custom lcd display design quotation

The process to take your LCD idea from a concept to having prototype samples in hand is simple and requires just the few steps listed below. (Download PDF)

In many cases, FocusLCDs’ lead time for custom LCD samples is as little as 6-7 weeks after you approve our counter drawings and data sheet. This lead time increases by 4-6 weeks between November to early February due to Chinese New year. Standard production orders for custom displays have a lead time of 10-12 weeks, which can increase by 2-4 weeks during Chinese New year.

Focus Display Solutions offers several LCD technologies. The majority of these displays can be customized to fit your need. Below is a short introduction to each type of LCD.

Ultra-Wide Viewing Display (UWVD) is a new technology that is named after one of its most notable characteristics – it is viewable from all angles. In addition to the viewing angle, this technology provides a better contrast than other options and can allow for multiple colors. Call one of our design specialists today to see if UWVD is the right technology for you.

Thin-Film-Transistor Liquid Crystal Displays (TFTs) are perhaps the most encountered display technology we see daily. Often seen in cell phones, tablets, cameras and countless other devices, this technology offers several hundreds of thousands of colors with a high pixel count to offer supreme visual clarity. In addition, all TFTs are available off the shelf with resistive and capacitive touch panel options.

Character LCDs have been around since the 1950s and are still very common. These displays offer 256 selectable characters and are available with several different font tables to show a variety of languages. They are most commonly known for their ease of programming wide variety of sizes, character arrays and colors.

Looking to take your project to the next level in terms of functionality and appearance? A custom LCD display might be the thing that gets you there, at least compared to the dot-matrix or seven-segment displays that anyone and their uncle can buy from the usual sources for pennies. But how does one create such a thing, and what are the costs involved? As is so often the case these days, it’s simpler and cheaper than you think, and [Dave Jones] has a great primer on designing and specifying custom LCDs.

The video below is part of an ongoing series; a previous video covered the design process, turning the design into a spec, and choosing a manufacturer; another discussed the manufacturer’s design document approval and developing a test plan for the module. This one shows the testing plan in action on the insanely cheap modules – [Dave] was able to have a small run of five modules made up for only $138, which included $33 shipping. The display is for a custom power supply and has over 200 segments, including four numeric sections, a clock display, a bar graph, and custom icons for volts, amps, millijoules, and watt-hours. It’s a big piece of glass and the quality is remarkable for the price. It’s not perfect – [Dave] noted a group of segments on the same common lines that were a bit dimmer than the rest, but was able to work around it by tweaking the supply voltage a bit.

We’re amazed at how low the barrier to entry into custom electronics has become, and even if you don’t need a custom LCD, at these prices it’s tempting to order one just because you can. Of course, you can also build your own LCD display completely from scratch too.

Liquid Crystal Displays or more commonly known as LCDs are one of the most common electronic components which help us interact with an equipment or a device. Most personal portable equipment and even gigantic industrial equipment utilize a custom segment display to display data. For many portable consumer electronics, a segment LCD display is one of the biggest contributors to the overall cost of the device, hence designing a custom segment display can drive the cost down while also utilizing the display area in the most optimum manner. These displays have the lowest cost per piece, low power requirements, and a low tooling fee too.

At first thought, designing a custom segment LCD might look like a Herculean task, but trust me that it is easier than it seems. In this article, we have summarised and compared the display types and available technologies which are required to construct a custom segment LCD. We have also provided a flowchart that can act as a step-by-step guide while you design your own custom LCD. We have also provided the process we followed, a require gathering sheet we used for communicating our needs to the manufacturer, and a few other data and the quotation we received from the manufacturer.

Icons: A silhouette of any shape can be placed on the glass which enhances the ability to display data. For example, a symbol of a heart can be made to denote heart rate or an icon for a low battery to show that the battery needs to be charged. Icons are counted as a single pixel or segment and can give a lot more details than similar-sized text.

LCD Bias– It denotes the number of different voltage levels used in driving the segments, static drives (explained later in this article) only have 2 voltage levels or 2 bias voltage while multiplex drives have multiple voltage levels. For example, 1/3 will have 4 bias voltages.

LCDs utilizes the light modulating properties of liquid crystals which can be observed by using polarizing filters. Polarizing filters are special materials that have their molecules aligned in the same direction. If the light waves passing through polarisers have the same orientation as the filter, then the molecules of lights are absorbed by the filter, hence reducing the intensity of light passing through it, making it visible.

