tft lcd layers brands
Asia has long dominated the display module TFT LCD manufacturers’ scene. After all, most major display module manufacturers can be found in countries like China, South Korea, Japan, and India.
In this post, we’ll list down 7 best display module TFT LCD manufacturers in the USA. We’ll see why these companies deserve recognition as top players in the American display module industry.
STONE Technologies is a leading display module TFT LCD manufacturer in the world. The company is based in Beijing, China, and has been in operations since 2010. STONE quickly grew to become one of the most trusted display module manufacturers in 14 years.
Now, let’s move on to the list of the best display module manufacturers in the USA. These companies are your best picks if you need to find a display module TFT LCD manufacturer based in the United States:
Planar Systems is a digital display company headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon. It specializes in providing digital display solutions such as LCD video walls and large format LCD displays.
Microtips Technology is a global electronics manufacturer based in Orlando, Florida. The company was established in 1990 and has grown into a strong fixture in the LCD industry.
What makes Microtips a great display module TFT LCD manufacturer in the USA lies in its close ties with all its customers. It does so by establishing a good rapport with its clients starting from the initial product discussions. Microtips manages to keep this exceptional rapport throughout the entire client relationship by:
Displaytech is an American display module TFT LCD manufacturer headquartered in Carlsbad, California. It was founded in 1989 and is part of several companies under the Seacomp group. The company specializes in manufacturing small to medium-sized LCD modules for various devices across all possible industries.
The company also manufactures embedded TFT devices, interface boards, and LCD development boards. Also, Displaytech offers design services for embedded products, display-based PCB assemblies, and turnkey products.
Displaytech makes it easy for clients to create their own customized LCD modules. There is a feature called Design Your Custom LCD Panel found on their site. Clients simply need to input their specifications such as their desired dimensions, LCD configuration, attributes, connector type, operating and storage temperature, and other pertinent information. Clients can then submit this form to Displaytech to get feedback, suggestions, and quotes.
A vast product range, good customization options, and responsive customer service – all these factors make Displaytech among the leading LCD manufacturers in the USA.
Products that Phoenix Display offers include standard, semi-custom, and fully-customized LCD modules. Specifically, these products comprise Phoenix Display’s offerings:
Clients flock to Phoenix Display because of their decades-long experience in the display manufacturing field. The company also combines its technical expertise with its competitive manufacturing capabilities to produce the best possible LCD products for its clients.
True Vision Displays is an American display module TFT LCD manufacturing company located at Cerritos, California. It specializes in LCD display solutions for special applications in modern industries. Most of their clients come from highly-demanding fields such as aerospace, defense, medical, and financial industries.
The company produces several types of TFT LCD products. Most of them are industrial-grade and comes in various resolution types such as VGA, QVGA, XGA, and SXGA. Clients may also select product enclosures for these modules.
All products feature high-bright LCD systems that come from the company’s proprietary low-power LED backlight technology. The modules and screens also come in ruggedized forms perfect for highly-demanding outdoor industrial use.
LXD Incorporated is among the earliest LCD manufacturers in the world. The company was founded in 1968 by James Fergason under the name International Liquid Xtal Company (ILIXCO). Its first headquarters was in Kent, Ohio. At present, LXD is based in Raleigh, North Carolina.
We’ve listed the top 7 display module TFT LCD manufacturers in the USA. All these companies may not be as well-known as other Asian manufacturers are, but they are equally competent and can deliver high-quality display products according to the client’s specifications. Contact any of them if you need a US-based manufacturer to service your display solutions needs.
We also briefly touched on STONE Technologies, another excellent LCD module manufacturer based in China. Consider partnering with STONE if you want top-of-the-line smart LCD products and you’re not necessarily looking for a US-based manufacturer. STONE will surely provide the right display solution for your needs anywhere you are on the globe.
Focus Displays offers a wide range of standard full color TFT displays. 64 million unique colors, high brightness, sharp contrast, -30C operating temperature, and fast response time are all good descriptions of a TFT display. This is why TFT technology is one of the most popular choices for a new product.
Thin Film Transistor (TFT) display technology can be seen in products such as laptop computers, cell phones, tablets, digital cameras, and many other products that require color. TFT’s are active matrix displays which offers exceptional viewing experiences especially when compared to other passive matrix technologies. The clarity on TFT displays is outstanding; and they possess a longer half-life than some types of OLEDs and range in sizes from less than an inch to over 15 inches.
CCFL’s are still available, but are becoming a legacy (obsolete) component. TFT displays equipped with a CCFL require higher MOQs (Minimum Order Quantities) than displays with LED backlights.
The majority of TFT displays contain a touch panel, or touch screen. The touch panel is a touch-sensitive transparent overlay mounted on the front of the display glass. Allowing for interaction between the user and the LCD display.
Some touch panels require an independent driver IC; which can be included in the TFT display module or placed on the customer’s Printed Circuit Board (PCB). Touch screens make use of coordinate systems to locate where the user touched the screen.
Resistive touch panels are the lowest cost option and are standard equipment on many TFT modules. They are more common on smaller TFT displays, but can still be incorporated on larger modules.
Contrast ratio, or static contrast ratio, is one way to measure the sharpness of the TFT LCD display. This ratio is the difference between the darkest black and the brightest white the display is able to produce. The higher the number on the left, the sharper the image. A typical contrast ratio for TFT may be 300:1. This number ratio means that the white is 300 times brighter than the black.
TFT LCD displays are measured in inches; this is the measurement of the diagonal distance across the glass. Common TFT sizes include: 1.77”, 2.4”, 2.8”, 3”, 4.3”, 5”, 5.7”, 5.8”, 7”, 10.2”, 12.1 and 15”.
