direct sunlight lcd panel supplier

Sun Vision Display panels are100% reflective, meaning they have no backlight whatsoever. This makes them an excellent computer monitor solution for people looking to reduce blue light exposure or other common issues reported by people withcomputer-related vision syndromes. It also makes them an incredible solution for advertising in sunny places, where it can be difficult to view other display technologies - all without racking up hefty energy costs.

Backlit LCDs provide excellent visibility indoors, but require high-brightness backlights to produce enough brightness for for direct sunlight readability - 1000 nits or more, to be exact. All that brightness requires a lot of power to operate, making traditional high-brightness LCD signage costly in multiple ways.

Sun Vision Display panels actually turn sunlight into an asset through their reflective LCD technology.They"re the perfect solution for sunny locations. In fact, as sunlight or ambient light shining on the display increases, so does the brightness of the Sun Vision Display panel"s image - all while consuming almost no power (less than 6 watts). No need to shield the display from the sun!

Sunlight readable TFT displays feature high brightness LCD backlights, making them an excellent option for bright ambient light or direct sunlight environments. Our sunlight readable TFT displays are available with or without touchscreen features and come with different formats and display modes to fit any application.

First, the display screen on a sunlight readable/outdoor readable LCD should be bright enough so that the display is visible under strong sunlight. Second, the display contrast ratio must be maintained at 5 to 1 or higher.

Although a display with less than 500 nits screen brightness and a mere 2 to 1 contrast ratio can be read in outdoor environments, the quality of the display will be extremely poor. At i-Tech, a truly sunlight readable display is typically considered to be an LCD with 1000 nits or greater screen brightness with a contrast ratio greater than 5 to 1. In outdoor environments under the shade, such a display can provide an excellent image quality.

Luminance is a major determinant of perceived picture quality in an LCD. The importance of luminance is enhanced by the fact that the human mind will react more positively to brightly illuminated scenes and objects. Users are typically more drawn to brighter displays that are more pleasing to the eye and easier to read. In indoor environments, a standard active-matrix LCD with a screen luminance around 250 nits looks good. However, a sunlight readable LCD with a screen luminance of 1,000 will look even more beautiful.

A typical AMLCD exhibits a CR between 300 to 700 when measured in a dark room. However, the CR on the same unit measured under ambient illumination is drastically lowered due to surface reflection (glare). For example, a standard 200 nit LCD measured in a dark room has a 300 CR, but will have less than a 2 CR under strong direct sunlight. This is due to the fact that surface glare increases the luminance by over 200 nits both on the white and the black that are produced on the display screen. The result is that the luminance of the white is slightly over 400 nits, and the luminance of the black is over 200 nits. The CR ratio then becomes less than 2 and the picture quality is drastically reduced.

i-Tech sunlight readable LCDs with 1500 nits screen brightness will have a CR over 8 with the same amount of glare under the same strong sunlight, making the picture quality on these units extremely good. For further reading on contrast ratio, please see Tech Note 0101, Page 2, the Display Contrast Ratio.

The viewing angle is the angle at which the image quality of an LCD degrades and becomes unacceptable for the intended application. As the observer physically moves to the sides of the LCD, the images on an LCD degrade in three ways. First, the luminance drops. Second, the contrast ratio usually drops off at large angles. Third, the colors may shift. The definition of the viewing angle of an LCD is not absolute as it will depend on your application.

Most LCD manufacturers define viewing angle as the angles where the CR (contrast ratio)^3 10. For LCDs designed for less demanding applications, the viewing angle is sometimes defined as the angles where the CR^3 5.

For LCDs used in outdoor applications, defining the viewing angle based on CR alone is not adequate. Under very bright ambient light, the display is hardly visible when the screen luminance drops below 200 nits. Therefore, i-Tech defines the viewing angles based on both the CR and the Luminance.

All LCD backlights powered by cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) require inverters. An inverter is an electronic circuit that transforms a DC voltage to an AC voltage, which drives the CCFLs. i-Tech Technology manufactures inverters for all its products. Additionally, Applied Concepts and ERG also provide inverters for our products as well.

The dimming range or dimming ratio of an inverter specifies its capability of performing backlight luminance adjustment. For inverters used in notebook computers and LCD monitors, the backlight luminance can be adjusted typically over a dimming range of less than 10:1. That is, the luminance is adjusted from 100% down to about 10%.

For very high brightness backlights used in i-Tech Technology sunlight readable LCD modules, the inverters must be able to provide a much wider dimming range. Otherwise, the LCD screen will be too bright during nighttime conditions. Therefore, our inverters provide a typical dimming ratio of 200:1, meaning that the luminance can be adjusted from 100% down to 0.5%.

Any high brightness backlight system will consume a significant amount of power, thereby increasing the LCD temperature. The brighter the backlight, the greater the thermal issue. Additionally, if the LCD is used under sunlight, additional heat will be generated as a result of sunlight exposure. Temperature issues can be handled through proper thermal management design.

