Evolution of Flat-Panel Displays

LAWRENCE E. TANNAS, JR., SENIOR MEMBER, IEEE

Invited Paper

The evolution in performance and manufacturability of liquid-crystal displays has created a new reality in the electronic information displays industry. LCDs now outnumber all other jlat-panel displays in production volume, by more than TWO orders o magnitude. LCDs may equal CRTs in market sales by the f year 2000. However, LCDs are still an order of magnitude more expensive than comparable performing CRTs. LCDs are enabling new products, such as personal digital assistants, moving map navigators, picture telephones, etc., which could not be readily done with CRTs because o their size and sensitivity f to ambient illuminations. The LCD technology in various modes, from passive twisted nematic to active matrix, is being used in all product sizes, from the 0.7-in camcorder viewfinder to the 14-in full-color display with XGA resolution. Full color is very important in future products and any3at-panel display technology without it will be relegated to niche markets.

I. INTRODUCTION The concept of a flat-panel display is a simple extension of a printed picture with a time-varying dimension. The technical requirements to achieve this, however, are immense. Just how does one alter an image so that it portrays a time-varying likeness to a real-life action scene? About 20 years ago flat-panel displays (FPDs) began to be used in military and industrial applications. They have been used commercially in the consumer market2 for only ten years, and in high-volume consumer products for less than five years. In the last five years FPDs have advanced to the consumer product stage with the status of a major electronic component, whereas in 1989 they exceeded one billion dollars in annual sales [l]. Only in the last three years have FPDs been available in production quantities, with performance comparable to color CRTs in VGA resolution. This paper deals primarily with High Information Content (HIC) Displays which offer performance that is comparable to the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT).
Manuscript received July 27, 1993; revised December 3, 1993. The author is President of Tannas Electronics, Orange, CA 92666. IEEE Log Number 9400122. The first successful ITD technology was the ac gas-discharge matrixaddressed display invented at the University of Illinois in 1964. Pilot line production was established by Owens Illinois cu. 1974. *The first FPD used successfully in a consumer product and, still in production today, is the Grid personal portable PC using an ac thin-film electroluminescent display manufactured by Sharp of Japan.

The picture element (pixel) count ranges from 50000 to 1.5 million and greater in monochrome or full-color versions. This corresponds to products from low-end videogames, portable televisions, and personal computers up to full-color VGA, XGA, and HDTV. Lower pixel count displays have a very wide and diverse variety of markets and display technologies. The history of this class of display is often traced to the first production by Burroughs of Nixie Tubes, ca. 1955, inventor unknown. Typical low-pixel-count displays include hand-held calculators, clocks and meters, marquees and billboards. In addition, low-pixel-count displays do not suffer from the perplexing matrix addressing cross-coupling problem (to be discussed later) which is proportionalto the pixel count, and which plagues all HIC FPDs.
11. NEW REALITY DISPLAYS IN The original market objective, starting ca. 1950, to replace the CRT with FTDs, has not been achieved. Instead, a whole new family of products, which could not easily use CRTs, has been created. Examples of these first new products include briefcase- and notebook-style personal computers and hand-held color television displays. In the FPD technology spectra3,which include electroluminescent displays (ELDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), light-emitting diode (LED) displays, flat CRTs, and liquidcrystal displays (LCDs), most recently the LCD technology has emerged as the clear leader. The production volume of HIC LCDs is now more than 100 times greater than all other HIC FPD technologies combined. There are many reasons for the acceleration of LCD technology, including:

a) b) c) d) e) f)

highest immunity to ambient illumination, thinnest profile, lightest weight, lowest power requirement, color performance comparable to CRT, lowest cost, compared to other FPD technologies.

3An FPD is a display which is flat like a pancake, as opposed to flat like flat iron.

0018-9219/94$04.00 0 1994 IEEE PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE. VOL. 82. NO. 4, APRIL 1994
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~ _ _ _ ~

__

3 45 10 14 Diagonal Size In lnches (log rate)

Fig. 1. Expanding applications for LCDs.

Negative limitations are diminishing and becoming more acceptable to consumers, including: very high cost compared to CRTs (more than ten times that of a comparable CRT), limited viewing angle (now greater than f 4 5 in one axis with 1O:l contrast ratio), slow speed of response (now less than 200 ms in passive LCDs and 50 ms in active matrix LCDs), narrow temperature operating range (now as wide as -3OOC to +85OC). The cost issue will prevail indefinitely due to the high electronic content required for the row and column drivers and buffering electronics. Active-matrix liquid-crystal displays (AMLCDs), which are the highest performing FPDs with performance comparable to CRTs, are presently 10 to 20 times more expensive than CRTs. The cost of a 10-in color AMLC VGA computer display is presently $1400.00 each and, possibly, $1000.00 each in 100000 unit quantities. Japanese market analysts speculate that the highvolume price may be reduced to $600.00 each by 1996. At the present price, the industry is production-limited. A major price difference between AMLCDs and CRTs will prevail through the year 2000 and inhibits AMLCDs from replacing CRTs any time in the foreseeable future. A 14-in color CRT TV can be purchased in Asia, in high volume by original equipment manufacturers, for $50.00

