tft lcd screen vs amoled factory
AMOLED and TFT are two types of display technology used in smartphones. AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) displays are made up of tiny organic light-emitting diodes, while TFT (Thin-Film Transistor) displays use inorganic thin-film transistors.
AMOLEDs are made from organic materials that emit light when an electric current is passed through them, while TFTs use a matrix of tiny transistors to control the flow of electricity to the display.
Refresh Rate: Another key difference between AMOLED and TFT displays is the refresh rate. The refresh rate is how often the image on the screen is updated. AMOLED screens have a higher refresh rate than TFT screens, which means that they can display images more quickly and smoothly.
Response Time: The response time is how long it takes for the pixels to change from one colour to another. AMOLED screens have a shorter response time than TFT screens..
Colour Accuracy/Display Quality: AMOLED screens are more accurate when it comes to displaying colours. This is because each pixel on an AMOLED screen emits its own light, which means that the colours are more pure and true to life. TFT screens, on the other hand, use a backlight to illuminate the pixels, which can cause the colours to appear washed out or less vibrant.
Viewing Angle: The viewing angle is the angle at which you can see the screen. AMOLED screens have a wider viewing angle than TFT screens, which means that you can see the screen from more angles without the colours looking distorted.
Power Consumption: One of the main advantages of AMOLED displays is that they consume less power than TFT displays. This is because the pixels on an AMOLED screen only light up when they need to, while the pixels on a TFT screen are always illuminated by the backlight.
Production Cost: AMOLED screens are more expensive to produce than TFT screens. This is because the manufacturing process for AMOLED screens is more complex, and the materials used are more expensive.
Availability: TFT screens are more widely available than AMOLED screens and have been around for longer. They are typically used in a variety of devices, ranging from phones to TVs.
Usage: AMOLED screens are typically used in devices where power consumption is a concern, such as phones and wearable devices. TFT screens are more commonly used in devices where image quality is a higher priority, such as TVs and monitors.
AMOLED and TFT are two different types of display technology. AMOLED displays are typically brighter and more vibrant, but they are more expensive to produce. TFT displays are cheaper to produce, but they are not as bright or power efficient as AMOLED displays.
The display technology that is best for you will depend on your needs and preferences. If you need a screen that is bright and vibrant, then an AMOLED display is a good choice. If you need a screen that is cheaper to produce, then a TFT display is a good choice. However, if you’re worried about image retention, then TFT may be a better option.
Nauticomp Inc.provides world-class fully customizable touchscreen displays for commercial and industrial settings. With features like sunlight readability, brightness adjustability, infrared lighting, full backlighting, all-weather capabilities, etc., our displays are second to none. Contact us today to learn more.
Tried and trusted TFT technology works by controlling brightness in red, green and blue sub-pixels through transistors for each pixel on the screen. The pixels themselves do not produce light; instead, the screen uses a backlight for illumination.
By contrast the Active Matrix OLED (AMOLED) display requires no backlight and can light up or turn off each of their pixels independently. As the name suggests, they are made of organic material.
An AMOLED display has many other benefits which make it a superior looking display including exceptional vieiwng angles and a display that looks practically black when it is switched off.
So, why use a TFT display? Well, it is a mature technology meaning the manufacturing processes are efficient, yields high and cost much lower than AMOLED.
TFT displays also have a much longer lifespan than AMOLED displays and are available in a far greater range of standard sizes, which can be cut down to fit a space restricted enclosure for a relatively low cost adder.
Steven Van Slyke and Ching Wan Tang pioneered the organic OLED at Eastman Kodak in 1979. The first OLED product was a display for a car stereo, commercialized by Pioneer in 1997. Kodak’s EasyShare LS633 digital camera, introduced in 2003, was the first consumer electronic product incorporating a full-color OLED display. The first television featuring an OLED display, produced by Sony, entered the market in 2008. Today, Samsung uses OLEDs in all of its smartphones, and LG manufactures large OLED screens for premium TVs. Other companies currently incorporating OLED technology include Apple, Google, Facebook, Motorola, Sony, HP, Panasonic, Konica, Lenovo, Huawei, BOE, Philips and Osram. The OLED display market is expected to grow to $57 billion in 2026.
AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) is a type of OLED display device technology. OLED is a type of display technology in which organic material compounds form the electroluminescent material, and active matrix is the technology behind the addressing of individual pixels.
An AMOLED display consists of an active matrix of OLED pixels generating light (luminescence) upon electrical activation that have been deposited or integrated onto a thin-film transistor (TFT) array, which functions as a series of switches to control the current flowing to each individual pixel.
Typically, this continuous current flow is controlled by at least two TFTs at each pixel (to trigger the luminescence), with one TFT to start and stop the charging of a storage capacitor and the second to provide a voltage source at the level needed to create a constant current to the pixel, thereby eliminating the need for the very high currents required for PMOLED.
TFT backplane technology is crucial in the fabrication of AMOLED displays. In AMOLEDs, the two primary TFT backplane technologies, polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) and amorphous silicon (a-Si), are currently used offering the potential for directly fabricating the active-matrix backplanes at low temperatures (below 150 °C) onto flexible plastic substrates for producing flexible AMOLED displays. Brightness of AMOLED is determined by the strength of the electron current. The colors are controlled by the red, green and blue light emitting diodes. It is easier to understand by thinking of each pixel is independently colored, mini-LED.
IPS technology is like an improvement on the traditional TFT LCD display module in the sense that it has the same basic structure, but with more enhanced features and more widespread usability compared with the older generation of TN type TFT screen (normally used for low-cost computer monitors). Actually, it is called super TFT. IPS LCD display consists of the following high-end features. It has much wider viewing angles, more consistent, better color in all viewing directions, it has higher contrast, faster response time. But IPS screens are not perfect as their higher manufacturing cost compared with TN TFT LCD.
Utilizing an electrical charge that causes the liquid crystal material to change their molecular structure allowing various wavelengths of backlight to “pass-through”. The active matrix of the TFT display is in constant flux and changes or refreshes rapidly depending upon the incoming signal from the control device.
This rise of small, powerful components has also led to significant developments in display technology. The most recent of which, AMOLED, is now the main competitor for the most common display used in quality portable electronics – the TFT–LCD IPS (In-Plane Switching) display. As more factories in the Far East begin to produce AMOLED technology, it seems likely we will enter a battle of TFT IPS versus AMOLED, or LCD vs LED. Where a large percentage of a product’s cost is the display technology it uses, which provides best value for money when you’re designing a new product?
TFT IPSdisplays improved on previous TFT LCD technology, developed to overcome limitations and improve contrast, viewing angles, sunlight readability and response times. Viewing angles were originally very limited – so in-plane switching panels were introduced to improve them.
Modern TFT screens can have custom backlights turned up to whatever brightness that their power limit allows, which means they have no maximum brightness limitation. TFT IPS panels also have the option for OCA bonding, which uses a special adhesive to bond a touchscreen or glass coverlens to the TFT. This improves sunlight readability by preventing light from bouncing around between the layers of the display, and also improves durability without adding excess bulk; some TFT IPS displays now only measure around 2 mm thick.
AMOLED technology is an upgrade to older OLED technology. It uses organic compounds that emit light when exposed to electricity. This means no backlight, which in turn means less power consumption and a reduction in size. AMOLED screens tend to be thinner than TFT equivalents, often produced to be as thin as 1 mm. AMOLED technology also offers greater viewing angles thanks to deeper blacks. Colours tend to be greater, but visibility in daylight is lower than IPS displays.
As manufacturers increasingly focus on smaller devices, such as portable smartphones and wearable technology, the thinness and high colour resolution of AMOLED screens have grown desirable. However, producing AMOLED displays is far more costly as fewer factories offer the technology at a consistent quality and minimum order quantities are high; what capacity there is is often taken up the mobile phone market Full HD TFT IPS displays have the advantage of being offered in industry standard sizes and at a far lower cost, as well as offering superior sunlight visibility.
The competition between displays has benefitted both technologies as it has resulted in improvements in both. For example, Super AMOLED, a marketing brand by Samsung, involves the integration of a touchscreen layer inside the screen, rather than overlaid on it. The backlight in TFT technology means they can never truly replicate the deep blacks in AMOLED, but improvements have been made in resolution to the point where manufacturers like Apple have been happy to use LCD screens in their smartphones, even as they compete with Samsung’s Super AMOLED.