TFT resolution is the number of dots or pixels the display contains. It is measured by the number of dots along the horizontal (X axis) and the dots along the vertical (Y axis).
Certain combinations of width and height are standardized and typically given a name and a letter representation that is descriptive of its dimensions. Popular names given to the TFT LCD displays resolution include:
Transmissive displays must have the backlight on at all times to read the display, but are not the best option in direct sunlight unless the backlight is 750 Nits or higher. A majority of TFT displays are Transmissive, but they will require more power to operate with a brighter backlight.
A primary job of the driver is to refresh each pixel. In passive TFT displays, the pixel is refreshed and then allowed to slowly fade (aka decay) until refreshed again. The higher the refresh frequency, the sharper the displays contrast.
The TFT display (minus touch screen/backlight) alone will contain one controller/driver combination. These are built into the display so the design engineer does not need to locate the correct hardware.
If you do not see a Thin Film Transistor (TFT) Display module that meets your specifications, or you need a replacement TFT, we can build a custom TFT displays to meet your requirements. Custom TFTs require a one-time tooling fee and may require higher MOQs.
Ready to order samples for your TFT design? Contact one of our US-based technical support people today concerning your design requirements. Note: We can provide smaller quantities for samples and prototyping.
When it comes to choosing what to use for your displays, going with the standard can get you farther ahead than thinking outside the box. TFT LCD display gives you an edge for your advertising needs, television screens, or even phone screens.
A thin-film transistor (TFT) is one of the technologies commonly used for building LCDs. With this technology, your LCD is guaranteed a sharp, clear, and full-color display and high-quality performance.
When a signal sent to a pixel also affects the pixels next to it, crosstalk This runs the risk of distorting the quality of your image. With TFT, crosstalk is significantly reduced with the TFT layer integrated into the screen itself. With every pixel corresponding to the signals meant only for them, you are guaranteed the best resolution and image quality.
In the LCD industry, the most popular kinds of displays are manufactured and innovated the most. Unlike other types of LCD technologies, the TFT module is available in different sizes, ranging from cellphone sizes to larger TV sizes, to suit your needs.
All LCD displays have a determined number of hours of use before they become half as bright than when they were turned on for the first time. This is called half-life. Although research is still ongoing regarding half-life, TFT displays are said to have more than 14,000 hours of half-life.
This does not mean, however, that the LCD will burn out after reaching its half-life. It means that its brightness will only be half of when it was new.
Compared to CRTs, TFT LCD modules have lower heat release. Moreover, they emit lower electromagnetic emissions which significantly decrease visual fatigue. This means that TFTs are ideal for devices and displays that require an audience’s prolonged attention, such as cell phones and television screens.
While the TFT’s power consumption is significantly lower than OLEDs in white displays, there are also emerging TFT displays in the market that integrate smart technologies that can save up to 50% energy on battery-operated devices.
One of the notable disadvantages of TFTs, however, is its cost. The characteristics detailed in the previous section, however, must be considered worthy of investment. Moreover, as the number of TFTs floods the LCD display market, the price for TFTs are decreasing by the day.
At Microtips Technology USA, we only provide you with the best among the best of TFT modules. Our TFT LCD displays assure only full RGB brilliance with up to 16.7 million colors, better picture quality with high resolutions and IPS technology, and affordability.
This new range of TFT LCD displays with unique characteristics come with the standard interfaces including MiPi, SPI, RGB, DisplayPort and eDP. However, to aid our customers and increase our flexibility of interfacing we are also offering proprietary interface boards which allow you to simply interface via the HDMI / USBC inputs. If you would like more information on this interface board, then please just contact us.
On one side, it pushes the video to the LCD layer but on the other side, it processes the video, decides what the best brightness should be for each and every section of the LCD (divided into zones) based upon the image that is on it. Then it tells each LED what brightness to be for optimisation. The result is that the blacks are darker, the whites are brighter, and everything in between is more in tune with what they should be. And this is happening 60 times per second, wow, what a performance for optimization process!
You can achieve true HDR (High-dynamic-range) and can exceed HDR1000* specs. The dynamic contrast ratio is virtually unlimited and as you can see can reach 10 Million to one (10M:1) and you can achieve peak brightness that’s daylight readable but have the colour and brightness depth of an OLED display. We are seeing great interest in these displays in areas such as broadcast, medical and automotive industries as they value the quality of the image and performance that standard TFTs cannot offer.
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:
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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A thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD) is a variant of a liquid-crystal display that uses thin-film-transistor technologyactive matrix LCD, in contrast to passive matrix LCDs or simple, direct-driven (i.e. with segments directly connected to electronics outside the LCD) LCDs with a few segments.
In February 1957, John Wallmark of RCA filed a patent for a thin film MOSFET. Paul K. Weimer, also of RCA implemented Wallmark"s ideas and developed the thin-film transistor (TFT) in 1962, a type of MOSFET distinct from the standard bulk MOSFET. It was made with thin films of cadmium selenide and cadmium sulfide. The idea of a TFT-based liquid-crystal display (LCD) was conceived by Bernard Lechner of RCA Laboratories in 1968. In 1971, Lechner, F. J. Marlowe, E. O. Nester and J. Tults demonstrated a 2-by-18 matrix display driven by a hybrid circuit using the dynamic scattering mode of LCDs.T. Peter Brody, J. A. Asars and G. D. Dixon at Westinghouse Research Laboratories developed a CdSe (cadmium selenide) TFT, which they used to demonstrate the first CdSe thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD).active-matrix liquid-crystal display (AM LCD) using CdSe TFTs in 1974, and then Brody coined the term "active matrix" in 1975.high-resolution and high-quality electronic visual display devices use TFT-based active matrix displays.