STN LCD, etc. Each LCD configuration is later described in the section The Emergence of LCDs. The LCD configurations are listed above the size categories currently in production. Most of these FPD applications are presently emerging or are expected to emerge before the year 2000. The primary applications paying for the technological evolution have been LCDs for portable television sets and portable personal computers. 111. THE CRT CHALLENGE The concept of modem television was conceived by A. C. Campbell Swinton in London and reported in 1908 and 1911 [3, pp. 2-31. Television was not demonstrated, however, until 1926 by J. L. Baird, also in England. For his demonstration, Baird used a CRT, previously developed by Karl Ferdinand Braun in 1897 in Germany as an instrument to show the wave shape of alternating current. [3, pp. 140-141J It probably occurred to the early inventors that there must be a simpler way to portray an image than with a full CRT. However, the CRT was and still is an elegant way to display an image, particularly when used in conjunction with an electronic imaging camera. The elegance of the CRT resides in the direct way a serial stream of spatial amplitude data can be imaged on the phosphor faceplate. A single amplification is used for electron-beam amplitude control and two additional amplifiers for electrostatic or magnetic electron-beam horizontal and vertical deflection. The undesirable depth of the CRT is a consequence of the elegant electron-beam deflection technique. For obvious reasons of ease of use and installation, the early motivation was to replace the bulky CRT with an FPD. Also, it seemed intuitive that an FPD could be less expensive than a CRT without the complexity of the CRT structure and the need for high-voltage and high-frequency amplifiers. Serious research and development into FPD technology did not begin in earnest, however, until the television industry was well established. The most promising early developments were seen in flat CRTs such as the Aiken Tube (U.S.A., 1951) and the Gabor Tube (England, 1953) [3, pp. 180-1851. Versions of these innovations are still being studied today, principally by Matsushita of Japan, but have not been successful due to increased complexity
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VI.
The speed of response of all LCDs is slower than a CRT. Basically, a CRT can create a new full-intensity, viewable image in one complete electron-beam scan of the phosphor screen. An AMLCD, the fastest responding LCD configuration, takes approximately three complete scans of the image (due to the viscosity and restoring forces upon the liquid-crystal molecules themselves) which is fast enough for consumer video and games. The lower cost LCD configurations, such as passive twisted nematic (TN) and super-twisted nematic (STN) LCD, take longer but, in general, are suitable for nonvideo imagery such as PC word processing, spreadsheets, graphics, etc. A tabulation of some of the new and anticipated product applications is given in Fig. 1. The preferred LCD configuration is shown beside each product, such as amorphoussilicon thin-film transistor (a-Si TFT), AMLCD, passive
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and reduced performance compared to conventional CRTs and FPD options. Needless to say, replacing the CRT with some sort of FPD turned out to be much more difficult than anyone had anticipated. Someone once postulated, in retrospect, that if engineers and scientists had known how difficult it would be, they would not have started. Certainly, management and investors would not have funded them. Even today the CRT is capable of higher overall performance than any FPD yet demonstrated. Furthermore, in almost every category where FPDs are used, a CRT can perform as well or better at a lower price. FPDs are being used only where CRTs cannot reasonably fit, for example, in the briefcase or pocket, where consumers want to carry their personal computer and TV. The idea of making an FPD got a gigantic boost when RCA head David Sarnoff announced that his company planned to develop the TV picture on the Wall. This simple characterizationidentifies both the virtues and a market for the FPD. Sarnoffs challenge created an interesting paradox to corporate management of the time: What will we do with all those CRT factories after we develop an FPD TV?Even today, the paradox has never become an issue, as we still do not have a cost-effective TV picture on the Wall. Ironically, it was not the TV industry that developed the FPD component, but the wristwatch and computer industries. Non-CRT consumer product manufacturers like Seiko Epson, Canon, Casio, Sharp, and others made the early hand-held television and computer FPDs. The exceptions, Toshiba and Hitachi, are now, after a late start, among the top manufacturers of FPDs; but where were GE, Philips, RCA, Sony, Thomson-CSF, Zenith during the development phase?6 Philips is now building a factory to manufacture AMLC FPDs in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, which is also notable as the first commercial AMLCD factory outside of Japan. IBM, Yorktown Heights, NY; Litton Systems, Canada Ltd., Rexdale, Ont., Canada; 01s Optical Imaging Systems in Troy, MI; Sagem, Paris, France; Thomson LCD in Grenoble, France; and Xerox PARC, Palo Alto, CA; all currently have thin-film transistor (TFT) AMLCD prototyping capability in their respective local facilities. In Japan, approximately 30 R&D centers and 10 major corporations are doing LCD research, development, and manufacturing [4]. Both Samsung and Goldstar have pilot line AMLCD capabilities and are considering production in Korea. IV. THE EMERGENCE LCDs OF Since 1963, LCDs have been vigorously pursued as an HIC FPD, but only recently have they emerged as a major
4 0 n e of the early contenders for a truly flat FPD was electroluminescence. 5 0 n e exception is readability in high ambient illumination. 6Matsushita, RCA, and Sony did significant research and development work in flat cathodoluminescence. GE developed an avionics AMLCD in 1987 and then sold it to what is now Thomson LCD, Grenoble, France. Sharp buys CRTs for their TV product line from other companies.
TANNAS: EVOLUTION OF FLAT-PANEL DISPLAYS

electronic component industry surpassing one billion U.S. dollars in 1989. Before 1990 (a somewhat arbitrary point in time) all FPDs were niche market components implemented by numerous technologies. The major technologies were thin-film ELDs, PDPs, LCDs, LEDs, VFDs, flat CRTs, and numerous others that never got out of research and development. Thus far, the TNLCDs, LEDs, VFDs, and gas-discharge tubes have been successful as low- and medium-information content displays. Clearly, today the leading FPD technology is the LC technology. It is the only FPD in volume production with full color in video and PC sizes7. Its emergence has been due to two technical solutions to the complex matrix addressing problem. One is the STN LCD [5] configuration, which has sufficient nonlinearity for large arrays to be matrix-addressed. This configuration falls into the passive LCD classification, since there are no active components intemal to the display panel for addressing the array of pixels. The other solution is the AMLCD [6] which utilizes an active component at each pixel or color subpixel to provide sufficient nonlinearity for matrix addressing. Thus far, the most widely used active element has been a TFT, in which the semiconductor is amorphous silicon. The LCD technology is still evolving. Several configurations are in high-volume production: a) Twisted nematic LCD-Matrix addressability limited to approximately 64 rows, lowest cost, twist angle of 90, limited viewing angle and response speed. The LCD configurationin highest volume production. Due to limited matrix addressability, it is used mostly in small- to medium-size displays. b) Supertwisted nematic LCD-Matrix addressable up to 512 rows, ideal for low-end PCs, color now available, lowest cost PC LCD, twist angle of 145 to 20O0, limited in viewing angle and response speed not fast enough for quality video presentation. Largest computer LCD in volume production. Improved matrix addressability is achieved from the nonlinearity achieved from the higher twist angle. c) Multiple row addressed or Active AddressingTM8 -Used in addressing an STN LCD to increase the response speed by addressing multiple rows in parallel with a modest increase in cost for the extra electronic processing needed to preprocess the signal to perform multiple row addressing. This configuration has been demonstrated by In Focus and OptrexB, but not yet commercialized. As always, the columns are addressed in parallel. (Further discussion to follow.)

