Intel Developer Forum Day 3 - More from the Tech Showcase

Low Power LCDs

At yesterday's keynote, Anand Chandrasekher demonstrated the Newport concept mobile PC with a never-before implemented LCD technology that produced a LCD display that consumed no more than 3W of power. The technology in the Newport LCD is known as LTPS, or Low Temperature Poly Silicon, and is a new method of manufacturing Thin Film Transistor (TFT) LCDs.

One of the major benefits of LTPS TFT is an increase in electron mobility, meaning that the electrons flowing through the TFTs are able to move much more freely. The benefit of this increase in electron mobility is a reduction in the size of the transistors used, that lends to more efficient displays. The smaller transistors allow for more light to be reflected back to the end user without increasing the intensity of the backlight when compared to a conventional TFT LCD. An example of this is shown below:

The notebook on the left uses a conventional TFT LCD, while the notebook on the right uses a LTPS TFT LCD; as you can see, the one on the right is definitely brighter, but at the same power consumption as the display on the left.

But the goal of this technology isn't to use the exact same power consumption as current generation TFTs, it's to reduce power. Since LTPS is able to be brighter at identical backlight intensities, you can then reduce the power to the backlight and obtain an identical level of brightness; this is how LTPS TFT LCDs are able to reduce power consumption over conventional displays.