The liquid crystal displays used in calculators and other devices with similarly simple displays have direct-driven image elements, and therefore a voltage can be easily applied across just one segment of these types of displays without interfering with the other segments. This would be impractical for a large display, because it would have a large number of (color) picture elements (pixels), and thus it would require millions of connections, both top and bottom for each one of the three colors (red, green and blue) of every pixel. To avoid this issue, the pixels are addressed in rows and columns, reducing the connection count from millions down to thousands. The column and row wires attach to transistor switches, one for each pixel. The one-way current passing characteristic of the transistor prevents the charge that is being applied to each pixel from being drained between refreshes to a display"s image. Each pixel is a small capacitor with a layer of insulating liquid crystal sandwiched between transparent conductive ITO layers.
The circuit layout process of a TFT-LCD is very similar to that of semiconductor products. However, rather than fabricating the transistors from silicon, that is formed into a crystalline silicon wafer, they are made from a thin film of amorphous silicon that is deposited on a glass panel. The silicon layer for TFT-LCDs is typically deposited using the PECVD process.
Polycrystalline silicon is sometimes used in displays requiring higher TFT performance. Examples include small high-resolution displays such as those found in projectors or viewfinders. Amorphous silicon-based TFTs are by far the most common, due to their lower production cost, whereas polycrystalline silicon TFTs are more costly and much more difficult to produce.
The twisted nematic display is one of the oldest and frequently cheapest kind of LCD display technologies available. TN displays benefit from fast pixel response times and less smearing than other LCD display technology, but suffer from poor color reproduction and limited viewing angles, especially in the vertical direction. Colors will shift, potentially to the point of completely inverting, when viewed at an angle that is not perpendicular to the display. Modern, high end consumer products have developed methods to overcome the technology"s shortcomings, such as RTC (Response Time Compensation / Overdrive) technologies. Modern TN displays can look significantly better than older TN displays from decades earlier, but overall TN has inferior viewing angles and poor color in comparison to other technology.
The transmittance of a pixel of an LCD panel typically does not change linearly with the applied voltage,sRGB standard for computer monitors requires a specific nonlinear dependence of the amount of emitted light as a function of the RGB value.
Less expensive PVA panels often use dithering and FRC, whereas super-PVA (S-PVA) panels all use at least 8 bits per color component and do not use color simulation methods.BRAVIA LCD TVs offer 10-bit and xvYCC color support, for example, the Bravia X4500 series. S-PVA also offers fast response times using modern RTC technologies.
TFT dual-transistor pixel or cell technology is a reflective-display technology for use in very-low-power-consumption applications such as electronic shelf labels (ESL), digital watches, or metering. DTP involves adding a secondary transistor gate in the single TFT cell to maintain the display of a pixel during a period of 1s without loss of image or without degrading the TFT transistors over time. By slowing the refresh rate of the standard frequency from 60 Hz to 1 Hz, DTP claims to increase the power efficiency by multiple orders of magnitude.
Due to the very high cost of building TFT factories, there are few major OEM panel vendors for large display panels. The glass panel suppliers are as follows:
External consumer display devices like a TFT LCD feature one or more analog VGA, DVI, HDMI, or DisplayPort interface, with many featuring a selection of these interfaces. Inside external display devices there is a controller board that will convert the video signal using color mapping and image scaling usually employing the discrete cosine transform (DCT) in order to convert any video source like CVBS, VGA, DVI, HDMI, etc. into digital RGB at the native resolution of the display panel. In a laptop the graphics chip will directly produce a signal suitable for connection to the built-in TFT display. A control mechanism for the backlight is usually included on the same controller board.
The low level interface of STN, DSTN, or TFT display panels use either single ended TTL 5 V signal for older displays or TTL 3.3 V for slightly newer displays that transmits the pixel clock, horizontal sync, vertical sync, digital red, digital green, digital blue in parallel. Some models (for example the AT070TN92) also feature input/display enable, horizontal scan direction and vertical scan direction signals.
New and large (>15") TFT displays often use LVDS signaling that transmits the same contents as the parallel interface (Hsync, Vsync, RGB) but will put control and RGB bits into a number of serial transmission lines synchronized to a clock whose rate is equal to the pixel rate. LVDS transmits seven bits per clock per data line, with six bits being data and one bit used to signal if the other six bits need to be inverted in order to maintain DC balance. Low-cost TFT displays often have three data lines and therefore only directly support 18 bits per pixel. Upscale displays have four or five data lines to support 24 bits per pixel (truecolor) or 30 bits per pixel respectively. Panel manufacturers are slowly replacing LVDS with Internal DisplayPort and Embedded DisplayPort, which allow sixfold reduction of the number of differential pairs.
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Our company specializes in developing solutions that arerenowned across the globe and meet expectations of the most demanding customers. Orient Display can boast incredibly fast order processing - usually it takes us only 4-5 weeks to produce LCD panels and we do our best to deliver your custom display modules, touch screens or TFT and IPS LCD displays within 5-8 weeks. Thanks to being in the business for such a noteworthy period of time, experts working at our display store have gained valuable experience in the automotive, appliances, industrial, marine, medical and consumer electronics industries. We’ve been able to create top-notch, specialized factories that allow us to manufacture quality custom display solutions at attractive prices. Our products comply with standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, QC 080000, ISO/TS 16949 and PPM Process Control. All of this makes us the finest display manufacturer in the market.
A thin-film transistor liquid crystal display, TFT LCD display for short, is a type of LCD display that uses thin-film transistor technology to improve image quality.