We provide TFT LCD with reflective mode of illumination without compromising its transmissive illumination. With the imposed reflective function, the modified LCD can reflect the ambient light passing the LCD cell and utilize the reflected light beams as its illumination. The stronger the ambient light is, the brighter the LCD will appear. As a result, the modified LCD is viewable under all lighting conditions including direct sunlight regardless the LCD"s original brightness.

The market demands for outdoor LCD applications are expanding, such as mobile navigator/video systems, PDA, personal organizer, Tablet PC, notebook computer, and Kiosk display etc. However, a regular transmissive LCD is very difficult to read under strong ambient light. This limits the outdoor applications of a conventional transmissive LCD.

The high bright LCD and the transflective LCD are the solutions generally utilized for outdoor applications. However, both solutions have some shortcomings. Because of the added lamps, high bright LCD creates some undesirable problems, which include high power consumption, excessive heat generation, increased dimensions, electrical circuit alterations, and shortened LCD lifetime. Thus, it is usually troublesome and costly to accommodate a high bright LCD in systems. Though giving good performance under the direct sunlight, the transflective LCD trades of its indoor performances.

Problems noticed in transflective LCD include narrow viewing angle, discoloration, low brightness, and loss of contrast. Moreover, the transflective LCD is currently limited in choice of sizes and resolutions.

On the other hand, a Transflective LCD is readable everywhere including outdoor environments without extra power consumption and excessive heat generation. The indoor viewing qualities are also enhanced. The modified unit fits right back into its original system with no need of any alteration and extra effort. Thus in your choice of size, resolution, and model, a direct sunlight readable LCD is conveniently incorporated into your device.

i-Tech is a premier supplier of optical bonding and performance added passive enhancements for all flat panel . i-Tech Optical Bonding process produces an optical bond between any display cover glass or touch panel, and any size LCD.

In the world of LCD"s, i-Tech takes display enhancement to a new level above all others. Utilizing advanced proprietary optical bonding technology; i-Tech overcomes optical challenges for display product manufacturers at an affordable price. In a wide range of applications, standard liquid crystal appear to "washed out" in high ambient lighting conditions. This wash out is due to excessive reflections and glare caused by bright light.

Commercially available LCDs, especially when protected by a separate cover glass or plastic shield, can not deliver enough brightness to make the display functional in outdoors or in other high ambient light applications. The exclusive Optical Bonding process from i-Tech provides a significant reduction of ambient light reflections at an affordable price, compared to other display enhancement technologies.

Optical Bonding seals either a top cover glass or touch screen directly to the face of the display bezel. Our bonding process eliminates the air-gap between the display and the cover glass, vastly reducing reflective light, which causes visual washout of the display image. Optical Bonding also enhances structural integrity by supporting the LCD assembly with the cover glass. The bond maintains perfect display uniformity while providing shock protection, unlimted humidity protection, and elimination of fogging caused by trapped moisture accumulating in typical air-gap assemblies.

Sunlight viewability of a display depends on the differences between "lumination" and "illumination" of the display. The lumination of the display is its brightness. A display"s brightness, typically referred to as a Nit (Candela per meter/2) is the amount of light energy coming out of the display. Illumination is the amount of ambient light shining onto a display. The readability of a display is dependant on the amount of light that is being reflected off of the display.

Optical Bonding from i-Tech is a solid, transparent bond which optically couples the front cover glass or touch screen directly to the face of the display. This internal bond eliminates reflection from the two internal layers. The outer surface of the window is treated with anti-reflecting coatings which matches the front surface of the glass with the index of refraction of air. This combination reduces the total reflection of the display and front cover glass to less than 2% of the ambient light. A reduction of reflection of this level, all but eliminates reflective loss in most ambient lighting conditions. With reductions of this level, displays with 300-500 nits of brightness will be viewable in daylight or indirect lighting conditions. At 500-800 nits brightness, most displays will be completely sunlight viewable.

Aside from the optical quality, Optical Bonding elminates the air-gap which prevents heat build-up from the "greenhouse" effect and prevents fogging from moisture or contamination from dirt or particles. It also offers shock protection and other damage to the LCD itself.

iTech IP65 Front and Full IP66 Chassis are designed for those applications require IP ( Ingress Protection ) feature, like chemical industry, food industry and medical industry. However, the IP65 Front and Full IP66 chassis might get moisture condensation issue for the applications under direct sunlight.

Another solution, with an anti-glare (AG) coated protection glass, a microscopically rough surface laminated onto the topmost of display can diffuse glare. The chemically etched glass that has a slightly textured finish can reduce reflection by scattering light directed on its surface. It can soften the image of direct light sources visible in the reflection of the viewing area.

