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24 Aug Selecting a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

Posted at 11:44h in Engineering Challenges by

Selecting the right LCD for your product is not a trivial task. The display is often the most important part of the user interface and has a significant influence on the overall appearance and feel of the device (think iPhone). There are a large number of LCD manufacturers in the market providing an endless selection of off-the-shelf and customizable options. Every designer would love to select the newest, coolest high-res touch screen on the market (again, think iPhone), but production quantities and cost must be considered in addition to specs such as LCD technology (passive matrix, active matrix), liquid type (TN, STN, FSTN, FFSTN),type (character, direct drive, graphic), resolution, power consumption, controller, viewing angle, polarizer, connection scheme, contrast, operating conditions, etc.

Developing vendor relationships is valuable, as a vendor will be able to review your specifications and make a recommendation as to which display offering might be best for your product. They can also provide more information than what is typically offered on the website and have the latest information about new and upcoming products in their pipeline. Additionally, they are familiar with customization options that can help you to meet your spec.

In the end, even if all of your specs look perfect on paper, seeing is believing. Every component of the display alters the appearance slightly, and the details do matter. Shown below is a line-up of displays considered for a recent project. Each display has a different combination of fluid and polarizer which affects contrast, brightness, and background color. It’s prudent to ask your vendors to provide demos of your top display choices early on in the design stage as the LCD selected will cascade through your electrical, mechanical, and software design.

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