Comparison of display technology

This is a comparison of various properties of different display technologies.

General characteristics

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Display technology Screen shape Largest known diagonal Typical use Usable in bright room
(in) (cm)
Eidophor front projection Flat (limited only by brightness) TV No
Shadow mask CRT Spherical curve or flat 42[1] 107 TV, computer monitor Yes
Aperture grille CRT Cylindrical curve or flat 42[2] 107 TV, computer monitor Yes
Monochrome CRT Spherical curve or flat 30[3] 76 TV, computer monitor,
radar display, oscilloscope
Yes
Direct view Charactron CRT Spherical curve 24 61 Computer monitor,
radar display
No
CRT self-contained rear-projection Flat lenticular 80[4] 203 TV Yes
CRT front projection Flat (limited only by brightness) TV or presentation No
Plasma display panel (PDP) Flat 152[5] 386 TV, computer monitor
(In some early "portable" computers. They required too much power for battery-powered laptops)[6][7][8][9]
Partial
Direct view LCD Flat 110[10] 274 TV, computer monitor Yes
LCD self-contained rear-projection Flat lenticular 70[11] 178 TV Yes
LCD front-projection Flat (limited only by brightness) TV or presentation Yes
DLP self-contained rear-projection Flat lenticular 120[12] 305 TV Yes
DLP front-projection Flat (limited only by brightness) TV or presentation Yes
LCoS self-contained rear-projection Flat 110[13] 279 TV Yes
LCoS front-projection Flat (limited only by brightness) TV or presentation Yes
Laser self-contained rear projection Flat lenticular 75[14] 191 TV Yes
LED Flat 279.92[15] 711 Billboards, TV Yes
SED Flat 55[16] 140 Computer monitor, TV Yes
FED Flat ? ? Computer monitor, TV Yes
EPD (e-paper) Flat (flexible) ? ? Electronic paper Yes
OLED Any, but most commonly flat rectangular with or without rounded edges, notch(es) and holes, circular, or curved (flexible)[17] 88[18] 223.52 Computer monitor, TV, Mobile phone Yes
'LED' LCD Flat rectangular, circular, semi circle 98 249 TV, computer monitor Yes
'QLED' LCD Curved or flat 98 249 TV, computer monitor Yes
Telescopic pixel display
Ferroelectric LCD
'mLED' LED Curved or flat ?? ?? Mobile phones, wearable electronics, VR displays, smartwatches, optical instruments, AR displays Yes
QDLED[19][20][21][22] Yes
IMOD Flat 1.2[23] 3 Mobile phone[24] Yes
Laser Phosphor Display (LPD) Flat / Box 196 497.8 Presentation Yes
Virtual retinal display Any shape Experimental, possibly
virtual reality
Depends
on system

Major technologies are CRT, LCD and its derivatives (Quantum dot display, LED backlit LCD, WLCD, OLCD), Plasma, and OLED and its derivatives (Transparent OLED, PMOLED, AMOLED). An emerging technology is Micro LED. Cancelled and now obsolete technologies are SED and FED.

Temporal characteristics

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Different display technologies have vastly different temporal characteristics, leading to perceptual differences of motion, flicker, etc.

Sketch of some common display technologies' temporal behaviour
Sketch of some common display technologies' temporal behaviour

The figure shows a sketch of how different technologies present a single white/grey frame. Time and intensity is not to scale. Notice that some have a fixed intensity, while the illuminated period is variable. This is a kind of pulse-width modulation. Others can vary the actual intensity in response to the input signal.

  • Single-chip DLPs use a kind of "chromatic multiplexing" in which each color is presented serially. The intensity is varied by modulating the "on" time of each pixel within the time-span of one color. Multi-chip DLPs are not represented in this sketch, but would have a curve identical to the plasma display.
  • LCDs have a constant (backlit) image, where the intensity is varied by blocking the light shining through the panel.
  • CRTs use an electron beam, scanning the display, flashing a lit image. If interlacing is used, a single full-resolution image results in two "flashes". The physical properties of the phosphor are responsible for the rise and decay curves.
  • Plasma displays modulate the "on" time of each sub-pixel, similar to DLP.
  • Movie theaters use a mechanical shutter to illuminate the same frame 2 or 3 times, increasing the flicker frequency to make it less perceptible to the human eye.

Research

[edit]

Researchers announced a display that uses silicon metasurface pixels that do not require polarized light and require half the energy. It employs a transparent conductive oxide as a heater that can quickly change the pixels. The pixels are 100 times thinner than liquid crystal. Response times are under 1 millisecond. They claim that the metasurface array could replace the liquid crystal layer in today's displays, eliminating the need for production technology.[25]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "DEAD MITSUBISHI 40-INCH TV. help!! - ecoustics.com".
  2. ^ "Aperture grille CRT" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
  3. ^ "Monochrome CRT". Archived from the original on 2009-10-09.
  4. ^ "Self-contained Rear Projection CRT". Archived from the original on 2008-10-31. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  5. ^ "Panasonic Develops World's Largest 152-Inch Full HD 3D Plasma Display - Headquarters News - Panasonic Newsroom Global". Archived from the original on 2010-01-10. Retrieved 2010-01-08.
  6. ^ "Gas Plasma Screen - Compaq Portable 386". December 19, 2018.
  7. ^ "Compaq Portable 386 - Computer - Computing History". www.computinghistory.org.uk.
  8. ^ "Toshiba T3100/20 - Computer - Computing History". www.computinghistory.org.uk.
  9. ^ "T-5100-Computer Museum". museum.ipsj.or.jp.
  10. ^ "Samsung's 110-inch 4K TV to cost US$150,000".
  11. ^ "LCD Rear Projection". Archived from the original on 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
  12. ^ Casamassina, Matt (8 January 2007). "CES 2007: Optoma's $50k 120-inch Set".
  13. ^ "JVC Develops 110-inch".
  14. ^ "Mitsubishi Electric LaserVue® - Products". Archived from the original on 2009-08-25. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
  15. ^ "Largest LED 3D TV".
  16. ^ "55-inch SED HDTVs on the way in '08".
  17. ^ LG Global (7 January 2015). "CES 2015 LG - Perfect Black, Perfect Color : Only in LG OLED TV". Archived from the original on 2015-01-08 – via YouTube.
  18. ^ "LG SIGNATURE Z9 88 inch Class 8K Smart OLED TV w/AI ThinQ® (87.6 Diag) (OLED88Z9PUA)". LG USA.
  19. ^ "Quantum Dots QDTV Displays from Nanoco Technologies". Archived from the original on 2009-07-14. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
  20. ^ "Nevada Nanotechnology Center - Research".
  21. ^ Gache, Gabriel (10 December 2007). "LED's Outpower QDLED's".
  22. ^ "Ocean NanoTech research in QDLEDs". Archived from the original on 2009-04-29. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
  23. ^ "Wireless Technology & Innovation - Mobile Technology - Qualcomm" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-11.
  24. ^ "IMOD" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-03-09.
  25. ^ Ridden, Paul (2023-02-23). "Meta-display concept could retire LCD panels in big-screen TVs". New Atlas. Retrieved 2023-02-23.