Clearing Point - The temperature at which the liquid crystal fluid changes from a nematic into an isotropic state. In practice, a positive image LCD will turn totally black at this temperature and will therefore be unreadable. Because the clearing point is different for every fluid type, ask for design assistance from your supplier if high temperature operation is critical in your application.

Also, for most cases, both TN, HTN and STN utilize the phase known as nematic for display purpose. Within this phase, the liquid crystal has a "rod shape" exists within the solution which has fast response and has excellent electro-optic properties. This phase, however, only exists within a limited temperature range. The higher end of this temperature range is known as clearing point, above which, the liquid crystal lost its birefrigerance properties and cannot bend the light path anymore. Thus the polarizer will then be the only factor which affect incoming and out coming light. When the LCD is cooled down to below its clearing point, the display should be working again. The temperature for the clearing point varies greatly from material to material and you should contact our engineers regarding what you have. Normally a safe margin should be used to avoid clearing point when designing the display.

Light sensor detect the change of illumination outside, then it send the signal to MCU via I�2C interface. MCU will ask inverter to switch the brightness if the outside illumination was change over the default. MCU will transmit PWM signal to the inverter, amd the inverter will change the brightness of panel.

Winmate �light sensor� technology are now available for 8.4�, 10.4�,12.1�, 15�, 17�, and 19� LCD with specific panel option. Please contact with sales for more detail information.

The electronic controls effectively divide the screen into pixel sized sensing cells, using microfine wires which are not visible on a powered display. These wires are connected to a controller board, and an oscillation frequency is established for each wire. Touching the glass causes a change in the frequency of the wires at that particular point, the position of which is calculated and identified by the controller. Unlike other capacitive systems where the operator touches the actual conducting surface of the sensing panel, the active component of the sensor can be embedded up to 25mm from the touch surface ensuring long product life and stability.

Recently there many end customer was mislead believing high brightness (over 2000nits, even up to 5000nits) is the better solution. But there are few concerns that the so called extreme high brightness (3000nits to 5000nits) panel manufacturer don"t tell you:

1. How much power consumption is the extreme high brightness LCD? It is very important because all of our outdoor LCD is in completely sealed enclosures keeping it cool is a very huge Challenge. Not mentioned the hot temperature around 40-50C area.

2. Also, you need to determine how far is viewer distance. Because high brightness (3000-5000nits LCD) might Damage eyesight if the viewer is too closed. LCD is design with high resolution for people to see it very closely, so extreme high brightness doesn"t make sense for outdoor LCD. If they want to put on extreme high brightness LCD on roof top to attract audience which LCD is not even big enough for seeing from far away. Most case customer will use LED which is more reliable and cost effective if it is larger than 82".

4. Viewable under sunlight is not just brightness only, it involve contrast ratio, reflection of the front glass and content graphics contrast such as (red and white). Sunlight readable is combination of all above, not just brightness only.

4. Viewable under sunlight is not just brightness only, it involve contrast ratio, reflection of the front glass and content graphics contrast such as (red and white). Sunlight readable is combination of all above, not just brightness only.

3. All the major branded LG and Samsung LCD manufacturer the most brightness that they do is only 1000-2000nits because we believe this major LCD maker already done a study on what is the most feasible and comfortable LCD brightness for outdoor. That"s why all the high brightness (3000-5000nits) maker is after market vendor without any study about the what is most suitable brightness for different applications, only advertising high brightness is not the solution. If you ask these vendor for outdoor enclosure which they will not provide or guaranteed it will work because they know it is a huge Challenge to cool down the display. Just like you are buying a 800 horse power car, but you still need to design the car frame and cooler to make this engine run safely on the road, which this extreme high brightness won"t help you to design that.

A typical liquid crystal display’s screen washes out to black when exposed to direct sunlight and ultra violet radiation. In order for AbraxSys rugged monitors and embedded LCD computers to operate in high light environments, AbraxSys monitors utilize various passive enhancements to increase the sunlight readability of the touch screen. AbraxSys sunlight readable touch panels utilize an anti-glare surface coating, transflective backlight enhancement film, and an anti-reflective internal coating on the back and front of the LCD behind the surface coating. These enhancements adapt to the index of refraction to decrease reflection; thereby increasing the ratio of contrast and maximizing overall daylight viewability in high ambient light environments. (See figure below).

Through the application of AbraxSys special coatings, filters, and films, the screen achieves readability in direct sun even when backlighting is not increased. The result is a display with viewability equivalent to that of a 1000+ nit high bright monitor while not increasing the power draw and without the extra heat generated by more backlights. As a result, Abraxsys LCD monitor systems maximize the operating life cycle of the systems, yield higher processor capability, and widen the range of operational temperatures.