A possible exception is the new 21-in PDP by Fujitsu scheduled to

be manufactured starting in 1994, with good color and video capability,

exhibited at the 1992 and 1993 Japan Electronics Shows. At the JES 93, NHK and Matsushita have demonstrated HDTV color PDPs at 40-in diagonal. No plans have been announced to manufacture this panel. Planar demonstrated a color IO-in (640x480) ELD at the SID 1993 Conference in Seattle, WA. In the opinion of this author, these latter two examples are not ready for production. Trade mark of

In Focus Systems, Tualatin, OR.

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d) Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) AMLCD-Used in addressing a TNLCD to increase pixel nonlinearity for improving matrix addressing. Since the MIM thin films of typically Ta/TaO,/Cr are placed at each9 addressable pixel internal to the display panel, an MIM-augmented display is called an AMLCD. However, the individual pixel is a two-terminal element. (The addressable pixels or subpixels of most AMLCDs are three-terminal elements.) This configuration is in production by Seiko-Epson and is used primarily in hand-held LCD TVs. The price and performance puts MIM LCD TV products between STN LCD and AMLCD portable TVs. e) Split Electrode STN LCD-Used in addressing color STN LCDs to reduce the effects of cross coupling in matrix-addressed FPDs. The column electrodes are opened in the center of the display to render the display electrically two separate displays. Column drivers are placed at the top and bottom of each visible column line. The matrix addressing requirements are reduced by a factor of two since the number of row lines are reduced by 1/2 in each half. The increase in cost for the extra column drivers is justified by the improved overall color performance as required by VGA and portable PCs-still not fast enough for video. f) TFT AMLCDs-Use a full switch at each pixel or subpixel to stop cross coupling. The TFT semiconductor is typically a-Si:H, but may be a poly-Si:H, or single-crystal Si for projector displays. CdSe is also used as a TFT semiconductor, but is not yet in production. The full switch gives the fastest speed, widest viewing angle, and is best for gray scale of all the LCD configurations. g) Others-There are numerous other versions of LCDs not yet in production. Examples include Ferroelectric LCDs (under development by Canon), Vertically aligned LCDs (by Stanley), Plasma-addressed LCDs (by Tektronix), and others. These LCD configurations cover a wide spectrum and all seem to be finding markets which best fit their individual performance/cost ratio and features. It is important to note that the commercial market is utilizing all these configurations in consumer products because of the price/performance differences and unique features of each. Within the LCD community of display developers and users, there has been an ongoing debate whether STN LCDs or a-Si TFT AMLCDs will dominate in the major markets for portable PCs. It now appears that, because of clear price and performance differences, both will hold a significant segment with their respective market advantages. Instead of a dominance by one, the spectrum is expanding with MIM, split column, and multiple row addressing (Ac9When spatial color is used, the pixel is made up of 3 or 4 subpixels, one for each primary color. Each subpixel must be addressed seperately. In R&D by Kopin, Taunton, MA. In R&D by Litton Systems Canada Ltd., Rexdale, Ont., Canada.
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tive Addressing) with price and performance characteristics between the two major configurations, STN LCDs and aSi TFT AMLCDs. Japanese market analysts are predicting that, by 1996, a-Si TFT AMLCDs will command 60% of the 10-in and larger VGA color display market. This prediction is predicated upon a significant price reduction in a-Si TFT AMLCDs, as previously discussed. The separation in price and performance between STN and a-Si TFT LCDs is fundamental to the technology of the respective approaches. The STN LCD is a passive display utilizing single row and column electrodes for addressing. This approach depends upon the nonlinear response of the STN mode to make the display matrix addressable. The aSi TFT forms a transistor switch at each pixel or subpixel and, therefore, can use the more linear-respondingTN mode and still be matrix-addressable. The TN mode is faster in response and gives more uniform gray scales than the STN mode. Only the a-Si TFT LCD is fast enough for video and has enough gray scales for full color. The a-Si TFT, however, greatly complicates the pixel or subpixel structure and makes it a three-terminal device. The manufacturing of a-Si TFT AMLCDs is highly machine-intensive and requires several photolithographic steps to be performed at a 2-pm design rule. V. THE LCD ADVANTAGE As a group, the LCD technologies have several unique technical advantages that underscore why they have advanced so far beyond the other FPD technologies: a) Use of low-voltage row and column CMOS electronic drivers-The drive electronics of a matrix-addressed FPD constitute almost half the cost. Because of the low voltage and power requirements, the LCD drivers can be fabricated in LSI with up to approximately 180 drivers per chip. Of all FPD drivers, CMOS drivers cost the least and can only be used on LCDs. b) Separation of luminous power from image signal-The row and column drivers do not have to deliver the luminous power to the panel. The luminous power is applied when used as a separate backlight module. To conserve power or enhance the viewability, such as in a high ambient illuminated environment, the luminous powers intensity is modulated independent of the image. LCDs have been made with a dimming ratio of over 3000:1, exceeding even a CRT in performance. Further, the luminous efficiency of the backlight can be optimized without regard to the LCD. Also, the spectral color of the backlight can be selected and optimized to enhance the color properties of the LCD and backlight combination. LCDs have a higher luminous efficiency than that of other FPDs due to the availability of high-efficiency fluorescent backlights. c) Color capability and flexibility-Color filters are added in combination to the LCD panel and backlight to make possible a wide spectrum of highly saturated
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1I-Fig. 2. Characteristics of different addressing methods.

