Contrast‐ratio analysis of sunlight‐readable color LCDs for outdoor applications

Abstract— This paper presents contrast‐ratio data measured from high‐brightness TFT color LCDs under various ambient illumination levels encountered in outdoor environments. In these measurements, several LCD front polarizers with anti‐glare (AG) and anti‐reflective (AR) coatings have been used. The measured contrast‐ratio data are compared and the impact due to the AG and AR coatings is briefly discussed. The test equipment that simulates different cases of outdoor illumination is also presented.     

An overview of product issues in wide‐viewing TFT‐LCDs

Abstract— Several TFT‐LCD devices exhibiting high image quality have been developed and commercialized, overcoming the narrow viewing‐angle characteristics of conventional twisted‐nematic (TN) devices. Nevertheless, no single device dominates large‐sized TFT‐LCDs. In this paper, the product issues of existing LC devices related to manufacturing process and performance are discussed.     

Energy‐efficient liquid‐crystal displays (e2‐LCDs) using a photonic‐crystal backlight system

Abstract— Cholesteric liquid crystals automatically form one‐dimensional photonic crystals. For a photonic crystal in which light‐emitting moieties are embedded, unique properties such as microcavity effects and simultaneous light emission and light reflection can be expected. Three primary‐color photonic‐crystal films were prepared based on cholesteric liquid crystal in which fluorescent dye is incorporated. Microcavity effects, i.e., emission enhancement and spectrum narrowing, were observed. Two types of demonstration liquid‐crystal displays (LCDs) were fabricated using the prepared photonic‐crystal films in a backlight system. One is an area‐color LCD in which a single photonic‐crystal layer is used for each color pixel and the other is a full‐color TFT‐LCD in which three stacked photonic‐crystal layers are used as light‐conversion layers. The area‐color LCD was excited by using 365‐nm UV light, and the full‐color TFT‐LCD was excited by using 470‐nm blue LED light. Because of the photonic crystal's unique features that allow it to work as light‐emitting and light‐reflecting layers simultaneously, both LCDs demonstrate clear readable images even under strong ambient light, such as direct‐sunlight conditions, under which conventional displays including LCDs and OLED displays cannot demonstrate clear images. In particular, an area‐color LCD, which eliminated color filters, gives clear images under bright ambient light conditions even without backlight illumination. This fact suggests that a backlight system using novel photonic‐crystal layers will be suitable for energy‐efficient LCDs (e²‐LCDs), especially for displays designed for outdoor usage.     

Narrow‐gap field‐sequential TN‐LCD with and without nanoparticle doping

Abstract— The fabrication and demonstration of field‐sequential‐color (FSC) LCDs using modules of narrow‐gap twisted‐nematic (NTN) LCDs with and without doping of newly synthesized PγCyD‐ZrO² nanoparticles is reported. Two types of FSC‐LCDs are demonstrated: one is a direct multiplexed NTN‐LCD and the other is TFT driven. The advantages of FSC‐LCDs include their high legibility even under direct sunlight, and the mechanism for the doping of nanoparticles in LCDs is discussed.     

Transflective TFT‐LCDs with high optical performance

Abstract— In order to reduce panel cost, reduce power consumption, and minimize thickness, a single panel with dual functions for high‐transmissive main displays and high reflective sub‐displays is becoming the trend. Two novel RGB‐W transflective 1.9‐in. a‐Si TFT LCDs have been developed to meet the requirements. By using the traditional seven‐mask dual‐cell‐gap structure, novel transflective tRGB‐t/rW TFT LCD and tRGB‐rW TFT‐LCD panels were fabricated with high transmittance and high reflectance, respectively. The optical clarity is excellent in both dark and bright conditions. Their superior optical performance is attributed to the high‐efficiency “transflective white” subpixel or “reflective white” subpixel.     

