Quantum Dots Industry Forum 2021

The 2021 Quantum Dots and Phosphors Industry Forum 2021 just wrapped up. Co-located with the OLEDs World Summit this year, the event featured updates on advanced display technologies from most of the world’s leading companies including Samsung, Sharp, and TCL as well as industry analysts from DSCC and Yole and academics working on cutting-edge technologies that are far from commercialization. It is a unique gathering and, along with SID DIsplayWeek, is one of the best places to learn what’s happening next in displays.

We are most interested in the Quantum Dots portion of the program which featured great talks from industry leaders on both the advanced state of commercialization and the bright future for emissive, NanoLED quantum dot displays that are in the late stages of R&D now.

Video: Nanosys CEO Jason Hartlove takes QD Forum attendees on a virtual tour of Quantum Dot TVs at retail.

Nanosys CEO Jason Hartlove highlighted Quantum Dots move from the lab to commercialization to mainstream adoption in his keynote address on day one of the conference. Emphasizing the current state of Quantum Dot adoption by consumer electronics brands, who are fielding over 200 unique quantum dot products this year, Hartlove took attendees on a virtual tour of retail. Here he found quite a few impressive Quantum Dot TV products from many of the world’s top TV brands including Hisense, Insignia (Best Buy’s house brand), LG, Samsung, TCL and Vizio.

Nanosys CEO Jason Hartlove highlighted Quantum Dots move from the lab to commercialization to mainstream adoption in his keynote address on day one of the conference. Emphasizing the current state of Quantum Dot adoption by consumer electronics brands, who are fielding over 200 unique quantum dot products this year, Hartlove took attendees on a virtual tour of retail. Here he found quite a few impressive Quantum Dot TV products from many of the world’s top TV brands including Hisense, Insignia (Best Buy’s house brand), LG, Samsung, TCL and Vizio.

Sharp and Nanosys demonstrate world’s first heavy metal free quantum dot NanoLED display at 2021 Quantum Dots Industry Forum.

Sharp and Nanosys demonstrate world’s first heavy metal free quantum dot NanoLED display at 2021 Quantum Dots Industry Forum.

Dr. Yang Qu of Sharp followed Hartlove’s presentation with an impressive glimpse into the future of Quantum Dot displays. Here, Sharp showed off what is, to our knowledge, the first public demonstration of a 100% heavy metal free RGB “NanoLED” emissive Quantum Dot display. The display, which featured Quantum Dots from Nanosys, measured 6.24 inches on the diagonal with 176ppi. Sharp also discussed their unique photolithography patterning approach for NanoLED which enables super high resolution patterning and leverages existing LCD equipment for lower cost.

Later in the conference Nanosys device lead, Dr. Ruiqing Ma, discussed some of the improvements in Quantum Dot formulation including a new, quasi-cubic morphology, that enabled this milestone demo. Additionally, top researchers from Samsung and TCL discussed progress their teams are making in bringing NanoLED closer to commercialization.

DSCC Quantum Dot TV forecast 2021-2026

DSCC Quantum Dot TV forecast 2021-2026

Finally, we heard from industry analysts Bob O’Brien of DSCC and Eric Virey of Yole who shared forecasts for the Advanced TV Market and MicroLED respectively. O’Brien discussed Quantum Dot’s dominant position in MiniLED display and forecast strong growth for QDs in TVs through 2026. Virey gave us a look at MicroLED as it begins to approach commercialization. He found AR/HUD and automotive applications will have strong differentiation as the technology begins to gain commercial traction in 2024 and beyond.

All told, it was another informative conference with far too much Quantum Dot news to cover here in detail. We look forward to reading pieces at DisplayDaily and around the web next week, breaking down more of the news from the show. In the meantime, we’ll get back to preparing for the next big event on the calendar, a possibly live, in person, CES 2022 in Las Vegas.