Symposium Preview

Plan your visit to Display Week 2011 with an advance look at some of the most exciting developments that will be revealed in this year's display-technology sessions.

by Jenny Donelan

THE PAPERS that will be presented at the Society for Information Display's annual Symposium at Display Week 2011 in Los Angeles, California, May 17–20, represent cutting-edge research, ingenious manufacturing ideas, and brilliant solutions to ongoing design problems. The Symposium is an un-paralleled opportunity to learn what researchers have just learned themselves and to share knowledge and information with the rest of the international electronic-display community.

"At this very moment, the display industry is experiencing a drastic technological transition, primarily driven by mobile-display requirements for superior image quality, ultra-high resolution, and a touch interface. Many SID 2011 technical symposium presentations will cover the exciting advancements in this space," says Display Week 2011 Program Chair John Zhong.

The following is a list of session highlights by subcommittee, which includes active-matrix devices, applications, applied vision, display electronics, display manufacturing, display measurement, display systems, emissive displays, flexible displays, liquid-crystal technology, OLEDs, projection, and touch and interactivity. In addition to these session topics, the Society for Information Display has also designated special topics of interest for Display Week 2011. These are green technology, 3-D, and solid-state lighting.

Whatever you do, be sure to catch some of these sessions at Display Week. The Technical Symposium is the heart of SID's annual event, where everyone gets to share and learn about the amazing discoveries and advances made in our industry during the past year. See you in Los Angeles!

Active-Matrix Devices: Oxide Conductors Keep Gaining Ground

Two years ago, the idea of oxide semiconductors replacing silicon semiconductors was a novel one. Last year, the idea had clearly gained traction, with several active-matrix papers dedicated to the subject. In 2011, two of the seven active-matrix sessions, Oxide TFTs I and Oxide TFTs II, consisting of a total of nine papers, are devoted solely to this technology. Among the highlights in oxide-TFT presentations is the distinguished paper, "Novel Self-Aligned Top-Gate Oxide TFT for AMOLED Display," by Narihiro Morosawa from Sony Corp., which describes how a 9.9-in.-diagonal qHD AMOLED display could serve as a large-sized and ultra-high-definition OLED for mass production. Other papers of interest in this area include "Metal-Oxide TFT with High Performance and Operation Stability," by Gang Yu of CBRITE, Inc., and "An Ambipolar Oxide TFT," by Hideo Hosono of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. (Note: Dr. Hosono is being honored with SID's 2011 Jan Rajchman Prize for outstanding achievements in flat-panel displays.)

Other active-matrix sessions include Mobile Display Technology, AMOLEDs and AMLCDs, AMOLED Driving, 3-D TV: OLED, and Low-Power Active-Matrix Alternatives. One paper of note in the mobile space is "Turning Points in Mobile-Display Development," by Hiroyuki Ohshima from Chimei Innlux Corp., which examines how recent shifts to larger sizes, higher resolutions (>300 ppi), wider viewing angles, higher contrast, and integration with touch functionality have all caused major changes in mobile-display architecture and technology.

Applications: Near-to-Eye and Head-Worn Displays Evolve

The Applications area is a bit of a "grab bag," as subcommittee chair Jyrki Kimmel puts it, but this diversity is one reason why these presentations are so stimulating. The technologies range from holographic displays to head-worn displays to a zoomable LED spotlight. The other exciting aspect of applications, the common thread that pulls them all together, is that they represent a real-world use or a product-based manifestation of a technology that has usually spent many years at the research stage. One such example from these sessions is "Quantum-Dot LEDs for Near-to-Eye and Direct-View Display Applications," by Seth Coe-Sullivan from QD Vision, Inc. This paper reports on the development of actual working prototypes with QLEDs for near-to-eye and direct-view display applications. As the author remarks in his introduction of the invited paper, "…while most [quantum-dot] literature reports focus on the performance of individual test pixels, examples of working display prototypes have been sorely lacking."

