The Display Industry News Roundup For 10.23.2012

Image via Tech-On

Japan Display Develops LCD Panels With Its Latest Technologies "For automotive devices, Japan Display developed a 12.2-inch 1,920 x 720-pixel LCD panel featuring a semielliptical shape called "corner round cut." For its display mode, a new IPS technology was employed. The panel has a low power consumption and an embedded touch sensor function." via Tech-On

Samsung Confirms It Will Continue LCD Panel Supply To Apple "Samsung has debunked the report from last night that claimed to terminate their LCD supply contract with Apple. Samsung’s spokesperson confirmed to CNET that the deal is still on and will supply panels to the Cupertino giant for their iPhone and iPad devices." via Sammy Hub

LG and Samsung won't be able to ship OLED TVs in 2012 "The article actually says that DisplaySearch expects the companies to start producing TVs in 2012 - but only a handful. 500 units, in fact - that's hardly mass production. In July, DisplaySearch estimated that the two companies will sell 20,000 units in 2012 - which is also a very low amount." via OLED-Info

Do you need display panels? Email jason@displayalliance.com to source with Mass Integrated, Inc.

Blue Phase LCD Are Coming "Polymer-stabilized blue-phase LCD promises to solve many of the problems that face large and small panel makers today. As Dr. Wu explained, clever mixtures of nematic host molecules, chiral dopants and stabilizing monomers can stretch the temperature range of double-twist blue phase LC operation to more than 70º C. More important, they’re fast: switching time can be less than a microsecond!" via Display Central

End-of-life notice "Sharp LQ050Q5DR01 has been discontinued. To source this end-of-life panel email jason@displayalliance.com." via Display Alliance

How it works: The technology of touch screens "According to touch industry expert Geoff Walker of Walker Mobile, there are 18 distinctly different touch technologies available. Some rely on visible or infrared light; some use sound waves and some use force sensors. They all have individual combinations of advantages and disadvantages, including size, accuracy, reliability, durability, number of touches sensed and -- of course -- cost." via Computer World

Want to submit news to Display Alliance or be interviewed about your expertise in the display industry? Email jason@displayalliance.com.

Roll-to-roll plasma etch equipment project completed "The purpose of this FlexTech Alliance funded project was to create a plasma etching tool for dielectric films that offers a number of manufacturing advantages for flexible electronics. For example, plasma etching is cleaner than a wet etching manufacturing process due to the lack of chemicals to dispose after use. Additionally, incorporating the system into a roll-to-roll process allows large area and flexible products to be fabricated at low cost. " via Solid State Technology

Large-Sized LCD Panel Pricing Stabilizes in September After Strong August Panel Shipments "Overall, price stabilization and an improvement in demand for large-sized LCD panels are factors helping the industry recover after multiple quarters of financial loss. Prospects for the months ahead will depend on the prudence of panel suppliers against overproduction, as well as on the all-important consumer making those much-needed purchases for the upcoming holidays." via iSuppli

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The Display Industry News Roundup For 10.12.2012

Image via Sean Follmer / MIT Media Lab

What Comes After the Touch Screen? "One was a malleable interface that can be shaped somewhat the way clay can, developed by a team at MIT's Media Lab. Sean Follmer, a PhD student in the lab of Professor Hiroshi Ishii, demonstrated several versions, including a translucent bendable touch screen laid flat on a table." via MIT Technology Review

Nanotubes Presage Holographic Displays "Holographic displays came one step closer as researchers at Cambridge University’s Centre of Molecular Materials for Photonics and Electronics (CMMPE) used carbon nanotubes to produce the smallest ever scattering elements (pixels) to create a static holographic projection of the word CAMBRIDGE." via Display Central

Hands-on with the first IGZO panel smartphone, Sharp's SH-02E "In short, the world’s first phone with an IGZO-based display is a bit of a letdown. But on the plus side, the high-density IGZO displays that Sharp has been teasing us with are now that much closer to market — something that we can all look forward to." via The Verge

Disney Uses 3D Printed Optics for Displays "At the recent ACM conference on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST ’12), Disney Research (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ) and Carnegie Mellon University presented a paper on the production of optics for user interfaces and displays using 3D printing technology." via Display Central

Do you need display panels? Email jason@displayalliance.com to source with Mass Integrated, Inc.

