How can I improve the sunlight readability of my display?

1. Take your time to select the proper display for your application. Selecting the wrong display in the beginning of your project can lead to disasters further down the road. If you would like assistance in this area, contact one of our display specialists to get started in the right direction.

2. Use anti-reflective or anti-glare coatings on all surface areas, whenever possible. These will help bring to contrast ratio closer to it's original "dark-room" reading.

3. When applying a touchscreen, or other device in front of your LCD display, select the display with the highest transmissivity ratio among those that are durable enough to stand up to the application you product is designed for. Many manufacturers make resistive touchscreens with transmissivities as high as 92-95%, including: Fujitsu, Gunze, and ....

4. Work with a professional company, such as FPD Group, to do "behind-the-glass" enhancements -such as improved light guides, improved optical filters, etc. These enhancements often provide up to 40% increased transmissive brightness (and, in some rare cases, can even double the transmissivity of a display).

5. Make sure polarization of any devices in front of your LCD (such as a touch screen or various filters) are compatible with that of your LCD. Place the device in front of your LCD in direct sunlight and turn the device that lies in front. If the device yields a picture that is more sunlight readable when it is skewed from the way it is supposed to be placed to begin with, then you may need to switch touchscreens or ask your touchscreen manufacturer to adjust their touchscreen to be compatible with your display. Because of this, higher transmissivity touchscreens may not show as well in direct sunlight as those that are less transmissive, but are more properly aligned.

6. Have your display enhanced to be transflective, by FPD or other reputable companies -this process often integrates some of the steps mentioned earlier for best results.

7. If all else fails, look into "active enhancements" such as backlight replacement or (be very careful here) overdriving the backlights. For the best display, you may even want to use anti-reflective or anti-glare filters in conjunction with actively enhanced displays.

If that doesn't work, or if you'd like some help with any of the processes mentioned above, contact one of our display specialists here at FPD group...
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LCD, OLED, TFT, TTL, LVDS??? What's it all mean?

Backlight:
CCFL(CCFT): Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light/Tube
COB: Chip On Board
COF: Chip On FPC
COG: Chip On Glass
Component video:
Composite video:
CRT: Cathode Radial Tube
DPI: Dot Per Inch
Duty:
DVI: Digital Visual Interface
EL: Electro Luminescence
FSTN: Formulated Super Twisted Nematic
IC: Integrate Circuit
Inverter:
LCD: Liquid Crystal Display
LCM: Liquid Crystal Module
LED: Light Emitting Diode
LVDS: Low Voltage Differential Signaling
NTSC: National Television Systems
Committee:
OSD: On Screen Display
PAL: Phase Alternating Line
Panelink:
PCB: Printed Circuit Board
PDP: Plasma Display Panel
SECAM: SEquential Couleur Avec Memoire
STN: Super Twisted Nematic
S-video:
TCP: Tape Carrier Package
TFT: Thin Film Transistor
TMDS: Transition Minimized Differential
Signaling:
TN: Twisted Nematic
VGA: Video Graphic Array
VOD: Video On Demand
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Why are there lines going through the display?

Usually lines in the display are not a function of a problem with the display itself (though there are exceptions). The display serves only as a dumb terminal & displays what information it is given. Typical problems related to the display itself would be issues regarding colorization, color uniformity, light uniformity, or a cracked screen (where the image would be visably distorted around the cracked area of unstructured liquid crystal matter).

Color lines suggest that there is a mix-up in what the screen is being told to display. This usually happens when there is a problem related to interconnect cables (i.e. a cable is severed or not connected to the display or board) or the cables are improperly pinned-out. If a different version of a panel is being tested, it is quite possible that the associated pin-out would be different on this display. If the connector is the same, the pin-outs may (and often will) still be different. Of course, this may also run back to the board in which case a BIOS written specifically for this display may be needed (if the original BIOS does not support the new panel). In some cases, an IC on the display itself may have gone bad or one of the flex cables going into the display been severed, however, this is a much rarer situation.

Chances are that it's a cable issue -related to the cable connection or pin-out. Please review specifications of the old panel and compare them to the new panel in regards to the pin-out configuration.
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Mechanical Characteristics

Does the assembly of the LCD into a standard computer change with the use of this product?

