Funai Develops LCDs with No Backlighting

Innovation is the key to market success in the field of display solutions, and for this reason, the most important names in this market segment keep pumping out new and improved technologies, meant to perfect certain specific components of an HDTV. That's also the case with the latest announcement from Funai, whose research division apparently developed a new type of LCD that actually requires no backlighting system, thus seriously lowering the power consumption, as well as the very size of the devices.

Typically, the backlighting system occupies the largest amount of space within a modern widescreen TV and requires the most power, but things might really change in the future. According to CrunchGear, quoting an article from Japanese news outlet Nikkei, the Funai Electric Advanced Applied Technology Research Institute, which has developed this very interesting new technology, claims that the power requirements for this type will be as low as 1 percent of what current commercially-available LCDs can output.

Thus, apparently, the new type of display employs dyes changing color when an electrical current is applied to them. However, the amount of power required for this process is quite small, namely 0.16MW per square centimeter. The manufacturers claim that the quality, contrast and depth provided by this dye system match those of the most advanced LCDs on the market, but of course, that remains to be seen in practical tests.

Plus, it features a reflectivity level of 80%, 30% more than reflective LCDs. And, as if what you've read up until now wasn't enough, Funai doesn’t actually use thin-film transistors in the manufacturing process of the screen, which translates into significantly lower costs (two thirds lower, to be more precise).

Apparently, the first LCDs to incorporate this new dye-based technology will arrive on the market at some point next year, so we're quite anxiously waiting to see first hand just what the quality of the images these things can output will be.

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