Yesterday, Shinoda Plasma Company (SHIPLA; Kobe, Japan; www.shi-pla.com) introduced its flexible Plasma Tube Array (PTA) display at Flat Panel Display International, the large annual vertical display trade show that is being held here through tomorrow. Tsutae Shinoda, President and Chairman of the company, told me this was the first public demonstration of the display (this is not really true as it was shown at a press conference in Las Vegas earlier in the year, as reported in our June issue of Large Display Report).

Ken Werner
Senior Analyst and Editor

The prototype being shown is a module 3 meters wide by 1 meter high (125-inch diagonal). The module consists of thin (approximately 1mm diameter) vertical tubes that carry the gas and phosphors. The tubes are mounted on flexible film, which also carry conductors. Since the tubes are vertical in the prototype, the display can be curved horizontally to a radius of 3 meters. The pixel format of the 3-by1-meter module is 960 horizontally by 360 vertically. "Panel" thickness is 1mm and the module weighs just 3.6kg! That’s right.
The display film weighs just 1.2 kg/m². Power consumption of the module is 600W maximum; 400W typical. SHIPLA is initially aiming the display at digital signage applications, and the flexibility and light weight of the display will enable new applications and will make digital signage possible in previously inaccessible locations.

Displays are available for sale to system makers now, and the first product, from Fujitsu Frontech, should appear in Spring 2009.

Dr. Tsutae Shinoda is a legendary figure in the plasma display industry. Working for Fujitsu, he was a key developer of the modern color plasma display. When he retired from Fujitsu several years ago, Shinoda created Shinoda Plasma Company. The development of the PTA display technology to prototype stage has been remarkably rapid, which will add, even more to Shinoda’s reputation.

Early in the development of plasma display technology, it was realized that the working gas could be contained between glass plates, in tubes, or in microspheres. The plate approach is the one that took off, of course. That technology now produces images of extremely high quality, but these panels are not bendable, and the weight of a large plasma panel is relatively high. The PTA approach elegantly solves the rigidity and weight issues. Some resolution is sacrificed, but the resolution of the prototype is effective and appropriate for the intended application.

Shinoda gave a presentation at 11:00am on Wednesday in a theater set up in one corner of the show floor. The crowd was standing room only.