QD-EL

Researchers at Korea's Seoul National University and Sungkyunkwan University have applied AI to reverse-engineer QD-EL device production conditions, and have come up with a solvent that can arrange QDs in an optimal way.

The researchers say that by applying this solvent in a commercial QD-EL device, it can increase the efficiency twofold, and the lifetime by more then 40X.

Samsung Display is showing two new QD-EL displays (Samsung actually calls these displays EL-QD) at SID Displayweek 2026.

The first display is a 18-inch panel that offers 500 nits brightness, improving 25% over the display it has shown last year. The second display is a smaller, 6.5" panel, that achieves up to 400 nits brightness (33% up from a similar panel developed last year).

Reports from Korea suggest that Samsung Display has decided to resume its QD Nanorod Diode (QNED) technology development, that it has paused a few years ago.

SDC considers QNED to offer superior performance compared to the company's QD-OLED technology - mainly in terms of lifetime and brightness. According to the new report, SDC established a QNED R&D organization towards the end of 2025, to restart the R&D, bringing back its previous employees that were involved with QNED R&D.

This is a sponsored post by QNA Technology

Cost and performance could make QDEL technology a real competitor to OLED. A potential scenario? Notebooks will adopt it first, followed by TVs and perhaps smartphones. Implementing this technology is relatively straightforward, provided blue quantum dots help the industry achieve its desired lifespan goals. This is an opportunity for Europe, which has blue quantum dots know-how and product at home (QNA Technology, Poland).

Low-Cost Production, High Performance

Quantum-Dot Electroluminescence (QDEL) represents a major evolution in emissive display technology, relying on electrically stimulated quantum dots (QDs) rather than photoluminescent down-conversion. QDEL’s core advantage lies in its solution-processed manufacturing—using coating, lithography, etching (C+L+E), or inkjet printing (IJP)—instead of vacuum thermal evaporation (VTE), which dominates OLED fabrication. 

Samsung Display is showing a range of new OLED and microLED display prototypes at Displayweek 2025, and it also unveiled a new cadmium-free QD-EL device, which uses quantum dots as the emissive materials. The latest prototype from Samsung offers a 264 PPI resolution and 400 nits of brightness. 

Samsung says that this panel has the highest luminance among all QD-EL prototypes disclosed to date. Samsung says that it managed to dramatically increase the lifetime of the blue QD emitting material.

According to reports from Korea, Samsung Electronics has decided to accelerate the development of its QD-EL display technology. Working together with its affiliate companies, Samsung aims to commercialize QD-EL displays within the next few year.

The reports suggests that Samsung Electronics is working closely with SAIT (Samsung's advanced research institute) and Samsung Display. QD-EL displays are similar to OLED displays, but they use quantum dots as the emitter material. This is the first display technology that uses the QD's electroluminescence, rather than the photoluminescence, used in color conversion for QD-LCDs, QD-powered microLEDs, and QD-OLEDs.

Material developer Avantama announced that it is set to sell its entire perovskite QD IP portfolio. The company says that it has managed to bring the technology to market-readyness level, and is looking for a company that will bring it to market. 

Ocean Tomo Transactions (a part of J.S. Held) will be representing Avantama in the sale of its pQD IP portfolio. The company has developed over 220 IP assets, which includes patents on processes, compositions, formulations, films, and devices for the commercialization of semiconductor nanoparticle and quantum dot inks and films.

Researchers from Sungkyunkwan University developed a source material for the inorganic hole transport layer of QD-EL devices. The researchers say that the new material significantly enhances the brightness and stability of emissive QD displays.

The researchers say that currently used organic HTL materials suffer from low conductivity and thermal instability. The new material is a standard HTL doped by defect-controlled nickel oxide-magnesium oxide alloy and treated with magnesium hydroxide. Using the new material, the EQE of the QD-EL device increased to 16.4%. The doping and treatment lowered the hole conductivity of the hole transport layer and suppressed the hole extraction process from within the quantum dots, thereby enhancing the device efficiency to a level comparable to existing technologies.

Researchers from China's Southern University of Science and Technology, by simultaneously measuring the electroluminescence-photoluminescence, have identified the presence of leakage electrons in QD-EL devices, which leads to the discrepancy of the electroluminescence and the photoluminescence roll-off.

The researchers then developed a single photon counting technique, the enables them to detect the weak photon signals and thus provides a means to visualize the electron transport paths at different voltages. By reducing the amount of leakage electrons, the researchers developed a QD-EL device with an internal power conversion efficiency of over 98%.

Researchers at Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), and the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) have developed a new method, called double-layer dry transfer printing, to create highly efficiency QD-EL displays.

The researchers say that with the double-layer dry transfer printing technique, the light-emitting and electron-transferring layers of the device can be transferred onto a substrate simultaneously, which reduces interfacial resistance in the device, which facilitates electron injection and the control of leakage charge transport during the fabrication process. The researchers, by minimizing the leakage current, managed to increase the EQE of the QLED device to 23.3%, up from around 5% that is achieved with normal dry transfer printing.