I-

-I

(-*I

YF
---.

.--I

colors. The selection of the three-color primaries is almost unlimited due to the wide variety of pigments and dyes available. The RGB color filters are typically added in front of the individual LCD subpixels inside the front glass substrate of the panel. Other FPD technologies, such as VFDs, ELDs, and PDPs, require a unique phosphor or gas emission to achieve bright and efficient colors which, in general, have not yet been developed for all the colors. d) Immunity to ambient illumination-Through the use of polarizers, the LCD is a nonreflecting, or black, display. As a consequence, when optimized, it is transparent to ambient illumination. Further, the colors maintain their chromaticity coordinates in varying ambient lighting. To enhance this feature, an antireflecting coating is added to the first surface of the display and low reflecting black matrix is added around all the areas between the active display area of each pixel or subpixel. VI. TECHNICAL CHALLENGE The inability to achieve a low-cost, general-purpose HIC FPD is due to several difficult technical issues. The display is the most complex of all electronic components or subsystems. In addition to the usual functional parameters of electronic equipment, there are optical issues, luminous efficiency, spectral emission, and human factors including issues of photometry, size, color, readability, and dimmability. Ambient light is added to the list of environmental operating conditions of temperature, humidity, shock, vibration, etc. There have always been markets which have been willing to pay premium prices for FPDs. The niche industrial and military computer markets supported the early developments of HIC FPDs using ELD, PDP, and, to a lesser extent, LED technologies. Typically, these displays were
TANNAS: EVOLUTION OF FLAT-PANEL DISPLAYS

monochrome, from 6 to 12 diagonal inches in size with 5 12 x 5 12 lines of resolution. Technical issues have limited the commercial development of FPDs. The primary issue has been the ability to address a large array of pixels at a suitable speed with appropriate optical contrast, luminance, resolution, power efficiency, color and gray shades, all at an affordable cost.
A . Matrix Addressing

The design evolution process starts with an electrooptical effect of a technology, such as ELD, PDP, or LCD, and then expands the array size until the display performance requirements can no longer be achieved. As shown in Fig. 2, there are only five known techniques for addressing an array of pixels [3, p. 1191. The success of the CRT is directly attributable to the simplicity of scan addressing in combination with appropriate phosphors. Thus far, scan addressing has not been successfully configured for a low-profile, flat configuration. Grid addressing, as applied to flat cathodoluminescence, has had only limited production success in VFDs. In the 1960s and 1970s shift addressing was very successfully applied to the Burroughs Selfscan product line of PDPs. When Burroughs stopped making displays, however, no one else continued with this technology. Burroughs gas shift register was then surpassed by the CMOS column driver shift register now used in PDPs. Matrix addressing is used to save electronic driver cost, which becomes an issue at 30 or more pixels. A display with 30 pixels would require 30 drivers in direct drive, or 1 1 drivers in a 5 x 6 matrix addressing arrangement. The direct addressing of each pixel in a display is an obvious approach and is used extensively for the lowest of low-information-contentdisplays where less than 30 pixels are used. There are typically 7 pixels for each numeric character, plus 1 for decimal or colon. In a typical computer
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display, with typically 480 rows of 640 pixels, or 307 200 total pixels, it is technically impossible to electrically connect to each pixel individually. Matrix addressing has been the most fruitful way to address a large array of pixels. Each pixel is in a row and a column which can be addressed by common electrodes. In the computer example above, the 480 rows and 640 columns are each connected by an electrode for matrix addressing as shown in Fig. 2. In this technique, there are 480 row signal drivers and 640 column signal drivers connected to the edges of the display panel.

B. Cross Coupling
Matrix addressing an LCD is analogous to addressing an electronic core memory device. In a core memory, cross coupling is preventable due to the hysteresis nonlinearity of the magnetic toroid at each memory location. In displays, the pixel is analogous to the memory toroid, but, for most display material, the pixel has the electrical properties of a lossy capacitor. One plate of the capacitor is made up of the column electrode and the other, the row electrode with the FPD material, such as LC organic compounds, EL phosphors, or PDP gases, in between. As a consequence, cross coupling is the most serious FPD problem in all matrix-addressed FPDs, and the degree of cross coupling is in direct proportion to the number of rows. Further discussion to follow. Of all the addressing approaches summarized in Fig. 2, matrix addressing is potentially the simplest overall with the promise of the lowest cost. The structure of a matrix-addressed display panel is the simplest; however, the number of row and column drivers is the largest. Therefore, the cost is shifted from the panel structure to the electronics. In PDP, LC or EL displays, nearly half the cost is attributable to the row and column drivers. Matrix addressing is done by parallel columns and sequential rows in the same way that electrical engineers address memory and imaging arrays. Typically, the rows are addressed as a function of time. The signal is shifted in a serial-to-parallel register, then applied to the columns one row at a time. The shift register, associated electronics, and column drivers are now made in LSI MOS chips in sizes sufficient to drive 180 or more columns per chip at one time. Recently, there has been significant research to simultaneously address all the rows and all the columns of an FPD. The most recent work has been published [7] and successfully demonstrated by In Focus Systems and Motif, Inc. and was coined by In Focus as active addressing. Previous work on multiple row addressing was published by Bell Labs [SI and Optrex [9]. The key to the concept is the use of a set of orthogonal functions for the row signals. This method is acceptable to LCDs because the LC molecular rotating movement is proportional to the rms value of the voltage applied to the pixel capacitor. The rotation of the LC molecule affects the optical retardation properties of the display and, therefore, transmittance of light for image contrast.
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The primary motivation for active addressing, as opposed to line-at-a-time matrix addressing, is to speed up the response of the passive LCD at the cost of added pre-processing of the display drive signal to make passive LCDs more performance-competitivewith AMLCDs. Both Optrex and Motif13 have demonstrated approximately a four-fold increase in speed for a 20% increase in cost, while viewing angle and contrast remain the same. The cross coupling in matrix addressing is difficult to describe and compute without resorting to writing all the loop and node equations based on Kirchoffs Laws, and solving the equations with matrix algebra. However, the equations are simplified by observing that all the pixels (loops) have identical impedance and all the row and column electrodes (nodes) can be assumed to have zero impedance. If the pixels did not have identical impedance, and if the electrodes had a significant impedance, the displayed image would not be uniform, In FPDs cross coupling degrades the image directly. The image is seen by the viewer because there is a luminance contrast difference between the pixels. This is usually characterized as the contrast ratio of the luminance of the pixel commanded on to a neighboring pixel commanded off. The maximum contrast ratio can be shown to be inversely proportional to the number of rows in the array, and independent of the number of columns, so long as the columns are addressed in parallel. Further it can be shown that there is nothing that can be done in the external circuit to minimize the cross coupling beyond making the voltage applied to all off pixels, onethird that of the on pixels. This can best be seen by drawing a loop and node diagram of the entire matrixaddressed array and tying all the common nodes together.14 The minimum effect of cross coupling is directly proportional to the response of the pixel intended to be off, times the number of rows in the display panel when using lineat-a-time addressing and optimum voltages. The off pixel looks more and more like an on pixel as the number of rows increase; thus the contrast ratio becomes smaller and smaller, which directly degrades the quality of the image. To minimize the impact of cross coupling, display material is selected which has little or no response at the crosscoupled voltage. This is why thin-film EL, argon-neon gas mixture, and LEDs make good FPD materials. The response of a cross-coupled EL pixel i s down by as much as six orders of magnitude, gas mixes have a threshold voltage and do not respond at the crosscoupled voltage, and LEDs have minimal conduction when reverse-biased. (At least one reverse-biased pixel occurs in every cross-coupling current loop.) Further, TN LC, electrochromic, electrophoretic, powder EL, cathodoluminescent, incandescent, and many other technologies do not work well in matrix-addressed displays because these
I2JES93. l3 Flat Information Display Conference and Exhibition, December, 1993, Santa Clara, CA. 14There is not sufficent space in this paper to develop the proof. A complete description of this analysis is given in [3, ch. 51. PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 82, NO. 4, APRIL 1994

