Japan Display – An unusual Product
LEDs have radically changed the world of lighting, moving us from low efficiency incandescent filament illumination to high efficiency solid state illumination, and a quick look at a few statistics shows how important LED lighting is toward reducing the global energy footprint. However, aside from the very compelling metrics, there are some issues with LEDs that make them rather difficult to work with in certain situations. While incandescent lighting tends to be ‘warm’ that is having a color temperature of between 2,000K and 3,000K, while CFLs tend to be ‘cooler’, meaning less yellow and more blue, while LEDs can vary considerably between warm and cold depending on their structure. This can be confusing for consumers who are not used to choosing a color for their home lighting.
While color temperature can be an issue, more difficult is the fact that LEDs are point source emitters, and while they are very efficient at converting energy to light, that light is concentrated in a very small space. Most LED bulbs are coated with materials that help to disperse that light, but it is difficult to diffuse LED light when compared to incandescent lighting. When LED lighting is used in some specific applications, such as a museum or in store product lighting, the LED bulb must focus the light to the specific area being highlighted, which in many cases means an optical lens must be added or am LED bulb specifically designed for that application is necessary.
Japan Display (6740.JP), a company known for its small panel LED displays, has developed a new product through a subsidiary that uses the capabilities of LCDs to make LED lighting adjustable to a user’s needs. Typically LED lighting with an optical lens creates a circular ‘spot’ that can be adjusted by moving the source closer or further from the object, which is not always a viable solution. The brightness and color are adjustable, but shaping the ‘spot’ is not an option without changing the optics, which means small run LED production tends to produce expensive product. Japan Display promises to end that issue by replacing the optics with a lens composed of liquid crystal, the same material used in all LCD displays.
While we do not know the details quite yet, the liquid crystal is used to change the refractive index of the LED light, which allows it to be shaped on both the horizontal and vertical axes. This means that a user can adjust the shape of the LED light on the fly. This can be done using a touch screen control or similar device, giving the user complete control over the shape of the light, meaning one could expand the light to its maximum coverage or create a spot of almost any shape to highlight an object or read.
Of course, JDI has projections as to how the creation of a new industry in 2023/24 will generate ~$67m in incremental sales by 3Q 2026, after sampling to potential customers this month and scheduling mass production for April of 2023, but until we see a cost analysis of the product, we reserve judgement on the financial aspects of the product. That said, there are few new applications being generated for the LCD space, and any new application adds to the potential lifetime of LCD technology which is under siege from a variety of alternative display technologies. While this application is specific to Japan Display (there are many companies that produce static optical lenses for LED lighting) and has yet to be commercialized by JDI or its customers, it is a novel approach to one of the drawbacks of LED lighting and credit should be given for working with the company’s strong suit in small LCD technology.
Here are 46s second and 27 second videos that show how the product functions:
https://youtu.be/1nq1GF_Bq94
https://youtu.be/dQFtiShMtQE
While color temperature can be an issue, more difficult is the fact that LEDs are point source emitters, and while they are very efficient at converting energy to light, that light is concentrated in a very small space. Most LED bulbs are coated with materials that help to disperse that light, but it is difficult to diffuse LED light when compared to incandescent lighting. When LED lighting is used in some specific applications, such as a museum or in store product lighting, the LED bulb must focus the light to the specific area being highlighted, which in many cases means an optical lens must be added or am LED bulb specifically designed for that application is necessary.
Japan Display (6740.JP), a company known for its small panel LED displays, has developed a new product through a subsidiary that uses the capabilities of LCDs to make LED lighting adjustable to a user’s needs. Typically LED lighting with an optical lens creates a circular ‘spot’ that can be adjusted by moving the source closer or further from the object, which is not always a viable solution. The brightness and color are adjustable, but shaping the ‘spot’ is not an option without changing the optics, which means small run LED production tends to produce expensive product. Japan Display promises to end that issue by replacing the optics with a lens composed of liquid crystal, the same material used in all LCD displays.
While we do not know the details quite yet, the liquid crystal is used to change the refractive index of the LED light, which allows it to be shaped on both the horizontal and vertical axes. This means that a user can adjust the shape of the LED light on the fly. This can be done using a touch screen control or similar device, giving the user complete control over the shape of the light, meaning one could expand the light to its maximum coverage or create a spot of almost any shape to highlight an object or read.
Of course, JDI has projections as to how the creation of a new industry in 2023/24 will generate ~$67m in incremental sales by 3Q 2026, after sampling to potential customers this month and scheduling mass production for April of 2023, but until we see a cost analysis of the product, we reserve judgement on the financial aspects of the product. That said, there are few new applications being generated for the LCD space, and any new application adds to the potential lifetime of LCD technology which is under siege from a variety of alternative display technologies. While this application is specific to Japan Display (there are many companies that produce static optical lenses for LED lighting) and has yet to be commercialized by JDI or its customers, it is a novel approach to one of the drawbacks of LED lighting and credit should be given for working with the company’s strong suit in small LCD technology.
Here are 46s second and 27 second videos that show how the product functions:
https://youtu.be/1nq1GF_Bq94
https://youtu.be/dQFtiShMtQE
Typical LED light pattern - Source: JDI
Shape changing Characteristics of JDI's LumiFree device - Source: JDI
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