Display of the Year
Award: Apple iPad Pro 12.9-in. Display with Variable Refresh Rate
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Apple’s iPad Pro features a 12.9-in.-diagonal display with 5.6 million pixels at 264 ppi. The display incorporates an oxide-TFT backplane to ensure fast pixel charging and improved brightness uniformity. This is the first time that a mainstream display comes with the new power-saving feature of content-dependent variable refresh rate (VRR). The iPad Pro keeps track of when content on the screen is not moving (and thus does not need to be refreshed as often) and cuts the display’s refresh rate in half (from 60 times per second to 30) during these intervals. Apple’s designers achieved the flicker-free transition between 60- and 30-Hz refresh rates by engineering and integrating a low-leakage-current oxide TFT, a special negative liquid-crystal material with low flexo-electricity, advanced photo-alignment materials, and a customized new timing controller. With the help of the device’s system-on-a-chip (SoC) and operating system, the display refresh rate automatically switches between 60 and 30 Hz, depending upon the content being displayed, achieving power saving without any degradation in image quality. The iPad Pro 12.9-in. display also features ultra-low reflectivity enabled by advanced anti-reflection coating on the cover glass surface and optical bonding between the display, touch sensor, and cover glass. Apple believes that the success of the 12.9-in. iPad Pro display will help accelerate a general display-industry technology transition from a-Si to oxide TFTs.
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Award: Japan Display Inc. 17.3-in. 8K x 4K LTPS TFT-LCD module
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Japan Display Inc. (JDI) has developed the world’s first 17.3-in. high-resolution (7680 × 4320 pixels) fast-response (120-Hz frame rate) LCD module. The module, which is based on low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) technology with 8K pixels in an RGB stripe arrangement, realizes high-definition (510 ppi) images, and the fast frame rate enables the smooth playback of moving imagery. By providing a wide viewing angle, high contrast, and minimal color shift, IPS technology, combined with the high pixel density, makes possible life-like 8K imagery that offers a sense of depth and an immersive image experience. The 17.3-in. size is standard for monitors used in video image production, and the next-generation 8K technology suits that market, as well as medical and gaming applications that require high resolution and image-quality depth. In terms of 8K broadcasting, the Japan Broadcasting Company (NHK) and its research arm have been proponents for several years. (See the article “ ‘Super Hi-Vision’ as Next-Generation Television and Its Video Parameters” by researchers from NHK in the December 2012 issue of Information Display.) That article mentioned an early trial in which select groups of people in London, Bradford, Glasgow, the U.S., and Japan watched the Olympic Opening Ceremonies 4 years ago in Super Hi-Vision or 8K. Since then, there have been public 8K viewings that included the Sochi Olympics, the FIFA World Cup in 2014, and more than 15 separate viewing events in 2015. NHK, with a web site dedicated to 8K (www.nhk.or.jp/8k/index_e.html), is clearly committed to the technology, and numerous sources report that 8K will be used to broadcast the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, as well as a portion of the 2016 Olympics in Rio this summer. High-resolution modules like JDI’s are set to take advantage of this broadcast technology.
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Display Component of the Year
Award: Corning Iris Glass Light-Guide Plate
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In the early 2000s, Corning LCD glass substrates began enabling the transformation of televisions from big bulky consoles to sleek contemporary models. By 2014, Corning realized that a glass innovation was required to enable the thin LCD mega-trend to continue. Thin LCDs had become limited by challenges from using polymer light-guide plates (LGPs). An LGP is used in the backlight of edge-lit LCDs to distribute light evenly throughout the display, a key factor in a crisp brilliant image. Polymer LGPs lack the dimensional stability required for ultra-slim displays. When a polymer LGP is subjected to heat and humidity, the material can warp and expand, compromising its opto-mechanical performance. The instability of polymer requires designers to add a wider bezel and thicker backlight with air gaps to compensate for this movement. Replacing polymer with glass solves this problem, but standard glass compositions have not met the optical requirements until now. Color purity is another key requirement of an LGP. A combination of Corning’s proprietary fusion process and Iris Glass’ composition positions Corning’s light-guide plate offering to achieve color-shift performance that matches best-in-class material. Corning Iris Glass offers outstanding dimensional stability while ensuring superior optical performance that enables manufacturers to offer thinner TVs.
