The Story Behind the Pixels

High­definition displays continue to grow in popularity, offering the viewer an incredibly immersive experience with bright colors and crystal­clear images. However, the race to produce better and brighter high­tech screens is pushing today’s technology to its limits. Linde is helping producers to challenge the boundaries with a broad portfolio of high­purity electronic gases. The company is also helping improve the multimedia industry’s environmental footprint.

Razor­Sharp with Eight Million Pixels

When it comes to pixels, more is definitely better. Increasingly, more of these tiny dots are being squeezed into modern TV displays so that the action scenes in a James Bond film burst out of ever slimmer and larger screens in razor­sharp quality. Even now the next “big thing” in multimedia enter­tainment is waiting in the wings—three­dimensional and ultra high definition TV (UHD­3D). This new technology is designed to make viewing more realistic—whether you’re enjoying the latest Hobbit movie, the Olympic Games, or a fascinating nature documentary. UHD­3D flat screens have a defini­tion four times higher than that of full HD displays. This means that an image is made up of over eight million pixels and the TV panel has a refresh rate of at least 480 images per second. This is four times higher than normal TVs, and it is the only way of achieving a 3D effect.

These high­performance screens are already taking today’s technology to its limits. Each pixel needs a tiny transistor to be controlled electronically—and this means that eight million of these switches have to be crammed into the back of a UHD­3D display. “Transistors have to shrink to achieve this level of definition,” explains Andreas Weisheit, Head of Market Development Flat Panel Displays and Solar at Linde in Shanghai. Current­day switches are not powerful enough for these new display developments. This is because most thin­film transistors (TFTs) in today’s flat screens are made of amorphous silicon—in other words, the individual silicon atoms do not form a regular crystalline structure. “As a result, the conducting electrons cannot move fast enough to achieve the frame rate required for these new devices,” continues Weisheit.