A custom LCD is important for maximizing the efficiency of the display area by adding custom symbols and characters. It also helps in reducing the cost and improving energy efficiency of the product. A higher number of custom symbols and specified placement of numerical and alphanumerical characters make the display more informative and readable for the user. This makes it look better than the plain old boring displays we get in the market. Furthermore, we can specify the viewing angle, contrast, and other specifications which can increase durability or give a better value for money for our intended usage.  A typical Custom Segment display is shown below, we will also show you how to design and fabricate the same further in the article.

The LCD display doesn’t emit any light of its own, therefore it requires an external source of illumination or reflector to be readable in dark environments.

While designing a custom segment LCD display, we have the leverage of choosing a lot of parameters that affect the final product. From the color of the display to the illumination technique and color of illumination as well as the type of input pins. Some important considerations we need to take while designing a custom 7 segment display are - the type of display, i.e. positive or negative, illumination method, driving technique, polarising type, and connection method. All these design criteria are explained below:

Positive and negative displays can be easily distinguished by the colour of the background and characters. Some common differences between the positive and negative displays are:

So, which one should you choose? When the displays are to be used in areas with higher ambient light, we should select positive segment LCD display as it has better visibility than negative segment LCD displays without using a backlight.

As we know that LED displays don’t emit any light, hence to illuminate it and make it visible in a dark environment, we can use different methods of illumination. The most common LCD Illumination methods are compared below:

For displays that need to be used for budget-friendly devices that should be small and rugged, LED lights are preferred for the displays due to the high durability and low cost of operations. For high brightness, CCFL and Incandescent lights can be used.

A polarizer film is the most important component of an LCD display, which makes it possible to display characters by controlling the light. There are 3 types of polarizers that can be used in the LCD display, the properties and difference are given below:

Displays can be categorized into two types, passive displays, and active display, passive displays are simpler to construct as they have 2 connections at each segment, the conductors comprise of an Indium Tin Oxide to create an image, whereas the active displays use thin-film transistors (TFT) arranged in a grid. The name is due to its ability to control each pixel individually.

If your displays have fewer segments, then static LCD drive is preferred as it is easier to control and cheaper to construct, and has a better contrast ratio. But let’s say that if the number of segments in the display are more than 30-40 then a multiplex LCD drive should be preferred as it has multiple common pins, hence reducing the total number of pins required to drive the display.

Choosing a connector type!!! For the prototyping phase or if you need to connect your LCD display on a Microcontroller directly, a pin type connector is the best and most economical option you have. If you need to connect your LCD display in a final product with a high volume of production which also requires to be extremely durable, but at the same time should not take up a lot of space, a Flex type LCD Connector will work best for you

LCDs have limited viewing angles and when seen from an angle they lose contrast and are difficult to be observed.  The viewing angle is defined by the angles perpendicular to the center of the display towards its right, left, up, and down which are denoted by the notations 3:00, 9:00, 12:00, and 6:00 respectively. The viewing angle of LCD can be defined as the angle w.r.t. to the bias angle at which the contrast of segments is legible.

To improve the viewing angle in an LCD, a Bias is incorporated in the design which shifts the nominal viewing angle with an offset. Another technique is to increase the Voltage, it affects the bias angle, making the display crisper when viewed from a direction.

For example, the viewing angle of a TN type TFT LCD is 45-65 degrees. Extra-wide polarising film (EWP) can increase the viewing angle by 10 degrees, using an O film polariser can make the viewing angles 75 degrees but these come at a cost of reduced contrast.

LCD Control chip or LCD driver chips can be mounted on the flex cable, display, or externally on a PCB. The placement of LCD control chip can affect the cost and size of the display. The 2 most common methods of chip placement are-Chip of Board (COB)and Chip on Glass(COG) which are described below:

We planned to design an air quality monitoring system for which we needed a custom segment LCD panel for an air quality monitoring device. Our product needs to display the following data: 2.5-micron and 10-micron particulate matter (PM) suspended in the air; the units should be in parts per million (PPM). CO2 in the air in PPM along with total volatile organic compounds present in the air in parts per billion (PPB). To make the product more usable, we included time in 24-hour format, Temperature in ºC, Battery status, loudspeaker status, Bluetooth status, and Wi-Fi status. And for some personal touch, we also added how good the air quality in the room is by using 3 different smileys.