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Award: Asahi Glass Company XCV Glass Substrate for a Light-Guide Plate
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Compared to conventional light-guide plates (LGPs) made from acrylic resin, Asahi Glass Company’s (AGC’s) new XCV glass substrate offers more than 20 times greater stiffness and a coefficient of thermal expansion reduced by a factor of 8. This means that TVs made with this glass can be very thin (as thin as 5 mm). XCV’s resistance to heat and moisture means the bezel can be narrower and also contributes to long-term reliability, which will be useful in the future when displays may require considerably higher luminance. Light-guide plates use the edge-lit method to transmit and diffuse light from LEDs placed at a screen’s edges, resulting in improved backlighting of the screen. Whereas existing glass materials were not suited to LGPs due to their low transmittance, XCV is highly suitable because it offers the necessary high transmittance to assure extra-bright displays. AGC, by adopting its proprietary extra-efficient float process developed for the production of large glass substrates, is now able to mass-produce and quickly deliver XCV to meet demands from TV and display manufacturers. In addition, AGC can supply the glass with printed dot patterns, which maximizes XCV’s performance and helps manufacturers adopt the glass LGP more easily.
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Award: Nitto Denko Ultra-Thin Polarizer
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The ultra-thin polarizer developed by Nitto Denko has high optical properties and low shrinkage and is considerably thinner than standard polarizers. In recent years, as displays such as LCDs and OLEDs have become ever thinner, display components, including polarizing films, have had to become thinner as well. Polarizing film is an optical film made of a polarizer and a protection film and is one of the most important components of displays because it determines optical properties. Generally, a polarizer is made by dyeing polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film with iodine, then stretching it in water. The higher the PVA-iodine complex is oriented, the higher the optical properties of the polarizer. Polarizers with a highly oriented PVA-iodine complex provide higher definition. However, the shrinkage force generated by the stretching process becomes a concern, particularly because the polarizer shrinks in high temperatures, and the shrinkage force of the polarizer can cause panel bending, display distortion, and dimensional variance. In the past, many studies have been carried out to resolve the shrinkage issue of polarizers. But current technology cannot manufacture a polarizer thinner than 10 µm with PVA film. At present, the standard thickness of polarizers is still about 25 µm and the minimum thickness for practical applications is still 12 µm. This is because controlling the shrinkage force of a polarizer without losing good productivity and high optical properties is a difficult issue. To solve this issue, Nitto Denko developed an all-new ultra-thin polarizer with a thickness of 5 µm, which is about 80% thinner than the standard polarizer made from PVA film. And the shrinkage force of this polarizer has been cut down dramatically. Dimensional variance after heating has been reduced by 60%. At the same time, the optical properties are as high as those of standard polarizers. This new ultra-thin polarizer offers various improvements. For example, its low shrinkage force solved the panel bending issues with heating. And this new polarizer rarely causes display distortion. Furthermore, the new polarizer has drastically improved handling ability. This polarizer is making considerable contributions to the development of ever thinner LCD panels, as well as to the creation of next-generation displays, such as flexible displays and wearable displays.
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Display Application of the Year
Award: Apple Watch with Retina Plastic OLED
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Apple Watch’s flexible OLED Retina display incorporates edge-folding of the display substrate to a sub-millimeter radius that allows the display to occupy a maximal and symmetric portion of the watch face. According to Apple, the emissive technology of an OLED also enables power-saving capabilities. (Battery life is still a major challenge for wearable devices.) Apple Watch comes in both 1.34- and 1.54-in. sizes. At 326 ppi, the OLED display allows clear representations of imagery such as the sweeping second hand of a “traditional” watch, and its deep contrast allows a seamless blending of the user interface into the physical product. Each display is calibrated to produce an industry-standard color gamut that ensures a matched appearance between Apple Watch and the user’s paired iPhone. Apple Watch is designed to be a highly accurate timepiece, a personal communication device, and a health and fitness companion. The watch face is highly customizable for personal expression. With its low emissive power and carefully designed user interface, the watch has helped usher in a new era of display applications for wearable products.