Another invited paper from this year's Near-to-Eye and Head-Worn Display Applications session is "Image-Source Evaluation and Selection for Rugged Near-to-Eye Displays," by James Melzer of Rockwell-Collins Optronics, which discusses the special and more stringent requirements for near-to-eye or head-mounted displays worn by soldiers, firefighters, or other first responders who work in extreme conditions. Far-ranging papers of note from other sessions include "Creative Integration of Micro-Tiles in Tiled Display Applications," by Delia Zsivanov of Christie Digital, Inc., and "A 360° Panoramic Stereoscopic Projection System for Using a Single Projector and a Related 3D Panoramic Camera System," by David Montgomery from Sharp Laboratories of Europe.

Applied Vision: Adding the Human Factor to Displays

Of the five senses, vision obviously relates most closely to displays. Human perception of display imagery, including color, luminance,etc., key to the success or failure of any display application, yet agreed-upon standards for such perceptions are still the subject of research. One paper that tackles this issue is the invited, "The Effect of Surround on Color and Image Appearance," by Ronnier Luo from the University of Leeds. Luo's research seeks to provide definitions for "surround" and examines how changes in surrounding conditions can affect perceptions of color and image appearance in displays. The distinguished paper, "Appropriate Luminance of LCD-TV Screens under Actual Viewing Conditions at Home," by Tatsuhiko Matsumoto from Sony Corp., looks at preferred luminance levels from televisions viewed in the setting in which they are actually used – ordinary households.

The Medical/Visual Performance session should be interesting, with two invited papers that discuss the role that displays can play in human health. "The Impact of Self-Luminous Electronic Devices on Melatonin Suppression," by Mariana Figueiro of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, examines whether exposure to lit computer screens can suppress human manufacture of melatonin to the extent that it interferes with sleep or creates other health issues. "Enhanced Minimally Invasive Surgery by Endoscopic 2D-to-3D Conversion," by Kai-Che Liu from IRCAD-AITS suggests how adding depth perception to endoscopic surgical procedures can improve results.

Display Electronics: Behind the Screens

This year's sessions on Display Electronics – the parts of the display you do not see – include Panel Driving Technology, 3D TV: OLED (a joint sesson with 3D and active-matrix devices), Image and Video Processing, and Interface Technologies for Displays. The two invited papers from the Interface session are "Dynamic-Range Management for Displays for Reduced Power and Improved Ambient Contrast," by Viacheslav Chesnokov of Apical Limited, and "DisplayPort 1.2, Embedded DisplayPort, and Future Trends," by Craig Wiley of Parade Technologies. Chesnokov's paper explains how combining display power control with content dynamic-range control can achieve a "near-seamless user viewing experience" over a very wide range of ambient light. Wiley's presentation will describe a new, extensible video interface standard that utilizes a data-communications-like packet structure.

Another invited paper of note is "iDP Standard for an Internal Connection in a Large-Screen Display," by Alan Kobayashi from STMicroelectronics, which describes an open industry standard developed for transporting a video pixel stream from a TV/monitor controller SOC (system on chip) to a TV/monitor panel TCON within a TV/monitor chassis.

Display Manufacturing: New Processes, Including Roll-to-Roll, Lead the Way

A session on processes starts off this year's Display Manufacturing presentations, with the invited papers, "Enabling High-Throughput OLED Manufacturing by Carrier-Gas-Enhanced Organic Vapor-Deposition" (OVPD), by Michael Long from Aixtron AG and "Fabrication of TFT Circuits Using Shadow Masking: A Low-Cost Alternative to Conventional Photolithography," by Thomas Ambrose of Advantech US. The OLED paper describes a deposition source that is characterized by reduced vaporization temperatures and very short thermal exposure times. The shadow-masking presentation presents a method for realizing transistor circuits without conventional lithography, thus creating components that should be useful in active-matrix backplanes for top-emitting OLED and e-paper displays.