Electrical models of TFT‐LCD panels for circuit simulations

Abstract— As thin‐film‐transistor liquid‐crystal‐display (TFT‐LCD) panels become larger and provide higher resolution, the propagation delay of the row and column lines, the voltage modulation of Vcom, and the response time of the liquid crystal affect the display images now more than in the past. It is more important to understand the electrical characteristics of TFT‐LCD panels these days. There are several commercial products that simulate the electrical and optical performance of TFT‐LCDs. Most of the simulators are made for panel designers. However, this research is for circuit, system, and panel designers. It is made in a SPICE and Cadence environment as a commercial circuit‐design tool. For circuit and system designers, it will help to design the circuit around a new driving method. Also, it can be easily modified for every situation. It also gives panel designers design concepts. This paper describes the electrical model of a 15‐in. XGA (1024 × 768) TFT‐LCD panel. The parasitic resistance and capacitance of the panel are obtained by 3‐D simulation of a subpixel. The accuracy of these data is verified by the measured values of an actual panel. The developed panel simulation platform, the equivalent circuit of a 1 5‐in. XGA panel, is simulated by HSPICE. The results of simulation are compared with those of experiment, according to changing the width of the OE signal. The proposed simulation platform for modeling TFT‐LCD panels can be especially applied to large‐sized LCD TVs. It can help panel and circuit designers to verify their ideas without making actual panels and circuits.     

Current manufacturing technologies for TFT‐LCDs

Abstract— TFT‐LCD panels for notebook‐PC applications requires a thin and light form factor, low power consumption, and good display quality, whereas the desktop monitor has different requirements such as large panel size, wide viewing angle, high resolution, brightness, etc. However, for the fifth‐generation of mass production, current panel technologies have to improve in order to cope with these requirements. In this article, various approaches to the manufacturing technologies of next‐generation TFT‐LCDs are discussed.     

Color management of reflective‐type LCDs in terms of adaptation of the human visual system to light‐source variation

We have investigated the color management, in terms of the color adoption property of the human visual system, of a reflective‐type TFT‐LCD (R‐LCD). Since the R‐LCD depends on ambient light as the light source, it is expected that the colorimetric color on the R‐LCD must be changed if the source of the ambient light is changed. However, due to the adaptation property of the human visual system, the eye does not perceive colorimetrically corrected colors as the same color even for an R‐LCD. In this research, first, we conducted a subjective experiment to obtain the RGB code value that is required in order to display a corresponding color on the R‐LCD under varying ambient‐light conditions. The result of the experiment shows that the corresponding color of the experimental results was reasonably approximated by the color obtained by using the von Kries model. Secondly, we proposed a color‐compensating mechanism that is described as a cascaded simple 3 × 3 linear matrix. Actual colors displayed are adjusted according to the ambient light. The evaluation of the picture quality of the R‐LCD showed that the proposed model is effective.     

A 15‐in. XGA thresholdless antiferroelectric LCD addressed by TFTs and using the quasi‐dc driving method

Abstract— A 15‐in. TFT‐LCD with XGA resolution using thresholdless antiferroelectric liquid crystal (TLAF) has been developed. TLAF materials show V‐shaped switching and enable display of analog gray scale, wide viewing angle, and fast response. However, in the case that high‐resolution TFT‐LCDs using materials with large spontaneous polarization such as TLAF were driven by the conventional method, alternating current (ac) driving, the obtained contrast ratio was limited because of a sharp decline of holding voltage due to the growth of a depolarization field. In order to enhance the contrast ratio, a novel driving method referred to as quasi‐dc driving was proposed. In the quasi‐dc driving, the polarity of the applied voltage to liquid crystals inverts at certain intervals of several seconds. Moreover, the applied voltage and the charging time at the time of polarity inversion are increased more than the intended signals. By this method, the 15‐in. TFT‐LCD using TLAF with high contrast ratio (more than 100:1) and wide viewing angle was realized.     

A 2‐in. a‐Si:H TFT‐LCD with embedded backlight control TFT sensors with various channel widths

Abstract— A 2.0‐in. a‐Si:H TFT‐LCD with embedded TFT sensors for the control of the backlight intensity according to the ambient light intensity has been developed. Two types of a‐Si:H TFT sensors with various channel widths were embedded into a TFT backplane with bottom‐ and top‐gate structures for measuring the ambient light and backlight illumination, respectively. The output signal, measured by a readout IC, increased with backlight intensity until 20,000 lux.     