Aside from smartphones, many technologies utilise displays to offer direct interaction with customers. To decide whether TFT LCD will survive the rise of AMOLED technology, we must first recap the advantages of LCD. The backlit quality means that whites are bright and contrast is good, but this will wear down a battery faster than AMOLED. Additionally, cost is a significant factor for LCD screens. They are cheaper, more freely available and are offered in industry standard sizes so can be ordered for new products without difficulty.
It seems hard to deny that AMOLED will someday become the standard for mobile phones, which demand great colour performance and are reliant on battery life. Where size is an issue, AMOLED will also grow to dominance thanks to its superior thinness. But for all other technologies, particularly in industrial applications, TFT-LCD offers bright, affordable display technology that is continually improving as the challenge from AMOLED rises.
AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) and TFT (Thin Film Transistor) are the two types of displays that are used in mobile phones. TFT is actually a process of producing the displays and is used even by AMOLED but for most purposes, TFT is used to refer to LCD displays. The difference between them is the material as AMOLED uses organicmaterials, mainly carbon, while TFT does not.
There are differences between the two that are quite tangible. For starters, AMOLED generates its own light rather than relying on a backlight like a TFT-LCD does. This consequently means that AMOLED displays are much thinner than LCD displays; due to the absence of a backlight. It also results in much better colors than a TFT is capable of producing. As each pixel’s color and light intensity can be regulated independently and no light seeps from adjacent pixels. A side by side comparison of the two displays with the same picture should confirm this. Another effect of the lack of a backlight is the much lower power consumption of the device. This is very desirable when it comes to mobile phones where every single feature competes for the limited capacity of the battery. As the screen is on 90% of the time that the device is being used, it is very good that AMOLED displays consume less. Just how much of a difference is not very fixed though as it really depends on the color and intensity of the image. Having a black background with white text consumes much less energy than having black text on a white background.
The biggest disadvantage that AMOLED has is the shorter lifespan of the screen compared to TFT. Each pixel in the display degrades with each second that it is lit and even more so the brighter it is. Â Despite improvements on the lifetime of AMOLED displays, AMOLED still only lasts a fraction of the lifetime of a TFT display. With that said, an AMOLED display is able to outlast the usable lifetime of the device before parts of it start to degrade.
The main hindrance to the massive adaptation of AMOLED is the low production numbers. TFT has been in production for much longer and the infrastructure is already there to meet the demands.
Both screens are made up of Pixels. A pixel is made up of 3 sections called sub-pixels. The three sections are red, green and blue (primary colors for display tech).
On some lower quality LCD screens, you can see bright spots in the middle or on the perimeters of screens. This is caused by uneven light distribution. The downside to using backlights, is that black is never true black, because no matter what, light has to be coming through, so it will never have as dark of a screen as an AMOLED screen. Its comparable to being able to slow a car down to 2 mph versus coming to a complete stop.
Each pixel is its own light source, meaning that no backlight is necessary. This allows the screen assembly to be thinner, and have more consistent lighting across the whole display.
So on the Samsung Galaxy S lineup of phones, the notification lock screen, which is white text on a black background, uses barely any power, because 90% of the screen is actually powered off.
TFT LCD is a mature technology. OLED is a relatively new display technology, being used in more and more applications. As for Micro LED, it is a new generation technology with very promising future. Followings are the pros and cons of each display technology.
TFT Liquid Crystal Display is widely used these days. Since LCD itself doesn"t emit light. TFT LCD relies on white LED backlight to show content. This is an explanation of how TFT LCD works.
Relatively lower contrast:Light needs to pass through LCD glasses, liquid crystal layer, polarizers and color filters. Over 90% is lost. Also, LCD can not display pure black.
Organic Light-Emitting Diode is built from an electro-luminescent layer that contains organic compounds, which emit light in response to an electric current. There are two types of OLED, Passive Matrix OLED (PMOLED) and Active Matrix OLED (AMOLED). These driving methods are similar to LCD"s. PMOLED is controlled sequentially using a matrix addressing scheme, m + n control signals are required to address a m x n display. AMOLED uses a TFT backplane that can switch individual pixels on and off.
Stroboscopic effect: most OLED screen uses PWM dimming technology. Some people who are easy perceive stroboscopic frequency may have sore eyes and tears.
