AMOLED · Lablypedia

Since 2010, AMOLED displays have been used in mobile phones, media players, TVs, and digital cameras. Development of the technology focuses on reducing power usage, lowering manufacturing costs, and increasing screen resolutions (e.g., 8K).

Design

An AMOLED display consists of an active matrix of OLED pixels generating light (luminescence) upon electrical activation that have been deposited or integrated onto a thin-film transistor (TFT) array, which functions as a series of switches to control the current flowing to each individual pixel.

Typically, this continuous current flow is controlled by at least two TFTs at each pixel (to trigger the luminescence), with one TFT to start and stop the charging of a storage capacitor and the second to provide a voltage source at the level needed to create a constant current to the pixel, thereby eliminating the need for the very high currents required for passive-matrix OLED operation.

TFT backplane technology is crucial in the fabrication of AMOLED displays. In AMOLEDs, the two primary TFT backplane technologies, polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) and amorphous silicon (a-Si), are currently used offering the potential for directly fabricating the active-matrix backplanes at low temperatures (below 150 °C) onto flexible plastic substrates for producing flexible AMOLED displays.

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History

AMOLED display research was initiated by Steven Van Slyke and Ching Wan Tang, who pioneered the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology at Eastman Kodak Co. in 1979. The first AMOLED displays were introduced in late 2008, with Samsung being the first company to commercialize AMOLED displays. One of the earliest consumer electronics products with an AMOLED display was the mobile handset, BenQ-Siemens S88. In 2007, the iriver Clix 2 portable media player. In 2008 it appeared on the Nokia N85 followed by the Samsung i7110 - both Nokia and Samsung Electronics were early adopters of this technology on their smartphones.

Future development

Manufacturers have developed in-cell touch panels, integrating the production of capacitive sensor arrays in the AMOLED module fabrication process. Researchers at DuPont used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to optimize coating processes for a new solution-coated AMOLED display technology that is competitive in cost and performance with existing chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technology. Using custom modeling and analytic approaches, Samsung has developed short and long-range film-thickness control and uniformity that is commercially viable at large glass sizes.

As of the mid-2020s, Samsung Display has established itself as the world's leading AMOLED manufacturer by both volume and revenue, producing roughly 500 million AMOLED panels annually for use in smartphones, wearables, tablets, and laptops.According to Samsung Display's own 2025 investor presentation, the company held a 46 percent share of the global smartphone AMOLED display market, based on data from the market research firm Omdia. Samsung Display has also developed ultra-thin AMOLED panels approximately 0.7 mm thick, built on an oxide thin-film-transistor backplane rather than amorphous silicon, which the company says cut power consumption by as much as 47% and, for the first time, support a flicker-free variable refresh rate as low as 1 Hz.

Comparison to other display technologies

AMOLED displays are proved to be better at providing higher refresh rates than those of passive-matrix, often have response times less than a millisecond, and they consume significantly less power. This characteristic makes active-matrix OLEDs suitable for portable electronics. AMOLED displays can also consume less power than passive-matrix OLEDs because each pixel is controlled individually and emits its own light, which reduces energy consumption when displaying darker content.

The amount of power the display consumes varies significantly depending on the color and brightness shown. As an example, one old OLED display consumes 0.3 watts while showing white text on a black background, but more than 0.7 watts showing black text on a white background, while an LCD may consume only a constant 0.35 watts regardless of what is being shown on screen. A new FHD+ or WQHD+ display will consume much more. Because the black pixels turn completely off, AMOLED also has contrast ratios that are significantly higher than LCDs.

AMOLED displays are often difficult to see in direct sunlight compared with LCDs because of their reduced maximum brightness. Super AMOLED addresses this issue by reducing the size of gaps between layers of the screen. Additionally, PenTile technology is often used for a higher resolution display while requiring fewer subpixels than needed otherwise, sometimes resulting in a display less sharp and more grainy than a non-PenTile display with the same resolution. The organic materials used in AMOLED displays are very prone to degradation over a relatively short period of time, resulting in color shifts as one color fades faster than another, image persistence, or burn-in.

Super AMOLED

Super AMOLED is a marketing term created by Samsung for an AMOLED display where the touch screen digitizer, the layer that detects touch, is integrated into the display and cannot be separated from the display itself, rather than being overlaid on top of it. Compared with conventional LCDs, AMOLED displays generally have lower power consumption under certain conditions, higher contrast ratios, and faster response times. According to Samsung, its Super AMOLED displays offer a 20% brighter screen, 20% lower power consumption, and 80% less sunlight reflection compared to first-generation AMOLED displays. The generic term for this technology is One Glass Solution (OGS), a touchscreen technology that combines the touch sensor and cover glass into a single layer, reducing overall thickness and improving optical clarity. This is achieved by coating and etching the ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) layer directly onto the cover glass, eliminating the need for a separate sensor glass and an air gap.

Drawbacks of Super AMOLED displays include higher manufacturing costs, a susceptibility to screen burn-in, and a shorter operating lifespan compared to alternative display technologies.

Devices with AMOLED and Super AMOLED

Below is a mapping table of marketing terms versus resolutions and sub-pixel types. Note how the pixel density relates to choices of sub-pixel type.

Display devices with AMOLED technologies

Flagship smartphones sold in 2020 and 2021 used AMOLED. These displays, such as the one on the Galaxy S21+ / S21 Ultra and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra have often been compared to IPS LCDs, found in phones such as the Xiaomi Mi 10T, Huawei Nova 5T, and Samsung Galaxy A20e. For example, according to ABI Research, the AMOLED display found in the Motorola Moto X draws just 92 mA during bright conditions and 68 mA while dim. On the other hand, compared with the IPS, the yield rate of AMOLED is low; the cost is also higher.

Future

Future displays exhibited from 2011 to 2013 by Samsung have shown flexible, 3D, transparent Super AMOLED Plus displays using very high resolutions and in varying sizes for phones. These unreleased prototypes use a polymer as a substrate removing the need for glass cover, a metal backing, and touch matrix, combining them into one integrated layer.

So far, Samsung plans on branding the newer displays as Youm, or y-octa.

Also planned for the future are 3D stereoscopic displays that use eye-tracking (via stereoscopic front-facing cameras) to provide full resolution 3D visuals.

Recent progress in blue OLED materials, particularly the commercial adoption of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) and novel phosphorescent compounds, has addressed one of the biggest hurdles for AMOLED displays: the relatively short lifespan and lower efficiency of blue emitters. In 2024, Samsung announced a breakthrough blue OLED with a TADF design, extending operational lifetime up to 100,000 hours and reducing power consumption in high-end AMOLED panels. In July 2025, Samsung Display announced that its latest foldable AMOLED panel, used in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7, had passed a durability test of 500,000 folding cycles, verified by the inspection company Bureau Veritas, raising its previous internal testing standard of 200,000 folds. The improved durability was achieved through a shock-resistant panel structure that increased the thickness of the panel's outer ultra-thin glass layer by 50 percent and incorporated a new adhesive material.