Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday that its researchers reported a breakthrough in light-emitting diode technology that will allow production of ultra-large advanced display panels on ordinary glass, such as window panes.

Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology succeeded in fabricating nearly single crystalline Gallium Nitride on amorphous glass substrates, a milestone that will enable production of super-sized LEDs using glass substrates, Samsung said.

“In ten years, window panes will double as lighting and display screens, giving personality to buildings,” said a Samsung researcher who was part of the project.

The LED industry widely uses sapphire substrates but glass substrates can be tailored into ultra-large products, likely driving down production costs.

While the GaN LEDs available in markets are 2-inches in size, the new technology can produce GaN LEDs as much as 400 times larger than the current products, according to the company.

LEDs are used as backlighting for consumer electronics products like TVs. Samsung said GaN LEDs will be applied to large-size lightings and advanced displays in coming years.

The technology will take another 10 years to develop for commercial production.

Samsung said the work was published on the online version of Nature Photonics, a monthly scientific journal published by the Nature Publishing Group. 

(Yonhap News)