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.
According to a report from Korea, Samsung Display acquired a portfolio of 53 patents related that quantum dot technology from Merck.
The company plans to use these patents to enhance its own QD display technologies - used in their QLED TVs (QD-Backlit LCDs) and QD-OLED TVs - and in the future its QD-EL emissive displays. These patents will also help Samsung in its competition with China-based display makers.
According to a report from Korea, Samsung has teamed up with its QD supplier Hansol Chemical to simplify the structure of its QD films. The company aims to introduce new lower-cost QD-LCD films.
The report suggests that Samsung developed a technology to encapsulate individual QD particles, and so the new films could be produced without the encapsulation (barrier) films. This will result in a simple structure of only three layers - two PET layers and the QD layer between them.
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 Counterpoint Research (DSCC), Quantum Dots film and diffuser plate sales grew 42% in 2024, driven by demand from QD-LCD and MiniLED TVs. In the notebook segment, revenues grew 228%, mostly due to Apple's first adoption of QDs in MacBook Pro devices.
Counterpoint expects revenues to continue rising, and in 2025 the growth is forecasted to be 27.5% from 2024. The company acknowledges that the US tariffs and trade war may curb demand for premium displays, and Counterpoint has no clear visibility on that issue.
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.
Samsung Display announced that it has developed a new technology that can recover around 80% of the quantum dots ink used in its QD-OLED production process. The recovered inks is refined through advanced synthesis technology that revives its purity and optical properties. The company will apply this technology, to its process and it is expected to save around 10 billion Won (around $7.3 million USD) each year in QD materials cost.
It turns out that even though the QD layers are inkjet printed, there is still significant waste of materials, as around 20% of the total QD ink used in the process remains in the nozzles and cannot be used. This new technology will enable SDC to make its QD-OLED panels more competitive with other large-area panel technologies.
During Displayweek 2024, Samsung demonstrated its latest display prototypes, focusing mostly on flexible OLEDs, and QD-OLEDs.
The company also showed a 18.2" 3200x1800 (202 PPI) 250 nits QD-EL display, that was produced using an inkjet-printing process, based on cadmium-free QDs.
Samsung Display recently decided to move around 500 engineers from its large-area QD-OLED business unit to its small-and-medium sized AMOLED business unit. This move could signal a change in SDC's confidence in its QD-OLED technology.
A new article at OLED-Info discusses the technology and market challenges of QD-OLEDs, the recent activities in the display industry and market - and states that Samsung may be not invest further in its QD-OLED technology.