If your new product requires a display, you need to make a very important technology decision. The display you choose will have a direct impact on your product’s user experience. After all, it’s one of the most visible aspects of the casing. Moreover, a display is likely to become one of the most expensive components of your product. And the most power-hungry, depending on the technology you choose.
That’s why picking the right display for your application is so important. But how to do that when there are so many choices on the market? This article will help you make an informed decision by showing different types of displays and everything you know about them to balance the trade-offs and select a technology that works best for your product.
Display basics you need to know
It’s essential that you understand a few technical terms to select the best display for your project.
Most displays are classified as transmissive, reflective, or emissive:
- Reflective displays depend on the light that is reflected from the front of the display. The background of such displays is often reflective, and the displayed pattern selectively blocks the reflection. Example: Reflective LCD displays
- Transmissive displays depend on blocking or allowing in the backlight to display an image. Normally, the backlight is white, and each pixel includes three separate sub-pixels that can selectively pass the red, green, or blue part of that white backlight. Example: Transmissive LCD displays.
- Emissive displays emit light on their own. Every pixel emits its own lights in the three primary colors (red, green, or blue). You can create full-color images by varying the intensity of light. Example: LED displays.
Another thing you need to know about is color gamut – a measure of the range of available colors the display offers. For example, monochrome displays offer only one color. The full-color display consists of three primary colors: red, green, and blue (RGB). Different combinations of those colors with different intensities can produce realistic-looking images.
Color depth is another important metric you should know. It identifies the number of intensity levels for each color component. The color depth of N means that every color can be displayed at N different intensities. If you use an RGB display where each color has a color depth of N, you will have N x N x N of possible color combinations. The simplest configuration is two – in this example, a pixel is either fully ON or fully OFF.
Display types
If you want your application to have a display that delivers an excellent user experience, you’re probably going to examine different types of graphic displays. They come in a variety of technologies that are often cost-effective. Read on to learn more about the technologies on the market.
LCD matrix displays
This display consists of a matrix of discrete LEDs and comes in monochrome, multi-color, and full-color variety. Note that the pixel density of this display is very low, and it always looks best from a distance. Otherwise, users can easily see the individual pixels. Moreover, the display can easily become overheated when exposed to higher temperatures (that’s why it may require active cooling).
LCD displays
LCD displays have a very high pixel density to display a full range of color with excellent motion capabilities. They come in a wide range of sizes – from tiny screens to high-definition TVs with a diagonal length of even 100 inches. But their excellent performance comes at a price.
Many of the small to medium-sized displays are available with special touchscreen overlays. Just like other displays, LCD displays come in passive and active matrix versions. An active LCD is manufactured with the help of Thin-Film-Transistor (TFT) technology.
LCD displays can be viewed in sunlight or in the dark, but they require a backlight. This display technology comes at a high cost, but the ultimate price depends on the size of the display.
OLED displays
OLED (organic LED) displays are similar to the LCD matrix displays. However, the pixel density or the so-called DPI (Dots Per Inch) can be much higher. That’s because the organic LED technology is very different from the regular LED. It allows manufacturers like Melrose to produce densely packed displays that offer excellent clarity of the image.
You can choose from passive and active matrix OLED, respectively abbreviated PMOLED and AMOLED.
PMOLED
In the passive matrix OLED, each sub-pixel is located at the crossing of matrix control lines running vertically and horizontally. To control the pixel, the matrix energizes the right row and column. Every pixel only gets a fraction of the total time it requires to refresh the area.
AMOLED
In active matrix OLED, every color sub-pixel is individually controlled by a transistor that works as an electronic switch. The process is a bit more complicated, but the display is more uniform and works faster. Most modern applications like innovative smartphones use high-resolution active matrix OLED in their displays.
The primary benefit of OLED displays is that they can be viewed in sunlight or in the dark, and work in a wide range of temperatures. They’re a great choice for displaying videos and full-speed animation, supporting other types of images as well.
High-resolution OLED displays usually come with sophisticated interfaces like MIPI or digital parallel interfaces. The power consumption of OLED displays essentially depends on the number of pixels that are illuminated. This display technology is quite costly, depending on the particular features that you choose.
E-ink displays
E-ink (also called e-paper) displays are low-power displays that work best for applications where fast update speed is not a critical factor. They come in various sizes and usually are monochrome. However, some of them can display limited color ranges.
E-ink displays use reflective technology, so they are best viewed in brightly lit environments. The unique feature of this display is that once an image is rendered, it stays on the screen even if we turn the power off. In some applications, this allows for very low power consumption.
That’s why E-ink displays are used in supermarkets for displaying pricing or in public transportation for showing the timetable. This display technology is relatively new and, depending on the features you require, can be costly.
We hope that this article helped you understand your options better. You have any other questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Our experts helped many companies find displays matching their unique requirements and know how to choose the best option for any application.
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