Competing technologies - Page 46

Sharp - no plans to develop OLEDs

Doug Koshima, Sharp's Chairman says that Sharp still has no plans to develop OLED, and are sticking with LCD. This is a big bet by Sharp - if OLED TV start to take off, they might be left behind (like Sony did with LCDs and PDPs) - also OLEDs are great for PR, and Sharp might be seen as 'conservative'. On the other hand Sharp are saving a lot of money with R&D...

Earlier this year Sharp said that OLEDs will not threat LCDs for at least a decade.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 09,2009

HP and Arizona State University Demo Flexible, Unbreakable Displays

HP and the Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University (ASU) today announced the first prototype of affordable, flexible electronic displays.


The unbreakable displays were created by the FDC and HP using self-aligned imprint lithography (SAIL) technology invented in HP Labs, HP’s central research arm. SAIL is considered self aligned because the patterning information is imprinted on the substrate in such a way that perfect alignment is maintained regardless of process-induced distortion.


SAIL technology enables the fabrication of thin film transistor arrays on a flexible plastic material in a low-cost, roll-to-roll manufacturing process. This allows for more cost-effective continuous production, rather than batch sheet-to-sheet production.


The first practical demonstration of the flexible displays was achieved through collaborative efforts between the FDC and HP as well as other FDC partners including DuPont Teijin Films and E Ink. To create this display, the FDC produces stacks of semiconductor materials and metals on flexible Teonex® Polyethylene Naphthalate (PEN) substrates from DuPont Teijin Films.


HP then patterns the substrates using the SAIL process and subsequently integrates E Ink’s Vizplex™ imaging film to produce an actively addressed flexible display on plastic. E Ink’s Vizplex bi-stable electrophoretic imaging film enables images to persist without applied voltage, thereby greatly reducing power consumption for viewing text.



Read the full story Posted: Dec 08,2008

Samsung says no OLED TV soon, just days after saying OLED Laptops in 2010


What Hi-Fi has spoken to Samsung's VP of Flat-Panel development, who says LCDs will 'hold off OLEDs for many years'.  HS Kim says that OLEDs are pricier, and people will not pay more for such TVs. Also LCDs are advancing quickly in areas such as power consumption, so this isn't good news for OLED either.



On the plus side, HS Kim says Samsung can already make 50" OLED TVs, and may show them at CES.



This comes only a few days after Samsung said we'll see OLED laptops in 2010 and that OLEDs are going to be 'mainstream' soon.



Out take? First of all Samsung is a big company with many units, so it's fair that not everyone thinks the same. Samsung is commited to Mobile OLEDs - for phones, PDAs and laptops. These panels are smaller (up to 15" for laptops), and the power efficiency is important for mobile devices. However in the TV market, things are more difficult...



Read the full story Posted: Dec 03,2008

Canon is clear to launch SED TVs

After a long legal battle (over 3 years), patens in the SED TV case have been settled, and now Canon can launch their SED TVs. SED TVs are said to have a beautiful picure and viewing angle, but are as thin as an LCD or PDP display.


Canon is yet to mass-produce those kind of TVs (up until now they only produced prototypes). In fact Canon's president said they will not launch SED TVs immediatly - in fact because of the recent slump in TV prices, Canon will have a hard time introducing an expensive new TV.



Read the full story Posted: Dec 02,2008 - 1 comment

Funai developed a new efficient 'emissive' LCD display with 'paper characters quality'


The Funai Electric Advanced Applied Technology Research Institute developed a new efficient type of LCD, that actually does not require any backlight.  The display is very efficient - it uses 1% of the power of regular LCDs.



The new displays use a special dye that changes colors when current is applied. The display quality is 'on a par with printed characters on paper'


Read the full story Posted: Nov 18,2008 - 1 comment

Past and future of TV Technology - from Mechanical sets to OLED TVs and 3D displays Continued

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During the seventies, manufacturers changed the vacuum-tube Tech into all-transistor based TVs. The first wireless remote-controls were introduced in 1972 (although wired-remote-controls were available in the sixties!) Here's a TV from 1976, made by MagnaVox:

During the eighties, TVs began to take the shape of modern CRTs. Satellite broadcasting began in 1984. Here's a 1981 Magnavox TV, 19 :

The latest CRT TVs had great picture quality, used a 'flat' glass, had fast refresh rate, and the largest sized ones were around 34. During the nineties we saw some rear-projection TVs that were large (50-60) but with poor picture quality. Here's how a modern CRT looks like:

In 1997, Panasonic announced the first 'real' Plasma display, or PDP (plasma has been in research and some production since the sixties) a 42 model, 852x480 resolution, progressive scan. Thus begins the thin-TV era. LCDs were also researched in the sixties, and the first commercial model was actually made in 1971, although only in the last few years do we really use those new TVs at first smaller than Plasma, now they are made in roughly the same sizes (the largest LCD today is more than 100 across!), and most people do not know the difference between the two techs.

