Vanta Black reduces reflections in OLED and QD OLED TVs

Premium OLED TVs with MLA (Micro Lens Array) display feature the new Vanta Black anti-glare coating. This eliminates one of the biggest drawbacks of LG Display’s WRGB OLED displays. In addition to LG Display, Samsung Display has also improved the anti-glare (AR) coating of its QD-OLED panels in 2023 .

Vanta Black in OLED and QD OLED TVs

With two OLED panel technologies for TVs now available, consumers can look forward to updates in 2023. These updates will occur in key areas such as full screen and peak brightness, energy efficiency, durability, color reproduction and viewing angles.

OLED TVs have been delivering excellent picture quality for years and rightfully top various lists of the best. But what’s often kept under wraps, or perhaps just not very noticeable in test scenarios, is that OLED displays aren’t extremely reflective.

The improvement of such a change as an anti-reflective coating has not been previously reported. OLED panel manufacturer WOLED has finally solved this problem. The new premium OLED TVs with Micro Lens Array (MLA) display have an additional anti-glare coating called “Vanta Black”.

The panels are manufactured by LG Display but are not exclusive to the LG G3 Gallery OLED. In 2023, Philips and Panasonic will launch the Philips OLED908 and Panasonic MZ2000 TV models with low reflection OLED displays. Other TV models, as well as other electronics manufacturers, may be added to this list.

Vanta Black is…

Before continuing, it is worth noting that the concept of “Vantablack” appeared much earlier. It stands for “vertically aligned nanotube arrays + black”. This is a kind of substance, the main component of which is carbon.

This substance is capable of absorbing 99.965 percent of almost all types of radiation that fall on it. This number includes not only light from natural and artificial sources, but also radio waves with microwaves. Approximately the same structure has black coal, which is able to absorb up to 96 percent of the light.

The very principle of operation is to combine vertical black nanotubes with aluminum foil. Light photons, falling into this “palisade”, usually remain there. As a result, no back reflection occurs. This substance is also called the blackest substance or “blacker than black”.

Reduce display reflections by up to 70 percent

According to an official statement from LG Electronics, the super anti-glare coating on the G3 reduces reflections by about 25% compared to the LG C2 . This reduced reflection helps improve contrast and clarity, and has the ability to better see dark images in the presence of ambient light.

Specular reflections, as the name suggests, make surfaces look like a mirror. This means that objects on the surface can be perceived in detail and can also interfere with viewing. Philips goes even further. It claims it can reduce overall reflectivity by up to 30% and specular reflectance by up to 70% compared to previous generation WOLED panels.

Philips has confirmed that anti-glare is a feature of the 2023 MLA WOLED panels. That is, Philips did not modify this coating in any way. A Samsung Display spokesperson confirmed that improvements will be coming to QD-OLED TVs and monitors of all sizes in 2023.

As of December 2022, all Samsung Display QD-OLED production has been converted to new panels. However, some consumer brands may still use the 2022 panels until stocks run out.

The new panel was also said to feature a “brand new AR coating” with a multi-layer reflection reduction mechanism designed to reduce light distortion between layers to reduce diffuse reflections.

Samsung Display did not give specific numbers, but said consumers will notice a more neutral tone in 2023 QD-OLED displays, rather than the reddish tint seen in 2022. It will also minimize the effect of black bumps on QD-OLED displays. While this effect can still be observed when playing back images in very bright rooms.

At present, Samsung Electronics has already released an excellent anti-glare coating, which is perhaps one of the best on the market (for all display technologies except micro-LED). However, Samsung has already announced that it intends to further improve the anti-glare properties of QD OLED TVs in 2023 with the S90C and S95C series. Third-party QD OLED TVs should also benefit from this.