We realized that it was impossible to provide all these data in a generic LCD available in the market, thus decided to build a custom LCD for our project.

A step-by-step flowchart is shown below to walk you through each and every step of selecting components and getting your custom segment LCD manufactured.

We started by listing down our requirements and drew a mock-up of the display on paper. After finalizing the placement of all the segments and icons on the prototype sketch of the display, we then decided which all icons and segments have to be kept on for the whole time and which needs to be driven. Realizing that there are too many segments, characters and icons, hence we selected a multiplex drive with 8 common pins which helped us bring down the total pins from an estimated 180 pins to less than 40 pins.

Since the device was meant to be used inside houses and offices, which are more often than not well lit and protected from environmental conditions, we opted for a positive mode display. For superior contrast ratio and better viewing angle, we chose a Film Super Twisted Nematic Display (FSTN) with a drive condition of 1/8 Duty and bias of 1/4.

Usually, the displays are mounted at a height of 4.5 feet from the ground, thus the viewing direction was selected to be 12"O clock with an operating frequency of 64Hz. We selected a Transmissive polarizer for the front glass and a reflective polarizer for the rear glass so that the natural light can pass through the front panel and the display can achieve the maximum contrast without the need for backlighting and we opted for the pin type connectors as they are easy for prototyping and are suitable for harsh environment with a lot of vibrations and shocks which best suited our purpose.

In the above image of a custom display design, we sent to the manufacturer, the red lines over multiple characters indicate that all these are considered as a single segment. For the sake of simplicity, we added test like T, S, U, B to denote Text, Symbols, Units, and Battery respectively. These characters were followed by numbers to simplify communication between us and the manufacturer. For example, if we needed any particular text or symbol to remain on, we can easily specify that to the manufacturer by using the corresponding text for that segment.

We mailed our requirements to multiple LCD manufacturers, (you will find a lot of LCD manufacturers on the Internet). Most LCD manufacturers have competitive pricing, and reply within a week. A sample requirement sheet is shown above which a customer needs to fill to specify all the details to the manufacturer.

This is a sample Custom Segment LCD quotation we got from one of the manufacturers. As you can see, the cost is based on the quantity. Higher the quantity, lower the cost. Apart from the cost per quantity, there is one more component called tooling fees. Tooling fee is a one-time fee charged by the manufacturer. It is for the technical design, support, and customization of the product. Customization of PCB or tooling of LCD can drive the tooling price higher or lower.

The tooling time and cost depend on how detailed and accurate designs you sent to the manufacturer. They then send the exact dimensions and technical details of the product they will be manufacturing. Once you confirm the design, they manufacture and ship the product which might take 4-8 weeks to arrive depending on the size of the order and mode of transportation selected.

A custom segment LCD can help you personalize your product while also saving the overall cost of your product. The whole process will take you around 2-3 months, which will include the designing phase, prototyping phase, and getting your custom segment LCDs delivered to your doorstep. Higher ordering quantity will reduce the cost per piece of each unit, thus driving down the cost of your final product.

It’s not uncommon for OEMs to have unique requirements to meet their products specifications. Because PDI focuses exclusively with OEMs to supply mid-volume standard, custom and semi-custom LCD displays, we are able work directly with select customers to provide LCD product solutions.

In addition to custom LCD displays, we provide custom PCB assemblies and turnkey solutions for products that feature a Displaytech LCD. As a display manufacturer, our engineering and production staff are experienced in handling the design and manufacturing of printed circuit board assemblies for front panels, rack mount equipment, handheld devices and many other products.

Many Size Options – Flexible design requirements allow for a wide range of size options for custom glass LCD. Designs can be as small as 1.5″ and as large as 10″.

Very Fast Tooling Process – Concept to Production as fast as 12 weeks – Tooled samples delivered in as little as 4 weeks. Once customer provides drawing to sales@azdisplays.com , we can have a proposed design within in 1-2 days.Proposal Design

If you don’t have a drawing already, you can download the Design Sheet and return to sales@azdisplays.com or contact an engineer for technical support at 949.360.5830

Dr Pan: Hello, Greg. STN is the abbreviation for Super Twisted Nematic. The main difference between TN, HTN, STN and FSTN LCD is the view angle. From the definition, the maximum view angle of STN LCD is 210~255 degree. Take this STN positive LCD for example. The view angle is 12 o’clock direction and it can be seen very clearly in the full view angle: 12 o’clock direction, 3 o’clock direction, 6 o’clock direction, 9 o’clock direction and the front side.

