Chapter 357 Another Golden Mountain
In the SIC building, Professors Shirakawa Kaedemasa, Shirakawa Hideki and Hosono Hideo were buried in their desks.
“Just from a visual point of view, the display effect has indeed been greatly improved.
At least by changing the angle, there won’t be any ghosting that interferes with the visual effect.”
What is in front of Shirakawa Feng at this moment is the latest achievement of the LCD R&D department here at SIC, STN-LCD.
At first glance, the most obvious difference between it and the previous TN-LCD is that the panel base color is yellow-green.
In addition, the panel does not have the digital ghosting that is pre-engraved on TN-LCD, so it looks smooth even under the light.
Because the screen response time is long and the contrast is low, TN-LCD has the desired pattern engraved on the substrate at the beginning of production.
This way the pattern will respond quickly when power is applied.
However, the disadvantage is that if you tilt the screen to an angle, you can clearly see the ghost image that was engraved in advance.
Regardless of whether the power is on or not, the existence of ghosting greatly affects the visual effect.
Now STN-LCD has improved all these shortcomings, and the screen panel looks much clearer instantly.
“Although STN is still a passive twisted matrix, the rotation angle of the liquid crystal molecules has exceeded 180 degrees through the action of the electric field, reaching a twist angle of 240 to 270 degrees.
In addition, in the process of the electric field repeatedly changing the voltage, the recovery process of each pixel is slow, thus producing afterglow.
This brings an obvious advantage, which is that it consumes less power, and power saving will be its biggest advantage.”
Hideki Shirakawa pointed at the pattern that appeared on the screen and explained to Kaede Shirakawa in detail the working principle and advantages of STN-LCD.
Its implementation method was inspired by Shirakawa Kaede's original idea. It is mainly composed of two pieces of conductive glass, liquid crystal in the middle, and a polarizer on the upper surface.
In addition to these, there is also a backlight panel and several lamp beads that provide light sources at the bottom. Of course, the driver IC that controls the electric field changes and the light emission of the lamp beads is also indispensable.
“Compared with TN-LCD, it has made qualitative improvements in terms of viewing angle, picture characteristics, response speed and color .
There are also big differences in processing technology. The most obvious advantage is that the pattern does not need to be carved in advance, but is realized through the driver IC. "
As he spoke, Shirakawa Hideki gently flipped a switch on the circuit board in front of the table, and the numbers originally displayed on the yellow-green screen in front of him.
Suddenly it turned into a cartoon character, and even Chinese characters appeared at the bottom!
To be honest, this change surprised Baichuan Feng. He carefully lifted the panel and turned it left and right to take a closer look.
There is no ghosting at all, and the pattern is very clear even after changing the angle.
This alone gave Shirakawa Feng a lot of ideas, which means that future LCD production will no longer rely on pre-drawn patterns.
All the images you want to present can be solved by a small driver IC, which makes the production process relatively simple.
"Professor Shirakawa just said that STN-LCD uses a driver IC to control the output of the screen?"
"That's right," Shirakawa Hideki nodded, "It's all thanks to Shirakawa-san. With your previous active interference inspiration, we came up with this idea.
Since we need to change the electric field and light sensitivity, why not do it through IC? Its control is more precise and efficient.
As long as the control program is entered into the IC in advance, the pre-set program can be quickly called when in use."
The previous TN screens used physical means to pre-draw patterns, while the current STN screens use digital means to pre-store programs.
Although they are all pre-set things, the differences are huge.
This is equivalent to one remaining in the steam age and the other having entered the information age. It is obvious which one is more effective.
Moreover, the TN pattern cannot be changed once it is engraved, but the STN program can be repeatedly changed through external means.
Such a comparison will not only be visually appealing, but will also greatly expand the scope of application.
What a good stuff! Baichuan Feng seemed to have seen a mountain of gold waving at him.
"By the way, we also designed the LCD driver IC ourselves. Although it is still relatively crude, it is easy to manufacture and there is no threshold."
Just when Shirakawa Feng was secretly admiring the advancement of STN, Shirakawa Hideki told him an unexpected news.
"The driver IC we produce ourselves?" Baichuan Feng's eyes lit up.
"Yes, this is the work of Mr. Yamazaki, and the trial production was also provided by Fujitsu."
Driver IC, to put it simply, is a driver chip.
Since Hideki Shirakawa wants such a thing, of course he would go to the chip development department upstairs.
SIC can even handle processor chips, let alone a small driver IC.
Yamazaki Teru, who has been here for two years, has made great achievements in chip design.
So the design of the driver IC for STN-LCD was given to him. As for Shima Masayoshi and his colleagues, they were busy developing the next generation of chips and had no time to take care of this small driver chip.
Because the design difficulty was relatively low, Yamazaki Teru completed it quickly.
Now the chip is placed in front of Baichuan Feng, and the product has been installed and put into use.
"Professor Shirakawa, do you think STN-LCD, or driver IC, will have a market prospect in the future?" Shirakawa Feng's eyes rolled around.
"Market prospects?" Shirakawa Hideki was stunned, but he quickly reacted, "I can't say anything else, but it should be no problem to replace TN screens."
