CG-Silicon
substrate technology can create a liquid-crystal display (
LCD) with an
electron mobility 600 times faster than
amorphous silicon, and three times faster than
low-temperature polysilicon, which are the technologies currently used. CG-Silicon enables the creation of System LCDs (SLCDs) that
integrate all
driver and
operation circuitry--including
digital logic, LCD driver,
power supply, I/O
interfaces, and
signal-processing circuitry--onto the glass itself.
Unlike amorphous silicon and low-temperature polysilicon, CG-Silicon has a silicon lattice with atomic-level continuity at the grain boundaries. By eliminating the need to bond external circuits to the display, the technology makes possible smaller, thinner, more versatile, and more powerful and energy-efficient mobile devices.
An SLCD can also incorporate a monolithic circuit at the periphery of the active-matrix display area that includes a full-color source driver with multiple-function blocks, a binary source drive, a gate driver, and a clock generator. A recent proof-of-concept demonstration also integrated an 8-bit CPU onto an LCD substrate, promising the eventual integration of all circuitry onto the display glass.
Update November 2003
Sharp and Semiconductor Energy Laboratory have created a System LCD panel speaker prototype that integrates a 4-in. VGA LCD with piezoelectric acoustic drivers and all required audio circuitry.
The piezoelectric audio transducers are based on flat-speaker technology licensed from a British company called New Transducers. The Distributed-Mode Actuators (DMA) created on the LCD's substrate vibrate the glass surface to produce sound.
In addition to the DMA elements, the CGS substrate includes a shift register, latch, D/A converter, analog input preamplifier, volume control, and power amplifier, providing both the power and control aspects of the audio circuit.