Compared to CRT, the picture quality (especially the 'refresh-rate') of LCD/PDP TVs are considered worse, and they are also more expensive but they have taken the world by storm, and some companies (such as Sony) have stopped making CRTs all together.

Here's an example Plasma TV:

The future of TV

The most promising new display technology is OLED (Organic.Light.Emitting.Diodes). OLEDs are made from a material that emits light when an electric charge is driven through it. Unlike LCD, it does not require a backlight and thus it is more simple to make, it is thin (really thin there are prototypes less than 50 micrometer thin!), efficient (low power), and the picture is brilliant, with great contrast and a very fast refresh rate. The first OLED TV available is the small (11) Sony XEL-1. It's only 3mm thin (and Sony are working on thinner versions), and has a contrast of 1,000,000:1 (compared to 10,000:1 or so you'll find in plasma TVs) :

The most exciting thing about OLEDs is that they can be made flexible, and even transparent. Can you image a transparent TV? When it's turned off, you can't see it at all . Or a rollable TV display? Think about taking your 42 TV with you, outdoors. I'm sure that when this Tech is available, the new applications will be exciting, we can't even imagine what the TV sets will look like.

Here are a few photos of OLED display prototypes and ideas:

Another future tech is 3D displays. The idea is to finally be free from the 2D projections of Television, and make 3D projections in space. This tech is referred to as 'volumetric displays'. Scientists are working on all sorts of ways to make this happen from pulsed lasers, to parallax barrier displays to Swept-surface... Here's some 'lighted-plasma-balls' floating in space, using 'pulsed laser':

Read the full story Posted: Nov 02,2008 - 3 comments

Past and future of TV Technology - from Mechanical sets to OLED TVs and 3D displays

At the end of the 19th century, people began thinking and dreaming of television. The word Television was first used in 1900 but it took more than 20 years for the first commercial sets to arrive. The first TVs were 'Mechanical Televisions' (or 'spinning Disc' tech). The picture was small, and the quality was poor, but the designs were something else:

Here's an interesting design from France (the Semivisor, 1929, photo credit from Musée des arts et métiers, Paris:

And here's a 3 one from GE (aptly name the Octagon, 1928):

During the thirties, they started to make Electronic CRT TVs (the same basic design as the CRT TV we used until we had LCD or Plasma). It took a bit of time, and the first electronic TV broadcast was made in July 1941. During World War II the US banned the production of TVs... and obviously things slowed down a bit. There were less than 7,000 sets total in the US before WWII!

Here's a GE TV from 1939:

And here's a Russian TV from 1938 (The TK1) :

Raytheon was making a round 12 TV back in 1949, which looks pretty good:

The first Color TV was the CBS Columbia, a Mechanical set, made in 1951:

The first Electronic color TV was the RCA CT-100, released in 1954, selling at 1,000$:

The Italians (who always know how to design things) have produced the Phonola In 1957:

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Read the full story Posted: Nov 02,2008

Mitsubishi: The World's First Laser-Based Television Is Now Available


Mitsubishi Digital Electronics
America, Inc. today announced the beginning of the laser era and the immediate
availability of the world's first, laser-powered television. The Mitsubishi
LaserVue(TM) 65" model is now being sold for $6,999 at select specialty
retailers nationwide. After months of anticipation, many consumers nationally
have already purchased LaserVue and have had the rare opportunity to
experience the amazing breadth and depth of color that laser television
offers. LaserVue has been introduced as the most energy efficient
large-format, high-definition television available on the market today.
LaserVue not only delivers two times the color of many of today's HDTVs,
but it also uses exponentially less power than LCD and plasma TVs.



LaserVue's technology is unparalleled; laser beams provide an extensive
range of rich, complex colors, along with truly distinct clarity and immersive
depth of field. Precise and focused, the purity of laser light far surpasses
current high-definition technologies. LaserVue has demonstrated a
reproduction of color gamut in excess of 200 percent of BT.709, delivering two
times the color of many of today's HDTVs. Brightness has been demonstrated at
approximately 500 nits. Additional features for LaserVue include Smooth
120Hz(TM), x.v. Color(TM) and 1080p with an Ultra Thin Frame.


Read the full story Posted: Oct 29,2008
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