductors and until the OLEDs are activated, the display looks like tinted glass. The LCD TV sets have a brightness af about 400-500 candelas and the OLEDs are very close with a brightness of 300 candelas. This technology is perfect for small portable devices like PDAs and cell phones.

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