The Society for Information Display (SID) announced the winners of its 17th annual Display Industry Awards.

For more information visit: www.sid.org

Unedited press release follows:

SID Reveals Winners of the Display Industry Awards

Display Industry’s Top Honor Recognizes 2012’s Most Compelling Commercial Application, Display and Component

CAMPBELL, Calif., June 5, 2012 — The Society for Information Display (SID), the leading global organization dedicated to the advancement of electronic display technology, today announced the winners of its 17th annual Display Industry Awards. The honorees will be recognized during a special luncheon on Wednesday, June 6, as part of Display Week 2012—SID’s annual International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition, taking place June 3-8 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

According to DIA chair, Robert L. Melcher, “Over the past five decades since SID was founded, we have witnessed new technology developments that would have been unimaginable even 10 years ago. This year’s crop of DIA winners is no exception, representing an exciting array of products that continue to advance the ‘state of the art’ in the display industry, and the consumer electronics industry at large. On behalf of SID, I want to congratulate each of these companies in winning the display industry’s top honor.  It’s great to see the impact that these products are already having in the commercial marketplace.”

To qualify for consideration for a 2012 Display Industry Award, a product had to be available for purchase during the 2011 calendar year. The six winners, two in each of three main categories, were chosen by a distinguished panel of experts who evaluated the nominees for their degree of technical innovation and commercial significance, in addition to their potential for positive social impact.  The winning products and a brief description of each are listed below. A more comprehensive description of the award winners is included in the Display Week 2012 Show Issue of Information Display magazine.

Display of the Year: Granted to a display with novel and outstanding features such as new physical or chemical effects, or a new addressing method.

Gold Award: AU Optronics 55-in. 4K x 2K 2D/3D Switchable Glasses-Free TV Display
This year’s gold display winner is not only the world’s first 4K x 2K (or “quad-HD”) TV display, but is also the currently the largest commercially available glasses-free 4K x 2K 3-D TV display.  Its 3840 x 2160 resolution delivers vivid, lifelike 2D images, while a simple switch by the viewer converts the image instantly into 3D format.  Thanks to the display’s lenticular lens 3D technology, no 3D glasses are necessary to view outstanding 3D images. Viewers can simply choose their preferred viewing positions and enjoy a pleasant and comfortable experience, without requiring additional eyewear or having to compensate for viewing “dead zones.”  In addition, its glasses-free technology facilitates design-in of the display by AUO partners into their current systems.

Silver Award: Qualcomm mirasol Display Technology
Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc. designed mirasol displays to provide consumers with a display that delivers colorful and interactive content unfettered by lighting environments, including bright sunlight, while simultaneously significantly extending battery life. Already featured in e-readers currently in the market, mirasol display’ benefits can extend to other commercial applications. The MEMS-based technology mimics optical resonant cavities found in nature to create color via reflective interference and switching speed that makes mirasol displays video capable. Moreover, mirasol displays consume near- zero power when the display image is unchanged, making it highly energy efficient and especially well-suited for mobile devices.

Display Application of the Year: Granted for a novel and outstanding application of a display, where the display itself is not necessarily a new device.

Gold Award: Samsung Galaxy Note
A portable communication device designed with a 5.3-inch display using HD Super AMOLED technology, the Galaxy Note features a high-resolution (800 × 1280 pixel) screen that provides a dynamic, colorful, and comfortable viewing experience for content such as videos, photos, documents, and Web sites. Super AMOLED can depict more vibrant images since it has deeper blacks than LCDs and covers 95 percent of all natural colors. Also, depending on the screen’s white area, the AMOLED display adjusts its luminance for eye comfort.  With its large, dynamic screen and unique input technology, the Galaxy Note enables mobile communications in a more personal, creative way.