Japan Electronics Emulates Detroit Autos Before Bankruptcy: Tech "Prices for 40-inch LCD panels fell from about $2,700 in the beginning of 2004 to $1,300 in 2005 and kept dropping until they reached $250 at the start of this year. Samsung steadily gained market share, moving to 29 percent in 2012 from 10 percent in 2004. ...“Japanese companies innovated primarily on hardware and the device and they were fantastic at that,” Kenevan said. “The problem is, the key engine of innovation in the world has shifted from hardware to software, to systems, to solutions.”" via Bloomberg Businessweek

Interactive system detects touch and gestures on any surface ""Imagine having giant iPads everywhere, on any wall in your house or office, every kitchen counter, without using expensive technology," said Niklas Elmqvist, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University. "You can use any surface, even a dumb physical surface like wood. You don't need to install expensive LED displays and touch-sensitive screens."" via R&D Mag

Panel Makers Re-Adjust 4Kx2K Panel Plans "As LCD TV panel makers reshuffle their 4K panel plans, it is becoming clear that 4K is a necessity at certain sizes." via DisplaySearch Blog

Flat Panel Display Price Erosion and Performance Improvements Drive Increased Demand, Expediting Industry Recovery "However, with the exception of LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon, a form of microdisplay) all other display technologies, including plasma and passive matrix forms of LCD and OLED, are declining in 2012. In a sharp reversal, AMEPD (active matrix electrophoretic display), which is used in monochrome e-readers, swung from strong growth in 2011 to even stronger decline in 2012, due to competition from TFT LCD-based tablet PCs." via DisplaySearch

Touchscreens: How they work "Capacitive screens sense the tiny amount of electrical charge on your skin that is produced when your finger interacts with the screen's electrical field." via The Washington Post

AU Optronics reaches patent cross-licensing agreement with E-Ink, Hydis "The ten-year deal largely centers around LCD technologies, including Fringe Field Switching (FFS). AUO and E-Ink claimed in a statement that the agreement will “sharpen their competitive edge” in the industry." via TNW

Less business for Korean-based tablet panel makers? "Analysts predict that global tablet users will reach 124 million by 2014, and Apple currently holds nearly 70 percent of the tablet market share. Taiwan is a hotspot for PC OEMs, but the PC market is shrinking, hence, Apple’s move may give Taiwan the much needed boost in its tech sector." via VR-Zone

Want to submit news to Display Alliance or be interviewed? Email jason@displayalliance.com.

Google 10-inch tablet would push display tech envelope "In fact, Samsung is the only company that successfully manufactures both high-volume advanced AMOLED and LCD screens. But the high-density PPI action is currently centered on LCDs -- not AMOLED. Sharp, for example, announced the start of production of a 5-inch 443 PPI display last week. But if Sharp is able to make those kinds of LCDs, you can bet Samsung probably can too -- and will." via CNET

Capacitive Touch Case Makes Your iPhone Very Sensitive "[Canopy] introduced the Sensus iPhone case with a capacitive touch back at the 2012 GDC (Game Developers Conference) on Wednesday. ...Touch-capacitive sensors are located on the back and right edges of the case. From the looks of the video on Canopy’s pre-order page, the company is clearly courting gamers and game developers. The case moves fingers off the front of the iPhone and out of the way of the action." via Wired

High-directionality backlight for head-up displays "A head-up display (HUD) shows signals, data, or messages in front of the windshield of a vehicle and allows the driver to keep their line of sight while looking at the display unit. HUD has been successfully adopted commercially1,2 and has the most potential for use as the human visual interface for vehicles.3 In addition to concerns related to reliability, particularly with HUDs with a large display size, there are two major issues with current HUD design. One is high power consumption. The other is the volume of the display unit." via SPIE

The Display Industry News Roundup For 10.9.2012

Image via Slash Gear

Futaba showcases flexible OLED watch "The Display has a size of 3.5 inch and a 256×64 Pixel resolution with a pixel pitch of 0.34×0.34 mm. The brightness is about 100 lumen/m²" via OLED-Display See video here in the Tube section of Display Alliance.

Evaluating molecules within a sealed organic light emitting diode device "The developed method uses an advanced laser spectroscopic technique that has been improved to measure the molecular vibrational spectrum at the interface of a specific organic layer inside an OLED device. By employing a signal enhancement phenomenon that occurs at the interface with a concentrated electric field, the method can be used to evaluate the molecular condition of the organic layer during light emission without destroying the device." via Phys.org

Key milestone reached in OLED development: cynora presents new flexible prototype "“Using solution processing to produce components instead of conventional vapor deposition is a prerequisite for bringing production costs down to a level where flexible OLEDs are viable for mass-market applications,” explains Dr. Tobias Grab, the other cynora CEO. In addition, the cynora emitters used are based on readily available copper precursors which in itself further support the material’s suitability for mass production." via Cynora

Do you need display panels? Email jason@displayalliance.com to source from Mass Integrated, Inc.