materials have a nearly linear response with applied voltage. A switch, like a TFT, or a nonlinearity, like MIM diode, is added at each pixel intemal to the panel to accomplish matrix addressing with such technologies. Over the years, this cross-coupling problem has led to many false promises in the display device industry. Typically, a display breadboard of a small number of rows and columns is made and successfully operated with insignificant cross coupling. The severity of cross coupling only becomes apparent when the full-scale display with all rows operating is made and demonstrated.
C . Duty Cycle

The second major issue with FFDs is the duty cycle or the time spent tuming on a pixel or a row of pixels. In a CRT the duty cycle is the time that the electron beam excites the area of the phosphor associated with one pixel. In a raster-scan CRT, the pixels are addressed sequentially. The duty cycle is then the reciprocal of the product of the number of pixels in each scan line, and the number of scan lines in the raster. Thus for a CRT displaying VGA format (640x480) at 72 frames/s, the duty cycle is 1/(640x480) = 3 . 2 6 ~ 1 0 ~ ~ dwell time on and the each pixel is ( 3 . 2 6 ~ / 72 = 46 ns. Fortunately, CRT phosphors can absorb sufficient energy during this short dwell time to emit light. The resulting light is actually emitted long after the beam leaves the area during a period of time called persistence.FPDs, in general, also respond with a delayed optical effect.15 The duty cycle of FPDs is made significantly greater than that of CRTs by addressing the columns in parallel. As a consequence, the FPD dwell time for the VGA problem above is 640 times longer, or 29 ps. This is fortunate because it takes a minimum of approximately 20 ps to tum on ELD and PDP pixels. This is purely a materials issue and cannot be altered significantly by the electronics.
D. Luminous Eficiency

PDP materials are not as good in this category as ELD materials. The primary gas mixture used for monochrome displays has been neon, typically combined with 0.1 % argon, called the Penning Mixture. The efficiency is less than 1 lm/W and luminance in a display application is less than 100 cd/m2. The new color plasma display demonstrated by Fujitsu at JES93 has an efficacy of 0.7 lm/W and luminance of 35 cd/m2. Photonics has also demonstrated a 19 diagonal inch color PDP with VGA resolution with similar efficiency. The luminous efficiency of LCDs is much higher since they can be used in the reflective mode without a backlight. The color versions need a backlight due to the absorption of the pixel color filters and polarizers, which reduces the transmittance of an AMLCD to approximately 4%. Highly efficient fluorescent lamps that have a luminous efficiency of over 55 lm/W are typically used in consumer products. In both LCD cases, the brightness can be made at any level, independent of the LCD panel, by simply increasing the intensity of the backlight. This gives a net luminous efficiency of 2.2 lm/W in color, which exceeds all other display technologies including CRTs under similar performance conditions.
E. Ambient Illumination

To the electronic displays engineer, the most perplexing installation problem is the impact of the ambient illumination reflecting off the display surface. The ambient illumination can be very high when compared to the emitted luminance. At the display surface, the reflected ambient illumination is added to the emitted luminance which inevitably reduces the contrast ratio. In equation form Contrast Ratio = Lotf

