Reborn Tokyo Golden Age

In the SIC building, two professors, Shirakawa Fengzheng, Shirakawa Hideki and Hosono Hideo, buried their heads in the case.

"Just from a visual point of view, the display effect has indeed been greatly improved.

At least by changing the angle, there will be no ghosting that interferes with the visual effect. "

At this time, what Bai Chuanfeng had in front of him was the latest achievement of the LCD R\u0026D department at SIC, STN-LCD.

At first glance, compared with the previous TN-LCD, the most obvious difference is that the background color of the panel is yellowish-green.

In addition, there is no digital ghost image engraved in advance by TN-LCD on the panel, and it looks smooth even under the light.

Because of the long screen response time and low contrast ratio, TN-LCD always engraves the pre-desired pattern on the substrate at the beginning of production.

This way the pattern responds quickly when power is applied.

However, the disadvantage is that if you deflect the screen at an angle, you can clearly see the double image that has been engraved in advance.

Regardless of whether it is powered on or not, the existence of ghosting greatly affects the visual effect.

Now STN-LCD has improved all these shortcomings, and the screen panel looks much cleaner in an instant.

"Although the STN is still a passive twist matrix, the rotation angle of the liquid crystal molecules has exceeded 180 degrees through the action of the electric field, reaching a twist angle of 240~270 degrees.

In addition, in the process of repeatedly changing the voltage of the electric field, the recovery process of each pixel point is relatively slow, resulting in afterglow.

This brings an obvious advantage that its power consumption is small, and power saving will be its biggest advantage. "

Pointing to the patterns on the screen, Hideki Shirakawa explained the working principle and advantages of STN-LCD to Feng Shirakawa in detail.

Its implementation method was inspired by Shirakawa Kaede at the beginning. It mainly consists of two conductive glass bases, a liquid crystal in the middle, and a polarizer on the upper surface.

In addition to these, there are backlight panels and several lamp beads that provide light sources in the lower part. Of course, the driver IC that controls the change of the electric field and the light emission of the lamp beads is also essential.

"Compared with TN-LCD, it has a qualitative improvement in terms of viewing angle, picture characteristics, response speed, and color.

There is also a big difference in the processing technology. The most obvious advantage is that the pattern does not need to be drawn in advance, but is realized by the driver IC. "

As he spoke, Hideki Shirakawa flicked a switch on the circuit board in front of the table, and the number displayed on the yellow-green screen in front of him.

It suddenly turned into a cartoon character, and even Chinese characters appeared at the bottom!

To be honest, this change surprised Bai Chuanfeng, he carefully lifted the panel and turned it left and right to have a closer look.

There was no ghosting at all, and the pattern was very clear after changing the angle.

This alone gave Bai Chuanfeng a lot of ideas, which means that future LCD production will no longer depend on drawing patterns in advance.

All the images to be presented can be solved by a small driver IC, which is relatively simple in the production process.

"Professor Shirakawa just said that STN-LCD controls the output of the screen through the driver IC?"

"That's right." Hideki Shirakawa nodded, "This is also thanks to Bai Chuan-san, and we came up with this method only after being inspired by your active interference before.

Since it is necessary to change the electric field and light perception, why not realize it through IC, its control is more precise and efficient.

As long as the control program is input into the IC in advance, the pre-set program can be called quickly when in use. "

The previous TN screens used physical means to draw patterns in advance, but the current STN uses digital means to store programs in advance.

Although they are all pre-set things, the difference can be very big.

This is equivalent to one staying in the steam age and the other having entered the information age. It is clear at a glance whose effect is better.

Moreover, the TN pattern cannot be changed once it is drawn, but the STN program can be changed repeatedly through external means.

Such a comparison is not only visual, but also greatly expands the application field.

Good thing, Bai Chuanfeng seems to have seen a golden mountain beckoning to him.

"By the way, the LCD driver IC is also designed by ourselves. Although it is still relatively rough, there will be no threshold for simple production and manufacturing."

Just when Bai Chuanfeng secretly lamented the advancement of STN, Bai Chuanying told him another unexpected news.

"A driver IC produced by ourselves?" Bai Chuanfeng's eyes lit up.

"Yes, this is the work of Yamazaki-san, and the trial production is also provided by Fujitsu."

Driver IC, to put it bluntly, is a driver chip.

Since Shirakawa Hideki wanted such a thing, of course he would go to the chip development department upstairs.

SIC can handle even the processor chip, not to mention a small driver IC.

Akira Yamazaki, who has been here for two years, is quite accomplished in chip design.

So the design of the driver IC on the STN-LCD was handed over to him. As for Masatoshi Shima and the others, they were busy with the development of the next generation chip and had no time to take care of this small driver chip.

Because the design was less difficult, Akira Yamazaki got it done quickly.

Now this chip has been placed in front of Bai Chuanfeng, and the product has been installed and started to use.

"Professor Bai Chuan, do you think STN-LCD, or the driver IC, will have market prospects in the future?" Bai Chuanfeng rolled his eyes.

"Market prospect?" Hideki Shirakawa was taken aback, but soon he realized, "I dare not say anything else, but it should be no problem to replace the TN screen."