After adding passive enhancements to AbraxSys LCD monitors, AbraxSys’ active enhancements are then implemented. AbraxSys sunlight viewable monitors utilize advanced backlighting systems which maximize the sunlight readability and luminance of the screen’s performance. AbraxSys rugged monitors also utilize LED and CCFL technologies to deliver the best sunlight readable solution for your industrial, commercial, or outdoor environment. AbraxSys LED backlights deliver an ultra-bright screen with a lower power-draw and lower heat levels compared to CCFL technology. All of these enhancements make AbraxSys ultra-bright, sunlight readable monitors and embedded computers achieve exceptionally higher luminance levels when compared to conventional and consumer grade LCD monitors. AbraxSys extreme-performance LCDs and computers produce the image intensity and display brilliance required from your sunlight readable systems.

Maximize the readability and at-a-glance performance of TFT/AMLCD monitors by adding an optically bonded LCD TFT display from AbraxSys Corporation. Combining LED backlight enhancement, optical bonding, and optical coatings, AbraxSys can help you fulfill your LCD monitor and touch screen interface requirements in high light areas. AbraxSys offers a state of the art optical bonding production center with a proven record in producing high quality sunlight readable LCD systems. AbraxSys Corporation also offers comprehensive in-house optical contrast and luminance test verification, a certified clean room, and total environmental protections.

Typical LCDs are sufficient for most indoor environments, but do not provide enough readability outdoors or in industrial settings with harsh lighting. A typical LCD also lacks the protections to deliver high performance in rugged or extreme environment applications. OEM LCD companies do not produce LCD monitors and computers that perform in these extreme applications and conditions. A common option to enhance conventional LCDs are implementing passive enhancements such as coatings and optical bonding in order to decrease display washout while under direct sunlight. Another common tactic is to implement active enhancements that increase the brightness of the screen. AbraxSys’ line of high performance optically bonded LCD displays offer both active and passive enhancements to deliver high quality screen interfaces for high light or rugged industrial environments requiring hardened systems.

Screen brightness and luminance are important factors for industrial and commercial LCD monitors because they affect readability. The AbraxSys sunlight readable solution is to utilize both passive and active enhancements to deliver maximum brightness and decrease the power consumption of the backlight source. AbraxSys achieves high sunlight readable performance by applying optical coating, advanced design reflection pattersn on light guide bottom, unique radiation technology, and utilizing a LED light bar for backlighting technology (rather than CCFL). The AbraxSys high brightness solution increases the day-time and night-time visibility performance in a wide range of outdoor, industrial, and commercial applications. AbraxSys sunlight readable monitors are ideal for such applications such as Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), in-vehicle satellite televisions, telephone both screens, and commercial outdoor displays.

In order to satisfy the market for high brightness displays, Advantech develops our high brightness technology in-house and is guaranteed to meet your application needs. The Advantech high brightness solution can help enhance the LCD brightness up to 2,000 nits while increasing the color saturation and contrast. This screen brightness is substantially higher than an average LCD monitor’s luminance rating of around 300 – 500 nits. Another advantage of Advantech LCD enhancements are that they reduce the need for power consumption, resulting in displays that run cooler with minimal stress but maximum reliability.

Our Optical Engineers are eager to discuss how our sunlight readable LCD display systems can solve your low/high ambient light application needs. Please contact us with any questions you may have, and our Optical Engineers will get in touch with you as soon as possible.

TRU-Vu High Bright Sunlight Readable Monitors enable users to see clear, sharp video images even in direct sunlight with a bright screen.  Our high brightness displays produce at least 1,000 nits brightness. Some go up to 2,500 nits of brightness.  This makes them far brighter than standard LCD monitors.  Specifically, consumer or commercial-grade monitors typically offer only 150 to 300 nits brightness.  High brightness displays and sunlight readable touch screens will ensure crystal-clear video images even in bright sunlight. The result is better performance and bold colors in other high ambient light conditions as well. They are also available with optical bonding as monitors or touch screen displays.

In outdoor or bright conditions, it is imperative to increase the brightness of a display to ensure crisp images.  The number of nits an LCD display emits is the main factor in determining the monitor’s perceived brightness. A monitor luminance of around 200-350 nits will work well indoors.  Most LCD displays and monitors fall in this range. However, 400-700 nits would be required for use in daylight conditions. Most importantly, a Sunlight readable display requires at least 1,000 nits or more for viewing in direct, bright sunlight . These high brightness displays are available with 16:9 aspect ratio or 4:3 aspect ratio screens.  All TRU-Vu Sunlight Readable monitors and high-brightness touch screens are TAA Compliant.

Some monitors feature a sheet of glass over the LCD panel to protect it from accidental or intentional damage. However, the glass also produces unwanted glare and reflections. Internal reflections in the air gap between the glass and the LCD panel diminish image quality even further. In order to combat this, monitors are optically bonded.

