Sharp Memory LCD

Posted by – June 2, 2015

At the IDTechEx show, Sharp demonstrates Memory LCD technology that delivers high-contrast, high-resolution displays for outdoor use. They are already being used in the quite popular Pebble watch. These LCD modules embed 1-bit memory in every pixel to enable each pixel to hold state while requiring low power. This delivers an “always on” display that uses little power (only a single supply voltage is required), even when updating images. This helps designers create products with long battery life. It also eliminates sweeping images or “ghosting”, because only the part of the image that requires updating needs to be changed. The response time of Sharp’s Memory LCDs makes it fast enough to display motion video. Right now Memory LCD is thus a quite good contender for the Smartwatch market, with Android Wear being a possibility also, perhaps Smartphones could use Memory LCD also to design a smartphone with potentially weeks of battery life instead of a day or two.