TFT LCD displays have many advantages over traditional LCD displays. While traditional LCDs use a single layer of transistors, TFT LCDs use a thin film of transistors. This allows for better image quality, as well as improved response time and lower power consumption. TFT LCDs are also thinner and lighter than traditional LCDs, making them ideal for use in portable devices.
When choosing a TFT LCD, it is important to consider the viewing angle and colour reproduction. While TFT IPS displays offer better image quality, they are also more expensive.
The colour filter array is the layer of the LCD that contains the colour filters. The colour filters are made of dyes or pigments and are arranged in a specific pattern. The most common patterns are RGB (red, green, blue) and CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black).
TFT LCDs are used in a wide variety of industries, including consumer electronics, computing, telecommunications, automotive, and medical to name a few. Specifically, they are used in:Computers and laptop computers
The liquid crystal layer is the layer of the LCD that contains the liquid crystals. The liquid crystals are made of materials such as nematic or cholesteric.
TFT LCDs use two types of cover glass. Rigid cover glass is made of either soda-lime glass or Gorilla Glass. Flexible cover glass is used in some TFT LCDs, such as those used in mobile phones. The flexible cover glass is more resistant to breakage than rigid cover glass, making it ideal for use in portable devices.
The backlight is the layer of the LCD that emits light. Backlights can be made up of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), an electroluminescent panel (ELP), cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs), and hot cathode fluorescent lamps (HCFLs), or external electrode fluorescent lamps (EEFLs).
Nauticomp Inc. is a leading provider of industrial LCD displays. Our products are designed for use in a variety of industries, including maritime, aerospace, and military. We offer a wide range of LCDs, including TFT LCDs, OLEDs, and LEDs. Contact us today to learn more about our products and services.
Let us start with the basics first; refresh the knowledge about TN and LCD displays in general, later we will talk about TFTs (Thin Film Transistors), how they differ from regular monochrome LCD displays. Then we will go on to the ghosting effect, so we will not only discuss the technology behind the construction of the TFT, but also some phenomena, like the ghosting effect, or grayscale inversion, that are important to understand when using an LCD TFT display.
Next, we will look at different technologies of the TFT LCD displays like TN, IPS, VA, and of course about transmissive and transflective LCD displays, because TFT displays also can be transmissive and transflective. In the last part we will talk about backlight.
Let us start with a short review of the most basic liquid crystal cell, which is the TN (twisted nematic) display. On the picture above, we can see that the light can be transmit through the cell or blocked by the liquid crystal cell using voltage. If you want to learn more about monochrome LCD displays and the basics of LCD displays, follow this link.
What is a TFT LCD display and how it is different from a monochrome LCD display? TFT is called an active display. Active, means we have one or more transistors in every cell, in every pixel and in every subpixel. TFT stands for Thin Film Transistor, transistors that are very small and very thin and are built into the pixel, so they are not somewhere outside in a controller, but they are in the pixel itself. For example, in a 55-inch TV set, the TFT display contains millions of transistors in the pixels. We do not see them, because they are very small and hidden, if we zoom in, however, we can see them in every corner of each pixel, like on the picture below.
On the picture above we can see subpixels, that are basic RGB (Red, Green, Blue) colors and a black part, with the transistors and electronic circuits. We just need to know that we have pixels, and subpixels, and each subpixel has transistors. This makes the display active, and thus is called the TFT display. TFT displays are usually color displays, but there are also monochrome TFT displays, that are active, and have transistors, but have no colors. The colors in the TFT LCD display are typically added by color filters on each subpixel. Usually the filters are RGB, but we also have RGBW (Red, Green, Blue, White) LCD displays with added subpixels without the filter (White) to make the display brighter.
Going a little bit deeper, into the TFT cell, there is a part inside well known to us from the monochrome LCD display Riverdi University lecture. We have a cell, liquid crystal, polarizers, an ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) layer for the electrodes, and additionally an electronic circuit. Usually, the electronic circuit consists of one transistor and some capacitors to sustain the pixel state when we switch the pixel OFF and ON. In a TFT LCD display the pixels are much more complicated because apart from building the liquid crystal part, we also need to build an electronic part.
That is why TFT LCD display technologies are very expensive to manufacture. If you are familiar with electronics, you know that the transistor is a kind of switch, and it allows us to switch the pixel ON and OFF. Because it is built into the pixel itself, it can be done very quickly and be very well controlled. We can control the exact state of every pixel not only the ON and OFF states, but also all the states in between. We can switch the light of the cells ON and OFF in several steps. Usually for TFT LCD displays it will be 8-bit steps per color, so we have 256 steps of brightness for every color, and every subpixel. Because we have three subpixels, we have a 24-bit color range, that means over 16 million combinations, we can, at least theoretically, show on our TFT LCD display over 16 million distinct colors using RGB pixels.
Now that we know how the TFT LCD display works, we can now learn some practical things one of which is LCD TFT ghosting. We know how the image is created, but what happens when we have the image on the screen for a prolonged time, and how to prevent it. In LCD displays we have something called LCD ghosting. We do not see it very often, but in some displays this phenomenon still exists.
Another issue present in TFT displays, especially TN LCD displays, is grayscale inversion. This is a phenomenon that changes the colors of the screen according to the viewing angle, and it is only one-sided. When buying a TFT LCD display, first we need to check what kind of technology it is. If it is an IPS display, like the Riverdi IPS display line, then we do not need to worry about the grayscale inversion because all the viewing angles will be the same and all of them will be very high, like 80, 85, or 89 degrees. But if you buy a more common or older display technology type, like the TN (twisted nematic) display, you need to think where it will be used, because one viewing angle will be out. It may be sometimes confusing, and you need to be careful as most factories define viewing direction of the screen and mistake this with the greyscale inversion side.
