Samsung Develops Credit Card Thin Mobile LCD Panel
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. on Tuesday announced that it has developed the world’s slimmest mobile liquid crystal display (LCD) panel, as thin as a credit card at 0.82 mm.
Available in 2.1-inch and 2.2 inch-diagonal screen sizes, the recently announced LCD is further 0.07mm thinner than the panel previously reported to be the world’s slimmest, such as Toshiba's 0.99mm and LG Phillips' 1.3mm LCDs.
The Korean electronics company has also announced a new mobile technology, called "i-Lens" that the company will use to unify all the components of the panel including a protective layer, into a single, slimmer module that is designed to be more shock-resistant and easily readable than its previous panels.
According to Yun Jin-hyuk, Executive Vice President of the Mobile Display Team at Samsung Electronics, company's “R&D initiatives, including LCD module thickness reduction and reinforced shock resistance, will enable our customers to develop truly differentiated and more reliable, ultra-thin mobile products.”
The new LCD features qVGA (240 pixels horizontal by 320 rows vertical) resolution, 300nit brightness and a 500:1 contrast ratio, and reportedly protects the mobile phone's main display better than earlier LCDs.
In Samsung’s i-Lens technology a shock-resistant sheet is attached directly to the LCD module, reducing the thickness of LCD module to only 0.82mm. This technology eliminates the sunlight reflection problems that occur particularly due to the use of reinforced plastic.
Today, most of the mobile phone screens leave 2 to 3mm space above the panel before attaching a reinforced plastic sheet to protect the LCD module. But Samsung’s latest i-Lens technology eliminates the space between it and the panel surface, and also improves its shock resistance and readability.
Moreover, after deploying the new technology, the mobile manufacturers will be able to trim 1.4mm to 2.4mm off the thickness of a mobile phone.
Headquartered in Seoul, Korea, Samsung Electronics is one of the largest electronics companies in the world, and is part of the Samsung Group.
Mass production of the panel is slated to begin in the second half of Year 2007.