Any discussion of cutting-edge display manufacturing techniques must include roll-to-roll, which many companies are seeking to master due to its cost-saving and other benefits. This year's Flexible Displays session includes the invited paper, "Electrical Testing of Roll-to-Roll SAIL-Manufactured Flexible-Display Backplanes," by Richard Elder of Hewlett-Packard Labs, which describes efforts to develop a fully roll-to roll fabricated display for a solar-powered wrist display. These included methods for electrical testing of the display backplanes on flexible sub-strates that were not bonded to a carrier, which enabled improvement of yield through rapid electrical test feedback. (For more about HP's SAIL process, see "Paper-Like Electronic Media: The Case for R2R-Processed Full-Color Reflective Displays" in the January 2011 issue of Information Display.)

Display Measurement: New Technology Requires New Standards

Crosstalk in Stereoscopic Displays, Display Measurement Standards and Applications, and Achieving Accurate Color Reproduction are the titles of this year's Display Measurement sessions. The crosstalk presentations build on last year's trend of establishing measurements for critical aspects of 3-D displays. Crosstalk between right- and left-eye imagery, which degrades the stereoscopic effect, is chief among those aspects.

In the Display Measurement Standards category, subcommittee chair Thomas Fiske recommends the invited paper, "New Information-Display Measurements Standard: A Display-Metrology Document," by Edward Kelley of Keltek. Kelley, the editor of the Information Display Measurements Standard (IDMS), which Fiske describes as "a monumental document years in the making," addresses some of the most recent elements – motion artifacts, 3-D measurements, and more – of the standard. The IDMS, expected to be released this year, is a work in progress by The International Committee for Display Metrology under the auspices of the Society for Information Display.

Also recommended is a distinguished paper by Louis Silverstein of VCD Sciences, Inc., "Achieving High-Color-Reproduction Accuracy in LCDs for Color-Critical Applications." The paper describes a methodology and associated software modules for the calibration, characterization and profiling of color LCDs for color-critical applications such as medical imaging.

Display Systems: No Shortage of Novel Display Technologies

Display Systems is a far-ranging category, with 11 sessions in total, six of which are combined with 3-D, Green, Applications, Display Measurements, and other technology areas. Backlighting is a major topic this year, with three sessions – Local Dimming, LED Backlights and Laser Backlights, and Integrated Optics for Backlights – devoted to the topic. Papers to look for include the invited paper, "Recent Trends of LED Backlights with Local Dimming and Its Application for Multi-Primary-Color Displays," by Yasuhiro Yoshida from Sharp Corp., and the distinguished paper, "Directional Backlight with Narrow Angular Luminance Distribution for Widening Viewing Angle of a LCD with a Front-Surface Light-Scattering Film," by K. Käläntär from Leiz Advanced Technology. In the Novel Displays session, there is also a presentation that involves backlighting, though it is employed in an unusual way. The invited paper, "Imaging via Backlights," from Adrian Travis from Microsoft, describes using a wedge-shaped light guide to capture images in front of an LCD as though they were from a point behind it.

Two other Novel Displays papers whose very titles are intriguing are "Color Displays Using Reconfigurable Liquid Droplets," by Su Xu of the University of Central Florida, which discusses a fast technology that might be suitable for mobile displays, and "Flat-Panel-Display System Based on Interference Modulation for Both Intensity and Color," by Yikai Su from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a technology that may increase the optical efficiency of current TFT-LCD technology by a factor of six, enabling it as a promising display solution for handheld devices.

Emissive Displays: Protective Layers for Plasma

Plasma continues to be the major focus in the emissive-displays area. Researchers are busy developing energy-efficient PDPs, and these are the subject of the High-Efficiency Plasma TVs session, as discussed in the Green Special Focus article below.

