The displays combine the technology of Sharp's Advanced Super View LCDs, used in the company's flat-panel TVs and desktop monitors, with the TFT technology of its transflective LCDs for portable products.

The displays support viewing angles of up to 160° both vertically and horizontally, compared with the typical 110° vertical and 140° horizontal of other mobile LCDs, according to Sharp.

"People are trying to do more with handheld products," said Joel Pollack, vice president of the displays business unit for Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas Inc., the Camas, Wash., subsidiary of the Japanese parent. "They want to use the LCD in portrait mode," he said, noting that the new display's symmetric viewing cone makes it equally suited for use in portrait mode to show graphics and landscape mode to show video.

Achieving the viewing characteristics of larger LCDs in a smaller size is not easy, said Pollack, because "you have to worry about throughput."

To help overcome potential yield issues, Sharp produced the new display with a black rather than a white background. This minimizes bright pixel defects resulting from nonfunctional transistors often visible on a white display, Pollack said.

Sharp expects to eventually convert all its new portable LCDs to the new technology, as it attempts to capture OEM design-ins in the small-LCD market for high-resolution color screens.

iSuppli/Stanford Resources projects the market for color LCDs in PDAs and cell phones will grow from 14 million and 533 million units this year to 24 million and 770 million units in 2006. The Santa Clara, Calif., research firm expects color LCDs to be placed in 50% of all cell phones and PDAs by next year.

The displays will be made in diagonal sizes of 1.5, 2.4, 4, and 6.5 in., with resolution as high as 640 ¥ 480 pixels.

Sharp said that it will sample the displays in December, and begin volume production next spring at several plants in Japan.

By: DocMemory
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