新型滤光片可望将LCD屏效率提高4倍

美国密歇根大学的研究人员开发出一种新型彩色滤光片，可以将LCD的效率提高4倍。

虽然现在的液晶面板可以有着相当不错的低功耗能力，但对于它的效率来说还有很大的空间可以挖，据MIT技术评论刊发的文章显示，即便今天最好的液晶显示器也只能从背光中获取8%的亮度，但是来自密歇根大学的研究人员的最新成果--光学薄膜技术可以将这一数字提高到36%。



该技术采用一种全新的彩色滤光片构成，它是一种三层夹心的绝缘材料，整个堆栈厚度小于200纳米，红，绿，蓝子像素可以比传统方法更容易反射光，以进一步增加亮度。

研究人员正在努力让这种材料适合大规模生产，这种技术的产生将降低被背光所需的亮度，有利提升笔记本电脑等移动设备的电池寿命。

DailyTech的报道：

Professor L. Jay Guo and his team have created an optical film that both polarizes and colors the light that passes through an LCD, which replaces the multiple layers of optical devices that traditionally played the same role. With the use of these conventional layers, an LCD would only emit eight percent of the light produced by its backlight. With the newly developed film, 36 percent of light is emitted, which is an increase that enhances overall LCD efficiency.

The new color filter consists of two thin aluminum layers enclosing a type of insulating material, and is less than 200 nanometers thick. It also contains slits that create different colors when the backlight illuminates them, and they are "matched in scale to the wavelength of visible light" and their "length and distance apart determine the color produced."

What really increases LCD efficiency is the grating pattern, which enhances efficiency by 400 percent. Instead of absorbing half the light with the wrong polarization like current LCD polarizing filters, the new filter reflects the light toward a mirror that "flips" some of its polarization and allows more light to pass through the filter.

But Guo's new filter doesn't only apply to color displays. It can also be applied to solar cells to control polarizations and reflections of light. In addition, Nicholas Fang from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign noted that these filter's could be combined with Qualcomm's new low-power reflective displays to eliminate backlights altogether.

The next step, according to Guo and his team, is to find a way to mass produce these new filters and integrate them into several types of technological devices like televisions and cell phones.