Optical bondingis the process of laminating protective glass or a touch screen panel to the LCD panel with an optical-grade resin.  This completely fills the air gap between the glass and LCD panel. It not only eliminates the internal reflections, but  also increases the contrast ratio. This makes the screen appear much brighter and more viewable in bright light conditions. Optical bonding  also eliminates internal moisture and condensation. Moreover, it will make the monitor more rugged and durable. Lastly, an Anti-Reflective coating is applied to the outside of the glass. Consequently, this will drastically reduce glare and surface reflections.

For installations in indirect sunlight, or reflected bright light, our Daylight Viewable displays will most likely suffice. These are also more cost-effective than Sunlight Readable monitors with 1,000 nits brightness. Daylight viewable monitors feature  LCD screens with 400 nits to 700 nits brightness.  The LCD panels also include optical bonding.

Daylight-viewable touchscreens with optical bonding are also significantly brighter than standard touch screens. Consequently, they produce far better image quality in bright conditions. Although they are not as bright as High Brightness Sunlight Readable touch screens, daylight readable touch screens do offer the benefit of lower power consumption. This may be useful in portable or mobile applications. We currently offer over 60 monitors with optical bonding; all are TAA-Compliant.

Our outdoor high brightness Sunlight Readable LCD monitors feature waterproof stainless steel enclosures. These are ideal for factory wash-down environments.  Additionally, they are perfect for outside use in challenging weather.  Our panel mount enclosures are made from steel, stainless steel, or aluminum. This enables them to be flush-mounted. Outdoor LCD monitors with high brightness work in a wider range of temperatures. Consequently, this broadens the environments in which they may be used. Additionally, temperature ranges are very important to consider when using outdoors.  When we combine extreme operating temperatures with outdoor waterproof enclosures, we ensure your high brightness monitors will be able to function in even the harshest wet and hot environments. We will also modify or customize any model to meet your exact requirements.

In conclusion, we deploy TRU-Vu outdoor waterproof sunlight readable monitors and high brightness touch screens in a wide range of industries. For example, military, law enforcement, manufacturing plants benefit from high bright LCD displays. Amusement parks, sports stadiums, mass transit, and construction & heavy equipment also rely on high bright sunlight readable displays.  In addition, outdoor high brightness LCD monitors are demanded in pipeline inspection,  kiosks, marine,  oil & gas, drones, security applications. When it counts, you can rely on TRU-Vu Monitors to deliver the optimal weather resistant high bright LCD monitor solution for your specific needs.

You need to reach the top manufacturer and provider of high brightness LCD displays. They are available in a variety of sizes and designs that you can get from the comfort of home. Leadtek Display, the professional display service provider based in China, offers you a broad range of high brightness LCD displays that are easy to use and come with a number of added features and benefits. Our broad range of such display modules is provided with precise information about their uses in different industrial domains. Choosing the best one depends on your requirement and industrial uses. They are offered with precise information about them to help you in finding something latest and unique. Our prices are competitive and backed by discounts; while you can get them delivered on time and in secure way to your address. Our broad ranges of displays are used largely in different industries and for different purposes. They are delivered with precise information about them, technical points and features along with a user guide.

Panox Display provides a customized cover glass/touch panel service. We supply cover glass from Gorilla, AGC, and Panda, which all have excellent optical performance. We also supply driver ICs from Goodix and Focaltech.

If your applications are directly connected to a PC, a cellphone, or Raspberry Pi, and you have enough space to insert a board to input video, Panox Display can provide customized Controller/Driver boards with input connections for VGA, HDMI, DVI, DP, Type-C video input, MIPI, RGB, LVDS, and eDP.

Sun is the biggest enemy of LCD displays. It will cause them to heat up, discolor, and eventually turn black. The sun hits the display surface with 1250 watts/m2 of energy, which will cause the temperature of the Liquid Crystal cell to increase significantly, even on the coldest of days. This can have the effect of literally causing the Liquid Crystals to boil and turn black, what is known as solar clearing.

We have all probably seen our phones turn off because they are “too hot” and need to cool down before use, but outdoor displays don’t have the luxury of taking a break when they are too hot. QSRs, media companies, and transit stations rely on the display being on and visible no matter what the ambient conditions are. Keeping LCDs cool is critically important to providing a 24/7 use in all environments, where temperature fluctuates and direct sunlight is always an issue.

LCDs have very low reflection and absorb almost 98% of the solar energy. This means that viewing an LCD outdoors works great because of the low reflection, but keeping it cool is the biggest challenge.

LG-MRI’s patented CoolVu® technology is designed to provide a consistent visual image in direct sunlight and in temperatures up to 50oC with no loss in image quality. The innovative technology begins by using computational fluid dynamics to model the internal temperature of the LCD, LCM, media player, and circuit boards over a 15 year period in real world solar and temperature scenarios. Before we build a product, we ensure that it will perform up to spec in the real world for a 10 year period. The CoolVu® feature uses a dual loop cooling system that immediately exhausts out the heat from the sun and never lets it have an effect on increasing the heat within the unit. Since this heat is exhausted from the onset, we never have to worry about heat buildup from the sun, which lowers our energy consumption and allows us to more comfortably run all of our internal components without the worry of overheating them. CoolVu® is also unique in that zero outside air flows over any electronics or optics within the display. All critical internal components of the LG-MRI displays remain cool, dry, and contaminate free (absolutely clean for life). As an added bonus, all of this is accomplished without the use of air-filters, completely eliminating a common requirement for periodic maintenance found in competitive products.