We know already that TN (twisted nematic) displays, suffer from grayscale inversion, which means the display has one viewing side, where the image color suddenly changes. It is tricky, and you need to be careful. On the picture above there is a part of the LCD TFT specification of a TN (twisted nematic) display, that has grayscale inversion, and if we go to this table, we can see the viewing angles. They are defined at 70, 70, 60 and 70 degrees, that is the maximum viewing angle, at which the user can see the image. Normally we may think that 70 degrees is better, so we will choose left and right side to be 70 degrees, and then up and down, and if we do not know the grayscale inversion phenomena, we may put our user on the bottom side which is also 70 degrees. The viewing direction will be then like a 6 o’clock direction, so we call it a 6 o’clock display. But you need to be careful! Looking at the specification, we can see that this display was defined as a 12 o’clock display, so it is best for it to be seen from a 12 o’clock direction. But we can find that the 12 o’clock has a lower viewing angle – 60 degrees. What does it mean? It means that on this side there will be no grayscale inversion. If we go to 40, 50, 60 degrees and even a little bit more, probably we will still see the image properly. Maybe with lower contrast, but the colors will not change. If we go from the bottom, from a 6 o’clock direction where we have the grayscale inversion, after 70 degrees or lower we will see a sudden color change, and of course this is something we want to avoid.
We will talk now about the other TFT technologies, that allow us to have wider viewing angles and more vivid colors. The most basic technology for monochrome and TFT LCD displays is twisted nematic (TN). As we already know, this kind of displays have a problem with grayscale inversion. On one side we have a higher retardation and will not get a clear image. That is why we have other technologies like VA (Vertical Alignment), where the liquid crystal is differently organized, and another variation of the TFT technology – IPS which is In-Plane Switching. The VA and IPS LCD displays do not have a problem with the viewing angles, you can see a clear image from all sides.
Apart from the different organization of the liquid crystals, we also organize subpixels a little bit differently in a VA and IPS LCD displays. When we look closer at the TN display, we will just see the subpixels with color filters. If we look at the VA or IPS display they will have subpixels of subpixels. The subpixels are divided into smaller parts. In this way we can achieve even wider viewing angles and better colors for the user, but of course, it is more complicated and more expensive to do.
The picture above presents the TN display and grayscale inversion. For IPS or VA technology there is no such effect. The picture will be the same from all the sides we look so these technologies are popular where we need wide viewing angles, and TN is popular where we don’t need that, like in monitors. Other advantages of IPS LCD displays are they give accurate colors, and wide viewing angles. What is also important in practice, in our projects, is that the IPS LCD displays are less susceptible to mechanical force. When we apply mechanical force to the screen, and have an optically bonded touch screen, we push the display as well as squeeze the cells. When we have a TN display, every push on the cell changes the image suddenly, with the IPS LCD displays with in-plane switching, different liquid crystals organization, this effect is lesser. It is not completely removed but it is much less distinct. That is another reason IPS displays are very popular for smartphones, tablets, when we have the touchscreens usually optically bonded.
Now, let us look at the backlight types. As we see here, on the picture above, we have four distinct types of backlight possible. The most common, 95 or 99 per cent of the TFT LCD displays on the market are the transmissive LCD display type, where we need the backlight from the back. If you remember from our Monochrome LCD Displays lecture, for transmissive LCD displays you need the backlight to be always on. If you switch the backlight off, you will not see anything. The same as for monochrome LCD displays, but less popular for TFT displays, we have the transflective LCD display type. They are not popular because usually for transflective TFT displays, the colors lack in brightness, and the displays are not very practical to use. You can see the screen, but the application is limited. Some transflective LCD displays are used by military, in applications where power consumption is paramount; where you can switch the backlight off and you agree to have lower image quality but still see the image. Power consumption and saving energy is most important in some kind of applications and you can use transflective LCD displays there. The reflective type of LCD displays are almost never used in TFT. There is one technology called Low Power Reflective Displays (LPRD) that is used in TFT but it is not popular. Lastly, we have a variation of reflective displays with frontlight, where we add frontlight to the reflective display and have the image even without external light.
Just a few words about Low Power Reflective Displays (LPRD). This kind of display uses environmental light, ambient light to reflect, and produce some colors. The colors are not perfect, not perfectly clear, but this technology is becoming increasingly popular because it allows to have color displays in battery powered applications. For example, a smartwatch would be a case for that technology, or an electrical bike or scooter, where we can not only have a standard monochrome LCD display but also a TFT LCD color display without the backlight; we can see the image even in
strong sunlight and not need backlight at all. So, this kind of TFL LCD display technology is getting more and more popular when we have outdoor LCD displays and need a low power consumption.
On the picture above, we have some examples of how transmissive and reflective LCD displays work in the sunlight. If we have a simple image, like a black and white pattern, then on a transmissive LCD display, even with 1000 candela brightness, the image probably will be lower quality than for a reflective LCD display; if we have sunlight, we have very strong light reflections on the surface of the screen. We have talked about contrast in more detail in the lecture Sunlight Readable Displays. So, reflective LCD displays are a better solution for outdoor applications than transmissive LCD displays, where you need a really strong backlight, 1000 candela or more, to be really seen outdoors.
To show you how the backlight of LCD displays is built, we took the picture above. You can see the edge backlight there, where we have LEDs here on the small PCB on the edge, and we have a diffuser that distributes the light to the whole surface of LCD screen.
In addition to the backlight, we have something that is called a frontlight. It is similar to backlight, it also uses the LEDs to put the light into it, but the frontlight needs to be transparent as we have the display behind. On the example on the picture above we can see an e-paper display. The e-paper display is also a TFT display variation, but it is not LCD (liquid crystal), it is a different technology, but the back of the display is the same and it is reflective. The example you see is the Kindle 4 eBook reader. It uses an e-paper display and a frontlight as well, so you can read eBooks even during the night.
