Just in time for the Consumer Electronics Show (or to plan your Christmas wish list for 2007), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced that it has created the first LCD panel that can produce independent images on each side of a mobile LCD display. Samsung’s new double-sided LCD can show two entirely different pictures or sets of visual data simultaneously on the front and back of the same screen.

This new development will replace two display panels with one, thereby reducing overall thickness of mobile products by at least 1mm.

The LCD product makes use of Samsung’s new double-gate, thin-film transistor (TFT) architecture. TFT gates are electronic components that convert the necessary voltage at the pixel level, which controls the liquid crystal alignment needed to reproduce on-screen images. Samsung’s new double-sided LCD has two gates that operate each pixel instead of one, so the screen on the front can display different images than the one on the back. The double-sided display makes use of Samsung’s proprietary Amorphous Silicon Gate (ASG) technology, which accommodates the increased number of TFT gates without increasing the size of the driver integrated circuits. Driver-ICs typically increase in size when more TFT gates are used.

The new Samsung mobile display requires only one backlight. One side of the panel operates in a transmissive mode, while the other operates in a reflective mode. By using a unique reflective design that utilizes the light trapped in the opposing screen’s transmissive mode, the reflective mode does not solely rely on external light sources such as the sun.

• Display: 2.6mm thick, 2.22 inches wide
• QVGA (240 x 320 pixel) resolution
• Front brightness of 250 nits; 100 nits for rear display

Rachel Cericola - Contributing Writer

Over the past 15 years, Rachel Cericola has covered entertainment, web and technology trends. Check her out at www.rachelcericola.com.