Thinnest LCD Will Shave 2mm Off Phones

Written by Adam Gosling

Saturday, 25 November 2006

Samsung has gone back to the drawing board with LCD technology and come up with a way manufacturers can shave  up to 2.4mm of the thickness of a mobile phone. As we've said before here at mobilised , Samsung Electronics are masters at thin. And now the company has done it again, albeit with a screen that's not yet in full production. Calling it's latest R&D project the world's thinnest reported LCD panel. It's no thicker than a credit card, the latest LCD out of the lab is only a shade slimmer than the world's previous best, but the development will result in thinner mobile and cell phones, by a fair margin. That's because Samsung has also uncovered a new technology that will reduce the thickness of mobile phones by a few millimetres by changing the way they are constructed. Typically, the LCD screen on a mobile device is has a protective plastic sheet placed two or three mm above it. Samsung plans to get rid of this wasted space, basically by mounting the protective panel directly on the LCD. The company calls the new process i-Lens. That's the secret of getting the thickness of its latest LCD module down to 0.82mm, which is 0.07mm thinner than the panel previously reported to be the world's slimmest. Samsung says the new technology not only makes the LCD module thinner, it is more shock-resistant and easier to read. This is especially so in bright sunlight where the reinforced plastic panels usually used suffer from reflection when outdoors. While the new LCD panels won't go into full production until the second half of next year, using the new technology will allow handset manufacturers to trim an additional 1.4 to 2.4mm from the thickness of a mobile phone, says Samsung. The screens are available in two sizes; 2.1-inch and 2.2-inch at qVGA (240 x 320 pixels) resolution, 300nit brightness and a 500:1 contrast ratio. Executive Vice President Yun Jin-hyuk, in charge of the Mobile Display Team within the Samsung Electronics LCD Business division, said," Samsung'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." Related news items Armani, Prada, Labels Get Mobile -26/09/2007 Leather-Bound ThinkPad Has Its Own Nerd -06/09/2007 Onair Receives Green Light For First Inflight Mobile Phone System -24/06/2007 Samsung Quits Notebook Business -29/01/2007 Broadcom Could Benefit From Bluetooth Case -04/01/2007 Newer news items Qantas Gets Go Ahead For Cell Phone Trial -18/04/2007 Google Presentations App Has Melbourne Links -17/04/2007 Now That's A Travel Router -16/04/2007 iPhone Too Pricey For Masses? -25/02/2007 China Heading Straight For 4G? -29/01/2007 Older news items Ultimate Wireless: Cableless Recharging -15/11/2006 Mobile Subscribers To Reach 2.6 Billion -14/11/2006 Emirates First Airline To Allow In-Flight Mobiles -12/11/2006 Vodafone Says Okay To Windows Mobile -09/11/2006 Future Mobile: Samsung P9000 -07/11/2006 Tag This Now: