The 1,500-foot (460 m) long LED display on the Fremont Street Experience in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada is currently the largest in the world.
A LED display is a flat panel display that uses an array of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as pixels for a video display. Their brightness allows them to be used outdoors where they are visible in the sun for store signs and billboards. In recent years, they have also become commonly used in destination signs on public transport vehicles, as well as variable-message signs on highways. LED displays are capable of providing general illumination in addition to visual display, as when used for stage lighting or other decorative (as opposed to informational) purposes. LED displays can offer higher contrast ratios than a projector and are thus an alternative to traditional projection screens, and they can be used for large, uninterrupted (without a visible grid arising from the bezels of individual displays) video walls.
History[]
The first practical LED display was developed at Hewlett-Packard (HP) and introduced in 1968.[1] Its development was led by Howard C. Borden, Gerald P. Pighini, and Egyptian engineer Mohamed M. Atalla, at HP Associates and HP Labs, who had engaged in research and development (R&D) on practical LEDs between 1962 and 1968. In February 1969, they introduced the HP Model 5082-7000 Numeric Indicator.[2] It was the first LED device to use integrated circuit (integrated LED circuit) technology,[2] and the first intelligent LED display, making it a revolution in digital display technology, replacing the Nixie tube and becoming the basis for later LED displays.[3]
Early models were monochromatic by design. The efficient Blue LED completing the color triad did not commercially arrive until the late 1980s.
In the late 1980s, Aluminium Indium Gallium Phosphide LEDs arrived. They provided an efficient source of red and amber and were used in information displays. However, it was still impossible to achieve full colour. The available "green" was hardly green at all – mostly yellow, and an early blue needed a power station to run it. It was only when Shuji Nakumura, then at Nichia Chemical, announced the development of the blue (and later green) LED based on Indium Gallium Nitride, that possibilities opened for big LED video displays.
The entire idea of what could be done with LED was given an early shake up by Mark Fisher’s design for U2’s “Popmart” tour of 1997. He realized that with long viewing distances, wide pixel spacing could be used to achieve very large images, especially if viewed at night. The system had to be suitable for touring so an open mesh arrangement that could be rolled up for transport was used. The whole display was 52m (170ft) wide and 17m (56ft) high. It had a total of 150,000 pixels. The company that supplied the LED pixels and their driving system, SACO Technologies of Montreal, had never engineered a video system before, previously building mimic panels for power station control rooms.
Today, large displays use high-brightness diodes to generate a wide spectrum of colors. It took three decades and organic light-emitting diodes for Sony to introduce an OLED TV, the Sony XEL-1 OLED screen which was marketed in 2009. Later, at CES 2012, Sony presented Crystal LED, a TV with a true LED-display, in which LEDs are used to produce actual images rather than acting as backlighting for other types of display, as in LED-backlit LCDs which are commonly marketed as LED TVs.
Large video-capable screens[]
The 2011 UEFA Champions League Final match between Manchester United and Barcelona was broadcast live in 3D format in Gothenburg (Sweden), on an EKTA screen. It had a refresh rate of 100 Hz, a diagonal of 7.11 m (23 ft 3.92 in) and a display area of 6.192×3.483 m, and was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest LED 3D TV.[4][5]
Recent developments[]
MicroLED displays are currently under development by numerous major corporations such as Apple, Samsung, and LG.
These displays are easily scalable, and offer a more streamlined production process. However, production costs remains a limiting factor.[6]
The 40m large LED display at the Armin Only event in April 2008 in the Jaarbeurs Utrecht
The LED Display at the Taipei Arena displays commercials and movie trailers.
See also[]
- MicroLED
- AMOLED
- QLED
References[]
- ↑ Kramer, Bernhard (2003). Advances in Solid State Physics. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 40. ISBN 9783540401506.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Borden, Howard C.; Pighini, Gerald P. (February 1969). "Solid-State Displays" (PDF). Hewlett-Packard Journal: 2–12.
- ↑ "Hewlett-Packard 5082-7000". The Vintage Technology Association. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
- ↑ EKTA’s Ukrainian produced 3D Led TV makes The Guinness Book of World Records Archived 2011-10-18 at the Wayback Machine, www.ekta-led.com
- ↑ Largest LED 3D TV. guinnessworldrecords.com
- ↑ says, Sylvain Muckenhirn (2019-05-29). "MicroLEDs: The Next Revolution In Displays?". Semiconductor Engineering. Retrieved 2019-06-27.