When display devices are brought outside, oftentimes they face the brightness of sunlight or any other form of high ambient light sources reflecting off of and overwhelming the LED backlight’s image.

With the growth of the LCD panel industry as a whole, it has become more important than ever to prevent the sun’s wash out of displays used outdoors, such as automobile displays, digital signage, and public kiosks. Hence, the sunlight readable display was invented.

One solution would be to increase the luminance of the TFT LCD monitor’s LED backlight to overpower the bright sunlight and eliminate glare. On average, TFT LCD screens have a brightness of about 250 to 450 Nits, but when this is increased to about 800 to 1000 (1000 is the most common) Nits, the device becomes a high bright LCDand a sunlight readable display.

Since many of today’s TFT LCD display devices have shifted to touchscreens, the touch panels on the surface of LCD screens already block a small percentage of backlighting, decreasing the surface brightness and making it so that the sunlight can even more easily wash out the display. Resistive touch panels use two transparent layers above the glass substrate, but the transparent layers can still block up to 5% of the light.

In order to optimize the high brightness of the backlight, a different type of touchscreen can be used: the capacitive touchscreen. Though it is more expensive than the resistive touch screen, this technology is more ideal for sunlight readable displays than the resistive due to its usage of a thinner film or even in-cell technologies rather than two layers above the glass of the display, and therefore, light can pass more efficiently.

A recent technology falling into the sunlight readable display category is the transflective TFT LCD, coming from a combination of the word transmissive and reflective. By using a transflective polarizer, a significant percentage of sunlight is reflected away from the screen to aid in the reduction of wash out. This optical layer is known as the transflector.

In transflective TFT LCDs, sunlight can reflect off the display but can also pass through the TFT cell layer and be reflected back out off a somewhat transparent rear reflector in front of the backlight, illuminating the display without as much demand and power usage from the transmissive nature of the backlight. This addresses both the issues of wash out and the disadvantages of high brightness TFT LCDs in high ambient light environments. Because of its transmissive and reflective modes, this type of device is very useful for devices that will be used outdoors but also indoors.

While it does greatly reduce power consumption, transflective LCDs are much more expensive than high brightness LCDs. In recent years, the cost has decreased, but transflective LCDs continue to be more costly.

In addition to adjustments to the internal mechanics of LCDs, it is possible to make devices more sunlight-readable using surface treatments. The most common are anti-reflective (A/R) films/coatings and anti-glare processing.

Often paired with other methods of creating sunlight readable displays is optical bonding. By gluing the glass of a display to the TFT LCD cells beneath it, optical bonding eliminates the air gap that traditional LCD displays have in them using an optical grade adhesive.

This adhesive reduces the amount of reflection between the glass and LCD cell as well as the reflection of external ambient light. Doing this helps provide a clearer image with an increased contrast ratio, or the difference in the light intensity of the brightest white pixel color and darkest black pixel color.

With this contrast ratio improvement, optical bonding addresses the root issue with unreadable outdoor displays: the contrast. Though an increase in brightness can improve contrast, by fixing the contrast itself, LCD display images in outdoor environments will not be as washed out and will require less power consumption.

The optical bonding adhesive’s elimination of the air gap also protects the LCD from moisture/fogging and dust, as there is no space for impurities to penetrate and remain under the glass layer. This especially helps with maintaining the state of LCDs in transport, storage, and humid environments.

Compiling the various methods of improving LCD screens for sunlight readability, these devices can be optimized in high ambient light settings. An anti-glare coating is applied to the surface of the glass and anti-reflective coatings are applied to both the front and back. The transflector is also used in front of the backlight. These features can result in 1000 Nit or more display lighting, without the excessive power consumption and heat production through a high brightness backlight, consequently allowing for a longer lasting and better performing LCD

Unfortunately, the process of building a reflector inside TFT LCD is complicated and transflective TFT LCD is normally several times higher cost compared with normal transmissive TFT LCD.

To further improve and enhance the qualities of the LCD, LED and cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlights are used. Both these create bright displays, but the LED specifically can do so without as much power consumption and heat generation as compared to the CCFL option. Optical bonding is also applied in order to improve display contrast, leading to a more efficient and better quality sunlight readable display.

