The way forward for TV tech is just a single OLED pixel large

Abstract

Researchers have unveiled the world’s first OLED show panel that may emit audio, dubbed Pixel-Primarily based Native Sound OLED know-how.
This breakthrough comes out of the Pohang College of Science and Expertise (POSTECH) in Pohang, South Korea.
With out compromising on OLED’s thinness, this tech has the potential to revolutionize the patron audio expertise, together with on TVs, tablets, VR headsets, and extra.

Researchers on the Pohang College of Science and Expertise (POSTECH) in Pohang, South Korea have unveiled a prototypical OLED show with a doubtlessly game-changing twist: the novel 13-inch panel is able to emitting not solely visuals, but in addition full-blown audio.

In a analysis article titled Localized Sound-Built-in Show Speaker Utilizing Crosstalk-Free Piezoelectric Vibration Array, published in Advanced Science again in April 2025 (via ScienceDaily), Inpyo Hong and Su Seok Choi define a display screen that may basically convert electrical alerts into full-blown sound vibrations utilizing piezoelectric know-how.

“Piezoelectric speakers instantly convert electrical vitality into mechanical movement through the inverse piezoelectric impact, enabling environment friendly sound era with a light-weight, versatile, and low-power design. Their easy layered development, consisting of electrodes and piezoelectric supplies, provides benefits comparable to low price, excessive vitality effectivity, and compactness,” write Hong and Choi.

Associated

Struggling to hear dialogue on your TV? Let me fix it for you

If you cannot hear the dialogue in your TV, you are not alone (and never dropping your thoughts).

What’s Pixel-Primarily based Native Sound OLED know-how?

A conceptual multi-channel sound system the place every pixel emits its personal audio

Vibration-localized piezoelectric panel speaker concept

Dubbed Pixel-Primarily based Native Sound OLED know-how by the POSTECH researchers, a central innovation employed on this idea is the embedding of Piezoelectric exciters instantly into the body of the 13-inch OLED panel in query. This circumvents the necessity for conventional audio exciters, which take up a considerable quantity of bodily house to provide sound by means of their driver aspect and different required speaker internals.

Piezoelectric tech itself is not new — we have seen client electronics manufacturers experiment with it previously, comparable to with the Google Pixel 5’s grill-less front-facing speaker hidden behind its show. This all-new implementation of Pixel-Primarily based Native Sound OLED tech is distinct, nevertheless, with its pixel-like association and embedding instantly into the OLED panel {hardware} itself. The tip result’s an OLED display screen association that may produce audio at a per-pixel degree, very similar to how every particular person OLED pixel can already emit its personal mild.

In line with Hong and Choi, these piezoelectric exciters may be demonstrably built-in into the body of an OLED show with out considerably impacting the form and dimension of the panel itself, all whereas eliminating crosstalk (sound supply leakage) and bolstering acoustic precision, positionality, and localization.

An OLED TV on a red and yellow background.

Associated

Samsung’s new OLED tech will make TVs as thin as a credit card

Samsung has unveiled its new UT One OLED show know-how, which guarantees ultra-thin and energy-efficient shows sooner or later.

Is Pixel-Primarily based Native Sound OLED know-how the way forward for TV?

Price, manufacturing, scaling, and high quality are all limitations that should be labored by means of

Speaker response vibration isolating frame and Chladni patterns and FEM results

Conceptually, Pixel-Primarily based Native Sound OLED know-how is an thrilling prospect. OLED panels are already thought of best-in-class for his or her skinny and versatile design, their per-pixel management of sunshine emission, and their deep blacks and punchy distinction ranges. The addition of pixel-perfect audio emission has the potential to bolster the coveted ‘ 3D spatial audio‘ or encompass sound impact that some client manufacturers try to realize, whereas additionally obsoleting cumbersome speaker {hardware} within the course of.

“This know-how has the potential to turn into a core characteristic of next-generation units, enabling smooth, light-weight designs in smartphones, laptops, and automotive shows – whereas delivering immersive, high-fidelity audio,” writes Hong and Choi within the analysis paper.

After all, the findings of Hong and Choi are experimental and function a proof of idea — Pixel-Primarily based Native Sound is not a consumer-ready know-how that may be churned out on a manufacturing line, and it probably will not be for the foreseeable future. With a purpose to obtain the size obligatory for mass industrial manufacturing, audio efficiency should obtain cost-to-performance parity with current client audio units, and probably different hurdles will should be conquered.

Audio directionality and spacial contextualization can severely elevate the expertise of consuming media.

There’s additionally no telling whether or not this tech will scale nicely to larger-screened and smaller-screened units, or whether or not piezoelectric exciters will finally be capable to obtain the audio outcomes customers count on out of their TVs, smartphones, and different tech devices (current implementations of piezoelectric tech, comparable to on the aforementioned Pixel 5, have not precisely taken the world by storm).

Personally, I am hopeful of a future by which Pixel-Primarily based Native Sound not solely hits the patron house, but in addition achieves essential mass. Audio directionality and spacial contextualization can severely elevate the expertise of consuming media, and that is double true relating to augmented actuality (AR) and digital actuality (VR) headsets. If cumbersome traditional speaker hardware had been to at some point turn into antiquated, it’d additionally open up the door for even thinner tech merchandise throughout the board, which is an thrilling prospect certainly.