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By Richard Morochove
First published October 22, 1998
TOKYO, JAPAN - Katsuhiko Machida is a man with a mission. The recently-appointed president of Sharp Corp. wants to replace all the CRTs (Cathode Ray Tubes) used in Sharp products with LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays) by 2005.
While LCDs are the standard screens used in notebook computers the world over, even the
technology-loving Japanese prefer tried and true CRTs for television sets. It's estimated
that liquid crystal displays will account for just 4 per cent of Japanese TV sales this
year. 
The method in Machida's madness becomes clear once you realize Sharp is the world's leading manufacturer of liquid crystal displays. The LCD market is now in a slump, which led to a decline in Sharp's sales and profits for the year ended March 1998, its first drop in five years. Yet is his goal feasible?
There are several advantages to LCDs compared to CRTs. They're lightweight, use far less power and don't emit electromagnetic radiation. A liquid crystal display is also flickerless, which makes it easier on the eyes when working close in at a computer.
On the other hand LCDs are much more expensive and aren't as bright as CRTs. There's a smaller angle of view, so you need to position yourself almost directly in front of the screen for the brightest possible display.
Yet Sharp is working on some interesting new technologies to close the gap with CRTs and make using LCDs feasible in new applications. Part of the solution involves matching the right liquid crystal technology to the application.
Take handheld computers, for instance. The LCDs used in today's notebook computers are backlit. A luminescent panel behind the liquid crystal display provides the light necessary to view the screen. However, the large battery needed to supply the power for the light panel makes this technology unfeasible for extended use on a handheld PC, which must be small and lightweight.
Handheld are often used out of doors. The colours of a backlit LCD look faint and washed out when the light in front of the panel is brighter than the backlight, such as when you view it under sunlight.
Sharp's latest handheld PC released in Japan, the Zaurus Colour Pocket MI-310, uses an
HR-TFT (High Reflective - Thin Film Transistor) display. This features a reflective panel
behind the LCD so you can view it using reflected daylight when outside. Indoors, you
activate the front-light to view the display. 
This lets you run the handheld for up to 30 hours on two AA batteries, which is the longest battery life I've seen for any device with a colour display. Furthermore, the Zaurus weighs just 240 grams and is 18 mm thick.
The MI-310 also integrates nicely with the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) a low-power cellular phone system used in Japan. You slide the flip base of the handyphone into the Zaurus to send and retrieve e-mail and automatically dial telephone numbers stored in the Zaurus phone book.
The new Zaurus is also one of the first devices to use an LCD panel with a plastic backing in place of the usual glass. The plastic is half the thickness of glass yet ten times stronger. Plastic is ideal for mobile applications such as handheld PCs and cellular phones since it can flex under pressure while glass-backed displays crack when handled roughly.
This display is also used in one of the most remarkable products I saw in Sharp's Tokyo labs, a prototype of a cellular videophone. The handheld device uses wideband digital cellular service to deliver crystal clear audio along with a series of still images displayed at a rate of 1 to 4 frames per second. If the cellular videophone becomes popular I can see critics blaming it for the rising rate of pedestrian collisions as users bump into others because they concentrate on watching the video display instead of the sidewalk.
Sharp plans to use a very thin and flexible plastic backing to produce a pen computer within a couple of years. When not in use, the plastic liquid crystal display would be rolled into a tube inside the pen. To activate the computer, you'd unfurl the display much like you'd pull out plastic kitchen wrap.
Sharp is improving the viewing angle of LCDs by developing PALC (Plasma Addressed Liquid Crystal) screens in association with Sony and Philips. Plasma is used to switch the liquid crystals, which makes it feasible to make large displays ranging from 30 to 50 inches that feature a wide viewing angle of more than 140 degrees, both horizontally and vertically.
The thin PALC displays under development will be ideal for wall hanging televisions, but you'll pay a hefty price of $200 to $400 per display inch.
The brightest displays are delivered by the new CGS (Continuous Grain Silicon) liquid crystal technology which delivers 850 lumens in a 40 to 60-inch rear projector compared to 170-200 lumens provided by conventional CRT rear projectors. A CGS display behaves almost like a single sheet of silicon, which means it operates 600 times faster than today's notebook computer displays. CW
Richard Morochove, FCA, is a Toronto-based computer consultant.
Copyright ©1998 by Morochove & Associates Inc. All rights reserved. This work may not be copied or distributed by any means without our prior written permission.
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