Sharp to Supply IGZO Displays to Nintendo
by Anton Shilov on August 7, 2019 11:00 AM EST
In a surprising move, one of Sharp’s top executives revealed that the company will supply its IGZO displays to Nintendo. Usage of IGZO screens promises to reduce power consumption of Nintendo’s game consoles, though it is unclear which model will get a new type of LCD first.
Katsuaki Nomura, an executive vice president of Sharp, told the Wall Street Journal that the company would supply its IGZO displays to Nintendo. The exec did not disclose specifications of the panel or which of Nintendo’s consoles will get IGZO displays first.
The game console maker is about to release a handheld-only version of its Switch game console as well as a new version of the fully-fledged Switch. Both new devices could benefit of Sharp’s IGZO displays because of their lower power consumption and potentially higher image quality, but it remains to be seen whether Nintendo decides to shift both of its upcoming game consoles to a new type of LCDs.
The upcoming versions of Nintendo’s Switch promise considerably longer battery life when compared to existing Switch consoles while using similar batteries. One of the key reasons why the new units feature lower power consumption is believed to be a new SoC from NVIDIA.
Sharp and Nintendo have a long history of working together as the former designed auto stereoscopic display for the latter's 3DS console.
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Source: Wall Street Journal
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ads295 - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
I suppose asking for 300+ ppi AMOLED would be a little premature... IGZO tech is generations old.Death666Angel - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
Man, AMOLED has been around for over a decade, that tech is generations old.yetanotherhuman - Thursday, August 8, 2019 - link
And all the OLEDs in use from that time probably look like total crap now, due to degradation..brakdoo - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
At least LTPS LCD would have been nice. IGZO and other oxide TFT were always thought of a cheaper alternative to LTPS while being better than a-Si.With the crazy LTPS panel drop caused by chinas massive production ramp I would have expected them to spend those two dollars more on a brighter and/or more power effcient display.
XabanakFanatik - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
If I understand correctly, LTPS is leaky and uses more power than IGZO, making IGZO the better choice in this scenario.brakdoo - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
Well, you don't understand correctly :)IGZO is crap and in no way better than LTPS. LTPS has much better electron mobility and that's why all high end smartphones (inluding AMOLED) use LTPS TFTs and oxide TFTs are only used in <$250 phones (even lower nowadays).
tecknohow - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
It's my understanding as well that LTPS has more leakage and also degrades more quickly over time and contrary to what you said that it requires even more power to reach equal brightness as the TFTs have a larger area and thus block more light.The benefit of LTPS and why it's typically used in phones is because it can be made much denser (higher PPI) and thus provides better resolution, and it's cheaper and easier to manufacture on a really massive scale due to requiring a lower temperature, and it has better uniformity.
Seems to me IGZO over LTPS is very much the right decision for a product like the Switch.
brakdoo - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
What's with these people making BS up? Are you mistaking LTPS for a-Si (amorphous Silicon)"It's my understanding" : Just tell us where you have seen it having more "leakage"? TFTs are always active and switching when the screen is on. Leakage alone has no meaning anyway as only total power consumption is important.
"cheaper and easier to manufacture on a really massive scale" No it's definitely not cheaper. LTPS lines are the most expensive in the industry.
The biggest benefit of LTPS TFT transistors are that they have the highest drive current per area, thus making the transistor SMALLER than IGZO (thus the better resolution) and blocking less light. So it's the exactly opposite of what you said.
BTW Did you create a new account for that weird post?
XabanakFanatik - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
https://www.profolus.com/topics/advantages-and-dis...3. Low current leakage: IGZO has electron mobility that is nearly as high as low-temperature polysilicon or LTPS. However, LTPS has a higher current leakage that results in high power consumption. On the other hand, although aSi has lower current leakage, remember that it also as lower electron mobility than both IGZO and LTPS
The low current leakage and high electron mobility of IGZO give it a more advantageous current flow than aSi and LTPS. This advantage means that the transistors in an IGZO display do not have to be refreshed continuously while a still image is being displayed because it can retain the active state of its pixels longer due to its advantageous current flow.
On the other hand, displays based on aSi or LTPS need to overwrite still image data through a continuous refresh. Hence, when compared to an IGZO display, an aSi-TFT or LTPS-TFT display consumes 80 to 90 percent more power, particularly when displaying still images such as photographs or documents.
brakdoo - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
"when displaying still images such as photographs or documents"That's for e-paper-like displays where the display controller doesn't refresh. What does it have to do with the Nintendo switch?
+ Japan Display offers ultra low power LTPS displays for still images (integrating those SRAM cells is only possible with LTPS).
https://www.j-display.com/english/technology/jdine...
https://www.j-display.com/english/product/reflecti...