"That's enough!" Bai Chuanfeng clapped his hands high. Doesn't SIC have one more business?

According to what we have just learned, the difficulty of driving ICs is relatively low, and the 6-micron technology that has been around for 74 years in the manufacturing process can meet the process requirements.

This also results in a very low cost of the driver IC, which is suitable for mass production.

In the future, the application prospect of STN is broad, so the driver chip will become an indispensable accessory.

Considering that there is no STN screen application on the market at this time, it means that the SIC driver chip may be unique.

Unique, that is a monopoly, even if it is temporary.

And as long as SIC takes the first step, there is absolutely no need to worry about its market share in the future.

Look, Bai Chuanfeng has another golden mountain.

He has decided to let the chip research and development department set up a separate screen driver chip design department later.

Before others could react, SIC had already made arrangements in advance.

This has always been the case in the high-end industry, taking the lead means occupying the priority application for patents, and the so-called technical barriers are thus leading step by step.

The latecomers can only follow the former to drink some soup, or pay a large amount of patent fees every year to earn thin profits.

"By the way, Professor Shirakawa, I remember what you said. STN can achieve partial color. Can we do it now?"

Bai Chuanfeng remembered the pie that Hideki Bai had drawn for him, and the color display screen was always on his mind.

"Well, the color display can only be single-color at present, and the true color like CTR is difficult to achieve on the STN."

Speaking of which, Hideki Shirakawa has already turned on another display screen on the table, and the background color of its panel is blue.

The displayed pattern is moonlight white English characters and simple graphics, and there are green Chinese characters and red logos in a small area.

The blue background, the white numbers of Yueguan, the green Chinese characters, and the red logo all add a few more colors.

However, these colors are displayed separately in a certain area in blocks, far from the natural fusion of colors presented by CTR monitors.

"The color of STN is through adding a color filter in front of the polarizer, and by dividing the monochrome display matrix into three sub-pixels, displaying the three primary colors of red, green and blue.

The three primary colors of the color are scattered by the liquid crystal and the polarizer, and finally display a specific color in a specific area of ​​the screen. "

To put it bluntly, the color of the current STN is a pseudo-color, and the color of each pixel is not directly determined by the value of each basic color component.

Instead, the pixels are used as a palette, so that Bai Chuanfeng sees a piece of color at this time, instead of the round and natural color of later generations.

Okay, although it is a false color, it is still a huge improvement compared to the TN screen.

At least through the control of the driver chip, partial color can be achieved.

Technology needs to be developed step by step, and it is impossible to evolve directly from a black and white screen to a full color screen.

"What is the cost of our STN screen?"

Bai Chuanfeng has already seen the effect of the show, and now he is most concerned about the production cost.

"If it's just the simplest gray-scale STN screen, if the driver IC can be mass-produced.

The cost of a handheld game screen is about 600~800 yen, and the cost is even higher if it is a yellow-green or blue-scale screen. "

The so-called grayscale STN screen is to display only light and dark colors, which is what we usually call black and white screen.

Yellow-green screens and blue screens are pseudo-color screens that add a color film to display some colors, and their cost is a little higher.

Even the grayscale screen with the lowest cost is nearly 7 times more expensive than the previous TN.

Sure enough, the advancement of technology is often accompanied by an increase in cost.

The cost of 600~800 yen, want to have a considerable profit. Only when the external selling price reaches at least 2,000 yen or more can it be realized.

Compared with the current TN price of two or three hundred yen, the gap between the two is not one or two points.

Even so, STN screens still need to be vigorously developed.

Because the TN screen is too backward, there are too many shortcomings. The new technology may have a rough start, but its promise is bright.

Bai Chuanfeng believes that with the maturity of the production process in the future, the manufacturing cost of STN screen will have room to decrease.

"Professor Bai Chuan, besides the handheld, can the STN screen be used on a larger screen? For example, the possibility of a TV or a computer screen?"

Since there are so many advantages, Bai Chuanfeng has no reason not to find a wider commercial space for STN screens.

With the support of handheld devices alone, STN may be profitable, but it will definitely not become a golden mountain.

To fully enjoy the dividends of monopoly and pioneers, more customers are a very necessary prerequisite.

However, unlike Bai Chuanfeng's optimism, Professor Bai Chuanying's face was a little embarrassed.

"The driving method of the current LCD screen is to use electrode driving to synchronize the X and Y axes.

But if the screen size is too large, the electrodes in the center may take longer to respond.

In order to make the screen display consistent, the overall speed will slow down. "

In order to make his explanation more intuitive, Shirakawa Hideki changed to a larger screen for a live demonstration.

With the power supply in place, the appearance of the middle pattern visible to the naked eye is obviously a beat slower than the surrounding circle.

This is a delay visible to the naked eye, and it is conceivable that it is basically unrealistic to put it on a TV or computer.

This is like the refresh rate of a CTR display is too low, and the screen will flicker and jump after watching for a long time.

"In order to ensure the effect, at least the delay cannot be observed with the naked eye, what is the maximum size of the STN screen?"

"About 9 inches."

9 inches? Bai Chuanfeng's eyes lit up, it's not that he didn't mess up at all.