Small, Steady Steps for AS Displays

The bulk of the 3D displays on the Display Week 2013 exhibit floor were small autostereoscopic (no glasses) LCDs.  Most were unsurprising, but left-right crosstalk is improving on average, and some of the displays were based on native-FHD (1920 x 1080), which does a lot for the quality of the autosteroscopic image if the other engineering details are taken care of properly.

Here are a couple of the more interesting small AS-3D displays on the show floor last week:

NLT Technologies, formerly NEC LCD Technologies,  was demonstrating its multiview AS-3D HxDP displays in which the horizontal sub-pixel density is x times that of the vertical subpixel density.  In addition, each of the red, green, and blue sub-pixels are arranged in rows instead of the traditional columns.  The arrangement, an extension of the company's HDDP (Horizontally Double-Density Pixels) arrangement, can display both 3D and 2D images simultaneously by simply changing the input data.  And, says NLT, it displays "perfect 2D images" without 3D/2D switching, as well as delivering multiple views without reducing the display's native resolution.

NLT showed a 7.2-inch HDDP 2D/3D prototype with viewing angles of 80/80 horizontally and 80/60 vertically, a contrast ratio of 600:1, and a luminance of 370 nits.  In addition, the display incorporated glass lenticular lenses instead of polymer.  The result, said Engineering Manager Bob Dunhouse, is less left-right cross-talk because glass is more dimensionally stable under prolonged heating by the backlight than is polymer.  The claim was supported by a side-by-side comparison and an analysis that showed that the Qualified Binocular Viewing Space (QBVS) of a display with the glass lens is twice that of conventional displays. 

Innolux showed a 4.5-inch 2D/3D display with 1280 x 720 pixels in 2D and 640 x 720 in 3D.  Luminance in 2D was 450 nits and 225 nits in 3D.  The interesting thing about the display was that it could show a 3D image in both landscape and portrait modes simply if you rotated it 90 degrees.  The display used a 2D/3D switchable barrier.

Next, on the Innolux counter, was a similar display with eye-tracking.  The angular range over which the eye-tracking 3D worked was rather limited, but an icon in the corner informed you when you had left the active range and the image had automatically defaulted to 2D.

It is clear that eye-tracking is the way to go for larger, single-user displays, but is it needed for a hand-held display in which the user can readily – even unconsciously – adjust the angle of view with a slight rotation of his or her hand? –Ken Werner

I-Zone Highlight: HoloVizio Lightfield Display

The most interesting 3D display at SID's Display Week was shown in the I-Zone, the area of juried table-top exhibits for prototypes and innovative demonstrations.  Space is free to the winning exhibitors, thanks to the sponsorship of E Ink and the efforts of the volunteers on the selection committee.

The device in question is the HoloVizio Model 80WLT lightfield display made by Holografika Kft. in Budapest, Hungary.  The display has 80 projection engines, each producing a 720p image, according to Holografika CTO Peter Tamas Kovacs, but the image appeared to have considerably less resolution than 720 lines. Kovacs said that may have been the result of misalignment produced in transit.

The display is driven by 4 GPUs contained in two computers that sit inside the display's pedestal, and that were connected to the display with 20 dual-DVI cables. Ideally, said Kovacs, you would like to have each of the 80 projection engines showing an independently captured image, but a studio session with 80 video cameras is not realistic.  So, the company uses four cameras and synthesizes the 80 separate views from them.

The result of this heavy-duty video processing is a 3D display with 180 degrees field of view and continuous motion parallax that permits the viewer to "look behind" elements of the image.  The 3D image is viewable from any position in front of the display; there are no dead zones.

The 80WLT is available for €60,000 by special order.  –Ken Werner

Wearable Touch

Certainly the usual suspects for impressive OLED products did not fail to deliver at this year’s Display Week exhibition, with LG’s OLED TVs and also a whole range of new Samsung Galaxy 4 devices at the show. However, there was also an unexpected exhibitor showing the audience in a very impressive setup what this technology can do.

The Japanese manufacturer Futaba showed various OLED devices that illustrate the broad potential of the technology. One demo showed an OLED watch based on a flexible passive matrix display, which also featured  touch functionality that visitors could try out themselves. But also some transparent PM OLED displays and other flexible display elements were on display and those devices will seemingly go into production in the near future.

