Apple and Q-Dots.
While we know that Apple’s next display shift will be to OLED for their 2017 Anniversary edition iPhone, Apple is always looking to the next wave technology just on the horizon. So what’s beyond OLED? At the moment, many think the next trend points to Quantum Dot LED or QDLED. While the structure of a QLED is very similar to OLED technology, the difference is that the light emitting centers are cadmium selenide nanocrystals, or quantum dots. Theoretically, the advantages to this type of display is that it could reportedly deliver brighter ‘pure color’ and consumes less power, in fact close to 50% less power. The technology is also ideal for consumer devices that demand a flexible display. When Apple first introduced their vision of an Apple Watch in 2013, they presented it with a ‘continuous’ display that completely wraps around a users wrist as noted in the patent figure below. A QDLED type of display would allow such a form factor to come to market.
While Quantum Dot based displays are no doubt many years out, Apple is already on record having explored the technology in a string of four patent filings that we covered back in 2014 in a report titled “Quantum Dots Could Take the Retina Display to the Next Level.” Today, another Quantum Dot invention came to light.