Technology Focus November 2010 Displays
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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS NOVEMBER 2010 DISPLAYS © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved think. learn. Engage. SUCCEED. Nature has been reenergised and strengthened in print and online. Now it’s even easier to stay abreast of the most important developments in science, and those that matter most to your scientifi c career. Nature’s new modern package includes opinionated editorial content, vivid page layouts, improved navigation and mobile apps that position us, and you, at the center of the scientifi c discussion. Don’t miss another week. Rediscover your Nature today. nature.com/rediscover © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved NATURE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY FOCUS Great expectations isplay technologies can be found backlights (see page 756), which help to in almost all aspects of our daily improve the power efficiency and colour Dlives, with electronic displays now rendering of LCDs. being included even on objects that have New display technologies are also traditionally never featured screens, such enabling other innovative applications. as kitchen appliances. Without a doubt, Light Blue Optics has combined electronic books (e-books) are the success holographic projection technology with story of 2010. According to Amazon.com, infrared touch-recognition technology sales of e-books have now exceeded to make a pico projection system those of hardback books, and it is display that allows users to interact with the technology that has made e-book readers a projected content (see page 750). Finding practical option in terms of their readability applications for such an ingenious and battery life. Most of these devices technology requires little imagination — feature a black and white electrophoretic you could do your internet shopping by display technology developed by E Ink projecting the website onto the table and (see page 748), a company that started choosing the items you want by touch, or after its founder ran out of books to read project an interactive presentation onto on holiday. What makes these displays your desktop at work. different to other types of display is their The pico projection market is also a bistable nature — power is only needed growing opportunity for microdisplays when turning a page. The demand for these made using liquid crystal on silicon (see COVER IMAGE low-power displays is now bigger than ever, page 752). UK company Forth Dimension and consumers are eagerly awaiting the Display pioneered this technology, and Light Blue Optics’ pico projection system deployment of improved versions that are its products are now used in a variety of combines holographic projection with infrared tough-recognition, allowing users full colour, have better contrast or feature applications including in the military, to interact with the displayed content. a larger screen size. Munisamy Anandan, medical and movie industries. president of the Society for Information Displays are everywhere, and new Display, believes that e-readers are a big technologies are constantly emerging. NPG ASIA-PACIFIC growth opportunity, not only for new Who knows what the next applications for Chiyoda Building 2-37 display technologies, but also for LED displays will be? Ichigayatamachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0843 Japan T: +81 3 3267 8751 F: +81 3 3267 8746 [email protected] BUSINESS NEWS EDITORS Industry-wide LCD price cuts, AMOLED displays and more 746 NADYA ANSCOMBE OLIVER GRAYDON RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS PRODUCTION EDITOR Our choice from the recent literature 747 CHRIS GILLOCH COPY EDITOR PROFILE JAMES BAXTER CONTENTS Emergence of the e-book 748 ART EDITOR TOM WILSON INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE SALES ACCOUNT MANAGER Pico projectors: Interactive experience 750 KEN MIKAMI Adrian Cable T: +81 3 3267 8751 Microdisplays: Liquid crystal on silicon 752 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR David Vettese GEORGE LUI T: +1 415 781 3804 PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS ADVERTISING MANAGER SIMON ALLARDICE Outdoor white LEDs, despeckled laser systems and more 755 T: +1 415 403 9034 INTERVIEW Watch this space 756 Interview with Munisamy Anandan NATURE PHOTONICS | VOL 4 | NOVEMBER 2010 | www.nature.com/naturephotonics 745 © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved BUSINESS NEWS TECHNOLOGY FOCUS LCD manufacturers face price crisis fter months of price cuts, manufacturers Aof large-size liquid-crystal displays 60,000 (LCDs) are under pressure to reduce panel LCD-TV panels prices further, following a major build-up of LCD-TV set inventory. A recent report from US business analyst iSuppli revealed that the second quarter of 2010 saw the manufacture of 52 40,000 million large (ten inches and above) LCD television panel shipments, but the sale of only 38.7 million LCD television sets. The resulting imbalance between supply 20,000 and demand is having a strong impact on the sector. “This gap is higher than anything seen in 2009. Over-supply persisted in shipments (thousands of units) Total the first two months of the third quarter 0 9 0 0 -0 -1 -1 as buyers cut orders in July and August,” Q1 Q1-09 Q2 Q3-09 Q4-09 Q2 says iSuppli analyst Sweta Dash. “LCD ISUPPLI television brands are expected to lower prices more aggressively to reduce their An imbalance between supply and demand is causing prices to decline in the large-panel LCD industry. inventory levels, thus putting mounting pressure on panel suppliers to reduce and help to steady panel prices by the end of iPhone, iPad and other competing prices further.” the fourth quarter of 2010. products,” explains Jakhanwal. Dash points out that manufacturers of At the same time, rapidly rising sales of “Smart phone manufacturers are now monitor and notebook panels have been smart phones and tablet PCs are predicted adopting TFT LCDs that use in-plane reducing supply to mitigate excessive to see the global market for small- and switching technology, which supports inventory levels, and that panel prices are medium-size thin-film transistor (TFT) a wider viewing angle and better now stabilizing as a result. In contrast, LCDs expanding at its fastest pace for picture quality than a conventional high depreciation costs at relatively new three years. According to analyst Vinita LCD.” But the fast-paced market LCD television panel fabrication plants Jakhanwal, also from iSuppli, global expansion probably won’t last, predicts mean suppliers have been less willing to shipments of TFT LCD panels are set to rise Jakhanwal. “Growth in TFT LCD reduce production. by 28.1% in 2010, from 1.8 billion to 2.3 shipments will slow in 2011 and However, Dash predicts that the billion units. beyond as the expansion of smart potentially strong sales of LCD television “Sales of smart phones and phone and tablet markets cools to more sets in China could reduce inventory levels tablets are booming thanks to the normal levels.” Smart phones speed AMOLED technology rose in popularity market. Led by former LG Electronics AMOLED take-up after its integration into mobile phones vice president Jong-Uk Bu, Nanosys manufactured by Samsung and HTC. In Korea will develop ‘architected materials’ The adoption of touch-screen technology the first quarter of 2010, the average screen for Asian electronics manufacturers, in the mobile phone industry is fuelling the size for an AMOLED display exceeded including high-performance LED demand for active-matrix organic light- three inches, which is larger than that backlights for displays and silicon emitting diode (AMOLED) displays, reports of competing TFT LCDs. Taiwan-based composite anode materials for use in US market research firm DisplaySearch. display manufacturers AUO and Chimei lithium–ion batteries. Earlier this year, AMOLED displays have been the only Innolux are scheduled to start mass- Nanosys unveiled QuantumRail, quantum- technology in the mobile phone display producing AMOLED displays in 2011. dot-based LED backlighting units that market to increase revenues every quarter Hsieh believes AMOLED technology improve LED backlit display colour this year, as both unit shipments and will now see increased year-on-year gamut and efficiency. Nanosys says that average prices have risen. “With an average growth, although TFT LCDs will still ship its quantum dot LED technology makes worldwide market penetration of mobile more units. it possible to deliver saturated red, green phones at 70%, manufacturers are eager and blue colours that exceed the NTSC to introduce new features such as touch- Nanosys unveils Korean facility 1953 guidelines for displays. This latest screens to ensure continued growth this announcement follows collaborations with year,” says Calvin Hsieh, research director at US-based quantum-dot and materials Korea-based electronics manufacturers DisplaySearch. “The success that AMOLED developer Nanosys has opened a new LG Innotek and Samsung Electronics displays are finding in high-end smart facility in Gyeonggi-do, Korea, to support to develop display products based on phones reflects these trends.” its recent expansion into the Asian quantum-dot crystals. 746 NATURE PHOTONICS | VOL 4 | NOVEMBER 2010 | www.nature.com/naturephotonics © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS TECHNOLOGY FOCUS Private viewing To minimize sticking, Tae and his colleague it passes through a microdisplay and is Opt. Express 18, 3143–3148 (2010) treated the MgO layer of a 50-inch, high- projected on a screen. Tatsuo Uchida and definition, alternating-current PDP with colleagues from Tohoku University, Japan, radiofrequency plasma. Experiments with performed experiments to determine