Where will those products find their applications?  It seems Futaba is targeting automotive applications first, something that could make a lot of sense especially as the flexibility, transparency and touch features could enable some really interesting new solutions. The low information content of the PM technology should not have strong negative implications in the automotive environment. –Sven Murano

Renesas Brings Pro-Cap In-House

Earlier this week, ID roving reporter Geoff Walker posted here about the shifting relationship between display makers and touch module makers (“The Battle between the Display Makers and the Touch-Module Makers Intensifies.”) In short, many display makers are becoming touch-module makers as well, bringing the process of adding touch capability to their products in-house.

A case in point is Renesas Electronics America, which introduced an extensive line of pro-cap-enabled modules at this year’s Display Week. This is the first time that Renesas has offered in-house pro-cap, for which it performs its own optical bonding and develops its own sensors. The company’s customers, with applications including medical, industrial, kiosk, and in-flight, have been asking for this capability, according to Renesas representatives, and there’s an obvious financial benefit to the do-it-yourself approach. – Jenny Donelan

Silver Nano 2.0

Cima NanoTech made the first public announcement this week of what I like to think of as “silver nano 2.0.” By that I mean that Cima’s product is a “second generation” of silver-based transparent conductor, potentially surpassing Cambrios Technologies’ original (1.0) silver nanowires that were first shipped in 2011. Except that it’s not nanowires; it’s a self-assembling silver mesh made from a liquid containing silver nanoparticles.

Cima’s product, named SANTE, is an entirely new form of transparent-conductor film aimed at replacing ITO in p-cap touchscreens. (SID named it one of four Best in Show winners on Wednesday, May 22.) It starts with an opaque liquid that’s coated on PET, PC, glass, or any other substrate using industry-standard roll-to-roll film-coating equipment. Within 30 seconds, the liquid dries into a mesh consisting of 200-300 micron open spaces with 3-to-5 micron connecting conductors (see the figures below). The transparency and sheet resistivity of the film are fairly competitive with those of (typically) copper-based metal mesh, which means the film offers better performance in both areas than silver nanowires. Since the mesh openings are randomly shaped, there is no relationship between the LCD pixel structure and the silver mesh pattern. This means that unlike with metal mesh, there is no possibility of moiré patterns and the sensor layout can be designed (or modified) by the touchscreen module-supplier rather than the touchscreen controller-supplier. The mesh can be patterned into drive and sense electrodes using conventional wet (chemical) or dry (laser) etching.

In addition to the touchscreen market, Cima is also planning to use different formulations of the product to address the EMI shielding, transparent heater, photovoltaic, OLED lighting, and flexible-electronics markets. First shipments of the touchscreen film are planned for 3Q-2013. – Geoff Walker

There’s More Than One Way to Roll a Display

Few display prospects are more tantalizing than a flexible display that you could roll up like a window shade. It would be like having a projector and retractable screen, except that you don’t need the projector. And while we see enticing demonstrations of displays on plastic films and other novel designs, the prospect of a commercial product always seem to recede just out of reach.

But you don’t need to have a display that is flexible in both directions in order to roll it up. Consider the SHiPLA from Shinoda Plasma of Japan. This is a product that is already commercially available, and it was on display in the I-Zone in the Exhibit Hall at Display Week. (In fact on Wednesday May 22 it won SID’s award for Best Prototype.)

How can you roll up a plasma screen? This would be difficult with a traditional flat panel design. The SHiPLA is actually made of tiny tubes of glass that are individual plasma displays. The module shown in the I-Zone has tubes that are just 1 mm in diameter, though a company representative indicated that 0.5 mm tubes are in development. The tubes are filled with red, green, or blue phosphor and grouped side-by side in threes to create white pixels.

The tubes are arranged horizontally. While the tubes cannot bend, the carrier on which they are mounted is flexible, so the entire mat of tubes can be rolled, just like a bamboo window shade.

This display runs counter to preconceived notions about plasma in other ways. Plasma panels are heavy, not that bright, and power hungry, right? Not this one. The screen weighs less than 2.2 pounds per square meter and is surprisingly bright. A portion equivalent to a 42-in. flat panel consumes only 100 watts of power.

Currently, the display is marketed for large commercial display installations, but the company’s road map includes plans for smaller roll-up models intended for consumer use in the home. -- Alfred Poor

Photo by Alfred Poor

Building a Better Bathroom Mirror

Several years ago, backlighting manufacturer Global Lighting Technologies (GLT) realized that its expertise in LED edge lighting might be extended to the growing market of general lighting. The company now has a foot each industry, and is showing examples from both at Display Week.