Optical and SEM (scanning electron microscopy) images of fabricated (a, b) CL and (c, d) CLSE pixel structures. The five white line patterns in (d) are the ITO interdigitated pixel and common electrodes. (e) Images from the normal direction and from 50 degrees to the left and right of a 2.3-inch-diagonal display incorporating the IPS TFT-LCD panel. (f) The three-black matrix (BM) patterns (top: BM covering both gate and data lines, middle: BM covering only the data lines, and bottom: without BM) and (g) optical images of pixels without BM (left: LC on and off voltages supplied to every other data line, right: LC off voltage supplied to all data lines).
Figure 3e shows images from the normal direction and from 50 degrees to the left and right of a 2.3-inch-diagonal display incorporating the IPS TFT-LCD panel fabricated in our laboratory, (f) the three black matrix (BM) patterns (top: BM covering both gate and data lines, middle: BM covering only the data lines, and bottom: without BM), and (g) optical images of panel areas without the BM (left: LC on and off voltages supplied to every other data line, right: LC off voltage supplied to all data lines). As can be seen in the image from the normal direction, the brightness and contrast of the display area with the top BM and middle BM patterns are almost the same, but the contrast of the display area without the BM is relatively lower because of the lower darkness level of the LC off pixels indicating “HITACHI”. As shown in Fig. 3g, this is due to light leaking through the aperture between the data line and adjacent common lines. Therefore, in the CL structure, the BM on the drain line is necessary to obtain a high contrast ratio by shielding light leakage. This is the same as in the conventional structure. On the contrary, there is no light leakage along the gate line through the gaps between the gate line and edges of the pixel/common electrodes, as is clearly shown in Fig. 3g. This is a unique advantage of the CL structure because the conventional structure must shield these gaps with the BM to prevent light leakage. The suppression of light leakage along the gate line in the CL structure is due to the driving scheme (see Fig. 2b,a for a comparison with the conventional structure). During the holding period (tOFF) in the conventional structure, regardless of the pixel voltage, Vp (including Vp = 0), nonzero Vgp and Vgc are always applied to keep the TFT off, and these voltages are applied to the LC layer, inducing light leakage as reported in
Figure 4a shows the gate voltage (Vg) dependence of the panel brightness, while the inset shows that of the TFT current (transfer characteristics). The gray curves are for the conventional IPS TFT-LCD with the TFT before enhancement, the common line, and the matrix BM (MBM) shown at the top of Fig. 3f. The blue curves are for the proposed CL structure with the enhanced TFT and the stripe BM (SBM) shown in the middle of Fig. 3f. In this case, enhanced TFT characteristics were obtained by using an MNOS TFT without back-channel oxidation that was enhanced by the BTS process. In both structures, the threshold voltages for panel brightness, defined by extrapolating the straight part of the brightness curves, reflect those of the TFT transfer curves defined as Vg at a drain current of 10−12 A, and they are well matched to be 4 V and 9 V, respectively. The maximum brightness for the CL structure is 137% higher than that for the conventional structure, which is due to the increase in the aperture ratio from 38 to 52% that results from the elimination of the common line and the BM covering the gate line.
(a) Dependence of panel brightness and TFT current on gate voltage for the conventional pixel structure of 38% aperture ratio (AR) with matrix black matrix (MBM) over both drain and gate lines and proposed CL pixel structure of 52% AR with strip black matrix (SBM) over only the drain lines. Transfer characteristics before and after bias temperature stress (BTS) treatment are shown in the inset. (b) Charging and (c) holding characteristics of enhanced TFT of the CL structure with gate as a common line. Vg and Vd in the TFT ON state are 30 V and +/−7 V, respectively.
To estimate the charging and holding characteristics of the MNOS-enhanced TFT in the panel, the gate TFT ON and OFF time dependences of the panel brightness were measured (Fig. 4b,c). The charging characteristics in Fig. 4b are plotted as a function of tON at tOFF = 16.6 ms, Vg = 30 V, and Vd = ± 7 V. The holding characteristics in Fig. 4c are plotted as a function of tOFF at tON = 34 μs. 95.1% charging at tON = 34 μs and 95.3% holding at tOFF = 16.6 ms indicate that the enhanced TFT has sufficient charging and holding performance to drive a standard VGA (640 × 480 pixels) panel (the number of scanning lines is estimated as tOFF/tON = 16.6/0.034 = 488).
To confirm the driving conditions for the CL structure without the BM along the gate line (with the SBM), the tOFF dependence of the contrast ratio (CR) in the CL panel was further investigated as shown in Fig. 5a, where CR is plotted as a function of tOFF for the CL panels with the matrix BM (MBM) and the strip BM (SBM). The inset shows the brightness in the bright (Vd = 7 V) and dark (Vd = 0 V) states of the CL panel with the SBM as a function of tOFF and an optical image of the panel with tOFF = 6.4 ms. The SBM and MBM panels keep CR higher than 240 with tOFF > 16.6 ms, the frame period of a display panel without flicker being noticeable to the human eye. both panels decrease CR when tOFF is less than 16.6 ms; the CR of the SBM panel decreases faster than the CR of the MBM panel. As shown in the inset, the decrease in CR was due to the increase in dark-state brightness with decreasing tOFF as light leakage increases along the gate line. This light leakage is induced by the voltage Vgp = Vgc = VgON = 30 V applied only for 34 μs during the TFT ON (charging) state, which is 1/488th the duration, tOFF = 16.6 ms, of the TFT OFF (holding) state with Vgp = Vgc = VgOFF = 0 V, but the ratio increases with decreasing tOFF and becomes effective enough to switch on LC layer and induce light leakage. However, it should be stressed again that the CL panel with the normal holding (TFT OFF) time of 16.6 ms does not suffer from the light leakage along the gate line, so the aperture ratio can be increased by removing the BM along the gate line.
