NEC Corp. and Casio Computer Co. Ltd. will announce on Tuesday a tie-up in the field of reflective-type LCD (liquid crystal display) panels to Casio Computer Co. Ltd., IDG News Service has learned.
Reflective-type active matrix LCD panels are just beginning to appear commercially and have generated a lot of interest in the electronics industry because of their low power consumption.
Unlike current LCDs, they do not require a backlight and so consume much less power. Battery life can be considerably extended through their use although they do come with some drawbacks. The displays rely on reflecting ambient, or background, light to illuminate the display but this limits their use to areas where such light is good and means they cannot be used in darkness.
NEC has just capped several years of research and development work by commercializing its first active matrix reflective LCD panel, a 3.8-inch model that consumes just 40 milliwatts of power. A larger size panel has also been built into the company’s new LaVie MX notebook computer to help extend battery life.
Casio is a major manufacturer of small size LCD displays used in devices from wristwatches and cellular telephones to personal digital assistants, digital still cameras and car navigation systems. It manufacturers TFT (thin film transistor) displays at two plants in Japan and STN (super twisted nematic) at plants in Malaysia and Indonesia.
NEC, in Tokyo, can contacted be at http://www.nec-global.com/. Casio, in Tokyo, can be contacted at http://www.casio.co.jp/.