Lo,

+ Reflections + Reflections

The display materials efficiency is a major issue. It has been a continuous challenge to make displays as bright and efficient as possible. It tums out that, for FPDs, there are only a few materials that qualify and are also matrixaddressable. The material must also have a high response speed because of the duty cycle consideration. Thus far, in the case of ELDs, zinc sulfide activated with manganese has been the only successful thin-film EL material in production. It has a basic material efficiency of approximately four lumens per watt in monochrome and luminance in a display of about 90 candelas per square meter with a yellow-range color centered at 583 nm. There is promise of new materials since so many combinations and types of hosts and activators exist. Planar demonstrated a prototype color ELD at SID93 held in Seattle, WA. However, this display is not ready for production due to limited efficiency and brightness of the blue phosphor, among other things.
15Theone exception is LED technology. TANNAS: EVOLUTION OF FLAT-PANEL DISPLAYS

where Lo, is the displays emitted luminance of the on pixel and Lotf is the luminance of the off pixel. The luminance of the off pixel is due to cross coupling and intemal light scattering and light piping. The reflections are the same, regardless of whether a pixel is on or off. The first surface reflections are typically 4% due to the mismatch of the indices of refraction between air and glass which can be minimized with antireflection coatings using an index-tapered sequence of thin films. However, this is only the first of many surfaces in a typical display. In CRTs the major problem is phosphor itself, which is an excellent Lambertian reflector with typical reflectivity of 70%. This is the principal reason why CRTs cannot be used in the bright outdoors without special filters and additional power. The classical displays engineers technique to counteract high ambient illumination is to use antireflective coatings for the first surface and neutral density filters for intemal reflections. The neutral density filter always helps the contrast ratio, as the ambient illumination must pass through the filter twice-once going in and once when reflected back-whereas the emitted luminance need only pass through the neutral density filter once going out. The problem with this approach is that the display now gets
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dimmer. The classical solution is to increase the emitted luminance. The consequence is a larger power requirement, shorter life, etc., and the solution works well up to the point where the display cannot produce enough luminance to be readable at the highest illumination. The second technique to get further contrast ratio improvements is to use narrow-band-emission phosphors for the display and a notch filter to match the emission of the display. This technique, using P43 phosphor, was a breakthrough necessary to make avionic CRTs readable in direct sunlight. A third technique used often in LED, VF, EL, and PDP FPDs is to use a circular polarizer that traps much of the reflected ambient illumination due to a phase shift of 180 of the incoming light at the reflecting surface. In general, a combination of antireflective coatings, neutral density filtering, notch filtering, and circular polarizers is used. These techniques improve a display after it has been optically cleaned up, i.e., had all reflections stopped to the greatest extent possible. One of the most effective cleanups is a black matrix used to blacken all the nonemitting areas between the pixels. A black matrix is now used on most displays. Most of the other cleanup techniques one can imagine, such as using a black layer behind the ELD transparent phosphors, black phosphors for any display using phosphors, black dielectrics, black electrodes, etc., have never been fully realized due to fundamental materials issues of dielectrics and conductors. When compared to all other emitting displays, backlit LCDs are unique. Liquid-crystal displays are blackabsorbing displays because they use polarizers front and back. As such, they cannot benefit from neutral density filtering, notch filtering, or circular polarizers. The contrast ratio is achieved through the difference between absorbed and transmitted light. The light can be transmitted from a continuously emitting backlight, reflected ambient illumination, or both. Each of the color filters of an LCD acts like a switchable notch filter and renders an LCD highly immune to ambient illumination. Liquid-crystal displays act like printed inks on a contrasting background in the reflecting mode. In the transmissive mode, the backlights luminance can be increased independent of the image on the LCD to an almost unlimited degree. This immunity to ambient illumination is the single most important performance advantage of LCDs over all other emitting displays.

nonlinear pixel response, which is the exact opposite of the response required to achieve good gray shades. Liquid-crystal displays respond differently than other light-emitting FFDs. Good-quality saturated colors in LCDs are achieved through the combination of narrowband emitting backlights and color filters. Several shades of gray can be achieved through a combination of amplitude, pulsewidth, and frequency modulation to overcome the nonlinear pixel response of passive LCDs. Full color has only been achieved recently by one mode of FPD, the a-Si TFT AMLCD. The active matrix uses a TFT at each subpixel primary color (red, green, and blue). Several manufacturers used this mode of LCD to demonstrate a full 16 million colors, for the first time, at JES93. The AMLCD can display full color because the TFT at each subpixel acts as a switch to provide sufficient nonlinearity for matrix addressing. When the switch is tumed on by a row line, the pixel capacitance is charged linearly, and the TN mode of the LCD is used and responds in proportion to the rms voltage. A gamma correction curve is used in the buffering electronics to optimally linearize the LC pixel response. DISPLAYS VII. SUCCESSES OF LIQUID-CRYSTAL Over the years, LCDs have evolved as the leading FPD technology. They are used at all market levels, at all but the very largest sizes, at all but the very highest resolutions, and at all performance levels achievable by any FPD. The chronology is as follows: 1972-hand-held calculators; 1973-clocks; 197Lmultimeters, gas pumps, fish finders; 1977-wrist watches; 1978-avionic numerics; 1980-small monochrome portable TVs; 1985-small color portable TVs; 1987-monochrome personal computers; 199l-color portable personal computers; 1993-HIC color avionics. Only in the last five years have they become the dominant HIC FPD. Initially, LCDs were used for their sunlight readability in reflective mode operating at extremely low power. It was not until the late 1980s that the industry made a cultural shift and added backlighting for a significant improvement in brightness at the cost of significantly greater power. This was a major tuming point for LCDs. The combination of improved matrix addressing and the addition of backlights means that LCDs can be produced with brightness and contrast equal to any other display, including the CRT. At the same time, LCDs maintain their immunity to high ambient illumination. At first, the use of the backlight was a great impediment. In addition to causing LCDs to use just as much power as other displays, it added weight and thickness. However, a new lighting segment to the industry has developed to counteract these negative aspects. Backlights are now manufactured less than 3 mm thick and have over 55-lm/W efficacy, using flat fluorescent lamps and flat waveguides to uniformly distribute the light over the area of the display. Further, the use of tri-band phosphors in fluorescent light has the ideal spectral emissions matching the color filters of LCDs.
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F . Color and Gray Shades