The protective layer is key to successful plasma applications, and plasma papers of note from the session Plasma-Display Protective Layer include the invited presentations, "Surface Electronic States of MgO Induced by Auger Neutralization Process," by Hiroshi Kajiyama from Hiroshima University, and "The Role of the Impurity Diffusion Barrier for the Cathode Material in ACPDPs," by Ki-Woong Whang from Seoul National University. Addressing the MgO-CaO protective layer for plasma displays is a paper titled, "High-Luminous-Efficacy PDP Using Ca_xMg_1-xO Protecting Layer," by Qun Yan from Sichuan COC Display Devices Co., Ltd.

Although each year seems to find fewer field-emission-display papers at SID, promising research is still being done in this area, as evidenced by the invited paper, "Highly Efficient and Long-Life MIM Cathodes for FEDs," by Toshiaki Kusunoki of Hitachi Research Laboratory, which describes how the lifetime of MIM (metal-insulator-metal) cathodes was lengthened to more than 20,000 hours by using a thinner tunneling insulator. Another invited paper to check out is "Flexible Transparent Photoluminescent Display," by Kyung Cheol Choi from KAIST. Choi's paper suggests that the plasma platform is an ideal candidate for flexible transparent displays because it has a simple structure and does not require TFTs to drive it.

Flexible Displays: Growing More Flexible

Two years ago, due to the ever-increasing number of flex submissions received by SID, flexible displays enjoyed their own dedicated sessions for the first time. This year, with seven sessions and a total of 27 papers, interest in flexible displays is clearly still high. Color continues to be a recurring theme – researchers are still seeking a technology that supports low-power flexible displays capable of rich and vivid color imagery. One of the color-related presentations of note is the invited paper, "A 5.7-in. Color mirasol XGA Display for High-Performance Portable Applications," by Brian Gally of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, which describes a reflective display based on bistable Interference Modulation Devices (IMODs).

Creating flexible displays that are more flexible – even rollable – is another popular theme. The invited paper, "Stretchable and Foldable Displays Using Organic Transistors with High Mechanical Stability," by Tsuyoshi Sekitani from the University of Tokyo, looks at just how far such flexibility can go. The paper describes how organic transistors were integrated with elastic conductors to produce ultraflexible CMOS-based integrated circuits that can be bent to a radius of 100 μm and active-matrix displays that can be stretched by 50% without suffering any electrical or mechanical damage.

Highlighting the Flexible Backplane session is a distinguished paper from Chao-Chien Chiu from AU Optronics Corp., "Rollable Electrophoretic Display with an Integrated a-Si Gate Driver Circuit." In this work, Chiu and co-authors explain how they designed a display that can withstand 10,000 rolling cycles of 20-mm radius without any line defect or optic performance degradation.

Liquid-Crystal Technology: More Than a Phase

Liquid crystals have dominated the display field for a long time, but that does not mean the technology has grown stagnant. The big news in LCDs this year is the growth of blue phase, according to LCT subcommittee chair Xiao-Yang Huang, who points out that there are three sessions (a total of nine papers) devoted to blue phase. Among those papers, he recommends the invited paper, "The World's First Blue-Phase LCD," by Seungho Hong from Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. "It covers the fundamentals of materials, process, characterization, modeling, and display driving [needed for a blue-phase LCD]," says Huang. Another notable blue-phase offering is the invited paper, "New Materials for Polymer-Stabilized Blue Phase," by Michael Wittek of Merck KGaA, which describes a promising way to broaden the narrow temperature range of blue phase through polymer-stabilization. Yet another blue-phase paper that discusses polymer-stabilization is "Polarization-Independent Adaptive Microlens Array Using a Polymer-Stabilized Blue-Phase Liquid Crystal," a distinguished student paper by Yan Li from the University of Central Florida.

There are also two sessions on liquid-crystal alignment this year, and a highlight of those is "Liquid-Crystal Devices Based on Photo-Alignment and Photo-Patterning Materials," by Vladimir Chigrinov of the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, which features a discussion of devices including patterned retarders for 3-D applications, lenses with electrically tunable focal distance, LC-based sensors, switchable q-plates, and optically rewritable e-Paper.

