Since committing to an investment in Sharp at the end of 2012 (Display Monitor Vol 19 No 49), Qualcomm has been working with the Japanese company to develop a display using both Pixtronix’s MEMS and Sharp’s IGZO technologies. We saw the first example of their work, a 7″ display, at SID 2013 (Display Monitor Vol 20 No 22) and CES 2014 (Display Monitor Vol 21 No 3).
Sharp has now said that it aims to begin mass-producing the MEMS-IGZO displays by 2017. They will be aimed at auto manufacturers and makers of industrial devices, smartphones and tablets (the displays are unaffected by temperature fluctuations, unlike liquid crystals). A test line for the technology has been built at Sharp’s factory in Tottori Prefecture in Japan.