When an LCD is used in a high ambient lighting area, outdoors or even in direct sunlight a normal brightness display becomes almost unreadable. Most people have experienced this phenomenon using their mobile phones, tablets, and notebooks outdoors or when sitting near a window on a sunny day. The display looks hazy, dark, and may even have a halo over the screen. As an individual you have the option to turn the hand-held device to shade it from the bright light to read the information. Could you imagine passing at mid-day by a street-side shop with a display showing their products advertising sales items or specials, but the display can’t be read. The customer would not know what messages the shop is trying to deliver. A missed opportunity to make an impression on a potential customer. All the money spent on the advertisement and equipment but did not capture the attention of the customer because the display was too dark. A sunlight readable LCD displays, also known as a high brightness display are designed to operate in an outdoor setting or in direct sunlight. These products are designed to be very rugged and durable to meet the most the challenging environmental conditions. These are a must have requirement when developing industrial displays used in environments such as oil and gas, marine, military, agriculture where a product must perform for long periods of time.

There are several technical approaches and various enhancement methods to increase screen viewability and reliability in the sunlight. The primary enhancement is to develop a backlight system that increases the brightness of the LCD to overcome a brightly lit environment. There are other technologies that can be added to a high bright backlight such as transflective enhancement (Meaning both Transmissive and Reflective) that will use some of the ambient lighting to make the screen more readable in bright environments. Direct backlighting technology now includes local dimming. This feature concentrates the backlight only in an area where the image needs to be bright further increasing contrast of the LCD display. Other enhancement includes the use of Anti-Reflective and Anti-Glare (AR/AG) cover glass that is optically bonded to the LCD front surface to minimize reflective loss and improve contrast of the display.

Sunlight Readable displays is a core competence of Litemax since the company’s inception. Most displays offered from Litemax include at least a 1,000-nit backlight. Litemax proprietary backlight design, internal heat sinking of the LED junction allows their engineering teams to develop a bright backlight while minimizing over all power and internal heat. This is important for displays used outdoors as brightness is one concern, so is heat built up due to thermal loading caused by the sun. Custom backlights can be developed upon request to even higher brightness of 2,000, 2,500 or even 3,000 nits. The high brightness ensures perfect visual readability under any lighting condition. Below is a table that outlines a brightness that would be suitable based on the environment and application.

One of the methods for minimizing backlight heat and improving outdoor viewability is to enhance the LCD with a Transflective (transmissive-reflective) layer This layer allows ambient light to be reflected through the LCD display, re-directing the light to make the LCD viewable in a brightly lit situation. This enhancement improvement is one of the state-of-the-art technologies for high-performance color-reduced power consumption for displays used outdoors.

AOT (Advanced Optical Bonding) is one of Litemax’s many patents. Optical Bonding is an enhancement that improves readability by minimizing reflective surfaces. This combined with index matching the coatings of the cover element to the adhesive layers further reducing internal reflective surfaces to minimize reflective loss creates the brightest, clearest rich images available in an outdoor display product. AOT is the use of an optical-grade adhesive to laminate anti-reflection glass, touch screens, heaters, and EMI shields to the top surface of a display. This method eliminates the air gap between the cover glass and the display enhancing readability in sunlight. The other advantage of optical bonding is to fill in the air gap where moisture can accumulate in high humidity outdoor environments and the display’s ability to resist impact damage improves significantly. As the pioneer in sunlight readable displays, Litemax strives to develop new leading-edge products and processes for use in the most demanding market segments. These enhancements help overcome the challenges our customers face when deploying a display in a rugged outdoor environment.

Most of the energy that reaches the Earth’s surface comes from the Sun. Solar radiation is in the visible light wavelengths that we can see. The Sun also emits infrared, ultraviolet, and other wavelengths of energy that is invisible. Of the solar energy that reaches the earth, UV wavelengths have the greatest energy. The remaining solar radiation is the longest wavelength, infrared. Most objects radiate infrared energy, which we feel as heat. This heat can be absorbed by a display when it is in direct sun light. This absorption of the external heat is known as solar loading or thermal loading. To combat solar loading Litemax has developed unique materials and process to add as enhancements to minimize the heat that can build up in the LCD from being exposed to direct sun light. One of the technologies is Anti UV/IR Coatings. Using these coating technologies improves the total solar energy rejection from a Litemax display. This can be up to 53% rejection of these invisible solar allowing the LCD to perform in the most demanding locations.

On the picture above, we have an example from a data sheet of a display with high temperatures. As we said it’s a liquid crystal from -40 to +110 degrees, and this is the latest technology. But you need to be careful! This is only about the surface of a display, the TFT glass itself. If we have the sunlight going to the display it can increase the temperature of the whole display as a module.

For the whole display module, the operating temperature range can be as low as 0 to +50 degrees or -20 to 70 degrees. We can have two operating temperatures, that means if we use the display outdoors, we are safe from the sunlight, the surface of the display can go very high, but we need to control the ambient temperature inside the display housing to not go too high. +50 or +70 will be maximum, usually we need fans to remove the heat from inside. Typically, in our case we have a computer inside and we have more devices that cannot work at high temperatures like +100 degrees, so we control the temperature anyway. So, the temperature cannot be too high inside and for sure cannot be that high as a liquid crystal itself can withstand, which is +110 degrees.

And that will be all in this article about contrast, brightness, and temperatures. Just one more thing: if you are planning on buying a laptop today, you can find brightness in the specification. Look at this number because this will determine how good your laptop will be outdoors. There are laptops on the market today that will have 1000 candelas or even more. If you are looking for a new device my recommendation also goes for mobile phones. Low brightness mobile phones can have 300, maybe 500 candelas, but nowadays the standard will be around 1000 candelas, but there are phones on the market that already have 1500 or even 1800 candelas. That means if you are in the sunlight you will still be able to see the image clearly. Of course, the battery will be drained faster, but sometimes it is not so important, maybe you just want to check something quickly, to read something and you want to have a clear image just be aware that this number is pretty important when you buy new devices!

NPS1535 is a professional marine panel PC, combined the unique marine display and embedded system technology. With Intel high performance CPU, waterproof technology (IP65 certificated), advanced optical bonding technology (AOT), high brightness and special aluminum alloy casing design, NPS series offer computing solution for marine industrial.

Effects of direct sun-light exposure to Touchscreen equipped Liquid Crystal Display monitors and mitigation techniquesIntroductionLiquid crystal, at room temperature, is neither a liquid nor a solid. This state allows liquid crystal to be usable as a light controlling device – i.e.: Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). However, liquid crystal can be adversely affected by temperature changes causing undesirable results. Low temperature environments can cause the crystal to transition more to a solid thus causing the crystal to be less responsive to changes needed to properly control light. In a LCD this can be observed as slow transition time from frame to frame (choppy video or memory of previous image). Higher temperature environments cause the liquid crystal to transition more to a liquid state, again causing the crystal to not perform correctly when controlling light. This effect can be seen in an LCD as a lowering of contrast ratio (darkening) or in extreme heat conditions melting the crystal resulting in a completely dark LCD image. Direct sun-light exposure typically does not cause LCD to internally heat enough to reach the liquid crystal’s melting point. However, touch monitors have a glass overlay and air barrier on top of the LCD. This can cause a greenhouse effect causing the air temperature between the touch sensor and LCD to become much hotter than the ambient temperature.Preventive measures

Orientation: The easiest way to prevent thermal heating by the sun is of course to not expose the LCD to direct sunlight. In many cases simply orienting the face of the LCD monitor in an East/West position will prevent the greenhouse effect and darkening of the LCD.

Covering or awning: If orientation cannot be controlled and the design allows for it, a simple shade can be employed to block direct sun light. The shade can be a protective awning overhead, or a cover that lies over the screen prompting the user to open or remove the covering to use the device.

Touch Technology choices: Touch sensor design varies based on the given technology. Technologies such as APR and SAW are based on glass only technologies. Resistive and Capacitive technologies have coatings which block some light transmission in both directions. In theory, touch sensors with coatings would slow the greenhouse effect by blocking a percentage of entering light thus slowing the LCD darkening. Touch sensors such as Infra-Red and Optical have no boundaries on the substrates; thus films, coatings or substraight material itself can be adjusted to block additional light.

TestingTesting was performed on three Elo ESY15B1-APR products, outdoors in direct sunlight for 4-hours. A white background was displayed and a burn-in was test running to load the processor.

LCDs used in outdoor situations have many concerns to deal with in addition to any that they might normally encounter during indoor use. Initially some concerns are weather related such as moisture in the air or extreme temperatures. Another concern that is often not understood or just not known about at all is sunlight damage.

Liquid crystal displays use organic components that are susceptible to UV (<400 nm) and IR (>750 nm). These bandwidths of radiation have an observable impact on the organic components in LCDs. Extended exposure has been known to cause a color shift and a washed out look to images displayed with the LCD.

In any case it is important to protect your display from the elements, especially if it is going to be exposed to harsh environments not intended by the manufacturer. One way to do this would be to utilize a Hot Mirror with a UV blocker. This will significantly reduce the amount of IR radiation between 750 nm and 1200 nm, as well as the UV radiation below 400 nm. If the LCD is going to be used outdoors for extended periods then an extended hot mirror may be necessary, which extends the bandwidth protection out to 1600 nm and will help reduce some of the longer wavelength IR damage.

Another concern with liquid crystal displays are their susceptibility to overheating due to excess IR radiation. The LCD is intended to operate within a certain range of temperatures according to the manufacturer’s instructions and outdoor use can lead to higher than normal temperatures. The display being exposed to excessive heat can cause the crystal to become isotropic and fail to perform properly. A hot mirror can help alleviate these concerns as well by reducing the amount of infrared radiation that heats the display.