Electronicsweekly: Polymer Vision is a spinout from Philips and Technology Capital has invested E21 million in Polymer Vision becoming the major shareholder. The other main shareholder is Philips with 20%. Volume production of Polymer Vision’s 5″ monochrome rollable display will start in 2007. Polymer Vision will operate from its location at the High Tech Campus, Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Polymer Vision has developed a rollable electronic display that can be rolled out to a greater size than the actual device itself. The display is sunlight readable and consumes very little power compared to LCDs with a backlight.
Polymer Vision: Polymer Vision, a Philips spin-off, will work with Innos to build 5″ flexible displays made of plastic. This was announced on January 24. The 5″ flexible display is based on organic semiconductor technology and is rollable. Manufacturing will commence in 2007. Final qualification will be held in Innos’ Southampton, UK location where the company has already begun installing equipment. To rapidly ramp volume production in 2007, mainstream TFT equipment will be used.
Personally, I prefer rectangle-shaped devices to cylinders. But I am sure there will be product designs that will simply allow for a larger rollable display to be incorporated into today’s rectangle-shaped mobile devices. It would be quite beneficial if I had the ability to extend the display out from a 2″ LCD to form a 5″ display.
CCTV: According to China’s Ministry of Information Industry (MII), China manufactured 7.12 million LCD TVs in the first ten months of 2006, which is an 124% increase from the same period in 2005. The 7.12 million LCD TVs accounted for 9.7% of the total output of color TVs, up 5.3% from 2005. A total of 73.25 million color TVs were manufactured from January through October 2005. Rear projection TVs (RPTVs) rose 31%, while plasma display panel (PDP) TVs decreased 15.4%. With all display technologies combined, China was the world’s largest manufacturer of color TVs with over 50% of the world’s color TVs.
This no surprise at all since China has continued to consolidate the world’s manufacturing capability for all kinds of electronics. Although Chinese labor has continued to increase, the cost of labor is extremely cheap relative to anywhere else in the world. With infrastructure developments such as reliable transportation, water and electricity, China will continue to become the manufacturing center for most anything.
SeekingAlpha: Taiwan-based manufacturer of LCDs, AU Optronics (AUO) is reported to have recruited a team of specialists to manufacture thin-film solar cells. Solar cell manufacturing is similar in nature and would only require an investment of $7.7 million to produce thin-film solar cells on a glass substrate base line. Many companies, some small and some very large, have realized the potential of solar energy:
- Applied Materials
- Cypress Semiconductor via Sunpower Corp.
- Boeing’s Spectrolab Inc.: Recently announced 40% efficiency in converting sun’s energy into electricity.
- General Electric
- British Petroleum
- Shell
- Sharp
- Kyocera
- Suntech Power (China)
- Q-Cells (Germany)
Although there will always be market conditions that lead to an oversupply of LCD manufacturing capacity, to assume that transitioning from manufacturing LCDs to solar cells will be nothing less than extremely difficult can be described as quite optimistic. There will be a long period between the commencement of solar cell manufacturing R&D and actual volume production. However, there is no doubt there is synergy between solar cell manufacturing and the current equipment infrastructure to produce millions of square meters of LCD glass and LCDs.
Update: AUO has denied that it is entering the solar cell manufacturing business.
Dell E228WFP Specifications
Display: 22″ Wide TFT LCD
Aspect Ratio: 16:10
Pixel Format: 1680 x 1050
Contrast Ratio: 800:1
Brightness: 300 cd/m2
Response Time: 5ms
Viewing Angle: 160/160
Connectivity: DVI-D with HDCP, VGA
Power Consumption: 38.1 – 40.6W (Operational), <2W (Standby)
Dimensions: 20.12 x 16.1 x 5.87″ (51.11 x 40.91 x 14.92 cm)
Weight: 15.41lbs (7kg)
Dell‘s E228WFP is a 22″ wide LCD monitor with a 1680 x 1050 pixel format, the same as Dell’s 20″ wide offerings. The price of $329 is very aggressive though you do get what you pay for. You see, the 22″ LCD panel that is being used is of a TN+Film variety that allows for much lower price points. The use of more advanced display technologies such as IPS or PVA would have meant a higher price. The E228WFP includes a DVI with HDCP input. I would personally pass on this and simply get the 20″ wide with IPS.
Source: Dell via Engadget
[tags]Dell, Dell E228WFP, LCD Monitor, 22″ LCD Monitor, 1680 x 1050[/tags]