It"s an organic light-emitting display. OLED display technology is different from the traditional LCD display mode, without backlight. It uses a very thin coating of organic materials and a glass substrate, which emit light when an electric current passes through. Moreover, OLED screen module can be made lighter and thinner, with larger viewing angle, and can significantly save power.
AMOLED is panel-self luminous. The TFT is illuminated on the LCD panel by backlight. AMOLED effect is more colorful and brighter. The screen can be seen clearly outside during the day. The most important is that the power consumption of AMOLED is much lower. AMOLED screen is more expensive than TFT LCD touch screen. The life of AMOLED screens is also longer.
AMOLED, after all, is a new technology, which has a bright future. TFT LCD touch screen can be thinned, and LTPS technology is still relatively stable. AMOLED module has low qualified rate and long lead time. So if the size and resolution are the same, buy the cheapest one.
Kingtech LCD is one of the leading TFT LCD OEM / ODM LCD display manufacturers in China. Customizing industrial equipment, medical, POS, logistics equipment, smart home applications and other projects is allowed.
KING TECH is a TFT LCD IPS supplier solution specialist since 2003, we are the group company combined byAn Innolux authorized LCD panel&IC distribution company
We Provide Different Kinds of Custom TFT Display ServicesIf needed we can make custom size tft displays for customers, we have a good relationship with original TFT display module factories, and we can negotiate with them to tool up an LCD panel mask. The tooling cost will be very high and paid by the end customer, and MOQ is at least 25K/lot.
We are capable to change every structure of the TFT display module. To increase backlight brightness and make it sunlight readable, the highest brightness we’ve ever reached was 6500cd/m2.To change the display FPC shape and length. To customize a resistive touch panel(RTP) or capacitive touch panel(CTP/PCAP), we have a long-term cooperation supplier to work with us on such tooling, for CTP, we can also make different shapes and thicknesses of cover glass, single touch, and multi-touch, AG/AR/AF is also available.
With our own PCBA hardware& software design company, we can design different kinds of TFT display modules for our customers, from simple convert boards to complete motherboards, from HDMI driver boards to Android controller boards, from non-touch function boards to capacitive touch function boards, they are all part of our working.
We have our own TFT display module panel and driver distribution department, if you want to switch to another structure of display, we can also help, cause we know which TFT display module panel and the driver is more match, and which suit’s supply is more stable, which one we can get the lowest price.
In order to give the customer the best support, Kingtech, as one of the best TFT LCD IPS suppliers in China, also can provide industrial solutions such as developing a mother board, serial port UART board, T-CON board, HDMI board, and monitor according to the customer"s requirements.
Kingtech also has existing industrial solutions for the PV135 motherboard, PV901 Linux board, and PV804 motherboard. They can be connected between Raspberry pi and our TFT display module, which can make them work together.
For serial port UART board, Kingtech has a 2.8inch 240x320 LCD with serial port UART board, 3.5inch 320x480 module with serial port UART board, 4.3inch 480x272 display with a resistive touch with serial port UART board, 7inch 800x480/1024x600 TFT with capacitive touch with serial port UART board.
For exisiting monitor products, Kingtech has 8inch 1280x800 IPS monitor, 10.1inch 1280x800 monitor, 15.6inch 1280x800 LCD monitor, 12.3inch 1920x720 IPS 850nit LCD monitor, 18.5inch 1366x768 1000nits LCD monitor.
For the HDMI board, Kingtech has a 1.39inch 454x454 AMOLED round with HDMI board, 3.34inch 320x320 TFT round with HDMI board, 3.4inch 800x800 TFT round with HDMI board, 5inch 1080x1080 TFT with HDMI board, 4.3inch 800x480 TFT with HDMI board, 5inch 800x480 LCD with HDMI board, 7inch 800x480/1024x600 LCD display with HDMI board, 10.1inch 1280x800 LCD module with HDMI board.
Above all TFT display modules with board products can be used for industrial equipment, medical, smart-home, or others. Kingtech can also have industrial custom TFT display solutions according to the customer’s requirements. Ware is welcome to contact us. If you are interested in any tft display module products, we can negotiate with you at a reasonable TFT LCD display price. Thank you.