Low‐power‐consumption TFT‐LCD with dynamic memory embedded in the pixels

A low‐power‐consumption thin‐film‐transistor liquid‐crystal display (TFT‐LCD) with dynamic memory cells embedded in each pixel using low‐temperature poly‐Si technology has been developed. By holding data in the memory, the operating rate of the data driver can be dramatically reduced to 4 Hz. Eight levels of gray scale with low power consumption can be achieved by using the area‐ratio gray‐scale method. This TFT‐LCD can be used for displaying fine still images, with low power consumption.     

Improved image quality of a high‐transflective tRGB‐t/rW TFT‐LCD

Abstract— This work combines a very simple resolution rescaling method, a well‐known RGB‐to‐YUV converting technique and a detection strategy into an optimized switchable mechanism in order to eliminate the problems of obvious zigzag profiles caused by the special layouts of transflective tRGB‐t/rW TFT‐LCDs and the poor reflective gray‐level contrast ratio effected by the minimum white data in the transmissive RGB‐W + subpixel rendering algorithms. Finally, a transflective tRGB‐t/rW TFT‐LCD is revealed not only to have no visible zigzag profiles and high visibility of reflective gray‐level contrast ratio, but also to have extreme reflectance and transmittance. The excellent optical performance of the proposed system makes it particularly suitable for single‐panel applications that need both high‐transmissive main displays and high‐reflective subdisplays.     

A novel pixel memory using integrated voltage‐loss‐compensation (VLC) circuit for ultra‐low‐power TFT‐LCDs

Abstract— A novel pixel memory using an integrated voltage‐loss‐compensation (VLC) circuit has been proposed for ultra‐low‐power TFT‐LCDs, which can increase the number of gray‐scale levels for a single subpixel using an analog voltage gray‐scale technique. The new pixel with a VLC circuit is integrated under a small reflective electrode in a high‐transmissive aperture‐ratio (39%) 3.17‐in. HVGA transflective panel by using a standard low‐temperature‐polysilicon process based on 1.5‐μm rules. No additional process steps are required. The VLC circuit in each pixel enables simultaneous refresh with a very small change in voltage, resulting in a two‐orders‐of‐magnitude reduction in circuit power for a 64‐color image display. The advanced transflective TFT‐LCD using the newly proposed pixel can display high‐quality multi‐color images anytime and anywhere, due to its low power consumption and good outdoor readability.     

Evaluation of single‐, pre‐emphasis,and dual‐driving methods in large‐sized TFT‐LCDs

Abstract— As the panel size and the frame frequency of TFT‐LCDs increases, driving issues become much more important for larger‐sized and higher‐resolution TFT‐LCDs. In our previous paper, the pre‐emphasis driving method was proposed to shorten the driving time of the data line with heavy loads of the large‐sized TFT‐LCDs. This paper proposes a simulation model based on the evaluation results of the developed pre‐emphasis source driver, and the issues of driving the data line with heavy loads are reviewed. The single‐, pre‐emphasis, and dual‐driving methods are compared in terms of their driving time and power consumption for large‐sized TFT‐LCDs with various resistances and capacitances of the data lines. At a panel load of 250‐pF capacitance and 15‐kΩ resistance in full‐HD resolution, the pre‐emphasis driving can reduce the pixel driving time to 66% with a 54% increase in the analog power consumption.     

Novel super fast response vertical alignment‐liquid crystal display with extremely wide temperature range

We have developed a novel super fast response (SFR) thin‐film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT‐LCD) with an extremely wide temperature range. Nematic liquid crystal molecules with positive dielectric anisotropy are vertically aligned initially. Any gray‐to‐gray response is forcibly controlled by applying an electric field. Response times of the SFR TFT‐LCD are over several times shorter than those of conventional LCDs such as vertical alignment or in‐plane switching LCDs.     