When it is a positive and reflective display, it can display without LED backlight; when it is a positive and transmissive/ transflective display, it can’t display without LED backlight, we have two options for the background color: grey background and blue letters, yellow-green background and black/blue letters.

When it is a negative and transmissive/ transflective display, it can’t display without LED backlight, the background is blue and the color of the letters is the color of LED backlight.

By the way, no matter it is a positive or negative display, the background color is affected by the color of LED backlight on some level. That is why the color of LED backlight is usually white.

We use our expertise and technology to assist our customer to design the LCD into the specification at the most economical cost in the shortest amount of time.

SIMPLE can offer various options on backlight type, pin and connector, cable, touch panel, inverter, heater or even customized PCB which can be adopted to standard product and material as semi-custom solution for your product application.

We encourage you to provide us with as much information as possible. It will help our engineers and design team to have a better understanding of your needs and requirements, and ensure quality and efficient customer service. If you are unsure about any of the above information, please feel free to contact us.

New Vision Display is a custom LCD display manufacturer serving OEMs across diverse markets. One of the things that sets us apart from other LCD screen manufacturers is the diversity of products and customizations we offer. Our LCD portfolio ranges from low-cost monochrome LCDs to high-resolution, high-brightness color TFT LCDs – and pretty much everything in between. We also have extensive experience integrating LCD screen displays into complete assemblies with touch and cover lens.

Sunlight readable, ultra-low power, bistable (“paper-like”) LCDs. Automotive grade, wide operating/storage temperatures, and wide viewing angles. Low tooling costs.

Among the many advantages of working with NVD as your LCD screen manufacturer is the extensive technical expertise of our engineering team. From concept to product, our sales and technical staff provide expert recommendations and attentive support to ensure the right solution for your project.

In addition, our extensive technology portfolio and manufacturing capabilities enable us to deliver high-quality products that meet the unique specifications of any application. To learn more about what makes us the display manufacturer for your needs, get in touch with us today.

As a leading LCD panel manufacturer, NVD manufactures custom LCD display solutions for a variety of end-user applications: Medical devices, industrial equipment, household appliances, consumer electronics, and many others. Our state-of-the-art LCD factories are equipped to build custom LCDs for optimal performance in even the most challenging environments. Whether your product will be used in the great outdoors or a hospital operating room, we can build the right custom LCD solution for your needs. Learn more about the markets we serve below.

For over 20 years we"ve been helping clients worldwide by designing, developing, & manufacturing custom LCD displays, screens, and panels across all industries.

Newhaven Display has extensive experience manufacturing a wide array of digital display products, including TFT, IPS, character displays, graphic displays, LCD modules, COG displays, and LCD panels. Along with these products, we specialize in creating high-quality and affordable custom LCD solutions. While our focus is on high-quality LCD products, we also have a variety of graphic and character OLED displays we manufacture.

As a longtime leader in LCD manufacturing, producing top-quality LCD modules and panels is our highest priority. At Newhaven Display, we’re also incredibly proud to uphold our reputation as a trusted and friendly custom LCD manufacturing company.

As a custom LCD manufacturing company, we ensure complete control of our custom displays" reliability by providing the industry"s highest quality standards. Our design, development, production, and quality engineers work closely to help our clients bring their products to life with a fully custom display solution.

Our excellent in-house support sets Newhaven Display apart from other display manufacturers. Modifications in the customization process are completed at our Illinois facility, allowing us to provide an exceptionally fast turnaround time.

Customer support requests sent by phone, email, or on our support forum will typically receive a response within 24 hours. For custom LCD project inquiries, our response time can take a few days or weeks, depending on the complexity of your display customization requirements. With different production facilities and a robust supply chain, we are able to deliver thefastest turnaround times for display customizations.

We work hard to ensure that personalized support is available and highly reliable. Our extended support center is available through our website, including example codes, IC datasheets, font tables, engineering changes, a video library, and answers to frequently asked questions. You can visit our knowledge center and community forum, where you can find answers, browse topics, and talk to other engineers in the display and electronics field.

