Society for Information Display Unveils 2021 Display Industry Award Winners

Recipients of 27th Annual Awards recognized for the year’s most significant technological advances

Campbell, Calif., May 11, 2021 –The Society for Information Display (SID) today announced the winners of its 27th Annual Display Industry Awards. The 2021 Display Industry Award (DIA) recipients reflect the ever-evolving display product landscape and represent a wide range of technological advancements ranging from a state-of-the-art VR display, to ultrathin durable glass, a high-performance touchscreen controller, leading-edge TV products, and an innovative laptop/tablet. The honorees are receiving awards in conjunction with SID’s annual Display Week, May 17-21, an all-virtual experience.

The 2021 Display Industry Award winners embody the profound level of innovation within the industry and exemplify how crucial displays have become to nearly every aspect of daily life.

“The competition for this year’s Display Industry Awards was fierce,” said Wei Chen, chair of the DIA committee. “The number of eligible nominations we received this year grew by more than 34 percent compared to the year before.

“The committee members had many lively discussions, and after several rounds of voting, they selected two winners in each of the three categories out of many strong contenders,” he added. “These winners truly represent the best among the best the display industry has offered in 2020.”

Among the industry’s highest honors, the Display Industry Awards highlight innovations that have advanced the state-of-the-art in display technology, with awards presented in three categories: Displays of the Year, Display Applications of the Year, and Display Components of the Year. The six winners, divided into three categories, were chosen by a distinguished panel of experts who evaluated the nominees based on degree of technical innovation and commercial significance, as well as potential for positive social impact.

The award-winning products and innovations are listed below:

Displays of the Year

This award is conferred upon display products with the most significant technological advances and/or outstanding features.

65-Inch Rollable TV from LG Display
The 65-inch flexible OLED display leverages self-lighting pixel technology and individual dimming control to deliver supreme picture quality. Even while the screen is rolling up and down, the OLED display maintains its image quality. This groundbreaking technology not only reimagines what a TV can do, it revolutionizes the way viewers use their space. It provides an optimized user experience in three modes: full view using the entire 65-inch screen like a traditional TV; line view with only one-third of the screen exposed to support modes, such as music and clocks; and zero view with the screen completely hidden and available as a speaker. Unlike LCD technology that requires backlights behind the screen, OLED can be applied in various forms because of its non-backlight and non-liquid structural features, as well as a self-emitting display. When you are not watching TV, it reminds you of a high-quality audio system with a neat square form factor. It also blends in with the surrounding environment because the screen is exposed only when you watch TV.

Q8 Series MiniLED TV from TCL Electronics Holdings
With its 75-inch LCD panel, 8K retina resolution, and more than 33 million pixels, the Q8 Series Mini LED TV sets a new standard for TV display performance, allowing users to immerse themselves fully in various types of content, such as gaming and video streaming. Featuring P3 wide color (color gamut: 97.84 percent) and 10-bit color depth, Q8 uses quantum dot (QD) display technology that enables images to be more vivid and fuller, accurately reflecting true-to-life colors. The LED backlight is made of inorganic materials, and the module’s lifespan can be up to 100,000 hours.

Display Applications of the Year

This award acknowledges novel and outstanding applications of a display, where the display itself is not necessarily a new device.

Oculus Quest 2 from Facebook
Oculus Quest 2 is the next generation of all-in-one virtual reality (VR). Quest 2 pushes the state of VR forward with a redesigned all-in-one form factor that is smaller and lighter than the original Quest, with new touch controllers and its highest-resolution display. Quest 2 has a suite of innovations to power the next generation of VR games and experiences. The first Quest headset debuted an all-in-one form factor powered by innovations, such as the Oculus Insight tracking system. With Quest 2, Facebook is taking things even further, starting with a multigenerational leap in processing power with the state-of-the-art Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Platform offering higher artificial intelligence capability and 6 gigabytes (Gbytes) of RAM. The new display features 1,832 × 1,920 pixels per eye—its highest resolution display yet. With 50 percent more pixels than the original Quest, everything from multiplayer games and productivity apps to 360° videos look better than ever. Quest 2 starts at US$299 and launched in October 2020.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold from Lenovo Group
ThinkPad X1 Fold is the first fully functional PC with a folding OLED display. It is designed to offer unprecedented productivity, with a new form factor that reimagines mobile computing. As it morphs through multiple modes, from a small footprint device into a fully flat 13.3-inch display, X1 Fold delivers laptop efficiency with smartphone portability. Folded, the X1 Fold is roughly the size of a standard book and weighs only 2.2 pounds. X1 Fold offers a built-in kickstand, pen, and Bluetooth minifold keyboard, allowing the user to be productive in an array of modes. When closed, the keyboard is stored and wirelessly charged inside the system and secured with magnets. The bright OLED display and Dolby Audio let the user watch the latest episode of their favorite series; the flat foldout screen can be used as a tablet; or it can be bent slightly to read a few book chapters. The X1 Fold is suited for an office environment as well. Connect a full size keyboard and mouse and a second display via a USB type-C and place the device in the optional ThinkPad X1 Fold Stand in portrait or landscape mode. Users can leverage two independent displays to optimize efficiency during multitasking activities. Participate in a video call on the upper screen while reviewing and editing a presentation on the lower screen. Compare documents, one above the other, or take notes on one screen while watching a lecture on the other.