One of its general lighting demos is a ring (looking somewhat like a halo) that uses two LEDs in a circular guide with a diffuser to produce a bright, white light. Possible applications include vanity mirrors, and in researching this product category, GLT’s Brett Shriver found himself in a variety of home goods stores, checking out the potential competition. What he found was generally of “terrible quality,” he says, with cheap diffusers and suboptimal engineering. Backlighting requirements are more stringent than those of general lighting, of course. Still, GLT and other display companies expanding into general lighting ought to be able to raise the standard of living for those of us just trying to get a close shave or apply eyeliner in the morning. – Jenny Donelan

3D Keeps a Low Profile

The first words uttered about 3D at Display Week this Tuesday (May 21) were negative. Bill Buxton of Microsoft Research said in his keynote address, "3D [television] was a demonstrably bad idea before it even started." He was referring to the industry's hope and plan that 3D could enable a new generation of high-margin products that would induce customers to replace the largely commoditized 2D LCD and plasma TVs they had already bought. Said Buxton: "It didn't work out that way."

Indeed, there wasn't much in the way of large-screen 3D to be seen on the show floor outside of LG Display's now-familiar 55-inch AMOLED. But there was an assortment of small- to medium-size auto-stereoscopic 3D screens, some of which were actually interesting. We'll have more to say about those shortly. – Ken Werner

There’s Still Money in (Replacing) CCFLs

If you’re willing to take on work that others have overlooked, and you do that work well, you might just make a nice business for yourself. Endicott Research Group (ERG) in New York State is doing just that. ERG specializes in power conversion products for LCD backlights, including DC-AC inverters and LED drivers. ERG also does a brisk business in CCFL to LED replacements. Plenty of legacy CCFL products are still out there, especially in medical or industrial settings where equipment tends to have a longer life span. ERG’s Ron Evancho says the company does so much CCFL legacy work that it accounts for about 50% of its business. Such products include drop-in LED drivers and LED rails designed to slide into existing older displays. The other 50% of business involves creating plug and play solutions for new displays that often don’t come with drivers. The company supports more than 300 panels from most major manufacturers.

LED drivers may not capture the public imagination like big colorful TVs do, but they are viable products that companies really need. With regard to the CCFL replacements: “There are not a lot of people who are willing to do that,” says Evancho. “This part of the business is actually picking up.” –Jenny Donelan

A Big Step for e-Paper

Today was an exciting day for e-Paper technologies, both in terms of symposium talks and significant advances found in the exhibition hall. Clearly, the big news was a new product line by E Ink (announced in this press release) that was not incremental and not an R&D demo that would never turn into product.

The reflective market right now is dominated by simple and dim reflective liquid-crystal displays, with at best poor color that is relegated to only sub-sections of the display. Now with the new E Ink Spectra technology, any part of the display can provide a deep black, a brighter and more paper-like white, or a red color to highlight sales or promotions. This is significant for two reasons. First, it shows a significant investment and advance toward capturing market share in the electronic-shelf label market.

The second reason for excitement steps us back to last year‘s breakthrough reported by Fuji-Xerox on full-color electrophoretic displays based on cyan/magenta/yellow switchable particles. We wondered, could more than 2 particles (black-white) ever be commercialized? The answer is now yes, and it should be interesting to see just how far this type of technology can continue to advance for signage. Don't expect this to lead to color e-Readers anytime soon, though, because each time you add another colored particle, the switching speed slows dramatically. None the less, it is great to see a significantly new and visibly compelling product from E Ink. Credit should be given also to the researchers at the former SiPix Corp, which was acquired by AUO and then E Ink, which developed the technology that underpins this new E Ink product. –Jason Heikenfeld

Giants to Miniatures: Exciting OLED Displays

At this year’s Display Week are several OLED products -- some brand new and others introduced earlier this year -- that are all very stunning, whether in large or small screen sizes.

In the Monday business conference and also during the keynote address by Samsung Display Co. CEO and President Dr. Kinam Kim, it was emphasized that AMOLED is driving revolutionary changes in the display world. With the opening of today’s exhibition, visitors can see for themselves what these displays look like.

LG Display is attracting a lot of attention from visitors with its full HD AMOLED TVs -- extremely large objects of desire for end users. LG's 55-in. curved 3D OLED display is just 4 mm thin. With this product demonstration, LG illustrates what is possible with OLEDs in terms of shape and design freedom. The company's flexible OLED screen likewise illustrates these design possibilities.

