Demonstration of a technological prototype of an active-matrix BiNem liquid-crystal display

— The first implementation of active-matrix addressing on a BiNem bistable nematic liquid-crystal display has been demonstrated. Compared to previous passive-matrix addressing, major improvements have been made for the bistable mode: a smoother image refreshment, shorter refreshing frame time compatible with that of high-resolution e-book displays, the use of a touch screen for interactive functions such as hand-writing, a virtual keyboard, improved functionality for scrolling menus, partial refreshment, etc. On the same display but in the monostable mode, by using electrically controlled birefringence (ECB), the potential of displaying moving pictures at a rate of 25 images/sec, at an extended room temperature, has been demonstrated. In the ECB monostable mode, static images can be displayed down to −20°C. A new transflective single-polarizer optical mode has been developed to optimize the indoor and outdoor readability of the display. By lowering the surface reflection and enhancing the panel transmission, a contrast ratio of 94:1 and a transmittance of 17% have been achieved.