Ultra‐low‐power LTPS TFT‐LCD technology using a multi‐bit pixel memory circuit

Abstract— Two types of low‐temperature poly‐Si TFT LCDs, which integrate a multi‐bit memory circuit and a liquid‐crystal driver within a pixel, have been developed using two different TFT process technologies. Both a 1.3‐in. 116‐ppi LCD having a 2‐bit pixel memory and a 1.5‐in. 130‐ppi LCD having a 5‐bit pixel memory consume very little power, less than 100 μW, which indicates that this technology is promising for mobile displays.     

Low‐temperature poly‐Si TFT data drivers for an SVGA a‐Si TFT‐LCD panel

Low‐temperature poly‐Si TFT data drivers for an SVGA a‐Si TFT‐LCD panel have been developed. The data drivers include shift registers, sample‐and‐hold circuits, and operational amplifiers, and drive LCD panels using a line‐at‐a‐time addressing method. To reduce the power consumption of the shift register, a dot‐clock control circuit has been developed. Using this circuit, the power consumption of the shift register has been reduced to 36% of that of conventional circuits. To cancel the offset voltage generated by the operational amplifier, an offset cancellation circuit for low‐temperature poly‐Si TFTs has been developed. This circuit is also able to avoid any unstable operation of the operational amplifier. Using this circuit, the offset voltage has been reduced to one‐third of the value without using the offset cancellation circuit. These data drivers have been connected to an LCD panel and have realized an SVGA display on a 12.1‐in. a‐Si TFT‐LCD panel.     

Photoalignment of LCoS LCDs

Because the pixel area of liquid‐crystal‐on‐silicon (LCoS) microdisplays is about 100 times smaller than that of direct‐view liquid‐crystal displays (LCDs), the limitations of the conventional alignment by brushing are obvious: Scratches and particle contamination caused by brushing become visible due to the strong optical magnification required for LCoS LCDs both in front or rear projection. As an alternative, photoalignment with the linear photo‐polymerization (LPP) technology avoids the generation of defects, thus increasing production yields considerably. For application in LCoS LCDs, alignment layer materials must match the high‐voltage holding ratio (VHR) specifications of TFT‐LCDs. The VHR performance of the newly developed second‐generation LPP materials is shown to be similar to standard TFT polyimides used for conventional brushed alignment. We report investigations of pretilt‐angle generation by photoalignment on reflective CMOS substrates. UV light reflected from the CMOS surface during LPP exposure affects the resulting pretilt angle. Compared to pretilt angles on transmissive substrates, the reflected UV light can induce lower, higher, or identical pretilt angles, depending on LPP material properties. In any case, the pretilt angles are well defined, which results in perfect LCD alignment.     

Novel mobile TFT‐LCDs based on SLS technology

Abstract— Single‐crystal‐like silicon (SLS) technology is the most cost‐effective laser‐crystallization process ever invented. The throughput of the SLS process is about two times higher than that of the conventional excimer‐laser annealing (ELA) method. In addition, the performance of the TFTs fabricated by the SLS process is among the best utilized in mass production. Various TFT‐LCDs employing SLS technology, which included a 1.02‐in. full SOG LCD using an icon display for the sub‐display of cellular phones, a 1.9‐in. qVGA TFT‐LCD with a low‐power analog interface employing a low‐voltage driving scheme, and a 3.0‐in. VGA TFT‐LCD compatible with the 480i data format without additional signal processing were developed. Because the SLS process enables us to achieve highly uniform and reliable transistors, it can be effectively utilized in the mass production of mobile TFT‐LCDs with low power consumption and enhanced image quality.     

An optical design for reflective color STN‐LCDs

In reflective color STN‐LCDs, it is necessary to achieve achromatic representation in single‐polarizer STN‐LCD modes. We propose an optimization method for the optical components of single‐polarizer STN‐LCD modes in order to achieve achromatic representation. By applying this method, it is shown that a contrast ratio of more than 20 can be achieved in the normally black (NB) mode. Furthermore, we prove that the normally white (NW) mode can be realized as well as an NB mode which is usually used in current reflective color STN‐LCDs. Comparing the viewing‐angle characteristics of the NW and NB modes, it was found that those of the NW mode are better than those of the NB mode. Particularly, high reflectance can be realized even at larger viewing angles in the NW mode.