Do we need a replacement to LCDs? First, let’s recognize the display industry in particular has a "grass is always greener" mentality, precisely because we are talking about how to display greener (more realistic) grass… even in 3D, so the discussion is a natural one.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

To be sure, LCDs have come a very long way from the monochrome low-resolution panels of yesteryear (remember amber laptop displays from Toshiba and others in the early 90’s?) On practically every front, LCDs have made significant strides and refinements; power, thickness, brightness, contrast, color saturation… the list continues. It’s a moving target for any display rival coming down the pipe.

But what would be the natural path of evolution for LCDs, now considered a relatively "mature" technology, in spite of all the recent improvements. By some accounts, LCDs take over one hundred processing steps and use up to 30 separate layers of material (albeit very thin films) to achieve the brilliant images-on the now ultra thin panels. Reduced complexity is perhaps the key to reducing cost, power and evolving the technology to the next level.

OLEDs are a less complex technology to be sure, but they still have materials lifetime issues, particularly in the blue color. What has been asserted of late is a relatively new technology (we’ve covered since 2007) called TMOS. It’s interesting because, it leverages the existing LCD fab infrastructure, and significantly reduces complexity in manufacturing by moving from "spatial additive color" the sub-pixel process LCDs use, to a "temporal additive color" approach using time to differentiate varied hues and shades of each red green and blue light output.

The company claims it needs just six layers and far fewer manufacturing steps, and the front plane can move to a very efficient roll-to-roll process. TMOS is the brainchild of UniPixel, and we did a couple of extensive write-ups on the technology in past Large Display Reports going back to 2007. Most recently our coverage includes the Samsung’s joint development agreement with the company (Feb-09) and a FlexTech alliance to support roll-to-roll conductor patterning capabilities (July-09).

There are power and other display benefits over LCD as well. Here’s how Insight Media describes TMOS in the most recent 2009 Green Display Report: "UniPixel’s states that their TMOS display technology is targeted to leverage a subset of the current LCD manufacturing process, offering the potential of lowering the bill of materials manufacturing costs by as much as 60% in some cases, while improving performance characteristics including lowering power consumption and increasing brightness over existing LCD and OLED flat panel display technologies."

And that’s just the point. Given the investment in existing LCD fab and equipment, perhaps the next generation technology will be more of an evolution, "a subset of the current LCD manufacturing process" rather than an outright technology revolution. If this is the case, TMOS may just fit the bill. Anyway Samsung isn’t taking any chances.- Steve Sechrist