Liquid-crystal display (LCD) has dominated the television market. But researchers have come up with a game-changing technology that possibly replaces LCDs.
A group of researchers from Nottingham Trent University, the Australian National University, and the University of New South Wales Canberra in Australia unveiled a new technology that promises incredible visual quality and even more energy efficiency.
The “metasurface” technology brings ultra-thin displays and power savings without sacrificing resolution quality. Researchers believe that the breakthrough can deliver performance benefits over current generations of displays like LCDs and LEDs.
For years, liquid-crystal technology has emerged as the most popular screen option due to production costs, lifespan, and energy consumption. Some of the biggest problems with liquid crystal cells lie in high price, limited viewing angle, and brightness.
Newly engineered meta-display cells are taking the display game to the next level. The technology works by modulating the behaviors of electromagnetic waves through specific boundary conditions, achieving tunability and exceptional light scattering properties that could replace the liquid crystal layer in displays and eliminate the need for polarizers, which waste significant amounts of light intensity and energy.
Metasurfaces are 100 times thinner than liquid crystal cells, boast 10 times better resolution, and use 50% less energy. Plus, the team has proven that these pixels can be easily programmed and switched at lightning speed by adjusting the material’s temperature. This technology is perfect for modern electronic displays and needs to include a link for high-frequency light switching.
Mohsen Rahmani, Professor of Engineering at Nottingham Trent University’s School of Science and Technology and a Royal Society Wolfson Fellow and the project leader, has confirmed that the meta-display concept has tackled all key metrics of flat panel displays. He believes the innovation could deliver significant energy savings, which is especially important considering the vast number of households and businesses that regularly use monitors and TV sets.
Another research team member, Professor Andrey Miroshnichenko, sees the technology as the new frontier of flat displays, targeting the mass global market. With its potential to deliver exceptional visual quality and energy efficiency, metasurface technology could replace LCDs and LEDs, just as these displays had replaced cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs over the past few decades.
