LCD panels have significantly matured during the past 10 years. They are now digital, color, energy efficient, larger, brighter, higher resolution, lower cost and offer many design choices.

That progress has made them outstanding candidates for virtually every product in almost every market. The toughest decision is which market-leading idea to exploit first. The next step is to couple the idea with a strong, fast-to-market, product design.

At Touch Design, we create high quality touchscreen modules by providing rich pre-existing intellectual property and expertise in hardware, software, graphics and manufacturing. The net result is our designs are typically faster and lower cost than those from others, even in-house staffs. It’s our specialty.

The following section is intended to identify and explain touchscreen design variables. Armed with this information, solutions are more easily defined and optimized.

Depending on the purchase point, displays are available in three levels of customization:

• Distribution: Off-the-shelf models are typically sold in small to medium quantities and without customization.
• Specialists: Clients select displays and can customize specs through specialists who support medium to large quantities. This is Touch Design’s market.
• Manufacturers: Clients can order fully-customized displays directly from display manufacturers for about $500,000 tooling and large order commitments.

¹Brightness is either indicated as NITS or cd/m2 (candelas per square meter) but actually they’re the same value. Brightness of a typical PC display is typically 150 to 200 NITS. Sunlight viewing starts at 400 to 500 NITS. Advanced displays can be over 1,000 NITS. Brightness can be increased by special order.

²Contrast Ratio is the ratio between black and white displayed on the screen. The higher the number, the richer the display appearance. However, the eye is fairly forgiving of contrast ratio so even lower values are often acceptable. Contrast ratio can be sometimes increased by special order.

³Backlight Type is either an array of LEDs or a few CCFL tubes (fluorescents). LEDs are quickly becoming the standard because they’re brighter, cooler, lower cost and less power hungry than CCFLs. CCFLs are being phased out but it will take a year or so before displays are fully converted. CCFL backlight can only be changed to LED by the manufacturer and not by special order.

⁴LED Life indicates the hours of use before the LED light output drops to 50% of its original spec. LED life can be increased by special order.

⁵Viewing Angle is indicated as the viewable degree angle from the display center to the top, bottom, left and right. Narrow viewing angles are acceptable for portable devices because the user can easily adjust for a bright viewing angle. For fixed products, a wider viewing angle is more important because of variations in heights and number of viewers. Viewing angle can be increased by special order.

⁶Touchpanelsand types of technologies can be added or deleted by special order.

⁷Items not changeable by special order: Size (diagonal inches, active area, etc), resolution, power, interface, orientation, format, lamp count, and color depth.

⁸Important future specs include size, resolution and brightness. These are the specs that drive market demand and therefore put the most pressure on manufacturers for improvement.