ISE 2013 To Host MegaPixel Summit "“By hosting the MegaPixel Summit at ISE 2013, we hope to create a forum in which the challenges arising from creating large-scale, multiple-component displays are addressed by a mix of different stakeholders: manufacturers, distributors, integrators, rental companies and end customers.”" via Display Central

Smart pill bottle measures meds using touchscreen technology "AdhereTech's battery-powered smart pill bottle measures the amount of liquid or solid medication in a bottle using capacitance, the same technology used in touch screens. The sensors are between plastic in the bottle's walls so they never touch the meds, but can accurately measure down to one pill of solid medication or one millileter of liquid medication." via The Verge

Chip-on-Glass LCD Driver Technology "NXP has developed a Chip-on-Glass LCD driver approach whereby the integrated circuit mounts directly on the display glass, with the overall impact being a reduction in system cost. COG is a very reliable and well-established technology, which is often used in the automobile industry." via EE Times

Want to submit news to Display Alliance or be interviewed? Email jason@displayalliance.com

CGS not IGZO Adorn New Sharp 5-inch HD Panel "Truth be told, although an older technology CGS is still a good choice. The older CG-Silicon uses crystalline silicon with electron mobility up to 600 times faster than ordinary amorphous silicon and up to six times faster than low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS-the current technology in the iPhone retina class iPhone4) according to Sharp." via Display Central

Projected-capacitive touch panels: Coming to a hospital near you "The optical clarity of projected capacitive touch panels made with all-glass construction makes them ideal for incorporating touch interactivity into demanding medical applications that require high-end LCDs with superior contrast, resolution, luminance and sharpness. Touch panels made from PET film instead of glass typically have lower transmissivity, greater haze and often exhibit interference patterns, or Newton’s rings, all of which make them less suitable for medical devices." via ECN Mag

The Information Display News Roundup For 9.28.2012

Image via Tech Radar

Best projector: 8 top HD models reviewed and rated "For monitor panels, each pixel has three primary-coloured sub-pixel. Not so for LCD projectors, instead they have three individual panels, one for each primary colour. White light from the lamp is split using dichroic mirrors, sent through the three panels and then recombined with a prism." via Tech Radar

Lexus LF-CC Concept shows the future of touchscreen interiors "This is fully touch-sensitive and replaces the clumsy, button-heavy center consoles found in many luxury cars. Think of it as a more organic evolution of the 17-inch touchscreen wedged in the center of the Tesla Model S." via engadget

LG's chairman calls for a major change, will focus on OLED displays "LG is set to release its first OLED TV, the 55" (the 55EM9600) in early 2013. The company is also planning to start mass producing plastic-based flexible OLED panels by the end of 2013." via OLED-Info

Are IPS panels replacing TN panels in monitors? "TN panels have always been cheap to produce and therefore inferior display technology has been foisted upon us by panel manufacturers. Why the change? There are a number of reasons but first and foremost you can thank the smartphone and tablet makers." via Flat Panels HD

Do you need display panels? Ask Jason. I'm the managing editor of Display Alliance but I also source panels for Mass Integrated, Inc. Just let me know what you need: jason@displayalliance.com

Hand-waving can decode invisible images on screen "The system, developed by Hirotsugu Yamamoto and colleagues from University of Tokushima in Japan, uses a newly developed LED panel that can display 480 images per second. In this video, a pair of images of the New Scientist logo (one black, one white) is embedded into the background. When displayed alternately at a high speed, they are invisible to the naked eye. "A hidden image is presented 10 times faster than the frame rate used at the cinema," says Yamamoto." via New Scientist

Continuing to deliver improved performance challenges traditional display manufacturing techniques " The type of transistors and the processes used for their manufacturing determine the performance of the display, the costs, and, to a large extent, the environmental footprint of the device. Today, two transistor types are common in mass production; amorphous silicon (a-Si) transistors are dominant (>95%), while low temperature polysilicon transistors (LTPS) have a niche position." via Solid State Technology

Digging for rare earths: The mines where iPhones are born "Inside the rocks from this mine are rare-earth minerals, crucial ingredients for iPhones, as well as wind turbines, hybrid cars, and night-vision goggles. Minerals such as neodymium are used in magnets that make speakers vibrate to create sound. Europium is a phosphor that creates a bright red on an iPhone screen. Cerium gets put into a solvent that workers use to polish devices as they move along the assembly line." via CNET

AUO to adopt printing process for producing AMOLED panels "Taiwan-based TFT-LCD panel maker AU Optronics (AUO) hopes to increase its AMOLED material usage to 70-80% by using printing processing, which is expected to be the mainstream for producing large-size AMOLED panels in the future, according to industry sources." via DigiTimes