It is the consensus of the display user community, that a full-color display must have three highly saturated primaries of red, green, and blue and that each primary color must have 256 shades (8 b), for 16 million colors (24 b). Full color is easily achieved with modem CRTs, but it is extremely difficult in FPD technologies. The reasons are two-fold: 1) the basic materials necessary to emit all three saturated primaries satisfactorily are not available in any of the FPD technologies, and 2) mamx addressing requires
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The second major issue with LCDs is the viewing angle. This is a consequence of the optics of the phenomenon involved. Ten to one contrast ratio performance is typically 45 to the right and left in the horizontal, +30 to -10 in the vertical, quite adequate to the single viewer, but limited for multiple viewers. This has been a definite problem in aircraft panels where the pilot must see the copilots displays and visa versa and in automotive displays where all passengers may want to see the display. The AMLCD manufacturers are exploring new techniques for increasing the viewing angle. The extraordinary methods include half-tone pixel, molecular arrangement for multi-domain pixels, and multiple rubbing for dual-domain pixels. These techniques can potentially double the viewing cone. The third area which could use some improvement is the response speed. The speed of STN LCD is presently too slow for video and games, but fast enough for graphics, word processing, and general computer-generated images. The speed and performance of STN LCDs is better for smaller row counts because of less cross coupling. AMLCDs are fast enough for video games, thus there is a significant performance and market application separation between STN and AMLCDs, with a commensurate cost difference. Displays engineers and researchers are challenged to improve the speed and performance of STN LCDs to approach that of AMLCDs without significantly increasing the cost. So far, this is done principally by multiple row addressing and electronically operating the display as a split screen to reduce the number of effective rows. However, the personal computer industry, which is, at present, the main customer and benefactor for these new displays, is quick to point out that the speed or viewing angle should not be improved if it increases cost. Cost is the single most important issue today. It will not improve as long as the industry is production-limited. However, in Japan, the consensus is that, by 1996, the color 10-in VGA AMLCD will cost $600.00 each, in large volume. VIII. CONSUMER PRODUCTS In spite of their problems, the principal impact of FPDs has been to enable the creation of new products only previously dreamed of a hand-held calculator more powerful than a mainframe computer of the 1950s, that can fit into ones pocket; a wristwatch that can run for years on a small battery; portable televisions and VCRs; a personal computer that can fit into the palm of ones hand; electronic games, translators, personal digital assistants, etc. (see Fig. 3). The evolution of the color AMLCD is now at a point where it can display a sufficiently detailed color map at a cost commensurate for use in aircraft, automotive,
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Fig. 3. A powerful information tool for the new age of computing, the Expert Pad PI-7000 from Sharp Electronics Corporation is an intelligent assistant which makes information management and communications easier than ever. The STN-type LCD is used in the reflective mode, making it highly sunlight-readable and extremely low-power for maximum portability.

Fig. 4. An advanced portable global positioning system (GPS). Sony Electronics has introduced the Pyxis IPS-760 intelligent positioning system for marine and aviation applications. A low-power STN-type LCD is used in optimizing portability and sunlight readability.

and recreational applications. The navigational aspects are facilitated by global positioning satellites. The map pages will be facilitated by a laser disc. Such a system has been made in prototype form and is expected to be in highvolume production within a year. In Japan, production systems are now in use and available to consumers in Akihabara for $2000.00, as shown in Fig. 4. AMLCDs have also impacted the avionics industry. In the cockpit of a typical aircraft, there are many different instruments (engine instruments, radar displays, altimeters, directional gyros, etc.) made by many different manufacturers, using many different technologies. All these instruments may be replaced with an AMLCD-based instrument which, in conjunction with software, will look and function like the old altimeter, radar, or directional gyro. The utility of this is that now all the instruments are functionally and mechanically interchangeable, reducing
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Fig. 5. Sharp Corporation has developed the worlds first wide-vision multimedia 16.5-in color (16.7 million tones) TFT LCD with an RGB pixel resolution of 480x853 (1 228320 addressable dots). This is the first direct-view LCD in the HDTV aspect ratio to be demonstrated. No date has been announced for availability of samples.

