If you’ve been focusing on the LCD-TV vs. PDP-TV war or the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD war, you may have missed backlight technology war. The backlight war is a complicated one, first because most LCD-TVs still use backlights powered by cold-cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs), which means the war is not yet being fought on retailers shelves. When that does start to happen, consumers may still not know about it. The benefit of one backlight technology over another will in some cases be a matter of cost, not anything the viewer can see.

Ken Werner
Senior Analyst and Editor

Long term, the war will be between fluorescent BLUs and LED BLUs, with LED BLUs offering several significant benefits the viewer can see, but costing significantly more. Unfortunately for the consumer, LED BLUs cost significantly more than florescent BLUs with today’s LEDs and BLU designs.

But in the short term, entertaining battles are being waged between different flavors of fluorescent lamp. The first to make it into a significant number of panels, starting early this year, was the external electrode fluorescent lamp (EEFL). By putting the electrodes on the outside of the glass tube instead of on the inside, sputtering at the electrodes is eliminated and lifetime is increased. In addition, it is possible to drive several EEFLs with one inverter, which can be a significant cost-saver on a large panel.

But while many of us weren’t looking an old technology, hot-cathode fluorescent lamps (HCFLs) was taking a surprising leap forward. Today, Rodney Chan of DigiTimes.com reported Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) will adopt Royal Philips Electronics’ HCFLs for its 42-inch-and-larger LCD-TV panels, citing a Chinese-language story in the Economic Daily News (EDN). The panels will hit the market in 2007.

LG.Philips LCD has also adopted HCFLs for its 42-inch TV panels, EDN said. Philips Taiwan said the cost difference between HCFLs and CCFLs is not large, and is justified by HCFL’s higher luminance, faster response time and better power efficiency.

Royal Philips’ HCFLs are used in Philips Lighting’s Aptura scanning backlight system, which can help reduce motion artifacts in LCD-TVs. The system has been widely shown and is commercially available, but has thus far proven too expensive for adoption in mainstream LCD-TVs, industry sources tell Insight Media.