Figure 6 indicates the effect of bias temperature stress (BTS) on the TFT characteristics. As the stressing time, tS, of the positive gate stress voltage, Vst = + 77 V, increases from 0 to 3600 s, the transfer (Id-Vg) curve shifts in the positive direction (Fig. 6a). Vth is defined as Vg at which Id = 10−12 A and ΔVth is defined as the Vth shift from the initial value via BTS. As shown in Fig. 6b, ΔVth increases logarithmically with increasing tS: ΔVth = 2.17 + 4.93 × log (tS). The mechanism behind the gate-stress-induced Vth shift is electron tunnel injection from the a-Si:H semiconductor into the SiOx gate insulator. For confirmation, ΔVth of MNOS TFTs with different SiOx thicknesses is plotted as a function of the electric field applied to the SiOx layer in Fig. 6c. Here, the thickness of the SiOx was varied (5, 10, 20, 50 nm), while the SiN thickness was fixed at 200 nm. The electric field applied to SiOx, Eox, was calculated using the following equation,
Effect of bias temperature stress (BTS) on TFT characteristics. (a) The transfer (Id–Vg) curve shifts in the positive direction with positive gate bias stress of Vst = + 77 V over the duration of 0–3600 s. (b) ΔVth, defined as the Vth shift from the initial value via BTS, increases logarithmically with increasing tS, following ΔVth = 2.17 + 4.93 × log (tS). (c) ΔVth of MNOS TFTs with different SiOx thicknesses from 5 to 50 nm as a function of the electric field applied to the SiOx layer.
Figure 7a shows the effect of back-channel oxidation (BCO) and passivation (PAS) on the Id-Vg characteristics of the MNOS TFT. The Id-Vg curve with Vth = 5.1 V is further enhanced to Vth = 10.9 V after BCO, although there is a slight degradation of the slope of the current increase in the sub-threshold region. The slope recovers after PAS without any change to the enhanced characteristics
(a) Effect of back-channel oxidation (BCO) and passivation (PAS) on Id–Vg characteristics of MNOS TFT. (b) Vth and Vth standard deviation, σVth, after BTS and after BCO without BTS treatments and (c) SiOX thickness as a function of position along gate-line, x.
The advantage of BCO over BTS is the uniformity of the enhanced characteristics; Fig. 7b shows the distribution of the enhanced Vth as a function of position along gate-line, x, for the MNOS TFTs connected with a 90-mm-long gate line in the TFT substrate after BTS and BCO treatments. The average value of Vth and the standard deviation, σVth, for pristine TFTs before BTS or BCO, are 5.1 V and 0.35 V, respectively. After BCO, Vth is uniformly enhanced, with an average Vth = 11 V and σVth = 0.4 V without increasing σVth. On the other hand, after BTS, Vth is nonuniformly enhanced with an average Vth = 9.3 V and σVth of 1.4 V. In particular, Vth increases linearly as a function of position along gate-line, x. As the gate SiOx thickness linearly decreases, from (54 nm) to (47 nm) with increasing x as shown in Fig. 7c, the increase in ΔVth after BTS with x is due to increase in the electric field applied to SiOx as shown in Fig. 6c and Eq. 1.
It has been shown that the Vth of the MNOS TFT is independent of the gate SiOx thickness when the thickness is more than 5 nm8a, Vth of the MNOS TFT with the BCO treatment becomes almost independent of the BCO SiOx thickness. As shown in the inset, the thickness of BCO SiOx composed of oxidized a-Si:H linearly increases with BCO processing time, and the Vth increase almost saturates at a BCO SiOx thickness greater than 5 nm. Therefore, the enhanced MNOS TFT after BCO has a uniformly high Vth that is robust to thickness fluctuations of the gate and BCO SiOx layers. BCO also has an advantage over BTS in terms of the stability of Vth as shown in Fig. 8b, which plots the annealing time dependence of Vth for BCO and BTS. In this experiment, the stoichiometry (x) of the gate SiOx was 1.78 for BTS and 1.78 and 1.9 for BCO. The annealing temperature in the N2 atmosphere was 200 °C. In the case of BTS, Vth decreased to the pristine value after approximately 5 h of annealing, while Vth decreased more slowly in the case of BCO. In particular, the annealing time required for Vth to fall to 7 V was 7.5 times longer than that of BTS. Increasing the stoichiometry (x) of the gate SiOx dramatically improved the BCO-enhanced Vth to as much as 11 V, which was stably maintained after 24 h of annealing at 200 °C.
(a) Dependence of Vth on thickness of back-channel oxidized (BCO) SiOX. The inset shows the SiOx thickness dependence on the BCO process time for RF powers of 200 W and 500 W. (b) Stability of Vth as a function of annealing time for three different TFTs with gate SiOx stoichiometry, x = 1.78 and bias temperature stress (BTS), x = 1.78 and BCO, and x = 1.9 and BCO. The temperature of annealing in the N2 atmosphere was 200 °C. (c) Band diagram of back-channel oxidized MNOS TFT. The red arrows show the electric dipoles at the SiOX/a-Si:H and a-Si:H/BCO SiOX interfaces.