"That's enough!" Baichuan Feng clapped his hands and said, "Look, SIC has just added another business item, right?"
According to the information we just learned, the difficulty of driving IC is relatively low, and the 6-micron technology around 1974 can meet the process requirements.
This also makes the cost of the driver IC very low, making it suitable for large-scale batch production.
In the future, STN will have broad application prospects, so the driver chip will become an indispensable accessory.
Considering that there are no STN screen applications on the market at this time, it means that SIC's driver chip may be unique.
Being unique means being a monopoly, even if it is temporary.
Moreover, as long as SIC takes the lead, there will be no need to worry about its future market share.
Look, Baichuan Feng has another golden mountain.
He has decided to have the chip R&D department set up a separate screen driver chip design department later.
Before others could react, SIC had already made arrangements.
This has always been the case in high-end industries. Taking the lead means having priority in patent applications, and the so-called technological barriers are built up step by step in this way.
The latecomers will most likely only be able to follow behind the former and get a little benefit, or pay a large amount of patent fees every year to earn a meager profit.
"By the way, Professor Shirakawa, I remember you said that STN can achieve partial color. Can we do that now?"
Baichuan Feng still remembers the big picture that Shirakawa Hideki had painted for him, and the color display screen has always been something he has been thinking about.
"Well, color display can only be done in single color at present. True color like CTR is difficult to achieve on STN."
As he spoke, Shirakawa Hideki had already opened another display screen on the table. The background color of its panel was blue.
The pattern displayed is moonlight white English characters and simple graphics, with green Chinese characters and a red logo in a small area.
The blue background, the numbers of Yue Guanbai, the green Chinese characters, and the red logo really add a few colors.
However, these colors are displayed in blocks in a certain area, which is far from the natural and integrated color presentation like CTR displays.
“STN’s color is achieved by adding a color filter in front of the polarizer, and by dividing the monochrome display matrix into three sub-pixels to display the three primary colors of red, green, and blue.
The three primary colors are scattered by liquid crystal and polarizer, and finally a specific color is displayed in a specific area of the screen. "
To put it simply, the current STN color is pseudo-color, and the color of each pixel is not directly determined by the value of each basic color component.
Instead, pixels are used as a palette, so what Baichuan Feng sees at this time are blocks of color, rather than the rounded and natural colors of later generations.
Okay, although it is pseudo color, it is still a great improvement compared to TN screen.
At least through the control of the driver chip, partial color can be achieved.
Technology must be developed step by step. It is impossible to evolve directly from a black and white screen to a full-color screen.
"What is the cost of our STN screen?"
Baichuan Feng has almost seen the effect of the display, and what he is most concerned about now is the production cost.
“If it is just the simplest grayscale STN screen, the driver IC can be mass-produced.
The cost of a handheld gaming screen is about 600 to 800 yen, and if it is a yellow-green or blue-tone screen, the cost is even higher.”
The so-called grayscale STN screen only displays light and dark colors, which is what we usually call a black and white screen.
Yellow-green screens and blue screens are pseudo-color screens that have a color film added to them that can display partial colors. They cost a little more.
Even the lowest-cost grayscale screen costs nearly 7 times more than the previous TN screen.
As expected, technological advancement is often accompanied by an increase in costs.
The cost of the product is 600 to 800 yen, and if you want to make a decent profit, the selling price must be at least 2,000 yen.
Compared with the current TN price of two to three hundred yen, the difference between is not a small difference.
However, even so, STN screens still need to be vigorously developed.
Because TN screen is too backward and has too many shortcomings. The new technology may be difficult to start, but its prospects are bright.
Shirakawa Feng believes that as the production technology matures, the manufacturing cost of STN screens will have room to fall.
"Professor Shirakawa, in addition to handheld game consoles, can STN screens be used on larger screens? For example, on TVs and computer screens?"
Since there are so many advantages, there is no reason for Baichuan Feng not to find a broader commercial space for STN screens.
STN might be able to make a profit relying solely on the support of handheld game consoles, but it will definitely not become Kingsoft.
If you want to fully enjoy the dividends of monopoly and pioneer, more customers are a very necessary prerequisite.
However, unlike Shirakawa Kaede's optimism, Professor Shirakawa Hideki looked a little embarrassed.
“The current driving method of LCD screens is to use electrode drive to synchronize the X and Y axes.
But if the screen size is too large, the reaction time of the electrodes in the center may be longer.
In order to make the screen display consistent, the overall speed will be slowed down."
In order to make his explanation more intuitive, Hideki Shirakawa switched to a larger screen for a live demonstration.
With the power in place, the middle pattern visible to the naked eye appears noticeably slower than the surrounding pattern.
This is a delay visible to the naked eye, and you can imagine that it is basically unrealistic to put it on a TV or computer.
This is like the refresh rate of a CTR monitor is too low. If you watch it for a long time, you will feel the screen flickering and jumping.
"In order to ensure the effect, at least the delay cannot be observed by the naked eye, what is the maximum size of the STN screen?"
"About 9 inches."
9 inches? Baichuan Feng's eyes lit up. It wasn't completely hopeless.