TFT display module is a Thin Film Transistor, and AMOLED is Active-matrix organic light-emitting Display. The TFT display module is backlight-on the liquid crystal panel; AMOLED is a panel that emits light on its own; TFT display module structure is more thick and strong, AMOLED is very thin and also weak, TFT display module is used widely than AMOLED, AMOLED is used in consumer products the most, like a smartwatch, mobile phone, and TV.
IPS is In-Plane Switching, It is also known as free viewing angle, which means the viewing angle of the display on 4 sides is the same, a normal display has its best viewing angle like 6 o’clock or 12 o’clock. While the TFT display module contains normal viewing angles and IPS display,IPS display is a kind of TFT display module.
TFT display module belongs to LCD, LCD is Liquid Crystal Display, it contains mono(single color) LCD and color LCD, single color LCD is barely used now, and color LCD has STN and TFT two types. Therefore, TFT display module is a kind of LCD display.
OLED is Organic Light Emitting Display, it is a display that emits light on its own, and it does not need an extra backlight, so it requests lower power consumption than TFT display module but its lifetime is shorter than TFT(5000 hours), AMOLED is a kind of OLED but it is more colorful. TFT display module requests a backlight to light on and power consumption are higher than OLED, but its lifetime is much longer(20000 hours).
The LED display is working by lighting up the LED lights, the TFT display module is lighted up by the backlight and the liquid crystal starts to work and shows contents. TFT display module has brighter and more true color, and lower price and LED display has lower power consumption, smaller heat, and longer lifetime.
Compares to other types of display, TFT display module is the more widely used, it can be made in different shapes and sizes, from very small sizes to big sizes. The resolution now is higher and higher, and the price of custom TFT display modules is more and more competitive. Its lifetime is longer than the OLED display, and its color is brighter than OLED.
Flat-panel displays are thin panels of glass or plastic used for electronically displaying text, images, or video. Liquid crystal displays (LCD), OLED (organic light emitting diode) and microLED displays are not quite the same; since LCD uses a liquid crystal that reacts to an electric current blocking light or allowing it to pass through the panel, whereas OLED/microLED displays consist of electroluminescent organic/inorganic materials that generate light when a current is passed through the material. LCD, OLED and microLED displays are driven using LTPS, IGZO, LTPO, and A-Si TFT transistor technologies as their backplane using ITO to supply current to the transistors and in turn to the liquid crystal or electroluminescent material. Segment and passive OLED and LCD displays do not use a backplane but use indium tin oxide (ITO), a transparent conductive material, to pass current to the electroluminescent material or liquid crystal. In LCDs, there is an even layer of liquid crystal throughout the panel whereas an OLED display has the electroluminescent material only where it is meant to light up. OLEDs, LCDs and microLEDs can be made flexible and transparent, but LCDs require a backlight because they cannot emit light on their own like OLEDs and microLEDs.
Liquid-crystal display (or LCD) is a thin, flat panel used for electronically displaying information such as text, images, and moving pictures. They are usually made of glass but they can also be made out of plastic. Some manufacturers make transparent LCD panels and special sequential color segment LCDs that have higher than usual refresh rates and an RGB backlight. The backlight is synchronized with the display so that the colors will show up as needed. The list of LCD manufacturers:
Organic light emitting diode (or OLED displays) is a thin, flat panel made of glass or plastic used for electronically displaying information such as text, images, and moving pictures. OLED panels can also take the shape of a light panel, where red, green and blue light emitting materials are stacked to create a white light panel. OLED displays can also be made transparent and/or flexible and these transparent panels are available on the market and are widely used in smartphones with under-display optical fingerprint sensors. LCD and OLED displays are available in different shapes, the most prominent of which is a circular display, which is used in smartwatches. The list of OLED display manufacturers:
MicroLED displays is an emerging flat-panel display technology consisting of arrays of microscopic LEDs forming the individual pixel elements. Like OLED, microLED offers infinite contrast ratio, but unlike OLED, microLED is immune to screen burn-in, and consumes less power while having higher light output, as it uses LEDs instead of organic electroluminescent materials, The list of MicroLED display manufacturers:
LCDs are made in a glass substrate. For OLED, the substrate can also be plastic. The size of the substrates are specified in generations, with each generation using a larger substrate. For example, a 4th generation substrate is larger in size than a 3rd generation substrate. A larger substrate allows for more panels to be cut from a single substrate, or for larger panels to be made, akin to increasing wafer sizes in the semiconductor industry.
