OLED screens already feel like magic. Colors pop on your phone. Blacks look truly black on your TV. The panel stays thin, smooth, and flexible. Yet a stubborn problem inside the device keeps engineers from pushing brightness much further without paying a price in power and heat. Researchers at KAIST say they have found a way around that limit. On Jan. 11, the institute announced a new near-planar light outcoupling structure and an OLED design method that can cut internal light loss. The team, led by Professor Seunghyup Yoo of the School of Electrical Engineering, reports that the combined approach can more than double light-emission efficiency in small pixels while keeping OLED’s flat form. The idea targets a hidden waste. OLEDs create light inside stacked, ultrathin organic layers. As that light tries to leave, it reflects and gets absorbed again and again. KAIST says more than 80% of the light can vanish as heat before it ever escapes. The need for near-planar, in-pixel light outcoupling structure for ultra-efficient light-emitting devices. (CREDIT: Nature Communications) The Light …