Sharp, QD Vision and Apple are among the winners of the 2013 Display Industry Awards, presented this week by the Society for Information Display (SID) during its Display Week 2013 in Vancouver, British Columbia. To qualify for the 18th annual awards, products were required to be available for purchase during the 2012 calendar year. The six winners, two in each of three main categories, were chosen by a panel of experts that evaluated the nominees for their degree of technical innovation, commercial significance and potential for positive social impact. The winners were recognized during a special luncheon May 22. “Choosing the Display Industry Award winners is always an exciting, yet tough, challenge given the impressive number of candidates for which we receive nominations,” said Robert Melcher, chair of the awards. “This year's winners symbolize the best of the best. We look forward to seeing these new technologies spark the next wave of groundbreaking developments in consumer electronics and other applications.” The winners are: Display of the Year: Granted to a display with novel and outstanding features such as new physical or chemical effects, or a new addressing method. Gold Award: Sharp and Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Sharp and SEL jointly developed a new indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) technology that uses crystallinity in oxide semiconductors to create a smartphone with high resolution, better touch capabilities and improved battery life. The technology was incorporated into Sharp’s AQUOS Phone Zeta SH-02E, which can be used for two days without charging due to its low power consumption, and can also be used 4.8 times longer than conventional units when displaying a static image. IGZO also can be used for larger displays such as monitors and TVs, and it can be applied to displays beyond LCDs, including organic electroluminescent displays. Silver Award: Shenzhen China Star Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co. Ltd.'s 110-in. 3-D LCD TV is the largest of its kind, developed to provide advanced visual quality for entertainment. The unit features 3840 × 2160 resolution, a dynamic ratio of 50,000:1, ultrahigh brightness of 1000 nits (while consuming less than 1100 W) and highly saturated color reproduction. Left- to right-eye crosstalk is less than 2.5 percent using 3-D shutter glasses technology. Display Application of the Year: Granted for a novel and outstanding application of a display, where the display itself is not necessarily a new device. Gold Award: Apple Apple’s third-generation iPad with Retina display features four times the number of pixels as previous models. It has a pixel density of 264 ppi, which makes text and graphics look smooth and continuous at any size. The 2048 x 1536-pixel display sets a new standard for mobile display resolution for 9.7-in. panels. The display also features mobile in-plane switching to achieve a flexible viewing angle — users can hold the iPad in almost any position they want and still see a high-fidelity image, another tablet industry benchmark. Silver Award: Nokia The Nokia Lumia 920 smartphone features a PureMotion HD+ 4.5-in., 332-ppi screen, which enables crisper graphics and less blurring for scrolling, navigating and playing games. The phone also features a supersensitive touch display that can work using fingernails or gloves — signaling a leap forward for capacitive touch screens since multitouch gestures were introduced. The PureMotion display also provides a new level of outdoor viewing experience for mobile displays. With very low reflectance to improve dark-tone renderings in ambient light, the display adds a high-luminance mode for backlight LED-driving and image contrast enhancement to improve overall contrast and sunlight readability. Display Component of the Year: Granted for a novel component (sold as a separate part and incorporated into a display) that has significantly enhanced a display's performance. A component may also include display-enhancing materials and/or parts fabricated with new processes. Gold Award: QD Vision QD Vision’s Color IQ optical components are advanced light-emitting semiconductor nanocrystal products that utilize quantum dots that enable commercial displays to achieve a significantly wider color gamut with a more natural and vivid viewing experience than conventional white LED systems. Designed for high-volume LCD applications, Color IQ optics deliver color performance meeting or exceeding that of OLED and direct-lit RGB LED systems while maintaining the cost structure of side-illumination systems for mainstream LCD TVs. Sony is the first major TV manufacturer to incorporate Color IQ optics in several of its new 2013 Bravia series of LCD televisions. Silver Award: Sharp The Moth-Eye technology from Sharp incorporates a nanoscale design inspired by the eyes of a common night-flying moth. The Moth-Eye panels help to emphasize Sharp's "four primary colors technology," which enhances the quality of color displays and helps make imagery visible even in a bright room. The technology provides users with clear, high-quality images in bright places, whether indoors or outdoors. In terms of power consumption, Moth-Eye can conserve electricity with no loss of image quality since it's not necessary to increase the brightness. Future applications are expected to extend beyond electronic displays, including picture-frame glass or showcases. A more comprehensive description of the award winners can be found in the Display Week 2013 show issue of Information Display magazine. For more information, visit: www.sid.org