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Over the years, there has been a steady growth in the use of smartphones. This has led to the growth of mobile display technologies. The names such as OLED, LCD, touchscreen, retina display, have been making rounds years. AMOLED is a technology derived from OLED, and it has gained immense attention in recent years. Each of the aforementioned technologies have made a big impact owing to their distinct advantages. This post focuses on an ongoing debate on AMOLED vs LCD.
For many people, both these display technologies look the same. The following points will help you understand the basic differences between LCD and AMOLED.
Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) are thin-panel displays that are used in various computers, cell phones, and televisions. These displays use backlight for lighting, and they reproduce light differently than AMOLED. Thin-film transistor (TFT) and in-plane switching (IPS) are two important types of LCD displays used today.
Active-Matrix OLED (AMOLED) is a type of organic light emitting diode (OLED) display that does not require a backlight to assure power savings. These OLED display modules are commonly used for mobile phones and are emerging in the consumer tv market.
Brightness: The backlight on an LCD display helps light up pixels easily, thereby making it easier for users to read on their screens easily. Against this, AMOLED displays have low brightness levels.
Color Presentation: LCD screens are known to portray true to life colors on screen. This gives an actual idea of color to viewers who may not have seen certain things in real. However, AMOLED screens can produce vivid and bright colors with high contract ratios. AMOLED screens can produce true black colors. As no backlight is required, the display can easily power off pixels, which are required to highlight any black portions on the image. When compared, AMOLED display offers a large color gamut than other LCD displays. This is why they are available in warmer hues with a tint of red or yellow color, whereas LCD displays are blue. Yellow hues are soothing to eyes, however, blue lights will help see things in the dark. In short, AMOLED screens allow users to see vibrant colors than original, whereas LCD displays will provide real colors, thereby adding to their viewing experience.
Energy-efficient: LCD displays or screens utilize backlight for smooth operation, whereas AMOLED displays don’t require backlights. The backlight drains out battery life, and your phones may require regular recharging for proper functioning. However, AMOLED displays require no backlight, which makes them energy efficient. Also, you can use a black wallpaper to save energy on AMOLED displays.
Flexibility:AMOLED display modules are a lot more flexible among the two. Curved and circular AMOLED displays are used in many mobile phones and smart wearables. LCD displays cannot be molded or curved like AMOLED or OLED display modules, which limits their utilization in various applications.
Affordability: LCD display panels have been around for a long time, so its manufacturing has been perfected for the mobiles and other devices. Thus, mass volumes of modules can be produced at cheaper prices. However, AMOLED display module production is costlier because the technology is new, still in refinement phases. So, their manufacturing costs are higher than LCD counterparts.
As seen, each technology has its own benefits. After considering the majority of pros and cons it can be easily said that AMOLED displays are preferable than LCD panels if color presentation, battery life, and affordability are major concerns for your application. It is important that you partner with a reliable LCD or OLED display manufacturer like Microtips USA to source these modules. The company also provides custom OLED displays to meet various application
TFT displays are also known as an “Active Matrix TFT LCD module” and have an array of thin film transistors fabricated on the glass that makes the LCD. There is one of these transistors for each pixel on the LCD. See our blog post RGB and Color Depth for more on how TFTs show color.
LCDs use voltage applied to a field of microscopic liquid crystals to change the crystal’s orientation. The orientation of the crystals changes the polarization of the liquid crystal creating light or dark pixels on the display.
Beautiful, complex images: All of our TFT modules are full-color graphic displays. Unlike standard monochrome character displays, you can create complex images for an imaginative user experience.
Single Supply: Most of the TFTs use an integrated controller with built-in voltage generation so only a single 3.3v supply is needed for both the panel power and logic voltage.
Many of our character LCD modules use a standard HD44780 compatible controller, so they can be quickly integrated into a new product or used as a replacement in your existing products.
Many of the LCD controllers on board our graphic LCD display modules also include a CGROM (character generator ROM) which allows for easy character information as well as full bit-mapped graphic information to be shown.