What is feasible in miniature is being demonstrated by eMagin, with its OLED microdisplays that are smaller than a stamp yet have a resolution of 1944 x 1224. These microdisplays can be used for virtual reality headsets employed in computer based 3D simulation and training, medical imaging, night vision imaging devices, and more. --Sven Murano

Flowers without Bees

"You can't just make displays or you are going to be like a flower without the bees," said Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher with Microsoft. Buxton's message to the display community on hand to listen to his keynote speech at Display Week this morning came through loud and clear: It doesn't matter how great an individual device is if it doesn't work with other devices. What's more, it has to work seamlessly, and appropriately. An example of non-seamless technology Buxton offered is the multitude of remote control devices the average household is required to use in order to watch TV or play a game. Inappropriate technology, or perhaps inappropriate use of technology, includes texting while driving. A device that allows such unsafe communication can be considered inappropriate (in addition to its user!).

If designers, display and otherwise, do not consider the role of a given device in relation to other devices, humans, and overall usage "flow," that device may well contribute to the ever-confusing buildup of interactive devices that do not interact with each other. The future health of the industry, said Buxton, depends on designers recognizing the necessity of "cross-pollination" among myriad devices. --Jenny Donelan

The Battle between the Display Makers and the Touch-Module Makers Intensifies

Bob Mackey, Principal Scientist at Synaptics, highlighted the Huawei Ascend P2 smartphone as one of the newest examples of in-cell touch during his Monday Seminar M8 (“Touch + Display, Any Way You Want It”). The Ascend P2 uses a 4.7-inch, 1280 x 720 (HD) LCD with 315 pixels per inch. “In-cell” was used by Bob as a generic term to describe touch integrated into a display and supplied by the display maker rather than a touch-module maker. As Bob explained, the actual construction of the touch screen in this case should more accurately be described as “hybrid in-cell/on-cell”, where the touchscreen’s drive electrodes are integrated into the IPS display’s TFT array and the touchscreen’s sense electrodes are placed on top of the color filter glass – i.e., outside of the LCD cell.

Photo source: www.digitaltrends.com

The thickness of the Ascend P2 smartphone is 8.4 mm (0.33 inches); this is slightly thicker than the Samsung Galaxy S4 at 7.9 mm (0.31 inches) and the Apple iPhone 5 at 7.6 mm (0.30 inches). Note that in consumer terms rather than display-engineer terms, we’re talking about differences of hundredths of an inch here – not a heck of a lot. The iPhone 5 uses “true” in-cell (both touchscreen electrodes are in the TFT array; the Galaxy S4 uses on-cell (both touchscreen electrodes are on top of the OLED encapsulation glass). The difference in thickness between any of these touch configurations supplied by a display maker versus the latest touch configuration supplied by a touch-module maker (touch on the underside of the cover-glass, known as OGS or “one glass solution”) is only around 100 microns (0.1 mm). Bob said during his seminar that “Some [smartphone] OEMs would sell their mother for 100 microns [reduction in product thickness].” In reality, 0.1 mm is a small portion of the difference in thickness between the Ascend P2 and the iPhone-5. The real battle isn’t about the thickness of the touch-display; it’s about who supplies the touch functionality.

According to DisplaySearch, the total revenue produced by touch-module makers in 2007 was $1.3 billion while in 2013 it will be $21.4 billion. The size of the touch market has become significant relative to the ~$100B display market, so the display-makers want a piece of the action. That’s the real driving force in in-cell, not technology or thickness. There’s beginning to be a strong possibility that over the next five years, the display industry will become the preferred touch-supplier for most high-volume consumer-electronics devices. Again using DisplaySearch numbers, revenue for mobile phones and tablets alone will account for 74% of the total touch market in 2018. If the display industry were to take all of that revenue, the touch-module industry would shrink to less than 40% of its current size. The battle is just beginning. –Geoff Walker

A Clear-eyed Look at Obstacles to OLED and Oxide TFT Success

The Business Conference is a mainstay of the Display Week tradition. Analysts and industry representatives gather to give attendees a top-level overview of key aspects of the display industry, from global market forecasts to previews of innovative technology advances. This naturally involves a lot of predictions and promotions, often viewed through rose-colored glasses. And while there were plenty of those in evidence at this year’s conference, there were a number of refreshing insights presented. Perhaps the most refreshing of these was from SID Fellow Jun Souk of Hanyang University, formerly EVP of Samsung Electric. Some of the most compelling current technologies in the display industry are touch, oxide TFT, flexible OLED, and OED TV. Rather than focus on the compelling aspects of these advances, Professor Souk took some time to point out some of the obstacles that stand in the way of success.