A schematic band model for the MNOS TFT with the BCO treatment and the sectional structure of the interface between the a-Si:H and gate and BCO SiOx are shown in Fig. 8c. The uniformly high Vth that is independent of SiOx thickness is due to the dipoles generated at the channel and back-channel interfaces between a-Si:H and SiOx8 of reference
One of the industry’s leading oxide panel makers selected Astra Glass as its backplane glass substrate because it has the inherent fidelity to thrive in high-temperature oxide-TFT glass fabrication for immersive high-performance displays.
One of the industry’s leading oxide panel makers selected Astra Glass as its backplane glass substrate because it has the inherent fidelity to thrive in high-temperature oxide-TFT glass fabrication for immersive high-performance displays.
When you stop and think about what goes into displaying one of these amazing images, you might recognize most are protected by a glass cover. You might even be familiar with display types like LCD or OLED. Yet for many, the recognition stops there. You may see the image on the surface, but rarely think about what creates that image, how it achieves life-like, vibrant color, and the journey it makes to reach our eyes.
If we look deeper, beyond the surface and the cover glass of our devices, we would find one or more layers of ultra-thin, technical glass make such images possible. Each layer with a different purpose, all working together to deliver the beautiful, thin displays we use each and every day. Combined, these layers form what we at Corning call the “glass stack.”
It’s worth looking at the individual layers of the glass stack, since each layer is the result of breakthroughs in glass science, optical physics, and state of the art manufacturing. At the top of the stack, we have the protective cover glass of a mobile device that most consumers have heard of – Corning Gorilla Glass. This cover glass protects and maintains the appearance of the display, and also supports the use of front-facing cameras and various sensors. Often, the rear side of such devices is covered with a similar protective glass, which also allows for wireless charging.
Though each layer of the glass stack is formed with the same fusion manufacturing process, the compositions of the glass are different – allowing for different properties and benefits. LCD and OLED displays, whether on mobile devices with glass cover and back or otherwise, utilize different super-thin layers of glass specific to their applications:
When compared to the ordinary LCD, TFT LCD gives very sharp and crisp text/graphic with shorter response time. TFT LCD displays are used in more and more applications, giving products better visual presentation.
TFT is an abbreviation for "Thin Film Transistor". The color TFT LCD display has transistors made up of thin films of Amorphous silicon deposited on a glass. It serves as a control valve to provide an appropriate voltage onto liquid crystals for individual sub-pixels. That is why TFT LCD display is also called Active Matrix display.
A TFT LCD has a liquid crystal layer between a glass substrate formed with TFTs and transparent pixel electrodes and another glass substrate with a color filter (RGB) and transparent counter electrodes. Each pixel in an active matrix is paired with a transistor that includes capacitor which gives each sub-pixel the ability to retain its charge, instead of requiring an electrical charge sent each time it needed to be changed. This means that TFT LCD displays are more responsive.
To understand how TFT LCD works, we first need to grasp the concept of field-effect transistor (FET). FET is a type of transistor which uses electric field to control the flow of electrical current. It is a component with three terminals: source, gate, and drain. FETs control the flow of current by the application of a voltage to the gate, which in turn alters the conductivity between the drain and source.
Using FET, we can build a circuit as below. Data Bus sends signal to FET Source, when SEL SIGNAL applies voltage to the Gate, driving voltage is then created on TFT LCD panel. A sub-pixel will be lit up. A TFT LCD display contains thousand or million of such driving circuits.
Topway started TFT LCD manufacturing more than15 years ago. We produce color TFT LCD display from 1.8 to 15+ inches with different resolutions and interfaces. Here is some more readings about how to choose the right TFT LCD.
Recently, screen sizes of LCD TVs have become wider and larger. The glass substrates from AGC enable this trend of larger LCD TV sizes. Glass substrates also play a key role to reproduce clear and beautiful screen images as one of the core components of LCDs.
It is necessary for TFT-LCD glass to meet many strict quality requirements. Unlike window pane glass, glass for TFT-LCDs is not allowed to contain alkalis. This is because alkali-ions contaminate liquid crystal materials and even adversely affect the characteristics of the TFT. Additionally, the glass should not exhibit large sagging even though its thickness is just 0.3 to 0.7 mm and should have excellent heat resistance while assuring dimensional stability even after being heated at high temperature. The glass also should have properties that its composition does not dissolve during the fabrication process using chemicals. "AN100", non-alkali glass developed by us, is the one that has fulfilled those various requirements. Furthermore, since "AN100" does not contain hazardous materials such as arsenic or antimony, it has high reputation for being an environment-friendly glass. Our technologies are supporting the design of thin, large, and environmentally friendly LCD TVs.
An LCD has a layer of liquid crystal sandwiched between two sheets of glass. The most remarkable feature of liquid crystal is its optical characteristics of being both a liquid and a solid. Applying voltage to the layer of liquid crystal causes the orientation of the molecules in the liquid crystal to change relative to each other. This molecule rearrangement controls the light transmission from the backlight; the light passes through color filters of red, blue, and green, and eventually rich images appear on the screen.
Majority of LCDs in wide use now are TFT-LCDs. In a TFT-LCD, a layer of thin film that forms transistors is used as a device that applies voltage to the liquid crystal layer, and those transistors control the voltage supplied to each pixel. The advantages of a TFT-LCD are high resolution and quick response time that enables motion image to be fine and clear.
Smartphones and tablets can now be considered life necessities, and the LCD screen is the most frequently used interface whenever such devices are used. Without the LCD display, it is not possible to send email or view pictures taken by the camera function.
Furthermore, LCDs play an important role in a variety of applications such as in-vehicle displays, e.g. navigation systems and center information displays, and digital signage.
Through production and supply of LCD glass substrates, which is a key material of LCDs, AGC helps create a more convenient and comfortable life through integrating various technologies within the Group.
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