Beneq is the name of the business that is developing EL displays in Espoo, Finland and was at one time owned by Planar.
Beneq’s display is being used in laser dentistry equipment. Image:Meko
The first display that we looked at was a new transparent display that has been developed especially for a company that makes laser dentistry. Beneq told us that the company is starting to be able to show “actual customer applications” rather than simply prototypes. The display looked very good and would enhance the technology being used.
Beneq can embed its EL technology into windscreens. Image:Meko
Next we looked at another interesting development. Beneq’s technology is very robust – industrial and transport applications are a popular application area. For example, the temperature range is -100oC to +105oC and the displays are very mechanically robust. For applications in earth moving equipment, agricultural vehicles, trains, buses and other tough environments, Beneq is working with Pilkington Glass in the UK to develop a laminated windscreen system which puts the display betweeen two layers of toughened glass (an approach that Samsung is also looking at for its transparent OLED technology).
Beneq is confident that it can achieve a level of transparency of 80%. Brightness can be up to 1,000cd/m² and we were assured that even at higher brightness, operating temperatures are not a problem. Customisation of the data on display is relatively simple.
