Novel pixel design for high-resolution AMOLED displays with a shadow mask

— The bottlenecks in achieving high resolution for active‐matrix OLED (AMOLED) displays based on currently available manufacturing processes were evaluated and compared. The use of a shadow mask has proven to be viable for mass production, but the fabrication of high‐precision shadow masks becomes very difficult when the resolution exceeds 180 ppi. The latest breakthrough in increasing display resolution is presented. Without an increase in cost, the limitations of the conventional shadow‐mask process using novel subpixel designs have been successfully overcome. A high resolution reaching of 270 ppi has been successfully demonstrated on a 3‐in. VGA‐format AMOLED display, fabricated by using a shadow mask with a much lower resolution of 135 ppi. This innovative pixel design opens up the possibilities of manufacturing high‐resolution displays using a relatively low‐resolution shadow mask.