Our excellent in-house support and custom display modifications set Newhaven Display apart from other LCD display manufacturers. From TFTs, IPS, sunlight readable displays, HDMI modules, EVE2 modules, to COG, character, and graphic LCDs, our modifications in the customization process are completed at our Illinois facility, allowing us to provide quality and fast turnaround times.

As a display manufacturer, distributor, and wholesaler, we are able to deliver the best quality displays at the best prices. Design, manufacturing, and product assembly are completed at our headquarters in Elgin, Illinois. Newhaven Display International ensures the best quality LCD products in the industry in this newly expanded facility with a renovated production and manufacturing space.

With assembly facilities in the US, manufacturing facilities in China, and distribution channels worldwide, we pride ourselves on delivering high-quality custom display solutions quickly to locations worldwide.

Why settle for an off-the-shelf LCD monitor that’s almost “good enough”? Let TRU-Vu provide a custom LCD monitor, modified LCD display, or design a custom OEM monitor to meet your needs. Above all, we can customize nearly aspect of your display, from the inputs and electronics, to screen treatments and enclosures. Custom options for embedding your own devices inside our enclosures and even private labeling it with your own name/logo and corporate identity are available.

Certainly, your customized LCD display will receive a unique model number, to identify it as your exclusive custom LCD monitor. Most importantly, no one else can order this model. If they try,  they will be referred back to you. Our OEM customers love this! For example, this protects your intellectual property, and ensures your return on investment.

Lastly, we will guarantee long-term availability of your custom OEM monitor design. Subsequently, we can ensure your custom LCD monitor is available for 3 – 5 (or many more) years. On the other hand, retail,  consumer-grade or commercial-grade monitors  typically have a 3 to 12 month life cycle.

Contrary to popular belief, custom LCD monitors do not need to be expensive. At least not the custom screens from TRU-Vu. We modify, customize or custom-build monitors and touch screens that are usually in the same price range as off-the-shelf monitors. Give us a call and learn for yourself how affordable a custom solution can be. Unlike our competitors, we can build these for very low minimum order quantities. So why settle for off-the-shelf?

Optical Bonding: Ideal for use in bright, indirect light. A optical-grade resin is injected into the space between the LCD panel and the outer glass, filling the gap. This eliminates internal reflections and condensation. Similarly, it also increases contrast ratio, and thereby improves image quality.

We can embed some of your own devices inside your custom lcd monitors and touch screens. Subsequently, we then also provide you with external connections to other products or systems.

TRU-Vu monitors can be configured to accept a wide range of video input signals. For instance, the letter at the end of each monitor model number designates the video input board:

To sum up, our standard, modified and custom LCD displays and touch screens can be private-labeled to your specifications. Likewise, this includes your silk-screened logo/company name, custom enclosure colors and your own unique model number. See our Private Label Monitors page for more information.

For most Passive Matrix LCD modules, we can deliver a custom LCD with active area size and resolution or a custom backlight, mechanical housing, and electrical interface for a total NRE cost of less than USD 10k. Likewise, Createxplay can customize an Active Matrix LCD module’s backlight, housing, and mechanical interface for an NRE cost of less than USD 10k.

However, customizing the Active Matrix LCD itself (size/resolution) can cost restrictive for most applications since the minimum NRE required for panel mask sets is around USD 100k. Unless the scope of the business dictates a customer-owned TFT panel or the project volumes depending on the size, are over 500k pieces per year. In many applications, combining a standard active matrix TFT cell with a custom-designed module and electrical interface offers the most favorable overall cost solution.

The lead time is another consideration for a custom design that can be shorter than you would think. Short lead time is made off-the-shelf LCD modules attractive for designers.

LCD manufacturers like Createxplay can typically design custom housing for passive or active matrix LCDs – with integrated capacitive touch sensor and interface – within one to two weeks of the initial RFQ and then provide sample custom LCD modules 4-5wks after that.

Createxplay also offers customers the option to use off-the-shelf modules as prototypes within their design before the custom display is ready to evaluate other design aspects and perform qualification work (e.g., testing software).

For many implementers, the design freedom and iterative optimization that customization offers are well worth the additional time required to sample custom LCD modules.