Microlenses shed more light on LCDs

Digital Displays reckons it has created an all-new approach to LED backlighting for monochrome LCDs.

The new design, known as microlens technology, distributes the light more evenly through the backlight resulting in a 25% increase in light output when compared with conventional backlights.

With this increased efficiency the designer can chose to supply less current to the LED backlight, thus reducing power consumption and increasing the operating lifetime of battery powered products.

The new backlight works by using the physics of light diffraction and a sophisticated computer program to calculate the optimum pattern for the microlens.

More light is therefore passed through the LCD display glass resulting in a higher surface brightness.

Available in white, blue, red, green, amber, yellow and now fully selectable RGB, these new backlights provide even illumination of the LCD viewing area, low power consumption and a huge choice of colours, up to 256K.

Designers now have the flexibility to match the LCD backlight colour to the product's styling, day and night lighting conditions and to use different backlight colours to convey warning and other visual signals.