MicroOLED, a French producer of OLED displays, recently unveiled an OLED microdisplay that promises to revolutionize how the miniature screens are used in a variety of applications. While LED and OLED technology has improved greatly in the last decade, it still cannot compete with the simple advantage of optical viewfinders: seeing things in real life. The stunning advancements utilized in the MicroOLED’s new display stand to change that.
The display itself is a 5.4 million-pixel OLED panel, measuring 0.61 inches on the diagonal. MicroOLED managed to fit more than double the pixels of comparable products by shrinking subpixels to a tiny 4.7 square micrometers each. Additionally, the gap between pixels was eliminated, allowing more panel space but, more importantly, doing away with the black matrix present on traditional LCD displays. MicroOLED touts a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 and a uniformity level of 96 percent. These figures suggest the OLED display will provide an image that is not only incredibly vibrant, but also highly-accurate with regards to color fidelity and luminosity.
The 5.4 million-pixel display is monochrome, with a full-color version registering at a still-impressive 1.3 million pixels. A power draw of only 0.2W is among the lowest in the industry, and makes this display ideal for use in portable devices, where battery life is a high priority. The advantages it brings to the digital camera world, where it will likely be adopted first, extend beyond just reducing battery drain.

In recent years, the digital-imagining industry has moved away from optical viewfinders, which use a series of mirrors or prisms to redirect an image to the viewer’s eye. Key among this shift was the growing availability of high-quality, miniature digital displays. A tiny LCD screen could be
fit in the viewfinder tunnel and display what the sensor was reading. This eliminated the need for bulky prisms and was also location i
ndependent in relation to the lens. The dawn of the “mirrorless” compact with interchangeable lenses solidified the usefulness of electronic viewfinders.
The only area of resistance left was in high-end DSLR world. For most professional photographers, nothing beats looking at a real-life image, for obvious reasons: an optical viewfinder presents an image with the exact colors, tones and luminosity that the subject possesses. A typical LCD viewfinder can alter those characteristics, but the accuracy of MicroOLED’s display will make the image it produces nearly indistinguishable from one viewed through an optical viewfinder.
Additionally, the absence of a pixel matrix eliminates the “screen door effect,” one of the biggest gripes that photographers have with electronic viewfinders. Because the display is placed so close to the eye, the user can distinguish individual pixels, and the matrix between them, leading to an image that appears as though being viewed through a screen door. MicroOLED’s gapless display provides a seamless image.
An electronic display provides much more functionality to the end user, other than a reduced camera size. Optical viewfinders are limited to displaying only what the lens sees, with auxiliary information placed on illuminated panels around the edges. An OLED viewfinder will be capable of superimposing any information needed, right on top of the image being displayed. A user can select an electronic level, live histogram or even a side-by-side comparison of the current view and the last image created. Being able to display all of that information right in the viewfinder could win the favor of even the staunchest optical viewfinder supporters.
The ability to overlay information over a high-quality display lends itself to uses in other, more demanding industries. MicroOLED envisions its display being used by surgeons in head-mounted displays, due to the extreme color-accuracy and high resolution it provides. Another possible use is in military heads-up displays or night-vision systems, which would take advantage of the high contrast ratio and uniform luminosity. The applications for an OLED microdisplay of this nature are endless, and manufacturers are sure to find innovative ways to implement it.