Short for "organic light emitting display," OLED is a form of up-andcoming technology expected to play a pivotal role in generations to come. In other words, OLED is a star-inthe- making for the flat-screen world while liquid crystal display (LCD) and plasma display panel (PDP) are triedand- tested products. OLED produces images when the diodes inside the two glasses of a screen emit light as voltage is applied to them. The pixel diodes are selectively turned on or off to form images. The great advantage of OLED over LCD is that it does not require a backlight to function, which means that it draws far less power and can be used for small portable devices. On the back of this notable advantage, OLED is especially touted in the small-size display end of the mainstream technology market, as are, for example, cell phone monitors. The world's display powerhouses are now recognizing its huge upside potential and are shelling out big bucks to develop OLED technologies. Thanks to such a brisk research investment, even large-sized display modules, which experts predicted would be difficult with OLED, are starting to arrive. Samsung SDI, the world's largest maker of PDP modules, unveiled a 17-inch OLED monitor last year and aims to come up with larger-sized ones. Its sister company Samsung Electronics surprised the display business industry by taking the wraps off a 40-inch OLED product earlier this year.