Mirasol Display Technology Could Be the Screens of the Future
Hopefully display tech will catch up with the rapid advancement that we're seeing in chips.
Compared to processors, display technology evolves at a snail's pace, which was evident when we hit the show floor this year at MWC. Despite the virtues extolled by Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia, TI, and Huawei with their respective SoC designs, every single smartphone that we saw either used an IPS LCD or AMOLED display. That common heredity can't be ignored.
Yet, there was one surprise. At Qualcomm's booth, we saw a few products with interferometric modulator displays (IMOD), which is better known under its trademark name mirasol. For those not in the know, mirasol is the first industrial scale application of a MEMS-based display. The cool part of this technology is that viewing quality doesn't change under different lighting conditions. In fact, the more light there is the better the display looks, because the components in the display panel reflects light similar to the way a butterfly's wings shimmer in the sunlight.
At the microscopic level, there are reflective subpixels that reflect only one wavelength of light (one for red, green, or blue). Multiple elements of each color are used to give combinations of colors by using different ratios of reflected colors and to balance overall brightness of each pixel. From a power perspective, each reflective subpixel has two states. The first requires no power and allows for the display to reflect/display an image. Meanwhile, the application of a voltage can be used to adjust the alignment of the reflective elements to create and image or clear the display.
In theory, this could be a more power efficient solution than e-ink that doesn't have to sacrifice the attraction of color technology. Plus, this technology doesn't suffer the same lag issue that e-ink does, so it's perfectly capable of video. If it's so great, why don't we see more devices using displays?
The problem is cost. The first device to use a mirasol display is called the Kyobo e-reader, which is restricted to the Korean market. It sports 5.7-inch XGA display (1,024x768-pixel resolution, 223 ppi), runs on a Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon S2-class processor, and employs a touch screen interface. The cost is roughly $310. There are ambitions to bring this to smartphones, but Qualcomm still has a long road ahead before mirasol is ready to go head to head with AMOLED or IPS LCD displays.

Can you answer outlw6669 question?
How does it work under low-light conditions though?
Is there some sort of front light to keep it visible?
Did you even read the article? It has reflective subpixels that not only allow you to view it in daylight, but it looks even better in bright light (according to this article anyway).
As in it needs an external light source (like e-ink) or a front light to see in low light situations.
Can you answer outlw6669 question?
No reason to be a douche burnley14. In which one of those examples you mentioned are low light conditions? Neither! What you quoted was why the first poster asked, reflective subpixels in low light conditions are going to be reflecting what again?
Anyhow the Mirasol displays do have an issue in low light conditions if they do not integrate some form of illumination.
He was asking about low-light, not bright light.
How does it work under low-light conditions though?
Is there some sort of front light to keep it visible?
That's my first question as well.
From the article:
Poorly written, but what I interpret this to mean is that by applying voltage to the reflective subpixels, you can display a specific image or prevent the pixels from display anything. I would imagine this is how low-light situations would work.
My condolences, I misread his initial question. Sorry for being douche-y.
If it's pitch black, however, then you probably shouldn't be using a tablet in the first place
All that said, the tech looks really awesome! Can't wait to have it in my future Atom based WP9 phone in 2-5 years from now lol
Yes, this is a reflective style display like e-ink. It is quite visible in low-super bright light, but the lower the light, the less contrast, and just like a normal picture or magazine, you can only go so dim before you cannot see anything because there is no back-light. This means that you will not see it in home-theater use any time soon (but why would you when there are better display technologies for such uses?), but it will be great for mobile devices where you are normally in a lit room, or car, or outside where there is light easily accessible. Personally I would love this type of display on my Garmin because it gets really hard to see when I have that morning and evening sun glare
If all else fails you could use your traditional phone as a flashlight and see what you are doing on the device in a pitch black room
so what you are really asking is - What happens when you stick it where the sun don't shine?