Display Technology
Display specification gets in shape
Isn’t it odd that, despite the huge diversity of display options available, they are all still roughly the same shape? Most displays on the market are on 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios, which are a legacy of TVs and computer monitors and aren’t designed for the clear and effective presentation of information on a dashboard, instrument panel or other user interface. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Mike Logan, display and input technology manager and Paul Hooper, European sales manager, andersDX explains
F Size matters
irst off, you need to specify the size of your display and don’t be constrained by the limited catalogue options that major display manufacturers offer. Instead, grab a blank sheet of paper and think about what would be the ideal size of the display within your product. Incorporate into your thinking the end user and visualise yourself interacting with the display as if the paper were the screen. If you choose the right supplier, you will be able to get the exact size of display for the purpose at a price that is affordable. Manufacturers that offer an extensive catalogue will often build their standard display range to order so there aren’t actually any economies of scale. Speaking of price, don’t assume that a
standard product is always the most cost effective; a semi-custom display can often work out the best option. In many cases we are able to cut a display to size which
can avoid the situation where you need to increase the size of the case to accommodate the display. A large display can carry extra cost to buy, ship and store, plus often has a higher power consumption. We can cut down standard 2.8”, 4.3”, 7” and 10.1” TFT displays to a specified height, and add touch control, FPCs and a backlight to their specification. The initial NRE (non-recurring engineering) cost is less than one-tenth the normal upfront charge – which is usually much cheaper than redesigning the case to accommodate a larger display. Customers can add touch control, FPCs and a backlight as needed. Since its launch on the smallest display sizes, our semi-custom service has been hugely popular, allowing many customers to transform their system with a colour display instead of a mono character unit. Of course, the display market is wise to the demand for new and interesting shaped displays and we have recently launched a high performance 16:6 aspect ratio 12.3 inch letterbox IPS TFT Display allowing designers for dashboards and instrument panels. It provides a high contrast image that can be easily viewed over a wide angle even in bright sunlight and unfavourable conditions.
Figure 2: Decide what size and shape you want and then find a supplier that offers an economic solution. Even round displays like this can be affordable
26 September 2017
Don’t be square We are seeing a growth in the wearable electronics market, especially in the healthcare and fitness sectors where devices measure our every move, heartbeat and more. With the staple wrist watch familiar to most, it’s no wonder we are seeing a design shift to circular displays. From our recently added a round AMOLED display to our PMOLED and circular TFT modules, there is no excuse not to consider a circular option should it make sense for your application. The new colour AMOLED display module is 1.3” in diameter, but can be customised to suit the individual application. It features a 360(RGB) × 360 dot matrix display with a
Components in Electronics
Figure 1: Specifying standard displays can be risky. Customers using standard 2.8” QVGA displays like this were caught out when market demand dropped - but a semi custom solution from andersDX offered an economic way out
brightness of 350 cd/m2. The module is just 0.6mm thick and has a rated operating temperature of -20° to 60°C. Through our relationship with Guangdong based Truly Semiconductors, we have been able to expand our offering to include round TFT touch screens, attractively priced for low volume production runs including a 1.13” diameter Passive Matrix OLED TFT.
Don’t discount the mono option Up to now, we have assumed that the reader is going with a colour display, but despite the arrival of new and apparently more attractive display technologies, mono character modules remain popular, and continue to be designed into new projects. An enduring attraction is that design-in is typically less challenging than for a TFT-LCD, especially with the help of a specialist distribution partner, to help even the most resource-constrained projects achieve a high-quality end result. Segment display technology continues to evolve and now benefits from exciting new developments including versatile colour modes, embedded touch sensing, and sharper, crisper viewing performance. Today, designers can explore many new avenues to communicate more intuitive and deliver memorable user experiences without moving to a full graphical display. Mono doesn’t need to be boring by a long shot. Among the new technologies now transforming established views of the segment display, bi-colour and field-
sequential displays enable designers to utilise colour more extensively than ever before to make their user interfaces clearer, or easier to understand. Bi-colour displays give the opportunity to break the traditional limitation of one colour backgrounds or one colour segments. This allows the display to be adapted instantaneously to communicate special status, such as red for danger, green for “ok” or ready. The backlight can be RGB and selected dynamically to produce several shades of colours.
The field-sequential display gives even
more flexible options for colour-coding the user-interface modes by enabling dynamically reconfigurable RGB display segments: Choosing from a palette of eight preset colours. It is true that an optical filter is able to produce a similar effect, but the new field-sequential displays give colour- change capability that the optical filter cannot equal.
Conclusion
In conclusion, although standard modules are available, be demanding. Run your UI on a selection of pre-integrated platforms early in the design process to get an idea of size, resolution and screen performance. Then find a supplier that offers flexibility and can work with you to deliver the best shape of display for your application. There is absolutely no need to accept the constraints of a standard product range.
www.andersdx.com www.cieonline.co.uk
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