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Award: Microsoft Surface Book Laptop Computer
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Microsoft’s Surface Book laptop has an easily detachable screen that can be used like a clipboard. Integral to these features is Surface Book’s 13.5-in. PixelSense display – a screen designed for optimal image quality with touch and pen input. The 6-million-pixel display has a resolution of 3000 × 2000 for an industry-leading 267 ppi to ensure that, even up close, users see smooth lines with no pixilation. The PixelSense display on Surface Book features negative liquid-crystal technology and photo-alignment to increase light transmission, overall brightness, and contrast. The resulting contrast ratio of 1700:1 makes reading easier and provides for brilliant colors. PixelSense uses optical bonding to reduce glare and an in-plane-switching-type LCD to ensure that the display retains color accuracy over a full range of viewing angles. Every display is color calibrated. Multi-touch capability and the Surface Pen also distinguish Surface Book from other premium laptops, allowing users to create beyond the capability of keyboard and mouse. Surface Book’s 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity and reduced latency are designed to make writing or drawing on Surface Book feel as natural and accurate as writing with pen on paper. To minimize parallax, the components of the display stack were designed to be as thin as possible without sacrificing performance. This thin display stack was achieved by using cover glass that is only 0.4 mm thick, a touch sensor film that’s thinner than a few human hairs, LCD glass that is 0.2-mm thick, thin polarizers that offer optimal viewing in all directions, and optical bonding with the thinnest possible adhesives. Optimization of the software and firmware, Microsoft’s custom silicon, and the efficiencies in Windows 10 combine to reduce latency so that digital ink appears instantly at the touch of the pen. Surface Book runs Windows 10 and features sixth-generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processors. It is available with up to 16 GB of memory, an optional discrete graphics chip, and up to 1 TB of storage. •
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2015 Award Winners
Display of the Year
Gold Award: Samsung’s YOUM Bended Display
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The YOUM Bended Display (a flexible AMOLED display) represents a major step forward for design innovation in the smartphone market, with the world’s smallest radius for screen curvature on a mobile device. Samsung’s flexible AMOLED technology is the vanguard of the second phase in the evolution of curved displays – bended displays. Displays will evolve from curved to bended, to foldable, and then “rollable” designs. The company‘s state-of-the-art flexible AMOLED display, often referred to as an ‘edge’ display, is now featured on the popular Galaxy Note 4 and a newer version is now being used in the Galaxy S6 Edge, on which it curves over onto both sides, or edges, of the phone. The 5.59-in. WGXGA (2560 × 1600 resolution) display uses a polyimide plastic substrate material to produce a film less than a millimeter thick. That’s thinner than any other display on the market today. Samsung has been able to deposit an electronic circuit onto the substrate and evaporate a luminant RGB organic device to realize the display’s industry-leading bendable characteristic. The display enhances the user experience in a number of ways. Thanks to a 6.9R curvature, it allows a consumer to easily grab onto it with just one hand and also reduces finger fatigue. In addition, it delivers the finest image detail and the smoothest fonts available. The YOUM Bended Display has one of the industry’s highest color reproduction rates. It can depict 97% of Adobe RGB, while a typical LCD panel can replicate only about 70%. Owing to its emissive OLED technology, the device features a contrast ratio of 8,000,000:1 and is capable of switching in as little as 0.01 μsec. The era of Big Data is accelerating, and the amount of information transfer continues to explode. Under these circumstances, information providers and growing legions of users will want to take advantage of the additional area provided by the smartphone’s edges, which previously were considered just dead space. There is seemingly no limit to the growing number of areas of electronics in which Samsung flexible AMOLED displays can be applied. In the future, more consumer products such as wearables and other entry devices to the Internet of Things will embrace the usefulness and attractiveness of flexible-display curvature and the vibrant, feature-rich world of AMOLED imagery.
