We seem to have met with Tianma at more shows than any of the other panel suppliers – we met at Electronica, CES, MWC and Embedded World – all in the last seven or eight months! Still, the company found some new things to show us as the US company includes what was the NEC industrial business, whereas usually when we meet at the other shows, it is the group with mobile/automotive displays.
The first item we looked at was a 3280 x 2048 (6 megapixel) 30″ LCD with 1000 cd/m² of output and 1,500:1 contrast using the firm’s SFT-2 technology which now has a better aperture ratio. It is intended for medical applications and uses a 10 bit eDP interface. The company told us that it is seeing increasing numbers of clients requesting eDP interfaces and the company was also showing a 15.6″ FullHD eDP display.
We have reported on a paper by Utsunomiya University and a demo by Tianma in the iZone separately, (Aerial Displays at SID) but on the show floor, the University was showing a collaboration with Tianma and Matsunami Glass on a 19.5″ autostereo 3D system that also used 3D heat and sound.
Tianma showed this circular display in a thermostat application. Image:Meko
Next we looked at a round display with 800 x 800 resolution. It was shown in a thermostat application, so you can imagine who might be interested in this kind of display.
Tianma has been developing its touch technology and was showing how it could support PCap operation through 10mm cover glass and the company said that it has a lot of different surface finishes available including anti-glare, anti-reflection or anti-fingerprint coatings.
Tianma calls its in-cell touch “TED” for touch-embedded displays and the company had some very unusual ultra-narrow TED displays in 9.8″ and 11.9″ sizes and for the kind of programmable touch switch arrays like the controller in the latest iMac Pro.
Tianma showed ultra narrow displays with touch. Image:Meko
Tianma has a range of transflective displays which can be customised to offer different balance between transmittance between 0.5% and 9.6% and reflectivity between 1% and 20%. Three samples were shown with different balance including a new version that has the 20% reflectivity. The 4.3″ display has 480 x 800 resolution, 85 cd/m² and 35:1 contrast in transmissive mode and with 10:1 contrast in the reflective mode. (it’s the sample in the middle in the image)
The latest version in the middle of these transflective displays has 20% reflectivity. Image:Meko
Tianma has been developing its free form displays for automotive and industrial applications and had two ‘circle ring’ and ‘square ring’ displays.
Tianma showed ‘circle ring’ and ‘square ring’ free form displays. Image:Meko
Also in the automotive area, the company has a 9.2″ TN LCD display for rear view auto mirrors. The resolution is 1920 x 480, brightness is 500 cd/m² and contrast is 600:1. The operating temperature range of -30ºC to +85ºC. Colour coverage is ‘75% NTSC’.
This 9.2″ rear view mirror LCD has a wide operating temperature. Image:Meko
We also looked at a 30″ touch system that uses the SFT2 technology and also Tianma’s PGG ‘panel grounded glass’ technology. The module design has a ‘folded out’ bezel to allow the use of flat glass over the whole area and reduces the thickness of OCA that needs to be used.
Finally we looked at new outdoor viewable displays that have had brightness boosted to 1600 cd/m² with 1,000:1 contrast and with both long life and improved gamuts compared to previous generations. We also looked at a new 8″ WVGA display that is especially robust and appropriate for rugged applications with accelerations up to 6.8G.
