Viewpoints

About This Technology

For many years, information-system designers have sought a thin, flat, low-power device to display video and computer-generated images. Researchers have invented many flat-panel-display technologies, but only a handful—LCDs, plasma displays, organic light-emitting–diode displays, and paperlike (or e-paper) displays have achieved commercial viability. Flat-panel technology is a fundamental part of mainstream telecommunication, computing, and home-entertainment products.

Use of flat-panel displays has spread across multiple industries, thanks to their thin profiles, low energy consumption, and portability. For example, one of the foremost applications for FPDs is the television because flat-panel televisions are typically lighter than their CRT counterparts and have smaller footprints. Also, the demand for ever-larger televisions has helped to drive down production costs because the capacity to produce one large glass panel can also cheaply produce several smaller ones. Additionally, vehicle makers frequently use LCDs and PDPs as instrumentation panels—as opposed to analog dials—because FPDs can show different types of information and thus show more information overall. Computers makers have long favored LCDs because they have small footprints, are generally more visually attractive, and enable the development of portable laptop and notebook computers. Makers of office and industrial equipment often use an FPD as part of a machine's interface to provide immediate user feedback and to avoid the problems with worn etched or silk-screen labels. FPDs have also enabled the development of handheld mobile devices, such as portable media players, mobile phones, and now smartphones and tablet computers.

Today, FPDs have gained mainstream acceptance. As the price of LCD technology continues to fall, consumers have decided that flat-panel technology is at last affordable. Yet manufacturers cannot sustain price decreases indefinitely, and how they react to this fact will set the tone for the general deployment of FPD technology. LCD technology is and will continue in the foreseeable future to be the dominant FPD technology, in terms of both volume and revenue. The increasing adoption of OLED displays by mobile-handset and handheld-device manufacturers will help to push technology development forward, leading to a large-area OLED display. In addition, the emergence of e-paper displays in applications such as electronic signage, smart cards, retail-counter tags, electronic-document readers, and other paper replacements adds to the diversity and will be a boost for the overall FPD industry. These developments, along with complementary research into fundamental display electronics, will ensure that FPDs become an increasingly familiar and important part of people's business, entertainment, and daily lives.