How the Meta technology of LG 2023 OLED TVs, which promises record brightness, works

We caught up with LG Display at CES 2023 to get a better understanding of what’s behind the Meta technology behind the new OLED TVs, which promise a record brightness of up to 2100 cd/m².

In the halls of CES 2023, a pitched battle is underway. The battle of LG and Samsung is a battle as old as the world between the two Korean giants. Since the arrival of QD-OLED from Samsung in 2022, LG and other TV manufacturers such as Samsung and Panasonic are doing everything to have the brightest OLED screens.

Why is the brightness so low on OLED?

Brightness is actually one of the issues when we talk about OLED. Why? In an OLED display, each pixel can control its own brightness. For example, if you have an image of a white circle surrounded by a black background, only the pixels inside the white circle will light up, while the surrounding pixels will turn off. This is what makes OLED capable of such a feat in contrast and color compared to LED technologies.

Therefore, significant research is being done on the path of light, knowing that OLED materials prevent this light from spreading around it. A significant part of the generated light is blocked, which then generates heat.

Why? This is due to a physical property that says that when light passes from a material with a high refractive index to a material with a low refractive index, a large fraction of the light is converted to heat. Old physics lessons may come to mind here. We can conclude that light passing from one medium (OLED materials) to another with a higher density (air) and therefore a large part of the light is reflected in the source material.

This means that one of the challenges is finding ways to change the angle of light as it leaves the device and enters the air. This is the key to improving the amount of light the user sees. And in order not to confuse all the pixels, there should be a light extraction device for each pixel. Given the millions of pixels and sub-pixels in today’s OLED displays, this is a big problem, but not an insurmountable one. A number of materials are now used to create a (micro)lens in each pixel.

As with many technologies, it is difficult to bring laboratory processes to the level of mass production. As these materials continue to be improved and incorporated into the design and manufacture of OLED displays, panel manufacturers are coming up with better OLED displays and lighting.

What is LG Meta? How can LG improve the brightness of TVs?

At CES 2023, LG unveiled new OLED TVs, including the new M3. The biggest change concerns the LG OLED evo G3 and M3 series “Meta” technology (candela per square meter) that allows these screens to reach record brightness peaks of up to 2100 cd/m²while the best screens of 2022 barely exceed 1000 cd/m².

We spoke to LG Display, which is responsible for developing OLED panels for LG Electronics and many other manufacturers. Basically, and in a nutshell, LG Display applied a layer of microlenses over organic light-emitting diodes. By doing so, the light is reflected inside the screen, causing it to be projected towards us, significantly improving the efficiency of light extraction, thus increasing brightness levels.

The manufacturer called this new technology MLA or Metal Light Lens Array. To achieve these improvements, OLED panels are manufactured using a new method to form the shape of a miniature convex lens. As we told you, you just need to calculate the angle of light lost inside the OLED panel so that it “bounces” inside the microlenses.

As LG explains, its new LG OLED Meta TVs are not only brighter, but also more energy efficient. This is important to meet the European Union’s energy certification requirements.

That’s not all, because Meta technology uses more than the new sixth generation processor Alpha 9 Gen 6. This, of course, improves image processing and allows for better voltage stabilization (and consumption). promotion And so on. LG remains quite discreet about the operation of this image processing processor, you have to imagine many algorithms. For brightness, LG Display calls it Meta Booster.

Therefore, the term “Meta” does not refer to a new OLED panel, but to a combination of several factors, as with EX panels. Technically, the LG OLED Meta TV is a combination of an OLED MLA panel (that is, an EVO panel that uses deuterium as a stabilizer – and famous lenses) in addition to the new Alpha 9 Gen 6 processor. implement several improvements in screen consumption and colorimetry and image rendering.

We will have the opportunity to compare LG’s new OLED models with Samsung’s and Panasonic’s models, which also use similar technologies.

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