Silver Award: Perceptive Pixel 82-in. Projected-Capacitive True Multi-Touch and Stylus LCD
In August 2011, Perceptive Pixel introduced the first large-scale pro-cap interactive display that achieves the level of fidelity and performance necessary for real productivity. It is the world’s largest projective-capacitive multi-touch and stylus display, featuring true full-frame unlimited-finger touch and precision stylus sensing at 120 Hz across a proprietary sensor that is optically bonded to an 82-in. LCD panel. The display utilizes novel state-of-the-art projective-capacitive controller electronics with an unprecedented signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), specifically designed for application at these large dimensions and in optically bonded sensor stack-ups. The unit’s proprietary 82-in. transparent conductor sensor is constructed on a thin 2-mm Gorilla Glass substrate, which Perceptive Pixel then optically bonds onto the LCD cell. Optical bonding greatly enhances the ruggedness of the system, serving as a protective cover glass to the cell against the focused force of a stylus tip. Perceptive Pixel’s 82-in. display can be frequently seen on CNN as well as other networks being used to cover this year’s historic presidential primaries and election.

Display Component of the Year: Granted for a novel component (sold as a separate part and incorporated into a display) that has significantly enhanced the display’s performance. A component may also include display-enhancing materials and/or parts fabricated with new processes.

Gold Award: Nanosys Quantum-Dot Enhanced Film (QDEF)
Color is the next major differentiator in the display market. A quantum dot, which is about the size of a water molecule, can emit any color of light at precise wavelengths. QDEF from Nanosys combines red- and green-emitting quantum dots in a thin, optically clear sheet that emits white light when stimulated by a blue LED light source. The result is lifelike, high-color displays that enhance the consumer experience, allowing more realistic digital viewing of photos, movies, and video games. Manufacturers that have invested billions in equipment for LCD production can simply slip QDEF into their manufacturing process, change their “white” LEDs to blue, and start producing LCD panels with OLED-like color performance and better energy efficiency, at a significant cost savings.

Silver Award: LG Chemical Film Patterned Retarder Incorporating Merck KGaA’s Proprietary Reactive Mesogen (RM) Layer
First commercialized by LG Chemical in 2010, this technology is 10 times thinner and 20 times lighter than glass-based patterned retarders, can be easily mass-produced, and makes enjoyment of 3D content more convenient. A film patterned retarder (FPR) is an optical component attached to a 3D LCD TV’s front polarizer to convert left- and right-eye images to left- and right-circular-polarized light, allowing viewers to enjoy 3D images through passive-polarized glasses. The reactive mesogen film used for LG Chemical’s FPR is made using Merck KGaA’s licrivue materials, formulated for coating onto flexible plastic substrates by using a roll-to-roll coating process. The coated licrivue RM materials align and follow the pattern of the photoalignment layer. This alignment is preserved by UV polymerization of the RM film to form the patterned retarder, delivering dimensional stability and superior performance in 3D displays.

About Display Week
The 49th SID International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition, dubbed Display Week 2012, will take place this week through June 8, at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Display Week is the premier international gathering of scientists, engineers, manufacturers and users in the field of electronic-information displays. For more information on Display Week 2012, visit www.displayweek.org or follow us on Twitter at @DisplayWeek. Share Display Week-related tweets using the hash tag #SID2012.

About SID
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Society for Information Display (SID) is the only professional organization focused on the display industry. In fact, by exclusively focusing on the advancement of electronic-display technology, SID provides a unique platform for industry collaboration, communication and training in all related technologies while showcasing the industry’s best new products. With more than 6,000 members worldwide, the organization’s members are professionals in the technical and business disciplines that relate to display research, design, manufacturing, applications, marketing and sales. To promote industry and academic technology development, while also educating consumers on the importance of displays, SID hosts more than ten conferences a year, including Display Week, which brings industry and academia all under one roof to showcase technology that will shape the future. SID’s global headquarters are located at 1475 S. Bascom Ave., Ste. 114, Campbell, Calif. 95008. For more information, visit www.sid.org.