Planar Monitor Liquid Ingress Test

Water ingress testing on your rugged display can be performed in several ways. In this image, you see a Planar LA1750RTZ prototype undergoing a water ingress test with 65 gallons of water a minute, from a 1" diameter fire hose, for almost 5 minutes. Imagine the pressure on the display panel and enclosure from this amount of water over the 5 minute duration! This is one surefire way to test any water seepage into your display and provides valuable test information to prevent the occurance.

Displays are used in all sort of outdoor, rugged environments where they are subjected to liquid elements. From marine to emergency and heavy equipment applications, displays used in these functions are often submitted to considerable amounts of water and other liquids. And, the last thing you want to have happen is a display malfunction due to an ingress.

How would you like to see other tests conducted on displays for your rugged applications?

Vandal-proof Touchscreens

Does your display application require a touchscreen that can withstand the challenges of vandal abuse? When your touchscreen is subjected to unattended public access interactivity, vandal proofing can be a constant battle. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer when seeking a vandal proof solution.

However, there are means of increasing resistance to vandal abuse which can generally be addressed in three broad areas: impact protection, scratch/abrasion protection and liquid ingress protection.

Impact and scratch/abrasion damage are minimized by use of added glass top surfaces. Polymers, such as polycarbonate which are highly impact resistant, provide additional protection against impact, scratch and abrasion destruction. Optical bonding, provided by Planar Systems, fills the gap between the protective glass and LCD, keeping out dust and moisture and providing liquid ingress protection.

In addition, glass lamination and glass heat tempering will improve resistance to breakage. This approah can be applied to SAW, surface capacitive, projected capacitive, camera IR and matrix IR touch screens. Newer touch technologies such as force activated technologies can use a variety of tranparent media.

Flexible displays – the next big thing?

Ok, so say we got rid off the newspapers with Apple iPad. Then there’s a research project being run in University of New South Wales in Australia for creating flexible display to give you back the ”paper” feeling, when reading your newspaper on a display rather than on paper. They investiage using flexible polymer-based backplanes printed on plastic substrates for low manufacturing costs, durable and flexible displays. But putting newspaper on a display and then creating a display, which is like a traditional newspaper: does it not sound a bit like one worker digging a hole and the other one following and filling it again? I know, we're saving tons of paper, but STILL! Whether you agree or not, this set me thinking: what are the real uses of a flexible display technology?
At Planar, we experimented with curved and twisted glass surfaces which we made a display with our electroluminescent technology. This technology has the advantage of being able to create transparent displays. Having curved transparent (TASEL) displays is something in the development stages. People who see our samples at the shows say: ”Great that it’s curved! But is it just solid glass, not flexible?” Hmmm no, not flexible. But where would you need it to be flexible?
Having a wristwatch which is a display on a flexible display surface, why not. Being able to actually turn the pages of a newspaper physically rather than just wiping my hand over the screen or waving in front of it, nice. Or for extraordinary design effects, well yes!
In EE Times in June Christoph Hammerschmidt writes about the flexible display technologies being the future of displays. His main argument for the success is that “flexible displays don’t break”. He continues promising 58% expected annual sales growth by 2018 for the flexibles amounting to over 8 billion US dollars, while others don’t grow at all.
YouTube seemed to have an answer waiting for me, in the form of a video by Plastic Logic, who incidentally work in cooperation with the UNSW in Australia on their flexible displays project, perhaps the same group who made the video..? The video is titled: ”Plastic Logic - Why Flexible Displays?”.



But to me this only shows “what are flexible displays like” and I still didn’t explain why and where just these qualities would be vital and needed where other displays couldn’t do the job. Perhaps the durability and light-weight could be appreciated in consumer applications such as mobile phones and reading devices, like E-Ink, or for professional users in the military.
What ideas do you have for the flexible display applications? Please send us your ideas either directly onto my e-mail or comment this blog post. Thanks!

Touch Technology and Visual Performance

When utilizing touch technology in your display project, do you struggle with achieving optimum visual performance? Regardless of which touch sensor you use with your transparent window of either glass or plastic mounted above the display face, unwanted light reflections are introduced and can impact the visual performance of your content.

For indoor use, Infrared (IR) matrix and IR camera based systems do not require a transparent window and don't degrade the display luminance and contrast. This solution is acceptable for indoor environments for single users, but not public venues where high use and potential vandalism can occur or for outdoor environments.

Methods of optically coupling the touch window to the display or special films and coatings can be effective solutions when sunlight readable viewing is required. Typically optical bonding is reserved for those applications where high value hardware can absorbe any additional cost.

Visit Planar to learn more about touch display technology in our eBook, Touch Display Sensors and visit us for a quote for your touchscreen application. Look for information about touchscreen drivers in an upcoming post.

Planar Provides Display Component for Ultrasonic Rail-Flaw Detectors

Components utilized in ultrasonic rail-flaw detectors for rail inspections must be rugged and work in extreme environments. Planar's thin film electroluminescent display (TFEL) component is being used by the China Ministry of Railroad in an ultrasonic rail-flaw detector, developed by Xingtai Xianfeng, to inspect their entire railway network.

When your project requirements demand a display that operates in wide temperature ranges, provides unlimited viewing angle, is very rugged and provides an extremely long life with no maintenance costs, the electroluminescent display (EL) technology should be taken into consideration. The EL display works well in a variety of applications, including transportation, military and electronic devices.

To determine what electroluminescent display would work best for your project, request a summary version of Planar's EL Design Guide.

What is the Best Touch Technology for Rugged or Outdoor Environments?

Are you engaged in a touch display to be used in a rugged or outdoor environment? Have you been wondering which touch technology is the best for your display?


Planar's Director of Engineering believes any of the all glass sensors, such as Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW), projected and surface capacitive can work in rugged, outdoor applications, but no single touch can do it all. High ambient sunlight conditions pose interference problems with IR matrix and IR camera scan systems.


SAW and surface capacitive have varying resistance to rain, dust, snow and flying insects. Glass-on-glass resistive has good immunity to the outdoor environment, but requires additional optical enhancements to compensate for unwanted ambient, outdoor, light reflections, which detract from the display's contrast.


Regardless of your project, the option to choose from multiple touch technologies will make the touch decision much easier. Visit Planar's how-to-buy website for information about purchsaing a customized touch display and look for how touch technology impacts the visual performance of a display in an upcoming post.

Electroluminescent Displays Used at NASA

If your display project requires high brightness and contrast, a wide temperature range, along with reliability and long operating life, you might want to take a look at Planar's electroluminescent (EL) displays. Over the years significant improvements have been made to brightness and contrast, reduction of power consumption, development of proprietary gray-scale algorithms and packaging improvements to reduce size and enhance shock and vibration resistance for these extremely rugged and durable displays.

Among applications used by EL displays, NASA depends on electroluminescent displays in their mission control center. When viewing critical data during space missions, NASA managers depend on the unparralleled image quality offered in the EL display. Information gathered by technicians during missions provide opportunities for the scientific community to conduct experiments during space exploration and upon return to earth.

For more information about El displays, check out Planar's electroluminescent technology overview or the FAQ.