Samsung Display unveiled ‘QD-OLED Penta Tandem™’, a new premium technology brand built on its proprietary five-layer organic light-emitting structure, a core innovation unique to its QD-OLED panels.
Samsung Display announced that it has completed trademark registration for the new brand, created to highlight the distinctive value of its five-layer organic light-emitting structure applied to QD-OLED panels for premium monitors and TVs. “Penta” comes from the Greek word for the number five.
QD-OLED expresses color using quantum dots that respond to light, with the blue emitting layer serving as the light source due to its high energy within the visible spectrum. Beginning last year, Samsung Display advanced the blue emitting layer stack from four layers to five, and applied the latest organic materials, completing a new generation of QD-OLED that delivers superior picture quality, efficiency, and peak brightness.
In particular, the multi-layer stacking of organic light-emitting materials has emerged as a key differentiator amid intensifying competition in the high-resolution monitor market. Achieving higher resolution within the same panel size and increasing the pixel density reduces the light-emitting area of each individual pixel. Under these technical constraints, effectively dispersing the energy applied to organic materials is essential to maintaining stable, high brightness levels.
Samsung Display’s 27-inch UHD (3840×2160) QD-OLED monitor panel, launched last year, achieves 160 pixels per inch (PPI), the highest pixel density among self-emissive gaming monitors. QD-OLED Penta Tandem forms the core technological foundation of this breakthrough. To date, Samsung Display is the only company mass-producing 27-inch UHD self-emissive displays with 160 PPI specifications.
When the number of organic material layers increases, luminous efficiency improves, enabling higher brightness at the same power level or maintaining the same brightness with lower power consumption. It is similar to five people carrying a load that was previously carried by four, allowing either greater endurance or the ability to lift something heavier. Compared to last year’s four-layer QD-OLED, Penta Tandem improves luminous efficiency by 1.3 times and extends lifespan by 2 times. As a result, products featuring QD-OLED Penta Tandem technology achieve industry-leading peak brightness of 4,500 nits for TVs and 1,300 nits for monitors, based on 3% OPR (On Pixel Ratio, the ratio of active pixels among all pixels composing the screen).
Panels featuring QD-OLED Penta Tandem technology enable customers to obtain VESA’s ‘DisplayHDR™ True Black 500’ certification. The True Black certification is a standard that assesses a display’s HDR (High Dynamic Range) performance, including its ability to reproduce deep black levels. To achieve the True Black 500 rating, a display must maintain a black level of 0.0005 nits or lower while simultaneously reaching a peak luminance of 500 nits (at 10% OPR). Currently, the only 31.5-inch UHD monitor certified with DisplayHDR™ True Black 500 is built on Samsung Display’s QD-OLED Penta Tandem panel.
Samsung Display plans to expand QD-OLED Penta Tandem across its full range of panel sizes this year, supplying the technology for flagship products from major customers. Following last year’s 27-inch UHD panel and the 31.5-inch UHD and 34-inch WQHD products introduced earlier this year, the technology will be applied to a 49-inch Dual QHD (5120×1440) model. In the TV segment, Penta Tandem has been featured in top-tier self-emissive TV display lineups from key customers since 2025.
“Multi-layer organic light-emitting structure is not simply about adding more layers. It requires deep expertise in selecting materials and optimizing their thickness and combinations,” said Brad Jung, Vice President and Head of the Large Display Marketing Team at Samsung Display. “Penta Tandem, built on nearly five years of QD-OLED mass production experience since 2021, represents the ultimate choice for customers looking to demonstrate the premium value of QD-OLED.”
(Photo credit: Samsung Display)