No change to the assembly process. All mounting configurations, dimensions, and connector locations remain the same as on an un-enhanced display.
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Miscellaneous

How can you provide a futuristic looking display for entertainment use?

OLED & other potentially disruptive display technologies have been strongly pursuing an aspect of quasi-transparency. Movies such as "The Minority Report" did a fairly good job at depicting this. Unfortunately, a large size display using OLED or other non-LCD technologies can be quite costly to produce. As these displays are still in prototype form -and many years away from production, the cost can be upwards of $1 Million per display with a lead time of a year or longer. OLED technology, unlike LCD technology, does not use any type of backlight. Light is produced in various colors through chemical interactions (hence the name OLED or Organic Light Emitting Diodes). Non-active portions in TOLED displays, the quasi-transparent sister of OLED, would allow a user to see right through the display. There are, however, more cost effective ways of achieving a similar result.

Utilizing our trioLCD technology, we can mock this up-and-coming technology by modifying the latest state of the art LCD technology. To do this, we remove the back-end module assembly of an LCD display. What is left is a translucent piece of glass with two sides of TABs. This translucent glass will produce an image, however, without the proper lighting, the image will be very difficult to view. At this point, we will apply a film to the front of the display which will reduce glare & make the images sharper & easier to read. Then, we apply a series of paper-thin layers to the rear of the glass for accurate colorization and a level of reflectance. To picture this reflective aspect, think something analogous to a one-way mirror. This reflectivity vs. transmissivity level will be set at approximately 65% (R) to 35% (T), where (R) denotes reflectivity & (T) denotes the transmissive aspect. This level can be adjusted accordingly based on your preferences. The result will be a display that you can see right through -but also see beautiful, accurate imagery on the screen.
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Operation in harsh environments

Does this enhancement change the test methods or require additional functional review of quality or unit under test requirements?

While the materials used are to military grade specifications, you may want to conduct some of your own testing on the effects of temperature & humidity. We have not run into any problems in these area�s with any of our customers, however, our testing in this area has been limited.
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Production Life

What is the production life/obsolescence plan for trioLCD displays?

As trioLCD displays are based on transmissive displays from a large pool of well-known and widely available manufacturers, the answer can vary. We suggest you choose a base display (the tranmissive display that you would like made transflectively enhanced by the trioLCD process) on a model that you are confident will serve your needs both for the conditions that it will be put through as well as the lifetime support. Please visit our trioLCD General Info page to discover more about this process.

If you are looking for a display to stay around 3-5 years or more, we suggest looking at offerings from NEC or Sharp.
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Touchscreen Monitors

What options are available for sunlight readable touchscreen monitors?

Adding any additional layers in front of your LCD display is naturally going to reduce the ease of reading the display in a sunlit or other high ambient light environment. However, there are some measures that can be taken to reduce the degradation of image viewability & contrast that will occur with touchscreen devices.

FPD has seen promising results with various optically enhanced touchscreen devices, and are currently in the process of creating an entirely new design that we believe will make the resistive touchscreen viable in an environment that calls for sunlight readability. Other touchscreen devices that are well designed for similar environments include various models from Gunze and Fujitsu -although the lead times associated with the Fujitsu touchscreens can be quite long. In general, a touchscreen with a high transmissivity is preferred, but a design which minimizes reflection can sometimes yield better results even at a lower transmissivity.

In a kiosk terminal or high-traffic, public-use environment, capacitive or projected capacitance touchscreens are preferred. For smaller displays, many customers prefer to use a digitizer behind the LCD display with a piece of treated tempered glass in front of the display glass.

For more info or to discuss your project and specific needs with a display professional, please give us a call at 909.548.0020 or email us at sales@fpdgroup.com
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What types of touchscreens are available?

We can apply nearly any touchscreen type that you desire -including resistive, capacitive, surface wave acoustic, projected capacitance, infra-red, and ever a few others.

Our standard touchscreen monitors are provided with either a resistive or capacitive touchscreen.
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trioLCD Transflective Displays

Can you make my notebook/tablet PC transflective?