OLEDs: Still Lots of Promise

Not too long ago, the display industry was expecting to see OLEDs take their place alongside LCD and plasma as a core TV technology. This has not happened yet, but OLEDs are still very much among us. They are the platform for an increasing number of mobile devices and for cutting-edge lighting applications, and they continue to be the subject of a great deal of research. Some of that research has to do with those sought-after TV-sized panels, and some focuses on better performance in handheld devices. Specific OLED sessions number five this year (with 19 papers), but OLEDs are the subject of numerous other session papers, including lighting, applications, flexible, manufacturing, and more. The technology has had the ability to fascinate researchers over the long term, which says much about its potential.

Among the highlights from this year's OLED Displays session are the invited paper, "Full-Color Phosphorescent OLED Displays: Power Savings and Implementation," by Mike Hack of Universal Display Corp., and the distinguished paper, "High-Resolution AMOLED Panels for Mobile 3D Applications Using White OLEDs with Color Filters," by Changwoong Chu of Samsung Mobile Display Co., Ltd. Hack's paper looks to phosphorescent OLEDs (PHOLEDs) as the key enabling technology for OLED TVs and other larger-area displays. Chu's presentation will cover the development of an autostereoscopic OLED panel for hand-helds.

In the OLED Devices session, next-generation devices are discussed in the invited papers, "Emergent Oxide-TFT Technologies for Next-Generation AMOLED Displays," by Toshiaki Arai from Sony Corp., and "Transparent AMOLED with On-Cell Touch Function Driven by IGZO TFTs," by Hsing-Hung Hsieh from AU Optronics Corp.

The Wednesday evening Special Event will be held at Dodger stadium, where the Los Angeles Dodgers are scheduled to play the 2010 World Champion and arch rivals San Francisco Giants.

Projection: Enabling Movies in and out of Your Pocket

As in previous years, the subjects described in the projection papers at Display Week 2011 vary greatly in size, from digital-cinema applications to pico-projectors. This year, Projection has become beyond a doubt the most amusingly titled session of the Symposium: Despeckling Despicable Speckle and Rejecting Ambient Light. If your work involves finding a solution to this seriously vexing problem, you will want to catch the three papers in this session.

Recommended in the Digital Cinema cateory is invited paper, "Dual Paraboloid Reflector Illumination System for Digital Cinema," by George Ouyang from Wavien, Inc., which presents initial simulation results for a DPR reflector that outperforms compound elliptical reflectors in terms of efficiency.

In the smaller world of pico-projectors, look for the distinguished paper, "Laser + LCoS Technology Revolution," by Karl Guttag from Syndiant, Inc., which discusses how the advent of affordable direct diode lasers is changing all the rules for optical designs and the associated technologies that generate images from laser light. Guttag also examines these topics from the perspective of laser-light-illuminated LCOS microdisplays.

Touch Technology: Expanding More than Growing

Touch is appearing in more and more consumer products, but the technology itself is an evolutionary phase now; this year's papers reflect "incremental" changes for the most part, according to subcommittee member Geoff Walker. The current diversity of approaches – projective-capacitive, optical, and more – are reflected in the sessions as well. Leading off the Capative Touch session is the invited paper, "Advances in Touch Sensing Materials," by Bob Mackey from Synaptics, which describes how rapid growth in capacitive touch sensing and the related need for transparent conductors are pushing improvements in materials performance as well as overall cost reductions.

Another invited paper of note is "Planar Scatter Detection: A New Method for Optical Touch Screens," by Ola Wassvik of FlatFrog Laboratories. This work points out that projected-capacitive technology is highly dependent upon the availability of indium, a rare and increasingly scarce element that forms a key component of indium tin oxide (ITO), and proposes a solution.

