LG.Philips develops a sharper image for phones

The experience of watching television or video clips on mobile phones may improve with a new screen being developed by LG.Philips LCD Co.

The company has developed a new TFT-LCD (thin-film transistor-liquid crystal display) panel for mobile phones that has better response times than similar screens in use today, it announced Thursday.

Faster response times help to eliminate the after-images and ghosting that can appear on LCD screens, leading to sharper, better quality video.

The 2-inch display has a 16 millisecond response time, compared to 25 milliseconds for today's typical phone screen, LG.Philips said.

The screen will be ideal for phones that can receive TV broadcasts or connect to broadband wireless networks for downloading videos.

LG.Philips developed a different technology from that used in its notebook PC panels, to meet the power consumption demands of mobile phones.

LG.Philips expects to start mass producing the new display this year. It came out of a new unit the company launched in January to develop smaller displays. That unit is now working on a display that uses IPS (in-plane switching), a technology typically used in larger displays that increases the viewing angle.

Mobile phones need to be increasingly capable as operators upgrade their networks to offer higher-speed connections. The new services create a need for better screens, faster chips and more memory capacity.

Just last week Samsung Electronics Co. said it had developed a new technology to make screens on handheld devices brighter, even in broad daylight. It measures the ambient light available and adjusts the brightness of the screen accordingly. The technology is expected in handsets later this year.