matthew@ittimes.co.kr
Clairvoyante, a display company based in Cupertino, California, US, is the developer of algorithms and layout that optimize the performance of displays in terms of resolution, power consumption and brightness. They recognize that Korea is an important segment of the display industry and have recently begun working with manufacturers throughout the region to implement their PenTile RGBW pixel layout technology. The technology has three main advantages, which are higher resolution, greater brightness and longer battery life.
"As phones come with more features, they are staying on a long time," said CEO Joel Pollack of Clairvoyante. "The backlight is not turning off when someone uses voice." The ever-increasing size and resolution of mobile handset display screens both require more power from the already taxed and small battery of the device. Providing crisp text and video is not a technical problem any more, but simply rather a problem of power consumption. For instance, decoding mpeg video requires approximately 50% more power than is normally used by a mobile handset, and coupled with a 2 or 3 times increase in brightness which includes a 2 or 3 times increase in power consumption means that a battery will be depleted in a matter of minutes.
Clairvoyante offers a solution to increasing power consumption problems via both hardware and software techniques that work together to let more light shine through an LCD display.
Typical pixels in an LCD display only let through 4% to 5% of the total light from the backlight. However, Clairvoyante's PenTile RGBW technology allows up to 10% of backlight luminance to make it through, which is at least double the brightness.
The secret is the W in RGBW. As is commonly known, RGB stands for red, green, and blue pixels in a typical LCD screen, but Clairvoyante includes a fourth pixel which is simply white, in order to increase the brightness of the entire display. This has immediate effects in making crisp black and white lines. A typical LCD display must use three columns of pixels to make a white line, the red, green, and blue columns together. However, PenTile technology can make a white line using only two columns of pixels, because one column includes red and blue pixels, and the other column includes green and white pixels.
But that's not all. PenTile display technology can also dynamically adjust the backlight of its displays to save power. In a seeming paradox, very bright colors are easier for the technology to display and save power, since the white pixel provides the brightness necessary. In bright color pictures or video, the backlight brightness can even be reduced without a loss of quality and give a steady 50% power decrease. When dark photos or colors should be displayed, the white pixel can be turned off and the backlight power boosted to the correct brightness for the subject, which results in a little more power consumption.
PenTile RGBW technology is not yet in the commercial market, but the company is currently working with 18 different LCD makers. "We've been in business almost seven years now," said CEO Pollack. "We spent the first four years developing the algorithms. We only began working on mobile displays three years ago." The company has commercial license agreements with BOE Hydis, LG Innotech, Tomato LSI, Samsung SEC and has created a few demonstration products with Samsung SDI. The company has also created partnerships with SiliconWorks, a company that provides semiconductor chips to LG.
Clairvoyante is not only working with Korean vendors, but also those in Japan and Taiwan. Mr. Pollack said: "We can't announce our partners in Japan, because they are more shy before they are on the market. But we are working with six companies in Japan, soon to be seven." In Taiwan the company is working with AU Optronics, CPT, Wintech, and CMO to incorporate its technology into their products as well.
