UPDATE: About Sony Crystal LED

One of our readers wrote in to point out that Sony's upcoming Crystal LED technology—still currently a prototype—doesn't use liquid crystal cells. In fact, RGB diodes are used to produce the colours displayed onscreen.

At CES 2012, Sony presented a rival technology to OLED called Crystal LED—an LCD screen in which each sub-pixel houses a diode. Unlike OLED technology, however, the diodes used aren't organic.

Alongside OLED, Sony is working on a similar technology called Crystal LED, presented on the firm's stand at CES 2012.

After chatting to Sony's technical teams, it seems that variations in colour intensity aren't created by the orientation of liquid crystals in the display, but are instead created directly by the diodes that make up each sub-pixel (of which there are 6.2 million).

Sony confirms that 'Crystal LED technology uses ultrafine red, blue and green LEDs (standard but smaller sized LEDs) [Ed: i.e. not the organic diodes used in OLED]. Using a combination of RGB 'micro-diodes' rather than rather than one white 'micro-diode' produces a purer white backlight than from a single white diode which would tend to give a slight yellow or blue tinge. A purer, more precise white backlight then allows the full colour spectrum to be reproduced through the pixels'.


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