OLEDs were once touted as the next great thing. The inability to scale to larger screens slowed the enthusiams for them.

Now Sony, Sharp, Toshiba and other electronics manufacturers are collaborating with the Japanese government to develop a large OLED panel. Organic light-emitting-diodes, or OLEDs, use chemicals similar to fireflies to emit light.

This eliminates the need for a backlight - currently that's what laptops use. No backlight means that your battery lasts longer and the overall energy use of a mobile, laptop or TV is reduced. OLEDs also produce a thinner screen because there is no need for the backlight. This leads to smaller, lighter products.

The research consortium includes 11 companies and government backed research. In the meantime, two other Japanese companies are joining to bring the smaller OLED panels to market. Toshiba and Matsushita will produce OLEDs for mobile phones and other small electronic devices. At a cost of $140 million they expect to begin production in the second half of 2009.

OLED panels are cheaper to make because they use a low temperature process. In a world of rising energy prices a cheaper process is a good thing. However, it remains to be seen if the lower production costs will be passed onto the buyer, or if the lower production costs will just allow the companies to stay afloat in a world of rising energy prices.

In any sense, look forward to a sharper display in a thinner mobile with a longer battery life. Not bad. Check out this story. X