2023 marks a turning point for LG OLED technology with the arrival of the third generation of OLED panels using META technology. Designed for premium OLED TV displays, META pushes the boundaries of OLED to improve picture quality. What is META technology? How does it work and what does it bring to the latest generation of OLED TVs?
How to boost the brightness of OLED TVs
Since the advent of QLED and mini LED technologies, LCD TVs have excelled at producing extremely bright 4K HDR images. The most efficient models offer peak luminosity levels of around 2000 nits. This performance could not be achieved by OLED TVs that produce absolute blacks but do not exceed 1000 nits of brightness. Until the arrival of LG OLED META panels…
META is a next-gen technology. It merges Micro Lens Array (MLA), to maximize light extraction, and the META Booster, a brightness enhancement algorithm. This allows for a significant 60% increase in brightness compared to conventional OLED panels. The viewing angle is also improved by 30%.
Micro Lens Array
MLA is a technology that uses tens of billions of microlenses. Tightly packed together, they form a uniform pattern. This allows much of the light generated inside the OLED display to escape outwards to increase brightness. The micro-lens array is a significant advance given the structural limitations of conventional OLED panels.
Conventional OLED TVs work according to the following principle. When an image signal is transmitted, light is generated in the organic electroluminescent layer. This is then transmitted to the viewer. However, much of this light cannot escape due to reflections within the panel. This limits the possibility of increasing the brightness.
To solve this problem, LG Display has developed Micro Lens Array technology that maximizes light emission. The self-illuminating organic materials in the OLED panel are deposited on a pattern of invisible, tiny, fully convex lenses. This improves energy efficiency by about 22% over conventional panels with the same level of luminance. In addition, it allows a significant amount of light to be emitted to the outside that would otherwise be lost through internal reflection. This results in a screen that is 60% brighter than conventional OLED displays.
Normally, increasing the brightness requires additional power consumption. But the micro-lens array increases brightness while improving energy efficiency by letting interior light out more effectively. In addition, the panels with the micro-lens array implement a principle similar to how a dragonfly sees 360 degrees with its millions of overlapping convex eyes. The tens of billions of micro-lenses improve viewing angles by 30% compared to conventional OLEDs. The result is a wider viewing angle, offering detailed and sharp image quality from all angles.
META Booster
META technology also involves a feature called META Booster, an algorithm developed by LG Display. It analyzes the image to improve overall screen brightness, detailed color reproduction and white peaks. META Booster analyzes the brightness characteristics of each scene in real time. It then matches them with the performance of the panel to deliver brilliant image quality. It enhances the display of HDR content, to make highlights brighter and blacks darker. The result is optimal contrast. It also reproduces colors more accurately, to display more realistic and immersive images.
LG OLED Meta: what are the benefits for viewers?
With a dramatic 60% increase in brightness and 30% increase in viewing angles, Meta technology puts OLED back in the brightness race. The new televisions equipped with an OLED Meta panel should approach or exceed 1500 nits. This will give viewers a better rendering of HDR10 and Dolby Vision content. The highlights are more intense, both rich and nuanced. All this while maintaining the absolute blacks of OLED that give the images unmatched depth and intensity.
With META technology, LG Display OLED panels are in direct competition with Samsung QD-OLED technology. It could even be ultra competitive with the best QLED TVs on the market that reach 2000 nits of brightness.
OLED Meta technology will be used in LG G3 OLED TVs, Panasonic MZ2000 OLED TVs and Philips OLED+908 TVs.
