Sharp Develops 3D Touchscreen LCD – Switchable Between 2D and 3D Modes – with Industry’s Highest Brightness
Osaka, Apr 02, 2010 (JCN Newswire via COMTEX) — Sharp Corporation has developed a 3D touchscreen LCD featuring the industry’s highest(1) brightness that can switch between 2D and 3D modes. Users can view 3D images without the need to wear special glasses, making this LCD ideal for mobile devices such as digital cameras, mobile phones, and smartphones.
The newly developed 3D LCD uses a parallax barrier system to display 3D images. This parallax barrier, which has a series of vertical slits, is incorporated into an ordinary LCD to control the path of light reaching the right and left eyes, thus creating a sense of depth. However, the conventional 3D LCD with this system had difficulty in displaying high quality images in 3D mode.
The 3D LCD developed by Sharp at this time significantly improves image quality by achieving both high brightness and low crosstalk(2) thanks to advances in CG-Silicon technology(3) and optimization of the parallax barrier. Advances in CG-Silicon technology have shrunk the wiring width within the LCD panel, allowing more light to pass and doubling the brightness (to 500 cd/m2, the industry’s highest) compared to the conventional model(4).
In addition, optimizing the parallax barrier design has increased the efficiency of light, thereby dramatically reducing crosstalk. Also, the thickness of the LCD module is about the same as conventional 2D displays even though it is a touchscreen display. As 3D images can be displayed in both portrait and landscape screen orientations, it is ideal for sophisticated mobile devices such as smartphones.
Sharp has also developed a non-touchscreen 3D LCD and will start its mass production in the first half of fiscal 2010.
Conventional 3D
Screen size 2.4 inches
Screen resolution (pixels) QVGA (240 x 320 pixels)
Brightness (2D mode) 250 cd/m2
Contrast ratio 100:1
Touchscreen function Without touchscreen
Newly Developed 3D LCD
Screen size 3.4 inches
Screen resolution (pixels) FWVGA (480 x 854 pixels)
Brightness (2D mode) 500 cd/m2
Contrast ratio 1000:1
Touchscreen function With touchscreen / without touchscreen
Difference from conventional 3D LCD
Screen size —
Screen resolution (pixels) Approx. double in both horizontal and
vertical resolution
Brightness (2D mode) Approx. double
Contrast ratio Approx. 10 times greater
Touchscreen function–
(1) As of April 2, 2010, for 3D LCD modules for mass-produced mobile devices.
(2) Double images created by overlapping of left and right images.
(3) CG-Silicon technology is an LCD process technology that uses high-performance, crystalline silicon with electron mobility up to 600 times faster than ordinary amorphous silicon and up to six times faster than lowtemperature polysilicon. Developed jointly by Sharp and Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. (head office: Atsugi-shi, Kanagawa, Japan; Shunpei Yamazaki, President).
(4) LCD that Sharp began mass-producing in June 2003.
About Sharp
Sharp Corporation (TSE: 6753) is a worldwide developer of innovative products and core technologies that play a key role in shaping the future of electronics. As a leader in liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and digital technologies, Sharp offers one of the broadest and most advanced lines of consumer electronics, information products and electronic components, while also creating new network businesses.