Some of the graphic LCD displays have the ability to render graphics in grayscale, enabling you to show images and elements of your UI (user interface) with more depth and definition.
TFT displays are full color LCDs providing bright, vivid colors with the ability to show quick animations, complex graphics, and custom fonts with different touchscreen options. Available in industry standard sizes and resolutions. These displays come as standard, premium MVA, sunlight readable, or IPS display types with a variety of interface options including HDMI, SPI and LVDS. Our line of TFT modules include a custom PCB that support HDMI interface, audio support or HMI solutions with on-board FTDI Embedded Video Engine (EVE2).
TFT is an LCD Technology which adds a thin-film transistor at each pixel to supply common voltages to all elements. This voltage improves video content frame rates. Displays are predominantly utilizing color filter layers and white LED backlighting.
IPS TFT is a deviation of a traditional TN TFT Display. The most fundamental difference is that light is not rotated in plane and passing through polarizer films, but instead perpendicular to shutter the light. This approach to the technology improves contrast and enables symmetrical viewing angles from all directions.
AMOLED is Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode. Its core part is still LED.It’s very common to see LED in daily life.There are many small size of LEDs on the screen,and they are divided into three sub-pixels of red, green and blue. Then different colors are combined, and the arrangement of sub-pixels will directly affect the whole display effect.The “O” of AMOLED stands for Organic, which means a series of organic thin film materials are used between the positive and negative electrodes to achieve the purpose of luminescence.
The advantage of OLED screens is pixels can be highly controlled, each of them are independently controlled to achieve better contrast ratio. In addition, turning off unnecessary pixels when show the picture,also could get lower power consumption.Further,simple structure and good transparency,which are conducive to OLED achieve higher brightness and wider viewing angle.
Contrasting with LCD,OLED screen can be produced as more thin,it’s ideal for mobile devices like mobile phones.Along with the mature technology of flexible plastic substrates to replace hard backlight OLED will have great advantage in flexible screen,which makes the devices shapes can be customized in the future.
Roughly speaking there are two main types of displays used in smartphones: LCD and LED. These two base technologies have been refined and tweaked to give us AMOLED and IPS LCD. The former stands for Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode, while the latter means In-Plane Switching Liquid Crystal Display.
All of this hasn’t gone unnoticed by the marketing people, which means that plain old AMOLED or regular IPS LCD aren’t the terms used in the marketing fluff. Instead, we have Super AMOLED, Dynamic AMOLED, Super LCD, Super Retina OLED, Super Retina XDR, Infinity Display, and so on. But what’s any of that actually mean?
The LED part of AMOLED stands for Light Emitting Diode. It’s the same tech as you find on many home appliances that show that the power is on with a little red light. An LED display takes this concept, shrinks it down, and arranges the LEDs in red, green, and blue clusters to create an individual pixel.
The O in AMOLED stands for organic. It refers to a series of thin organic material films placed between two conductors in each LED. These produce light when a current is applied.
Finally, the AM part in AMOLED stands for Active Matrix, rather than a passive matrix technology. In a passive matrix, a complex grid system is used to control individual pixels, where integrated circuits control a charge sent down each column or row. But this is rather slow and can be imprecise. Active Matrix systems attach a thin film transistor (TFT) and capacitor to each sub-pixel (i.e. red, green, or blue) LED. The upshot is that when a row and column is activated, the capacitor at the pixel can retain its charge in between refresh cycles, allowing for faster and more precise control.
The image above is a close-up shot of the AMOLED display on the Samsung Galaxy S8. The RGB triangular pattern is clearly shown. Towards the bottom of the image, the green and red LEDs are off and the blue LEDs are on only slightly. This is why AMOLED displays have deep blacks and good contrast.
Super AMOLED is a marketing term from Samsung. It means a display that incorporates the capacitive touchscreen right in the display, instead of it being a separate layer on top of the display. This makes the display thinner.
Dynamic AMOLED is another marketing term from Samsung. It denotes Samsung’s next-generation AMOLED display which includes HDR10+ certification. According to Samsung, Dynamic AMOLED also reduces the harmful blue light emitted from the display, which helps reduce eye strain and helps lessen sleep disturbances if you’re using your phone late in the day!
