Mobile display technologies: Past, present and future

Over the years, full-color flat panel displays, represented by thin-film-transistor (TFT) liquid crystal displays (LCD), have enabled many new applications, such as the digital camera, notebook PC and thin, flat-screen TV, through intensive research activities around the world. Recently, small-sized mobile display development has been leading the R&D effort to support the severe requirements of smartphones and tablet PCs. For the displays used in those applications, high definition, high visual quality, low power consumption, small form factor and easy-to-use touch userinterface (UI) are critical values. Trends exhibit that even higher pixel density and lower power consumption will be required for future smart devices. In this presentation, the mobile display market and recent technical achievements are reviewed. In addition, expectations for semiconductor technologies to enable the development of future displays and user interfaces will be discussed.