Absolutely. we routinely perform our trioLCD transflective enhancement services on rugged and semi-rugged notebooks as well as various business notebooks that companies would like their field reps to be able to use outdoors.
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Can you please provide a general overview of the trioLCD technology?

Our trioLCD technology is a passive enhancement/modification process applied to a standard transmissive LCD display. This process provides a fairly unique proposition in that it turns a normally transmissive display into one which can be used in outdoor applications as a transflective display without any change to the electrical or mechanical characteristics of the display.

We apply this technology to various transmissive displays including those from the manufacturers Sharp, NEC, Samsung, Quanta, Sanyo, Toshiba, CPT, Chi-Mei, Hannstar, LG, PVI, BOE/Hydis -and maybe a couple other manufacturers that may be skipping my mind. That being said, the trioLCD process works better with some screens than others. Generally, those using a PVA, MVA, or other wide viewing angle technology have not taken so kindly to our process as the tranmissivity of the displays are very low to start with (in the 3-5% range compared to that of a normal TN TFT LCD with a transmissivity around 7-10%).

We have had very good results with many of the NEC displays for 5.5" to 10.4", Sanyo/IMES/and sometimes LG in the 12.1 & 13.3" range, and Chi-Mei/CPT in the 15" category. However, every new model display that a manufacturer comes out with seems to have slightly different to completely different optical characteristics -so, the generalities from manufacturer to manufacturer could change with newer models.

Also, in addition to transflectivity, the trioLCD enhancement generally allows for 20-100% increased light throughput from the original backlights due to more efficient flow of light -again, we do not change any of the mechanical or electrical aspects of any of the displays.
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Can you recommend some displays to start with?

New displays come out pretty much every month -and some displays that worked great with our technology have since gone obsolete -so it's impossible to give a completely accurate response to the best display for you to use for your application.

In general, the overall rough breakdown for the best manufacturers display (best meaning that it takes well to our ehancements) are as follows:

By size:

5.5" -NEC
6.4-6.5" -NEC, followed by PVI, LG, and Sharp (respectively)
8.4" -NEC, followed by Toshiba and AU (respectively)
10.4" -LG, followed by NEC and Sharp (respectively)
12.1" -Hydis followed by Toshiba, Sanyo, and Samsung
15.1" -Chi-Mei & CPT
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Do the LCD polarizers have to be removed from the display?

Polarizers are sometimes changed, however, this is not always the case.
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Does the assembly of the LCD into a standard computer change with the use of this product?

No change to the assembly process. All mounting configurations, dimensions, and connector locations remain the same as on an un-enhanced display.
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Does this enhancement change the test methods or require additional functional review of quality or unit under test requirements?

While the materials used are to military grade specifications, you may want to conduct some of your own testing on the effects of temperature & humidity. We have not run into any problems in these area�s with any of our customers, however, our testing in this area has been limited.
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How do I order an evaluation/testing/sample display?

The procedure for getting these initial testing/eval units done is as follows:

1. Place the order through www.fpdgroup.com/samples.php

2. Send purchase order for eval unit (unfortunately, it makes for a little bit of double-work, but usually works out best in that it keeps accounting records straight for both parties) -please include the address to which we will be shipping the enhanced display to (most likely your address at your company)

3. Ship the LCD and related electronics (if available) to the address listed above.

4. We'll contact you as soon as we receive the LCD, verify the items that we have recieved, and confirm an estimated ETA (which will be less than 2 (two) weeks from when we receive the LCD from you.

If any additional questions come up in the meantime, please do not hesitate to shoot us a call at 909.548.0020
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How does the trioLCD process work?

TrioLCD displays take a standard transmissive display as you would normally purchase from a major manufacturer (such as Sharp, NEC, Samsung or others) and replaces the layers behind the glass with the proprietary trioLCD optical stack. Once replaced and optimized, the LCD display will not only provide strong reflective aspects for direct sunlight readability, but will also result in a dramatically increased luminescent output. Each display is painstakingly analyzed to determine critical optical characteristics to enhance to effectiveness of the trioLCD process.
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What are the ECO or form / fit / function change expectations?