As for Infinity Display (or Infinity-O Display), it is more marketing from Samsung. It means “a near bezel-less, full-frontal, edge-to-edge” display. However, it is still a Super AMOLED unit.
LCD displays work with a backlight that shines through some polarizing filters, a crystal matrix, and some color filters. Liquid crystals untwist when an electric charge is applied to them, which affects the frequency of the light that can pass through. Since the crystals can be twisted to varying degrees depending on the voltage used, a display can be built when they are used with polarized panels. A grid of integrated circuits is then used to control each pixel, by sending a charge down into a specific row or column. Colors are created by the use of red, green, and blue filters, known as sub-pixels, which are then blended by varying degrees to produce different colors.
The above image is of an LCD display from a Huawei Mate 8. Notice how the pixels are made up of equally-sized sub-pixels, one for each of the colors: red, green, and blue.
Like Super AMOLED, a Super LCD display also incorporates the touchscreen. There is no “air gap” between the outer glass and the display element, which means it has similar benefits to Super AMOLED.
Samsung isn’t the only company that is good at marketing, there is another! Apple has coined the term “Retina” for its displays. The term was first used for its smartphones with the launch of the iPhone 4, as it offered a significantly greater pixel density (over 300 ppi) when compared to the iPhone 3GS. Later came Retina HD, which applies to iPhones with at least a 720p screen resolution.
All Retina and Retina HD displays on the iPhone are LCD IPS displays. However, things have changed a bit with the iPhone X as it features an AMOLED display, now marketed under the term Super Retina. It’s still an AMOLED display. It just has extra adjectives. With the launch of the iPhone 11 Pro, Apple coined the term Super Retina XDR. The XDR part means Extended Dynamic Range, as they have better contrast ratios and higher peak brightness.
Not all Retina displays use OLED. Although the MacBook Pro is marketed with a “Retina” display, as you can see from the magnified image above, it is a regular LCD, even if it uses the latest Apple silicon.
Both technologies can be used to build displays with 720p, 1080p, Quad HD, and 4K resolutions. And OEMs have made handsets that support HDR10 using both LCD and AMOLED displays. So from that point of view, there isn’t much difference between the two.
When it comes to color, we know that the blacks will be deeper and the contrast ratios higher on AMOLED displays. But, overall color accuracy can be high on both types of display.
One of the main weaknesses of AMOLED displays is the possibility of “burn-in”. This is the name given to a problem where a display suffers from permanent discoloration across parts of the panel. This may take the form of a text or image outline, fading of colors, or other noticeable patches or patterns on the display. The display still works as normal, but there’s a noticeable ghost image or discoloration that persists. It occurs as a result of the different life spans between the red, green, and blue LED sub-pixels used in OLED panels.
The theoretical lifespan of an AMOLED display is several years, even when used for 12 hours a day. However, there is anecdotal evidence that some displays suffer from burn-in quicker than others. Displays that show signs of burn-in after only a few months should be considered defective because they certainly aren’t normal.
While owners of devices with LCD screens might congratulate themselves for picking a smartphone that is immune to burn-in, there can be a problem with LCD panels called “image retention.” Put simply, liquid crystals can develop a tendency to stay in one position when left at the same voltage for extended periods. Thankfully this phenomenon is normally temporary and can usually be reversed by allowing the liquid crystals to return to their relaxed state.
Picking a winner can be hard as there are many factors to consider, not only about the display technologies but also about the other components in a handset. For example, if you are an AMOLED fan, then would you consider a device with large storage and a good processor, but with an LCD display? The same argument works the other way for LCD fans. Generally, you’ll be fine with either display type, so just pick the handset you like.
Higher-end devices typically sport AMOLED displays and mid-range/budget devices usually use LCD. But that isn’t set in concrete as there are plenty of high-end devices that have LCD displays. With OLED production costs dropping dramatically in recent years, more and more budget options will be offering OLED panels in the future.
Companies like LG and Samsung have seen this trend coming and are rapidly expanding their OLED (and flexible OLED) production capabilities. LCD might still have a bright future in televisions and other large-panel applications, but for now, it looks like mobile will be increasingly dominated by OLED screens.
What do you think? AMOLED or LCD? What about the terms like Retina vs Infinity Display? Are they meaningful to you? Please let me know in the comments below.