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LCD With No Backlight Saves Power

Written by Yoni Levinson on 19/11/08



Japanese electronics manufacturer Funai has developed an LCD technology that does not require a backlight. Conventional LCDs produce images by shining a light through each liquid crystal pixel, and so the light source is mounted from behind. Funai’s technology, however, allows outside light (sunlight, for example) to enter the LCD and reflect back out. As the light exits, the display lights up as if it were lit from behind.

Funai claims that this reduces electricity consumption to .16 mW per square centimeter – only 1% of the electricity consumed by a conventional LCD. The clarity of the image is reportedly good, and the reflective technology means that this new display is significantly clearer in sunlight, which is normally a challenge with most LCDs.

Commercialization of this screen is aimed for next year.

Via GoodCleanTech, Crunchgear
Image via Creative Commons

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.16 megawatts per square cm?
written by FluxCapacitor, November 19, 2008
Maybe you mean .16 watts per square cm? smilies/cool.gif I think that 1/8 of a megawatt for a 1 cm display would actually be quite a lot of power. Lake Powell could just about run my TV.
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written by Space, November 19, 2008
it's probably 0.16 mW.
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written by Ivan, November 19, 2008
yeah, must be mW... (ahm, guys, mW is not MW smilies/cheesy.gif)
i mean, it's like NOT GEEKY AT ALL to be off by six orders of magnitutde...
that's like, blonde-waitress/football-jock ungeeky!
kidding...
but seriously... milli and Mega... should be kinda clear on a geek blog...
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written by Space, November 19, 2008
it's nine orders of magnitude, not six
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written by Clinch, November 19, 2008
LCD's have never required a backlight, my old calculator from school (10 years old) never had any backlight.

So what exactly is the new development here then? Are they just using more reflective materials for the backing than they've used before?
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I think we've seen this sort of thing be
written by Matt Simmons, November 19, 2008
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Ah crap
written by Matt Simmons, November 19, 2008
Sorry I broke it.
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Finally!
written by Kris, November 19, 2008
Finally! I've always hated having to rely on backlighting, especially when I'm using a laptop which doesn't have a LCD-off button/option (leaving only closing the lid).

I wonder how the display would work in dim-light/darkness. Maybe there's a backlight option for such cases.

And yeah, it's 9 orders of magnitude. Almost slipped up, myself: 1 mW = 10^-3 W, 1 MW = 10^6 W.
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written by EV, November 19, 2008
No backlight? Is it still readable? If so, I thought we called it e-Paper?
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Calculators
written by David Keech, November 26, 2008
I don't think this is referring to calculators but rather more current technology such as the displays on mobile phones and handheld games like the Nintendo DS.

Oh, and Matt Simmons: You SURE did. :-P

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