part numbers, increasing cockpit instrument redundancy, and improving reliability. Over the next ten years the entire aviation avionics industry will be reshaped by this new AMLC FPD technological application. The new personal communicator will be changing our whole way of communicating and accessing data. The integration of the cellular telephone, personal computer, and satellite datalink with improved FPDs and inpudoutput devices will have incalculable influence on our lives. IX. S U M M Y AND HDTV The state of the art of the most advanced FPD is, perhaps, exemplified by the general-purpose AMLCD as shown by Sharp at JES93 (Fig. 5). It is targeted for the personal portable computer market. At the same show, Sharp demonstrated a 17-in diagonal color AMLCD with 1024x 1280 lines of resolution targeted for the personal portable workstation with multimedia capability. Fujitsu showed a 21-in color PDP with 640x480 lines of resolution, targeted for large workstations and production scheduled for 1994. Other companies have shown similar displays. Sharp, now the leader in the LCD market, announced they were investing another $750 M to upgrade and expand their production facility in Tenri and start construction on a new AMLCD plant in Mie Prefecture. By March of 1994, Sharp expects to yield 200 OOO AMLCD color 10-in displays per month. A . HDTV Display The next challenge, the HDTV display, presents another level of technical complexity beyond the personal portable computer display. Today, we do not yet have a consumer priced NTSC Picture on the Wall, much less an HDTV version. Sharp marketed a TV Picture on the Wall, using an 8.4-in color AMLCD, for approximately $8.5 K in 1992; but, the viewing angle is limited and the cost is
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too high. There are only three candidate direct-view FPD approaches for HDTV under development today, which are summarized below. There are several FPD projector style HDTVs developed by Sharp, Sanyo, Seiko-Epson, Texas Instruments, and others, which are discussed in another article in this issue. In Japan, there are two major direct-view FPD thrusts for flat-panel HDTV displays: 1) the NHK plasma panel approach and 2) the GEC (Giant Electronics Company) Consortium approach using polysilicon TFTs in AMLCDs. The NHK plasma approach uses dc gas discharge to generate UV which then excites color-emitting phosphors. Three phosphors are used for each pixel-ne each for red, green, and blue-using spatial color.16 NHK has made several large panels for demonstration purposes. Matsushita has packaged the NHK panels and attached the drive electronics so they can display HDTV imagery. The plasma approach has the advantage that the large (40-to 60in diagonal) display can be made using screen printing technology. However, the panels presently have a luminous efficiency of significantly less than 1 lm/W and low luminance. (Researchers are concentrating on improving the luminous efficiency and luminance, and some progress has been demonstrated by Fujitsu and Photonics.) Also, the phosphor and phosphor protective shield are potentially degraded by the gas discharge reactants and UV radiation. Matsushita demonstrated a 40-in color HDTV with nearly full resolution at JES93. The most detrimental attribute of all color plasma panels is the low luminous efficiency. There need to be significant materials advances before plasma can be advanced. The plasma technology has been stalled here for a prolonged period and most avenues of relief appear exhausted. The Hitachi-led GEC consortium, along with MITI support, uses a precision printing approach to make the TFTs for the AMLCD. The initial concept was to make a 40in panel using polysilicon as the semiconductor of the AMLCD TFTs. The ultimate hope would be to print the peripheral row and column drivers at the same time the TFTs are printed. The printing of the TFTs to the precision required over a large area is difficult and beyond the present state of the art. While researchers have successfully printed small arrays of pixels, the original schedule to make a 40-in panel by 1994 has been reduced to making a 20-in section of the full panel for demonstration and evaluation. A third approach, by Tektronix, called plasma-addressed liquid-crystal (PALC) display, has great promise as a direct-view HDTV FPD. Tektronix made an excellent demonstration of a 16-in version of their concept at SID93. The display used a non-light-emittinggas discharge array of row lines in a back plane that is the source of electrons for enabling a row at a time in a conventional matrix addressing technique. The LC and color filters are located in the front plane and addressed through column electrodes. The gas
I6Spatial color is achieved by dividing the pixel area into typically three subpixels, one each for red, green, and blue. The subpixels are so small that, at the nominal viewing distance, they are not resolvable.
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discharge generates a row line of available charges which is attracted to a common glass plate when any column is addressed to tum on an LCD pixel. The charge collects on the plate and keeps the LC pixel on until the scan retums. The entire display is backlit with a fluorescent lamp. The PALC display has several characteristics making it appropriate for HDTV. There is no conventional cross coupling since the row addressing and column addressing are not electrically interconnected. All the circuitry of the panel can be screen-printed to keep manufacturing costs down. There is minimal technical risk as the gas discharge and the TN LC phenomena are well understood. On the other hand, the intermediate glass plane is difficult to make thin enough to keep the voltage down, and the backlight transmittance is lower than desired.

REFERENCES
MITI data as published by Dempa Publications Inc., in Japan Electronics Almanac9394. Private conversation with K. Odawaro, Hitachi Ltd. Flat Panel Displays and CRTs, L. E. Tannas, Jr., Ed. New York Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985. JTEC Report on Display Technology in Japan, 1992; W Z S Rep. PB92- 100247. T. J. Scheffer and J. Nehring, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 45, p. 1021, 1984. S. Morozumi et al., B/S and color LC video display addressed by poly-Si TITS, in SID 83 Dig. T. Scheffer and B. Clifton, Active addressing method for high-contrast video-rate STN display, in SID 92 Dig. J. Nehring and A. Kmetz, Ultimate limits for matrix addressing of rms responding liquid crystal displays, IEEE Trans.Electron Devices, vol. ED-26, pp. 795-802, 1979. 93 Japan Electronics Show Demonstration and Reports, Research Lab., Asahi Glass Co., Ltd., vol. 43, no. 1, 1993. Ibid., pp. 106112. J. Hirate et al., Viewing angle evaluation method for LCDs with gray scale images, in SID93 Dig., pp. 561-564, 1993.

B . HDTV Summary The path to the development of a consumer-pricedHDTV display by any means has not been identified. In Japan, where HDTV is operational, the 33-in direct-view CRT HDTV displays are now being sold for $8 K with MUSE decoders. For HDTV to be a consumer success the marketing consensus is that the TV set must cost less the $4 K. Also, to be successful in the U.S. (based on room size and geometry) the image should be 60-in on diagonal. The display should have a resolution of approximately 1000 rows by 1500 columns, with an aspect ratio of 9:16, which corresponds to the nominal standards in vogue today. At present, it can clearly be said that the next identifiable frontier in displays is the HDTV display. There is a favored solution to HDTV-that it be flat and that it hang on the wall. However, the most feasible technical approach is in projection both rear and front and the leading technology is the CRT. Significant research is being applied to polysilicon TFT AMLCD. Sharp made the first ever public demonstration of polysilicon TFT AMLCD (1.3in substrate) HDTV projector at JES93. No details were available. Stay tuned.

Lawrence E. Tannas, Jr. (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.S.E.E. degree in 1959 and the M.S.E.E. degree in 1960, both from the University of Califomia in Los Angeles. Prior to 1983, he worked as an individual contributor and engineering manager at the GE Research Laboratories, Honeywell, Martin Marietta, Rockwell Intemational, and Aerojet ElectroSystems. Since 1983 he has been President of Tannas Electronics,an intemational independent consultant and lecturer on electronic information displays, consulting on technology, market studies, and designs. For the past ten years, he has consulted and given seminars for numerous Fortune 500 companies, govemment agencies, and universities. He recently served as a member and Co-chairman of US.National Science Foundation Committee to study Japans displays industry and as an expert witness before the U.S. IntemationalTrade Commission. For over ten years he has organized and taught a series of Displays Engineering short courses at UCLA. He has been awarded six patents, a NASA Disclosure, and a NASA Certificate of Recognition. In addition to the publication of numerous technical papers in various proceedings, digests, and joumals, he is the editor of the book Flar-Panel Displays and CRTs, published in 1985 by Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York. Mr. Tannas is a fellow and past president of the Society for Information Display (SID). Additionally, he is a Member of AIAA, SPIE, IS&T, AVS, Human Factors Society, and others.

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