Materials can be cut to any size display up to about 22 or 23.� It generally takes 2-3 weeks from the receipt of a new display to determine the best optical set up for the display to take advantage of the trioLCD technology. We cannot control the actual LCD manufacturers roadmap, however, we are very agile when it comes to working around sudden changes.
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What are the lead-times for the materials and the cycle times for the enhancement?

2-3 weeks for smaller orders, up to 4 weeks for 500 to 1,500 units. Larger orders can be discussed by the project.
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What are the minimum order quantities and lot size requirements?

Single unit orders are taken at FPD's Evaluation/Sample Unit order page.

As far as lot sizes go, 500 units a month or more will all be handled through US production, whereas larger orders (up to 20k/mo. to date) will be manufactured and shipped directly from our facilities in Taiwan -which is likely closer to your OEM/ODM/EMS provider at that level.
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What is the warranty support on the enhancement?

1 year warranty from us. No support currently from LCD manufacturer.
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What is trioLCD?

trioLCD is a novel new display technology that creates of some of the most efficient flat panel displays in the active matrix TFT LCD realm. TrioLCD is readable in any condition of ambient light, including direct sunlight, yet utilizes about the same power as your typical notebook or monitor LCD display. The general theory behind trioLCD is nothing new in and of itself. TrioLCD is a type of transflective display, however, the trioLCD transflective technology sets a new standard for what is to be expected from a display providing the benefits of both a transmissive & a reflective display. Readability in all conditions of ambient light, a wide viewing cone, accurate colorization, and excellent contrast are all maintained with trioLCD and all without compromising power consumption concerns or creating significant additional heat.
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What LCD specifications does the current LCD enhancement process change or deviate?

Increased brightness, increased contrast and a slight add-on to weight. Mechanical & electrical characteristics remain the same as before the enhancement/modification.
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What user instruction requirements exist or limitations does this enhancement provide?

The process may put additional requirements on what touchscreen may be integrated. Also, �smudging� is very common with the trioLCD enhanced displays (as with any display that will have a polished A/R coating on front). Users may have to clean these displays more often.
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Will this work on all TFT LCD displays

Each LCD has different optical characteristics, which will affect how well the display will be able to utilize the benefits that trioLCD technology has to offer. Many of the new, ultra-wide viewing angle technologies (such as MVA, PVA, ASV, IPS, etc.) greatly reduce the transmissivity of the display. Displays utilizing these technologies will often have less than spectacular results when combined with our technology due to this drastic decrease in transmissivity. Those listed in our standard line have generally turned out excellent when combined with trioLCD technology in relation to hundreds of other LCD panels that we have tested.
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Use with Touchscreens

How will the trioLCD technology work when a touchscreen or vandal-resistant shield is placed in front of it?

As you place that coated plexiglass shield in front of the display, transmissivity will be reduced which would likely have a less than positive effect on the reflective aspect of the display. If you've got a piece of plexiglass around, you may want to place this in front of the display to get a rough estimate of how this turn out. I think you'll be happy with the display either way, but if you have a piece of plexiglass lying around, you may want to test this out while you have the sample in front of you.

If you've got any tech questions, feel free to call....
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How would the trioLCD displays be affected by the inclusion of a touchscreen?
As with any transflective display, performance will be hindered in relation to the level of tranmissivity (or lack thereof) from any devices in front of the screen. Light would be blocked twice -once coming in, and a second time coming out. There are resistive screens on the market now that are near 95% transmissivity. A touchscreen with a similarly high transmissivity would be preferable to reduce the level of light loss. Also, please keep in mind that depending on the touchscreen chosen, there may be a "mirroring" effect which would also be bothersome to a transflective display. To overcome this, please be careful to select a touchscreen with an anti-reflective coating built in (anti-glare doesn't work quite a well).
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What user instruction requirements exist or limitations does this enhancement provide?

The process may put additional requirements on what touchscreen may be integrated. Also, �smudging� is very common with the trioLCD enhanced displays (as with any display that will have a polished A/R coating on front). Users may have to clean these displays more often.
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