The AV industry is filled with acronyms: LED, LCD, ULED, OLED, HDR, DLP, and of course AV, just to name a few. All these letters can get confusing if you aren’t immersed in the terminology on a day-to-day basis. We’ve written in this space before about OLED, but today it’s time to take on a similar acronym: ULED. Let’s clear up some confusion by asking and answering some questions about ULED and its relationship to our style of LED.

What does LED stand for?

LED stands for Light-Emitting Diode.

What does ULED stand for?

ULED stands for Ultra Light-Emitting Diode, and while the O in OLED and the Q in QLED actually refer to a particular style of display technology, the use of “Ultra” in this case is essentially just marketing lingo.

What’s different about ULED then?

ULED is used almost exclusively to refer to in-home televisions, while the Nanolumens style of LED displays are almost exclusively commercial. That said, they both produce light in the same way, through the process of electroluminescence. Electroluminescence is what happens when negatively charged free electrons, excited by an electrical current, combine with positively charged “electron holes” within a semiconductor. Because the electron holes have a lower energy level than the electrons themselves, the electrons must release energy in order to combine. You can read about that process here. While a Nanolumens LED display features these light-emitting diodes front and center, ULED, as well as OLED, QLED, and LCD displays, simply use these diodes as backlighting. The light these diodes create is then filtered before being visible to audiences.

“ULED is used almost exclusively to refer to in-home televisions, while the Nanolumens style of LED displays are almost exclusively commercial. That said, they both produce light in the same way, through the process of electroluminescence.

Is there anything worth knowing about it?

As stated above, the number one thing to know about ULED is that it’s really targeted for in-home, indoor, purposes only. It’s a TV, not a large-format display.

What’s the conclusion then?

The main takeaway here should be that just because something has a trendy acronym, that doesn’t mean it is groundbreaking technology. Each technology has its fit and “pro’s / con’s”. In this rapidly developing market with the next “X” LED technology just around the corner, we aim to help educate engineers, integrators, and end-users so they can make the right decision for their need.