SID Announces 2017 Display Industry Award Winners

LG Display launched its line of Wallpaper OLED TV panels in 2016 and 2017. The SID made the award because of the image quality, form factor and new interfacing (based on V-by-One) which meant extending the HDCP across a flat cable between the panel and the TV control box. The interface can supply up to 700W of power and a frame rate up to 120 Hz at UltraHD resolution.

Samsung Display introduced the Quad-bended AMOLED Display, which uses industry-first “quad edge” flexible technology on the sides as well as the top and bottom of the display. Used in the Galaxy S7 Edge smartphone, the quad-HD display uses special curved technology that varies the radius for the curvature of the OLED panel at the left and right edges from 35R to 3.8R, enabling very fine contours, a natural curve appearance, and enhanced grip comfort. The new display’s circuit also greatly reduces dead space around the display edges to just 1.09 mm – a record for Samsung Display.

Luminit Transparent Holographic Components for Motorcycle Head-up Display
Luminit’s Transparent Holographic Components (THCs) are for use in special-purpose head-up displays (HUDs) and head-mounted displays (HMDs) enabled by the company’s patented holographic master recording technology. Luminit THC embeds holographic wave-fronts onto a thin, clear photopolymer film that’s applied to such surfaces as helmet visors or eyeglasses. TWhen an image is projected onto the item’s glass or acrylic surface, the THC translates the information into a virtual image for the viewer. Reyedr, a developer of motorcycle HUDs, created the first publicly available display product using Luminit’s optical components. In these products, the holograms are integrated into a non-planar waveguide, enabling improved ergonomics and product design compared to those possible with conventional flat waveguide optics.

Nanosys has developed a significant breakthrough with its Hyperion offering which extend the colour gamut without taking advantage of the EU’s ROHS exemption for QDs. The Hyperion quantum dots combine a Cd-free red quantum dot with a green quantum dot whose Cd content and emission spectrum are very low. Nanosys has demonstrated >90% of the BT.2020 color gamut using Hyperion in a quantum-dot enhancement film (QDEF) sheet with Cd levels below the RoHS ceiling of 100 parts-per-million (ppm). Nanosys has partnered with Hitachi Chemical to begin immediate production of QDEF with Hyperion quantum dots.

Apple’s Touch Bar feature is a multi-touch, high-resolution OLED display placed directly on the keyboard of the MacBook Pro. The Touch Bar delivers shortcuts and tools to the user’s fingertips based on which app is being used and in what capacity, with context-specific features and controls that can both make an unfamiliar app more accessible to a new user and empower a pro by enabling greater workflow efficiency. The creation of the Touch Bar involved several breakthroughs in OLED technology – in particular, its Retina-resolution (221-dpi) display, which enables sharp, print-quality fonts and icons. The Touch Bar’s cover glass is also revolutionary; engineered with nano-structures to minimize surface reflection and distortion, it provides a look and feel that is intended to allow the Touch Bar to blend seamlessly into the keyboard. Both the Touch Bar’s display and the MacBook Pro’s liquid-crystal main display are designed to minimize surface reflection from the other display and reduce ambient crosstalk, and color management in both displays is synchronized to ensure matching color.

The PlayStationVR (PS VR) system is intended to allow players to experience the sensation of being physically inside a game’s virtual world. Equipped with a 5.7-in. 1,920 x 1,080 resolution OLED display, the VR headset provides an approximately 100º field of view and enables low persistence with no motion blur or flicker, heightening the feeling of reality for the gamer. The display’s “screen door effect” is minimized by the full RGB sub-pixel structure in full HD resolution and the use of an original optical element on top of the display. The OLED display also supports a 120Hz refresh rate intended to produce smooth visual imagery.

Products considered for 2017 Display Industry Awards had to be available for purchase during the 2016 calendar year. The six winners, two in each of three main categories, were chosen by a distinguished panel of industry experts who evaluated the nominees for their degree of technical innovation, commercial significance and potential for positive social impact. The winners in each category, along with a brief description of each product, are listed below. Further information about the award winners can be found in the Display Week 2017 Show Issue of Information Display magazine and at www.informationdisplay.org.