Newsletter 
Sharp is well known around the world for a number of different technologies, but most well known for their display technologies. Sharp has been a pioneer in display technologies in the past and their latest invention, the IGZO display, is one that’s been a long time coming but hasn’t made its way into any well known devices on the market. Since its announcement back in 2012 and it’s subsequent niche product launches, Sharp has gone on to improve IGZO displays in many ways. They unveiled a fusion IGZO-MEMS display last October, touting new energy efficiency thanks to the way IGZO and MEMS work hand in hand, but the display was only running at 720p resolution, making it something many high-end consumer devices won’t choose to use.
Now Sharp is making some significant advancements with IGZO, which was originally touted as a display technology that could push resolution higher and faster than ever before. Sharp has now produced the first WQHD 1440 x 2560 pixel resolution displays, bringing it up there with other display technologies on the market. In addition to that Sharp is also fusing the digitizer and display together making this the first in-cell IGZO display. This comes at the same time that JDI has launched their new in-cell display technology, pitting Sharp up against one of the biggest and baddest display manufacturers in the land.
In-cell displays not only mean better touch sensitivity thanks to less space between the digitizer and display itself, but a thinner overall package, ensuring that new smartphone is even thinner than the previous model. Pairing this technology together with IGZO should produce some truly incredible results, giving us smartphones that are thinner, respond faster to touch and use less power. Those not familiar with IGZO technology should be aware that IGZO draws less power than a traditional LED, LCD or AMOLED display because it can continue displaying an image without requiring constant voltage for that image to stay on screen. This gives significant power savings when users aren’t moving items on the screen, such as when browsing the web, reading text or other tasks that don’t require much movement. Current screens much always draw at their refresh rates as well as power the light emitting from the diodes, giving IGZO an upper hand in display efficiency. Look for products to start using IGZO displays likely sometime later this year, as Sharp will be rolling out the displays to production by the summer.