Sustainability 2015, 7, 10854-10875; doi:10.3390/su70810854 OPEN ACCESS sustainability ISSN 2071-1050 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Review Review of Display Technologies Focusing on Power Consumption María Rodríguez Fernández 1,†, Eduardo Zalama Casanova 2,* and Ignacio González Alonso 3,† 1 Department of Systems Engineering and Automatic Control, University of Valladolid, Paseo del Cauce S/N, 47011 Valladolid, Spain; E-Mail:
[email protected] 2 Instituto de las Tecnologías Avanzadas de la Producción, University of Valladolid, Paseo del Cauce S/N, 47011 Valladolid, Spain 3 Department of Computer Science, University of Oviedo, C/González Gutiérrez Quirós, 33600 Mieres, Spain; E-Mail:
[email protected] † These authors contributed equally to this work. * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel.: +34-659-782-534. Academic Editor: Marc A. Rosen Received: 16 June 2015 / Accepted: 4 August 2015 / Published: 11 August 2015 Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the main manufacturing technologies of displays, focusing on those with low and ultra-low levels of power consumption, which make them suitable for current societal needs. Considering the typified value obtained from the manufacturer’s specifications, four technologies—Liquid Crystal Displays, electronic paper, Organic Light-Emitting Display and Electroluminescent Displays—were selected in a first iteration. For each of them, several features, including size and brightness, were assessed in order to ascertain possible proportional relationships with the rate of consumption. To normalize the comparison between different display types, relative units such as the surface power density and the display frontal intensity efficiency were proposed.