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Silver Award: LG Display’s 65-in. UHD Curved OLED TV Panel
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Following the introduction of one of the world’s first OLED TVs, a 55-in. full-HD TV in early 2013, LG Display introduced an even larger TV in 2014, the 65-in. UHD OLED TV. For this display, LG Display utilizes WRGB OLED technology, including an oxide-TFT backplane with WRGB architecture, which the company believes is the optimal technical solution for large-sized OLED-TV panels. In addition, LG Display’s state-of-the-art panels leverage the innate curved design abilities of OLED to provide an aesthetically pleasing TV with an optimal viewing experience. LG Display’s 65-in. UHD OLED-TV panel is sleek and slim: a panel that is only 6 mm thick with a left and right bezel width of 8 mm. It offers superior picture quality, achieving remarkably rich and natural colors with its UHD subpixels. Because OLEDs are composed of self-luminous organic diodes that form each pixel, every pixel emits its own light, and color contrast is optimized. In addition, an OLED can produce perfect blacks and an infinite contrast ratio with deeper and richer colors because there is no light leakage from a backlight. The panel also delivers clear images with a less than 0.001-msec response time. Users will also enjoy the more theater-like viewing experience offered by the curved screen’s wider and brighter field of view. The IMAX-like curvature of the screen minimizes visual distortion and loss of detail. LG Display’s curved OLED-TV panel also incorporates the company’s acclaimed FPR 3D viewing technology, which minimizes eye and body muscle strain in viewers. The added FPR 3D film on curved OLED TVs offers better depth as well as a clearer 3D effect.
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Display Component of the Year
Gold Award: Merck KGaA’s Liquid-Crystal Materials for Ultra-Brightness FFS-LCDs
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In recent years, displays for mobile electronic devices have been revolutionized, driven mostly by smartphones and tablets. Among key trends for such devices based on LCDs are improved contrast, a very good viewing angle, high color performance, and especially ultra-high resolution. This last trend goes hand in hand with a tendency toward more “refined” display technologies, namely, fringe-field switching (FFS). Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany, has developed liquid crystals for the next generation of displays in cooperation with industry partner LC display manufacturers. As the latest innovative LCD technology, Ultra-Brightness FFS (UB-FFS) offers a future-oriented technology that was brought to the market in 2014 for smartphones and will be introduced in 2015 for most small, medium, and IT applications such as tablets and monitors. In conjunction with a corresponding panel design, the innovative energy-saving UB-FFS LC mixture permits LC display light transmittance that is up to 15% higher than conventional FFS. UB-FFS uses liquid crystals with negative dielectric anisotropy, whereas “conventional” FFS uses liquid crystals with positive dielectric anisotropy. There were two key challenges to overcome for market introduction: The first was to provide liquid crystals with a sufficiently fast switching speed. The second was to maintain the high reliability level of FFS even though completely different materials with much higher requirements were used. The higher display transmissions enabled by the new UB-FFS liquid crystals allow greater design freedom for product developers. Devices now can be made slimmer because of the possibility of using thinner batteries. Alternatively, designers can opt for a longer battery run-time because fewer LEDs will be required for the backlighting. The higher transmission can also lead to cost reduction for manufacturers and hence for consumers. Merck KGaA continuously developed new innovative liquid crystals and liquid-crystal mixtures for UB-FFS and finally fulfilled all the requirements for mass production. Based on the recent development of fast-switching LC mixtures, the new generation of Merck KGaA’s products enables the application of UB-FFS for nearly all display applications. With a business model of close partnerships in the industry, Merck KGaA is able to offer LC solutions for new technologies such as UB-FFS that can easily be implemented in the existing LCD production setup.
