report
8.3.4 State of R&D

This research area is largely application oriented, as indicated by the large number of companies involved in this field.

Some of the work on the field emission properties of nanomaterials is essentially fundamental science, with field emission measurements being carried out as part of experimental work to synthesize nanomaterials.

OLEDs is a commercially available technology which is currently used for mobile devices and some displays. The largest commercially available OLED displays appear to be 11inchs, and only limited quantities of these; around 1000 per month, are sold. However, there is still a great deal of research activity being carried out on OLEDs, including for use as light sources, as well as displays.

There is also very active research work on using CNTs or other nanomaterials to produce TFTs and transparent electrodes. This research is driven by the clear limitations of existing solutions (ITO), and the ubiquity of such components and the large potential market size. Electronic Paper is another active field of research, with a major new development being announced in the week of writing.
 
FEDs are still at a development stage. Some manufacturers have released proof of concept devices, but these are not currently in production.