Competing technologies - Page 37

Earlier today we learned that LG Display decided to stop investing in small and medium sized OLEDs. Now we hear that LG Display's CEO commented that Samsung is misleading the market - because OLED displays are not suitable for smartphones and tablets - "OLED displays are not suitable in terms of picture quality, response time, energy consumption and contrast ratios".

Samsung Super-AMOLED display

That is a very strange comments by LG - as we know that people love OLED displays. In fact recent reviews of Samsung's Super AMOLED Plus displays were raving - Engadget for example says that the Super AMOLED Plus is spectacular, and is on-par with Apple's Retina display. If the recent reports about Samsung's Super AMOLED HD displays are true - then this display will beat an IPS-LCD display hands down.

Mirasol is a MEMS based reflective color display technology from Qualcomm. The company is already producing in small scale and are building a $1 billion factory in Taiwan. First panels are aimed towards e-readers (5.7") but the company has also recently unveiled a mobile phone prototype with a 4.1" color display.

While Mirasol displays offer video and color and are very power efficient, they also suffer from washed colors, and of course the screens aren't "bright" as they are reflective (although Mirasol thinks that edge lighting might be an option). Mirasol themselves admit that they cannot compete in the smart phone market yet - but interestingly we now hear that their CEO says that brighter displays are on the roadmap - and 'eventually' they could compete with OLED displays.

Toshiba Mobile Display developed a 7" LTPS TFT LCD panel that has an integrated in-cell touch panel. The new LCD is only 1mm thick (about 57% thinner than a LCD with an external touch panel) and weights only 225 grams (48% less than an external-touch LCD). The integrated touch panel also reduces the surface reflection ratio by about 10%. This is basically the same technology that Samsung uses in their Super AMOLED displays.

We don't know when TMDisplay plans to actually produce such panels. They will show this technology next month at SID 2011.

S-LCD (a joint-venture between Sony and Samsung) announced that it will reduce capital by $555 million. Kim Sun-in, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities says that this reflect a shrinking demand from Sony and the sector's overall shift in focus to OLED displays. In fact, Kim says that Samsung and Sony will eventually wind up the business to focus on OLEDs instead.

Sony 24.5-inch OLED prototype

Sharp announced that it will start making IGZO (InGaZnO) based LCD panels for mobile phones and tablets towards the end of 2011. Sharp says that the new displays will be brighter, clearer, thinner and more efficient than existing LCDs. Sharp will make these new displays in their 8-Gen plant using the company's UV²A ultra-violet alignment technology.

IGZO can also be used to for OLED backplanes. Chimei Innolux, for example, announced plans to built a 5.5-Gen OLED plant an IGZO TFT.

Samsung Electronics announced today that they began mass producing 22" transparent LCD panels. The panels offer WSXGA+ (1680x1050) resolution and 500:1 contrast. Samsung will produce both color and monochrome panels. The color panel has 15% transparency and the black and white is better at 20%. These LCDs are also very efficient - they use 90% less energy when compared to a normal LCD (because there is no back light unit).

Samsung says that these displays will probably be used as advertising tools (in show windows or outdoor billboards) and education tools. We still do not know the price of these units.

Here's a very nice short video showing how an LCD monitor works by tearing it down and explaining it bit by bit:

Samsung is showing a new 46" transparent LCD display that is so efficient it can run from a small solar panel at ambient light. The panel supports Full-HD resolution (1080p) and offers ten-finger multitouch surface. Samsung plans to commercialize this technology 'soon':

Last month we reported about Samsung's new 4" active-matrix QLED display prototype, and now we hear that NanoPhotonica has developed new QLED technology (which they call S-QLED because it's solution-processable). Compared to current available OLED displays, S-QLED use fewer layers, is solution-processable (and can be produced using inkjet printing) and uses inorganic materials. In fact NanoPhotonica claims that S-QLED displays will be 75% cheaper than current OLEDs, be more efficient (by 30%) and will have double the lifetime.

NanoPhotonica is currently working with several display manufacturers to commercialize the displays. The company hopes to bring this to market "soon".

Here's a nice video showing LG's new NOVA LCD display side by side with a Super AMOLED (a Galaxy S phone) and Apple's iPhone 4 Retina Display (which is also an LCD). LG says that the NOVA displays are 50% brighter than the LCD and will consume about half the power than an AMOLED display on a white screen.