The Society for Information Display (SID) revealed the winners of the 21st annual Display Industry Awards, which will be presented Wednesday, May 25. The special awards luncheon is a much-anticipated part of Display Week, to be held this year at San Francisco's Moscone Center, May 22-27.
“As usual, we had a highly competitive field of nominees for the Display Industry Awards,” said outgoing SID President Amal Ghosh. “This year, one thing is clear: 'thin' is truly in. OLED displays are delivering on their promise and being designed into major new, mainstream products, including advanced laptops and smart watches. In addition, new glass and polarizer fabrication techniques are helping bring ultra-thin displays for TVs and other applications to market more quickly. It's also notable that our two winners in the Displays of the Year category each involve an industry-first capability never before applied in mainstream display. We fully expect that these innovations will become adopted by other display products In the future.”
Displays of the Year: Granted to display products that offer the most significant technological advances and/or outstanding features.
Apple iPad Pro 12.9-in. display with variable refresh rate
The iPad Pro from Apple features a 12.9-in. diagonal display that incorporates an oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) backplane to ensure fast pixel charging and greater brightness uniformity. The 5.6-million-pixel, 264-ppi display is the first in a mainstream product to feature content-dependent variable refresh rate (VRR). Utilizing this power-saving capability, the iPad Pro performs a refresh only when the content on the screen is moving, cutting the display's refresh rate from 60 to 30 times per second during periods when the content is static.
The display's ultra-low reflectivity is enabled by a combination of advanced anti-reflection coating on the cover glass surface and optical bonding between the display, cover glass and touch sensor. Apple projects that the display's degree of success will help escalate the industry's shift to oxide TFTs from amorphous silicon.
Japan Display 17.3-in. 8K x 4K LTPS TFT-LCD module
Created by Japan Display, this display product is the world's first 17.3-in. LCD module with 7680 x 4320 resolution and a frame rate of 120 Hz, enabling smooth playback of moving imagery. The module is based on low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) technology, with 8K pixels in an RGB stripe arrangement, and delivers high-definition images (510 ppi). Other features that optimize lifelike, immersive 8K imagery include a wide viewing angle, high contrast, minimal color shift, in-plane switching (IPS) technology and high pixel density.
The module's 17.3-in. size is standard for monitors, and its 8K technology is well suited for video image production, as well as for applications including gaming and medical that require high resolution and depth of image quality. JDI's innovation is timely, given the anticipated growth of 8K broadcasting in Japan.
Display Components of the Year: Granted for novel components that have significantly enhanced a display's performance. A component may be sold as a separate part slated for incorporation into a display. It may also include display-enhancing materials and/or parts fabricated with new processes.
Asahi Glass XCV glass substrate for a light-guide plate
The new XCV glass substrate from Asahi Glass Co. (AGC) was developed to deliver significant improvements over conventional light-guide plates (LGPs) made from acrylic resin. Its 20X greater stiffness and much lowered coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) enable TVs to be manufactured to a thickness as small as 5 mm. Additionally, it is resistant to heat and moisture, making TVs with narrower bezel along with ensuring better reliability over time.
Based on the edge-lit method, LGPs transmit and diffuse light from LEDs placed at a screen's edges. XCV is better suited to this purpose than other glass materials because it offers the high transmittance needed to assure bright displays. AGC mass-produces XCV by the extra-efficient float process, and is now able to supply the glass with printed dot patterns, which maximizes XCV's performance and helps manufacturers adopt the glass LGP more easily.
Corning Iris Glass light-guide plate
Constantly seeking for ways to enable thinner displays–Corning created Iris Glass, which pairs their proprietary fusion process with an ultra-pure glass composition. This combination achieves optical performance that matches best-in-class materials and delivers high transmission and low color shift.
In addition, Corning Iris Glass delivers high dimensional stability – essential for ultra-slim displays and not achievable by polymer LGPs, which exhibit warping and expansion when exposed to heat and humidity. By replacing polymer LGPs with Corning Iris glass, display manufacturers can produce LCD TVs less than 5-mm thick. These ultra-slim displays will help brands continue to meet the consumer demand for thinner and sleeker devices.
Nitto Denko ultra-thin polarizer
Nitto's ultra-thin polarizer possesses high optical properties and exhibits low shrinkage. Polarizing films are optical films consisting of a polarizer and protection films. Because the film determines the optical properties, it's one of a display's most important components.
However, the stretching process involved in manufacturing the polarizer can create problems later on with shrinkage, which can lead to panel bending, display distortion and dimensional variance. Nitto tackled this problem by developing this new polarizer, which, at 5 microns, is about 80 percent thinner than standard polarizers made from polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film, yet exhibits comparable optical properties. It has low shrinkage force, rarely causes display distortion and 60 percent less dimensional variance after heating.
Display Applications of the Year: Granted for novel and outstanding applications of a display, where the display itself is not necessarily a new device.
Apple Watch with plastic retina display
The Retina display integrated into the Apple Watch is built on a 326-ppi flexible OLED, the emissive properties of which also enable power-saving capabilities. Edge-folding of the substrate to a sub-millimeter radius allows the display to occupy a maximum, symmetric portion of the watch face.
The OLED display of the Apple Watch, which is available in 1.34- and 1.54-in. sizes, allows for clear representation of such images as the sweeping second hand of a traditional watch, and thanks to its deep contrast, the user interface is blended seamlessly into the physical product. Moreover, each display is calibrated to produce an industry-standard color gamut that ensures the Apple Watch and the user's paired iPhone exhibit a matched appearance.
Microsoft Surface Book laptop computer
The Microsoft Surface Book laptop features a 13.5-in. PixelSense display. Designed for optimal image quality with both touch and pen input, the display is integrated into the Surface Book's detachable screen that can be used like a clipboard. With 3000 x 2000 resolution, the 6-million-pixel, 267-ppi display allows users to see smooth images with no pixilation, even up close. Its contrast ratio of 1700:1 makes reading easier and provides for brilliant colors.
Multi-touch capability and the Surface Pen also distinguish Surface Book from other high-end laptops, while the display's pressure sensitivity and reduced latency are intended to help make writing or drawing on the screen feel as natural as using a pen and paper.
About the DIA Awards
Products considered for 2016 Display Industry Awards had to be available for purchase during the 2015 calendar year. The seven winners, across three categories, were chosen by a distinguished panel of industry experts who evaluated the nominees for their degree of technical innovation, commercial significance and potential for positive social impact. A more comprehensive description of the award winners can be found in the Display Week 2016 Show Issue of Information Display magazine and at www.informationdisplay.org.
About Display Week 2016
The 53rd SID International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition, or Display Week 2016, will take place May 22-27 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, Calif. Display Week is the premier gathering of system integrators, designers, consumers, scientists, engineers and manufacturers in the field of electronic information displays. For more information on Display Week 2016, visit www.displayweek.org or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter @DisplayWeek. Display Week tweets can be created, viewed and shared using the hashtag #DisplayWeek16.
About SID
The Society for Information Display (SID) is the only professional organization focused on the display industry. In fact, by exclusively focusing on the advancement of electronic display technology, SID provides a unique platform for industry collaboration, communication and training in all related technologies while showcasing the industry's best new products. The organization's members are professionals in the technical and business disciplines that relate to display research, design, manufacturing, applications, marketing and sales. To promote industry and academic technology development, while also educating consumers on the importance of displays, SID hosts more than 10 conferences a year, including Display Week, which brings industry and academia all under one roof to showcase technology that will shape the future. SID's global headquarters are located at 1475 S. Bascom Ave., Ste. 114, Campbell, CA 95008. For more information, visit www.sid.org.
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