For example, the ultimate solution for touch screens is to eliminate the separate touch module and integrate it into the display panel. But as Prof. Souk pointed out, there are plenty of barriers to adoption of this strategy. Bringing touch technology in-house can result in additional supply chain complications and reduced yields by adding complexity to the production processes. At the current time, it can make more sense to outsource the touch component, and let suppliers take on the risk and compete to provide the modules.

As for oxide TFTs, the technology offers some attractive potential in terms of improved electron mobility compared with the incumbent amorphous silicon (aSi), at a lower cost than the laser-annealed low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS). It has the potential to transform not only the large-format LCD industry, but may make the large OLED TV products feasible. Unfortunately, several problems remain before oxide TFT is truly ready for prime time, according to Prof. Souk. For example, as a semiconductor backplane, the material still has problems with stability in terms of the voltage threshold (Vth) and Vth uniformity across large areas. In addition, the planarization of the metal oxide surface is not as smooth as it needs to be; thin film devices such as OLEDs are adversely affected by relative small variations in thickness which in turn can affect performance.

Prof. Souk also addressed the OLED TV market. In addition to the oxide TFT problems described above, there are significant challenges involved in fabricating these large display panels. Small mask scanning (SMS) is the traditional approach to depositing the OLED emissive materials, but it is difficult to use successfully for large panels. Not only is the process very slow, it also has low yield ratios and there are problems with the materials mixing along their boundaries. Other deposition methods are under development, such as a vertical linear source, laser-induced thermal imaging using transfer from a carrier film, and nozzle printing of solution-based materials, but these have limitations of their own.

Some of these problems for large format OLED panels for TVs can be addressed by using color filters over a white-emitting OLED material. One problem with this approach is that the white OLED “backlight” relies on a tandem device that emits yellow and blue light, which mixes to produce white light. The red, green, and blue (RGB) filters then extract the desired light to create a full-color image. Since the backlight has spikes in the blue and yellow parts of the spectrum, however, it is not able to produce the required red and green parts of the image adequately.

None of this is to say that these technologies won’t eventually come to market at competitive price points with high quality performance. However, it was refreshing to hear about some of the shortcomings and bottlenecks standing between these technologies and commercial production. It is good to hear about future answers to our display problems, but it is also important to hear from knowledgeable sources who can describe the realistic obstacles that stand in the way of such success.--Alfred Poor

LG and Samsung: What They Will Show

The Display Week 2013 exhibition doesn't start until tomorrow, May 21, but a few companies have already announced at least some of what they will be showing on the floor. Of interest to many showgoers will be the offerings from display powerhouses LG Display and Samsung Display. Last year, both companies showed 55-in. OLED TVs, which were the talk of Display Week.

So what's in store this year? If you guessed 56-in. OLED TVs, you'd be wrong. Based on today's announcements, the offerings are a bit more diverse this year, with LG promoting a curved 55-in. OLED TV prototype and a 5-in. plastic OLED panel. Samsung is highlighting a full HD mobile AMOLED display (4.99 inches) and an 85-in. Ultra HD LCD TV. There's more, of course, but you'll have to visit their booths to find out. Both companies, by the way, do an excellent job of exhibiting their displays. This year, Samsung will have an "experience zone" designed to highlight the differences between AMOLED and LCD panels. The phrase "eye popping" is overused among display industry journalists, but I suspect this particular exhibit will be. --Jenny Donelan

Welcome to Vancouver

Display Week 2013 commenced yesterday with the Sunday Short Courses. Today the seminars are underway, and tonight features the awards dinner, with honors announced for truly amazing individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the display profession, the Society for Information Display, or both. If you are in Vancouver, I don't have to tell you how beautiful the city is. The conference center, with its huge windows and waterfront views, is one of the most spectacular in the world. If you're not here, we wish you were. Check this blog site often for news and updates now through Thursday. Oh, and before I forget, Happy Fiftieth Anniversary to Display Week! -- Jenny Donelan

Welcome! Coverage of Display Week 2013 starts here on Monday, May 20. Check here often for updates, reviews, and must-sees from Information Display's editors and roving reporters.