The Display Industry News Roundup For 10.30.2012

Image via Android Headlines

AUO Presents World's Narrowest Border on 4.46-inch Panel Integration Technology "AUO's proprietary super narrow border technology and low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) method are applied to reduce the border width to just 1mm when touch panel is placed on the module surface, allowing the screen to appear in its largest at the cell phone's display area. In addition, AMOLED, IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) and AHVA (Advanced Hyper-Viewing Angle) technologies are being developed by AUO to constantly drive the trends for ultra high resolution, ultra wide viewing angle and super narrow border technologies." via AUO

Flat Panel Display Equipment Market Expected to Recover Substantially in 2013 ""The majority of FPD equipment spending in 2013 will be used for new low temperature polysilicon (LTPS) fabs or conversion of a-Si (amorphous silicon) capacity to LTPS for use in both TFT LCD and AMOLED (active matrix OLED) production," according to Charles Annis, Vice President of Manufacturing Research at NPD DisplaySearch." via DisplaySearch

AUO technology leads China rivals by two generations "There are two roads for panel makers: one leading to the severe price competition in the low-end market, and the other to profitability through development of high-end products, Peng said. AUO is taking the latter one, which is the only one leading to sustaintable development, Peng said." via DigiTimes

Intel: It Will Be Hard to Sell Notebooks without Touchscreens. "There are a number of things that prevent touchscreen-based notebook devices from becoming widespread: one is manufacturing cost, another is heat produced by components of electronic devices (which makes touch-screens uncomfortable to use). The pricing of touchscreens is something Intel intends to take care of this year, but touch-sensing panels will still be pretty hard to implement while maintaining very thin screens that are used on today’s mobile PCs." via Xbit Laboratories

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

Apple lacks display aspect ratio consistency "Apple went from an aspect ratio of 3:2 to 16:9 and from a pixel format of 960×640 to 1136×640. 960×640 was itself unusual, surrounded by a world of smartphones with 800×480, 960×540, 1280×720. Those are unusual too, except for 1280×720. But 1136×640? That’s ridiculous; it’s good for nothing." via Display Blog

AUO Reveals 65-inch 4K by 2K IGZO TV Panel Technology "The indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) technology was adopted to achieve an ultra high definition of 3840x2160, which is four times the resolution of Full HD. Meanwhile, continuous technological advancements have brought panel sizes, image resolution and colors to new levels. AUO also endeavors to develop integrated display technologies with multiple functions and high added values to usher in a new era of ultra high resolution, narrow bezel, and diverse displays applications." via AUO

Japan Display Develops Low-power-consumption Reflective LCD Panel "Japan Display employed a low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT as a driver element. And it formed a memory circuit on each pixel to retain image data to be written in the aim of lowering power consumption. The memory formed on each pixel is SRAM. Moreover, the company realized natural display like paper by optimizing the optical design of the scattering layer." via Tech-On

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

Materials for touch screens in short supply "High demand for the touch screen material has now resulted in about a 30% shortage, which is also putting China-based touch panel makers at a loss. Recently, Truly Optoelectronics general manager Jian-hua Li arrived in Taiwan looking for additional suppliers of thin-film type touch screen materials." via DigiTimes

Transparent memory for head-up displays a step closer to reality "Researchers at Rice University are designing transparent, two-terminal, 3D computer memories on flexible sheets that show promise for head-up displays and electronics. The technique is based on the switching properties of silicon oxide (SiOx) and the use of indium tin oxide (ITO) or graphene as the electrodes." via Laser Focus World

Microfluidic Technology Enables New User Interface "The Tactus Tactile Layer™ panel was developed to provide a next-generation user interface with real physical buttons, guidelines, or shapes that rise from the surface of a touch screen on demand and can be employed without visual confirmation from the user. The Tactile Layer component is a completely flat, transparent, dynamic layer that sits on top of the touch sensor and display. The thin layer deforms and buttons or shapes of a specific height, size, and firmness emerge from the surface when triggered by software API, a proximity sensor, or an other event." via The Society for Information Display

The Society for Information Display October Edition Published "Novel Displays Issue, October 2012 Vol. 28, No. 10" via The Society for Information Display

Rockwell Collins begins flight testing of touch-screen primary flight display "Rockwell Collins has begun flight testing for its latest configuration of Pro Line Fusion, featuring the industry’s first touch-screen primary flight displays. The company is testing the system on its Hawker Beechcraft King Air B200GT." via Canadian Skies Magazine

Researchers create screens that can differentiate users "While normal capacitive screens might measure the draw of electricity at 1,000 Hz, this prototype measures the draw at many different frequencies — ranging from 1,000 to 3.5 million Hz. This creates a curve in real time representing the electrical properties of the person touching the screen." via The Tartan

Two Chinese Firms Plan to Buy Into Chimei-Innolux "Chimei-Innolux Corp., under Hon Hai Group, is reportedly in talks with China Electronics Panda Crystal Technology (CEC Xtall) and Hisense Group of mainland China for cooperation in the forms of investment or alliance, which, if materialized, will usher in a new era for Taiwan and mainland Chinese FPD (flat panel display) firms to join forces in coping with the competition of Korean rivals. " via CENS

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The Information Display News Roundup For 9.26.2012

Image via Office of Naval Research / Defense News

Marines Get Virtual Explosions in the Real World "The system includes a head-mounted display (HMD) with attached sensors tethered to a backpack computer. The software projects scaled virtual images of objects, such as tanks or helicopters, against the backdrop of the real terrain as seen through the HMD. It can work on any terrain, though the terrain must first be mapped." via Defense News

CE 2012 "Much of what has been going on with composite devices have been facilitated by what is going on with display technology, packing ever-more pixels into the same size screen. That is coming to an end, not because the technology has reached its limits but because the human eye cannot see ever more concentrated pixel densities." via Flat Panel Display Blog

Metal Oxide TFTs - Closer To Realization "When I attended the International Meeting on Information Display 2012 (IMID) a few weeks ago in Daegu, South Korea, a lot of progress was reported on metal oxide TFTs. The favorite material for the active layer is indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO), which provides mobilities 10-20 times higher than that of s-Si." via Applied Materials Blog

Chimei G150XGE-L04 vs. AU Optronics G150XG01V3 "...the AUO G150XG01V3 with RGBW technology consumes 13% less power than the CMI G150XGE-L04 due to its white sub pixels, making the AUO G150XG01V3 the better choice for applications where operating cost is an issue." via Apollo Display Technologies Blog

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

Digital Signage Glossary "In an effort to give readers an overall understanding of the sector, the 62 word vocabulary explains the meaning of elements related to all aspects of a digital signage solution- hardware, software, content and installation." via Dynamax Technologies

Free-form Optics May Enable “Glasses-Like” AR HMD "Previous work on AR HUDs based on free-form optical systems have primarily utilized physically large, low resolution microdisplays and resulted in optical systems with a fairly high f#. To address these issues, Hua’s group has developed various tools including new mathematical descriptions of free-form surfaces and surface shape controls. The results were demonstrated in a prototype that utilized a 0.61-inch OLED microdisplay and that had a f/1.875 optical system." via Display Central

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

Mirrors That Double as Computers "Tokyo-based technology company Seraku Corp. is seeing interest from real-estate developers and hotels for its Web-connected bathroom mirror that acts as a one-stop display to read news, check traffic, leave notes for other family members, and keep track of water usage in the home." via The Wall Street Journal

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