yay! new toys!
I'll make this quick--I have a million things to do this week--but here's a nifty little news item and a video. Looks like there's a lot of optimism out there for the super-awesome new displays. I'm guilty of this too, of course...maybe in my next cell phone?
6 comments:
You have to wonder how long these commercial OLEDs last. As far as I'm concerned, not long enough.
Long enough for a cell phone display, as far as I'm concerned. (service credit FTW!)
I was at an organic electronics short course this summer at MIT.
One thing we went over in detail is aging and uniformity issues, and buy coupling a sensor in the back plane that can adjust the drive current to maintain steady brightness, they claim to get very good MTBFs. But aging is a huge problem, and price-sensitive applications are going to preclude using all the support circuitry.
Still, I'm excited by the potential for really cheap, single or short-term use electronics. If the product life cycle included a good recycling path, I'd love to see laminated cardboard cellphones with video that you pay 5 bucks for that you recycle in a week.
(I was kinda hoping you'd have something to say on this, Dave...you know much more about it than I do!)
Recycling is something it'd be nice to see more of for all electronics, I think. I know there are some programs for this, but it seems like most of them require voluntary participation, and...most people are lazy and might not realize the importance. After all, there's only so much indium in the world...
I don't think that voluntary participation is the problem, really. It's just that people have little incentive, even when they want (in principle) to do the right thing. I think that this could be encouraged by calculating environmental costs and tacking them on some way in the form of a deposit. We have that for Al cans in Michigan, and everyone I know recycles cans religiously. On one hand, it is only 10 cents a can. On the other hand, when I get around to taking back my cans, I usually recover about 70 bucks. Besides wanting to do it because it is right, righteous and good, I can get motivated to drive to the grocery for $70. My good intentions be damned.
You get the deposit back, so it isn't a tax, but more of a bond. The supermarket, I assume, recoups the cost of recycling by the value of the metal.
When there is something valuable to recover, I think you can make it happen so that people are willing to do it, and in a way that prevents externalizing costs. It needs to be designed in a way that won't encourage cheating or offshoring, so it may be tricky.
To quote your boss, via a paper on his door: "Flat-panel displays: the next billion-dollar industry."
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