The demand for vibrant, full-color visuals has become crucial across various sectors, and display technologies that are unaffected by environmental factors will serve as the best tools for outdoor advertising, capturing attention, enhancing brand influence, and ensuring messages are conveyed clearly in diverse settings.
ChLCD is the clear winner in energy efficiency
LCDs require a backlight module to emit light, which is then modulated by liquid crystals and filters to display different colors. MiniLEDs consist of numerous tiny LEDs, each capable of emitting light independently; when the red, green, and blue components are illuminated, they can create a wide range of colors. In contrast,ChLCD does not need a backlight and does not emit light on its own; it relies entirely on the reflection of ambient light to display colors, meaning that the stronger the ambient light, the more vivid the colors appear.
(Left) ChLCD lacks a backlight and is not self-illuminating; it solely relies on ambient light to reflect colors. (Middle) LCD requires a backlight module to emit light. (Right) MiniLED consists of numerous tiny LEDs, each capable of self-illumination.
When used outdoors, LCD displays typically need a brightness of over 3,000 nits to be clearly visible, resulting in outdoor LCDs consuming more than three times the power of standard indoor displays. MiniLEDs consume slightly less power under similar conditions, but still draw significant energy at high brightness levels. For instance, a common 55-inch outdoor commercial display, if using ChLCD and changing static images every 5 minutes, would consume less than 1% of the power used by an outdoor LCD.
When displaying static images, the ChLCD consumes less than 1% of the power used by outdoor LCDs.
Comparison of outdoor visibility
The intense outdoor sunlight often makes it difficult to see the content on displays. In such conditions, LCD and MiniLED screens struggle to compete with the brightness of sunlight, resulting in poor contrast during the day. To make the content readable, the brightness must be increased, which consumes a lot of power. ChLCD, on the other hand, primarily utilizes reflected ambient light to display images. Therefore, the stronger the ambient light, the clearer the image and the richer the colors.
When we placed the two screens in direct sunlight, the window-facing setting (20,000 lx) and partially cloudly outdoor (75,000 lx), the iPad's backlight was overpowered by the sun, with hardly any visible detail.
(Left) LCD, (Right) ChLCD. It can be observed that ChLCD remains clear and readable under sunlight.
LCD, MiniLED and ChLCD are all capable of displaying full colors
LCD displays are typically composed of a backlight, vertical and horizontal polarizers, color filters, and a liquid crystal panel. The backlight module serves as the light source for the screen, and as light passes through the liquid crystal panel, the liquid crystal molecules rotate due to the electric field, altering the brightness of the light. After passing through the polarizers, this results in various shades of gray. The light of different gray levels then goes through the color filters, allowing for the creation of a wide range of colors. When the red, green, and blue subpixels mix perfectly, an LCD can display up to 16.78 million colors, enabling devices like smartphones, televisions, and laptops to showcase vibrant colors.
Each pixel in MiniLED is made up of three tiny LED chips in red, green, and blue, which mix in varying brightness ratios to produce a full-color image.
ChLCD displays colors primarily by reflecting light, based on Bragg's law. In simple terms, when light hits the liquid crystal molecules, different wavelengths interfere with each other. If the interference is constructive, a specific color is reflected. The 'pitch' of the liquid crystal can be adjusted to reflect a particular color; for instance, setting the pitch to reflect blue light will show blue, while adjusting it for green or red will display the corresponding colors.
The phase difference between two beams of light can result in constructive interference (left) or destructive interference (right).
By stacking layers of red, green, and blue liquid crystals, along with a black absorption layer at the bottom, a full-color display can be achieved, with the number of colors exceeding 16 million. This works similarly to additive color mixing: red + green = yellow, all three colors lit = white, and when all three are off, the black absorption layer reveals black.
Based on the comparisons above, ChLCD has significant advantages for outdoor displays. It is highly energy-efficient, aligns with ESG principles, and offers excellent visibility. Additionally, ChLCD utilizes traditional LCD manufacturing processes, which not only maintain the stability and maturity of LCD technology but also effectively control production costs. This positions ChLCD as a strong contender in the market for large-sized display devices that seek high cost-performance ratios. With further advancements in technology, achieving screens larger than 100" is no longer an unattainable dream, but rather a foreseeable future.
Bonus feature: the ultimate zero-power display
In addition to being bistable, ChLCD also possesses transmissive properties; while reflecting different colors, approximately 30% of the light penetrates ChLCD to be absorbed by the bottom layer. If solar panels are embedded in the display's base, it can generate renewable energy to power itself, achieving zero carbon emissions.
In 2023, IRIS Optronics secured the trademark forInfinity Displaywith the primary message being, "Wherever there is light, there is an opportunity for a zero-power ChLCD display."