Also recommended is "Mutual Capacitive Touch Screen Integrated into Thin-Film-Encapsulated Active-Matrix OLED," by HongShik Shim of the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, which describes a thin and high-performance input/output device consisting of capacitive-touch sensors integrated on a thin-film encapsulated AMOLED.

The March 2011 issue of Information Display (guest edited by the aforementioned Geoff Walker), featured a provocative article, "The Breadth–Depth Dichotomy: Opportunities and Crises in Expanding Sensing Capabilities," by Daniel Wigdor from the University of Toronto, that suggested why meaningful touch development may currently be stymied. If you would like to catch the author deliver his paper by the same name, the Touch Systems session at Display Week is the place to do it.

Special Focus Areas: Green Technology, Lighting, and 3-D

Last year, the Society for Information Display designated special sessions to explore the impact of green technology on the display industry and to examine the increasing synergies between the lighting and the display industries. This year, there are six green technology sessions, four lighting sessions, and 11 3-D sessions, each featuring presentations that offer invaluable insights as to where display technology is headed.

Green Technology Focus

Energy-efficient products and processes have become increasingly key to display designs and manufacturing. If you are even peripherally involved in the development of display technology, you need to know about the latest green research and development. Many of this year's papers focus on cutting-edge low-power technologies and applications in areas ranging from cholesteric liquid crystals and electrophorectic displays to OLEDs, LCDs, plasma, and more. The 2011 Symposium Green Technology sessions are Flexible Displays, Green Display Applications, Panel-Driving Technology, Low-Power Active-Matrix Alternatives, Local Dimming, and High-Efficiency Plasma TVs.

With devices such as the Kindle and current mobile phones that offer a battery life in terms of days, consumers have begun to expect similar efficiency from other display products, no matter what their underlying technology. Consequently, panel-driving technologies and local dimming that help realize energy efficiency are the subject of eight of this year's papers. Known low-power technologies such as reflective and electrophoretic are also covered in several papers, but so are ways to make LC and plasma displays more energy efficient.

Roll-to-roll manufacturing techniques for flexible, low-power displays continue to generate a lot of interest. Two papers in the joint Green/Flexible Displays session that approach this topic are "High Resolution and Multi-Color R2R Flexible Papers," by Heng-Yin Chen, and the invited presentation, "Electrochromic Display: Full-Color-Technology, Flexible, Roll-to-Roll Processing, etc." from Yi-Wen Chung. Both authors are from ITRI in Taiwan.

In the Panel-Driving Technology session, two particularly interesting papers are the invited paper, "Driving mirasol^® Displays: Addressing Methods and Control Electronics," by Russel Martin of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, and "A 10-bit Compact Current DAC Architecture for Large-Sized AMOLED Displays," by Ki-Duk Kim from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). Kim's paper proposes to overcome one of the biggest challenges for large AMOLED displays – an efficient voltage-driving scheme that ensures uniformity.

Among the low-power active-matrix alternatives discussed in the session of the same name are a bendable electrowetting display, a blockwise luminance control algorithm for AMOLEDs, a pixel design for TFT-LCDs with variable refresh rates, color-sequential LCDs, and electrophoretic displays. This last topic is discussed in an invited paper titled, "Active-Matrix Displays for e-Readers Using Microcup Electrophoretic Displays," by Bob Sprague from SiPix Imaging.

The presentations in this year's joint green/plasma session address the subject of more-efficient plasma displays. Although plasma has in fact steadily become more energy-efficient over the last several years, its name is not yet synonymous with low-power usage. Two invited papers address this issue. "High-Luminous-Efficacy and Low-Power-Consumption Plasma TV," by Sang-Koo Kwon of LG Electronics, discusses a new plasma TV designed to meet government energy regulations that also features higher reliability. "Improvement of Luminous Efficiency Using New Cell Structure in ACPDPs," by Panasonic's Shinichirou Hori, describes a new discharge cell structure that will raise the discharge efficiency of PDPs by 9% and lower displacement power by 10%.

