Epson shows new all-in-one LCD display technology

For future mobile devices

23 October 2007 8:11 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Epson Imaging Devices Corporation in Japan has announced the development of an all-in-one liquid-crystal display with an integrated cover, made from tempered glass or acrylic and touch panel that can be resistive or capacitive.

This new LCD has the company's Photo Fine Vistarich viewing angle technology, which enables it to produce "beautiful" images even when viewed from 90 degrees from the top, bottom, left, or right.

Mobile devices with touch panels are expected to become more common as manufacturers strive to meet growing consumer demands for sophisticated mobile devices.

Epson says the structure of current touch-panel-equipped modules fails to harness the true potential of liquid-crystal displays and that the challenges of making screens bigger and frames narrower, improving visibility in natural sunlight, and incorporating input functions while keeping screens thin have proved especially hard to overcome.

Apparently in response to this, Epson Imaging Devices has developed these all-in-one LCDs in which the liquid-crystal panel, cover, and touch panel are combined without an air gap, which prevents the loss of brightness and contrast that occurs when covers and touch panels are attached to LCDs with air in between.

Thanks to their composite structure, the newly developed displays claim to enable improved visibility and greater strength in a slimmer, more compact design.

Epson Imaging Devices says these new panels can have practical applications in in-car systems, such as satellite navigation, and in digital cameras and advanced mobile phones with built-in digital TV receivers.

The company also plans to open up "new fields of application" for this product.