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Silver Award: Intel’s RealSense Technology
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Intel RealSense technology is a new type of human–computer interface and input device based on real-time depth sensing to enable natural user interactions with content on interactive displays and computers. Available on today’s most innovative PCs, the Intel RealSense cameras simulate human eyes to add a new dimension to user experience. Users can bring toys, games, and books to life using free hand movements to interact with characters and capture faces and objects with 3D scanning technology for sharing, editing, and 3D printing. The Intel RealSense camera contains a standard video camera as well as infrared sensing components that work together to allow the device to infer depth by detecting infrared light that has bounced back from objects in front of it. It can track up to 22 joints in each hand and even understands the rotation and finger movements of two hands simultaneously. This data, taken in combination with the Intel RealSense software platform, creates a touch-free interface that responds to hand and head motions as well as facial expressions. Intel RealSense cameras elevate the user interface to futuristic levels by sensing depth and tracking human motion, letting you interact with your device more like you interact with people – with natural movements. Intel RealSense technology senses distance and movement right from your device so you can scan and save a piece of art, a flower, a toy – even your own face. You are able to save your scan as-is or manipulate it into something new. Then share it digitally or print a version with the use of a 3D printer. Make your chat space whatever it needs to be. Because the Intel RealSense camera senses depth, you are able to remove your chat background altogether or swap in a replacement and make it look like you are somewhere else. It works like an instant virtual green screen. Intel RealSense technology is designed to redefine how we are able to interact with our devices, using world-class digital-sensing technology to bring consumers new ways to create, share, and collaborate in a 3D world.
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Display Application of the Year
Gold Award: Apple’s iMac with 5K Retina Display
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The 27-in. iMac with Retina 5K display features 14.7 million pixels and a resolution of 5120 × 2880. With four times more pixels than the standard 27-in. iMac and 67% more pixels than a 4K display, text looks as sharp as it does on a printed page, and users can see more of their high-resolution photos with pixel-for-pixel detail. The display on the new 27-in. iMac has been engineered for performance, power efficiency, and stunning visual quality. It uses a precisely manufactured oxide-TFT-based panel to deliver vivid display brightness from corner to corner. A single supercharged Apple-designed timing controller (TCON), with four times the bandwidth of conventional-panel TCONs, drives all 14.7 million pixels. The iMac with Retina 5K display also uses highly efficient LEDs and organic passivation to improve image quality and reduce display power consumption by 30%, even while driving four times more pixels at the same brightness. To improve the contrast ratio, the iMac with Retina 5K display uses a new photo-alignment process and compensation film to deliver blacker blacks and more vibrant colors from any viewing angle. In addition, every iMac with Retina 5K display is calibrated using three state-of-the-art spectroradiometers to ensure precise and accurate color. The iMac with Retina 5K display is also packed with the latest technologies for power-ful performance, including a 3.5-GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz. It also features AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics, delivering up to 3.5 teraflops of computing power, the most powerful graphics ever offered on an iMac; as well as 8 GB of memory, a 1 TB Fusion Drive, and two Thunderbolt 2 ports that deliver up to 20 Gbps each, twice the bandwidth of the previous generation.
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Silver Award: LG Display’s 1.3-in. Circular Plastic OLED for the G Watch R
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LG Display has successfully developed a 1.3-in. full-circle plastic OLED panel for use in its G Watch R. The design incorporates 320 × 320 pixel resolution, a touch sensor, and a barrier film that enables an ultra-thin and lightweight display. The panel also uses new power-saving algorithms that enable an always-on function that provides users with the sensibility of a conventional analog watch along with the convenience of a digital smartwatch. The truly circular plastic OLED display, the first of its kind, will bring a change to the display paradigm by overcoming the limits of conventional displays. The round shape allows more design flexibility in various products compared to conventional square displays. This innovative design will contribute to display-market development beyond watches to other wearables, including clothing, and also automotive applications.
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To view previous years DIA awards 2014 & prior go to Display Industry Awards Archive
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