Sharp is presenting an enhanced range of LED backlit liquid-crystal panels for industry applications. The portfolio now incorporates five displays in the screen diagonals of 3.5 to 15 inches. The displays combine the high resilience required of industrial applications with the benefits of a LED backlight. These include, among others, the prompt response characteristics of the LEDs even at very low temperatures and excellent dimmability over the entire brightness range of the LEDs. Another important advantage of the LED backlights is the low operating voltage. This means that the high-voltage inverter required for CCFL lamps is no longer necessary.
This facilitates the use of the new Sharp industry LCDs wherever high voltage is hazardous, e.g. in areas where there is a risk of explosion. The high image quality of these new Sharp displays is based, among other things, on the high luminosity of the LED backlights of up to 550 cd/m2. In order to achieve the operating temperatures required for many industrial applications, Sharp has designed the housing of the LCDs specifically for the LED backlight and equipped it with dedicated heat management: heat conductors transport the waste heat of the LEDs and their drivers to the rear outer side of the panels where it can be easily dissipated into the environment.
Like all the other displays in the Strong 2 series from Sharp, the new LED backlight models of the proven industry LCDs therefore fulfil the industry specification with an operating temperature of -30°C to 80°C and a life cycle of 50,000 hours. With conventional LCDs with LED backlight, it is frequently only the CCFL cartridge that is replaced with an insert fitted with LEDs that is unable to give off the heat into the environment easily. LCDs with LED backlight in such a simple design are therefore mostly designed for an operating temperature limited at the upper range and have a shortened life cycle.
The 3.5-inch, 5.7-inch and 10.4-inch industry displays with LED backlight can already be purchased in Europe. Samples of the 8.4-inch and 15-inch panels are expected to be available from the 4th quarter of 2008 onwards. The start of series production of these two models is planned for the 1st quarter of 2009.
