Sharp Corp and Semiconductor Energy Lab Co Ltd have jointly developed a new liquid crystal display technology that will enable the development of high speed multimedia terminals and high definition television video projection. Called continuous grain silicon, the technology enables fully digital circuits to be incorporated into a liquid crystal display panel, Sharp said. This is possible because the technology enables electrons to travel through semiconductors around 600 times faster than through existing amorphous silicon thin film transistors and around four times faster than ordinary low temperature polysilicon thin film transistors. To demonstrate the technology, Sharp has developed a prototype 60 inch high definition liquid crystal display video projector that features high contrast of 300:1 and brightness of 850 lumens. The prototype uses three 2.6 inch ultra high definition continuous grain silicon thin film transistor panels and offers a resolution of more than 1.3 million pixels, or 1280 by 1024. Sharp said it now plans to pursue higher definition and picture quality for digital multimedia applications. Sharp and Semiconductor Energy have applied for over 500 patents for the technology in Japan and abroad. The announcement was made in Japan this month and there was no indication as to when the technology will be appearing in commercial product.
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