The iPhone 5 Display: Thoroughly Analyzed "While many were hoping for a move to OLED or some other screen innovation, this really is a huge step up that is very easy to quantify. To put this in perspective, in the past few years I've reviewed probably 30-40 different displays, from PC monitors to TVs to projectors. Not a single one, out of the box, can put up the Gretag Macbeth dE numbers that the iPhone can, and perhaps one projector (which listed for $20,000) can approach the grayscale and color accuracy out of the box." via AnandTech

Want to be interviewed for Display Alliance or submit news? Get in touch with me: jason@displayalliance.com

Why the iPhone 5 doesn't have an AMOLED screen "As well as the iPhone 5 being too big a product launch for AMOLED to grace, there's also the small matter of the supply being dominated by Samsung Display, which makes over 90% of AMOLED screens. "Now Apple and Samsung are engaged in intense legal battles," says Werner, "it is unlikely that Apple would want its arch-rival to also be its single source for OLED displays."" via Tech Radar

Cephalopods may be the key to better e-paper screens "When the creature needs to be a little lighter in color, muscle fibers pull the cell membrane outward, reducing the density of the pigment. These fibers relax when a darker color is needed. E-paper screens like the one used on the Kindle use a similar technique with light and dark pigment capsules embedded in each pixel." via Geek.com

HDTV Expert - No OLED-TV Panel Production from LGD until 2013 " The best bet for LGD’s delay is still the oxide backplane. Oxide remains the most promising next-generation semiconductor material for thin-film transistors (TFTs), and Sharp has apparently gotten it to work for LCDs in volume production. But oxide researchers overwhelmingly say there are a few remaining stability issues, at least when oxide TFTs are used with OLEDs, that will take another year or so to resolve." via HDTV Magazine

The Information Display News Roundup For 9.25.2012

Image via Max Aguilera-Hellweg / Wired

Glass Works: How Corning Created the Ultrathin, Ultrastrong Material of the Future "The key to Gorilla Glass is that the compression layer keeps cracks from propagating through the material and catastrophically letting tension take over. Drop a phone once and the screen may not fracture, but you may cause enough damage (even a microscopic nick) to critically sap its subsequent strength. The next drop, even if it isn’t as severe, may be fatal. It’s one of the inevitable consequences of working with a material that is all about trade-offs, all about trying to create a perfectly imperceptible material." via Wired

HannStar reportedly enters iPad supply chain "The rumors claimed that since Apple has been decreasing its orders to Samsung Electronics for panels used in the iPad due to disputes between the two companies, the US vendor has begun shifting some of the orders to HannStar." via DigiTimes

Holographic storage may yet knock magnetic media off its perch "To store the data, a laser beam is split into two beams, a signal beam and a reference beam. The signal beam passes through a liquid crystal display, which shows a page of binary information, as clear and black boxes. The beam then travels into a light sensitive polymer or crystal substrate, carrying the information from the LCD." via Tech Radar

Do you need display panels? Ask Jason. I'm the managing editor of Display Alliance but I also source panels for Mass Integrated, Inc. Just let me know what you need: jason@displayalliance.com

CMI, AUO have low AMOLED yields, say sources "The sources indicated that CMI currently has 20% yields for its AMOLED technology, which uses white AMOLED with color filters. ...AUO uses traditional vacuum deposition technology for producing the panels and has had issues with bringing yields up beyond the 50% rate." via DigiTimes

Ultra High Definition Display Manufacturing in Asia Boosted by Three New Linde Plants "Improving electron mobility in transistors is crucial in bringing higher resolutions and higher frame rates to TVs, mobile and computing devices. The manufacture of UHD 3D displays is currently expensive, requiring the use polysilicon transistors, which cost twice as much as those using amorphous silicon." via Herald Online

3-D display screen tilts along multiple axes "Sriram Subramanian, a Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in Bristol University's Department of Computer Science said that the ability to tilt along multiple axes distinguishes the display from previous devices. He believes that such displays could be used in a range of applications such as terrain modeling and gaming. " via Vision Systems Design

Want to be interviewed for Display Alliance or submit your own content? Get in touch with me: jason@displayalliance.com

Tobii and NTT DOCOMO Show Unique Eye-tracking Tablet "Developed in partnership with NTT DOCOMO’s manufacturing partner, Fujitsu, the ibeam prototype uses the most advanced and compact eye tracker in the world, theTobii IS20 (formerly Tobii IS-2), allowing an unsurpassed eye-tracking experience when using the device. The ibeam will also showcase the future possibilities of natural user interfaces for computers and tablets using gaze interaction. With this capability, users can also interact with the tablet hands-free while still retaining complete functionality of the device." via Display Central