Lighting Focus

This year's four lighting sessions are Laser Light Projection, Solid-State Lighting Applications, and OLED Lighting I and II. Five of the OLED papers relate to panels, according to lighting session chair Mike Hack from Universal Display Corp., who notes that there has been a big move over the last few years to make efficient large OLED panels with performances that can be used by luminaire makers. While there are now OLED light fixtures that are commercially available, they are generally just in the form of high-end architectural lamps. So the push is to make OLED lighting more of a commodity. "I think this year's papers reflect this focus," says Hack.

A "large" OLED panel currently is about 4–6 in., or from 10 x 10 to 15 x 15 cm². This is the size that visitors are generally going to see discussed at the conference, notes Hack, and the size featured in two of the invited papers: "Performance of a Large-Sized White OLED for Lighting Applications," by Sehwan Son of LG Chemical, and "Challenges and Opportunities in Scaling-Up OLEDs for Lighting Applications," by Ruiqing Ma from Universal Display Corp.

Another invited paper that addresses efficiency issues is "High-Performance White OLEDs for Next-Generation Solid-State Lighting," by Takuya Komoda from Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd., which takes a look at just how competitive OLED lighting can potentially be with current lighting technologies such as fluorescent lamps. "Novel Approaches for OLED Lighting," by Karl Leo from the Technische Universitaet Dresden, looks at vacuum deposition on flexible substrates such as plastic and metal foils.

One LED paper of note is an overview of sorts: "Trends in LED Illumination and Display Backlighting," by Willem Sillevis-Smitt from Philips LumiLeds Lighting. In his invited paper, Sillevis-Smitt notes that requirements for illumination applications and backlighting for displays differ, and his presentation will highlight key similarities and differences between the markets and will suggest the likely implications for the LED industry.

Projection Lighting papers of note include the invited paper, "Progress in Green and Blue Laser Diodes and Their Application in Pico-Projection Systems," by James Raring from Soraa, Inc., and "Recent Progress in Direct Green Lasers for Mobile Image Projectors," by Adrian Avramescu from OSRAM Opto Semiconductors.

3-D Focus

Possibly the biggest commercial story in displays last year was the arrival of 3-D-ready TVs. Now that they have arrived, the story is far from over. Researchers continue to pursue the different approaches of active-shutter vs. passive-glasses technology, and glasses-free viewing is a major challenge that many experts believe must be met in order to make 3-D displays truly successful. This year's presentations cover these topics and more, including holographic displays, crosstalk reduction, measurements for 3-D performance, and numerous other issues related to both LCD and OLED 3-D displays. Also, do not miss the 3-D cinema event happening at Display Week on Tuesday, May 17.

The invited paper, "Advanced Technologies for 3D LCD Television," by Yuichiro Yamada from Sharp Corp., tackles the issue of 3-D TV quality with a look at ensuring that 3-D and 2-D image quality is comparable. "By applying advanced technologies such as UV2A (ultra-violet induced vertical alignment), four-primary-color technology, and sophisticated driving technology to LC-TV," writes Yamada, "crosstalk when displaying the 3D image can be removed."

Many researchers have proposed the AMOLED platform as a suitable one for 3-D TV, and the session 3D TV: OLED, conducted jointly with Display Electronics and Active-Matrix, includes four papers on the subject. In the AMOLED Driving 3-D session, the distinguished paper, "120-Hz 3D Driving for AMOLED with Interleaved Scan and Emission Operation," by Baek-Woon Lee from Samsung Mobile Display Co., Ltd., proposes a new driving method that enables higher resolution.

Autostereoscopic or glasses-free viewing continues to be a much sought-after but only partially realized display technology. Of interest in this area is the invited paper, "TRANSFORMERS: Autostereoscopic Displays Running in Different 3D Operating Modes," by Rene de La Barre from Franhofer HHI, which describes how to enable the use of content originally produced for glasses-type 3-D displays without the need of additional calculation of interpolating views. •