Display Components of the Year

This award recognizes novel components that have significantly enhanced the performance of a display. A component is sold as a separate part destined to be incorporated into a display. A component may also include display-enhancing materials and/or parts fabricated with new processes.

Xensation Flex Ultra-Thin Cover Glass from SCHOTT
Xensation Flex cover glass is the first flexible glass that chemically can be toughened for extremely high strength and flexibility, with a bending radius below 2 mm after processing. One of the main challenges Schott faced was adjusting the production process to make aluminosilicate glass types, such as Xensation Flex, extremely thin. They did so by using a proprietary production process called down-draw. During down-draw, a glass ribbon is pulled across various rollers and through the cooling track so that glass of a desired thinness is drawn directly from the melt to achieve stable thinness. The company also developed special handling methods for this fragile material glass. This enabled it to make ultrathin glass suitable for mass production, allowing their clients to develop superior new devices based on ultrathin glass. All told, it points to a better future for foldables and a better user experience for consumers.

SigmaDrive SDC100 Touch Controller from SigmaSense
SigmaSense is helping to begin a new chapter for large displays. The company addresses the longstanding challenges for a fully interactive experience with its SDC100 family of touch controllers for large screens, including outdoor digital signage and game tables. The technology reduces design, testing, and tuning cycles and can operate at approximately one volt instead of 35. At the same time, it enables marked improvements, making it possible for large displays to have faster report rates (300 Hz) than smartphones and operate through water on the screen or work with gloves through water. SigmaSense uses SigmaDrive, to continuously send an ultralow-voltage signal containing multiple frequencies on each channel. It also monitors changes in the current caused by changes in sensor impedance from touches. This eliminates the need for scanning and improves the signal-to-noise ratio by up to 1,000 times compared to traditional touch controllers when normalized for voltage and time. Furthermore, SigmaDrive uses fully software-programmable sensor channels, each of which can be programmed to be a row or a column, making tuning fast and straightforward.

A more comprehensive description of the award winners is included in the Display Week 2021 Show Issue of Information Display magazine or at www.informationdisplay.org. Also see www.sid.org. To be considered for a 2021 Display Industry Award, a product had to be available for purchase during the 2020 calendar year.

High resolution images are available upon request.

For more information about Display Week 2021, please visit www.displayweek.org.

About Display Week 2021

The 58th International Display Week Symposium and Seminar, presented by the Society for Information Display (SID), will be an all-virtual event, May 17-21. Display Week is the world's leading event focused on emerging electronic display and visual information technologies from concept to market. Display Week attracts attendees from the entire ecosystem of R&D, engineering, design, manufacturing, supply chain, marketing, sales and financial, as well as commercial and consumer end-user markets. It delivers unparalleled learning opportunities, market-moving trends, sourcing, roadmaps-to-market, and connections for career and business growth. For more information on Display Week 2021, visit www.displayweek.org or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter @DisplayWeek (hashtag #DisplayWeek2021), or the Display Week YouTube Channel.

About SID

The Society for Information Display (SID) is the only professional organization focused on the electronic display and visual information technology industries. In fact, by exclusively focusing on the advancement of electronic display and visual information technologies, SID provides a unique platform for industry collaboration, communication and training in all related technologies while showcasing the industry's best new products. The organization's members are professionals in the technical and business disciplines that relate to display research, design, manufacturing, applications, marketing and sales. To promote industry and academic technology development, while also educating consumers on the importance of displays, SID hosts more than 10 conferences a year, including Display Week, which brings industry and academia all under one roof to showcase technology that will shape the future. SID's global headquarters are located at 1475 S. Bascom Ave., Ste. 114, Campbell, CA 95008. For more information, visit www.sid.org.

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