With its ability to deliver brighter and clearer display images while keeping power consumption down, OMRON's micro lens arrays (MLAs) have enabled the use of high-performance backlight units in mobile phone displays. This has earned OMRON a good reputation, along with its many other breakthroughs and world-first products. In addition, the flat light source now being developed for large LCDs is expected to expand the applications of OMRON optical display devices even further.

The future will see more and more mobile phone content that incorporates images and video. This raises the concern of increased power consumption by mobile phone displays. Frontlight technology originally attracted a great deal of attention as a method suitable for mobile phone displays because of its low power consumption. With frontlight technology, light from the frontlight source is cast from the front of the LCD panel and reflected by a reflective sheet to display images and data. This method, however, has several drawbacks, including a whitish screen with blurred images and uneven liquid crystal patterns. These problems eventually led to the conclusion that frontlight is not well-suited for displays.

OMRON solved these problems by developing a hybrid technology combining a nano prism array with a micro prism array. A nano prism array configured with as many as 500 billion ultra-high-precision prisms with nanotechnology, reduces the reflection of unnecessary light (optical noise) from outside sources such as sunlight and lighting. The result is a clear, high-contrast image display. By combining this with the MLA technology used for a backlight, a brighter and more evenly illuminated screen can be achieved. By incorporating all these performance qualities, OMRON perfected a frontlight capable of achieving exceptional clear, high-definition image display for the first time in the world.

Recently, worldwide demand for mobile phones has been dominated by the compact, clamshell design. Formerly, clamshell-type phones required two backlight modules and two LCDs for main and sub displays. Recently, OMRON became the first company in the world to develop the reversible light module, which allows the creation of both the main and sub displays with only one LCD and one light module. By integrating backlight and frontlight functions into a single reversible light module, sharp and clear images can be displayed on both the front and back sides of the LCD panel. The number of components needed for LCDs is also reduced, making it possible to create much slimmer mobile phone designs.

LCD TVs are growing in popularity, with their dynamic, wide pictures that enhance viewing of movies, sports and concerts. LCD TVs project pictures by allowing (or blocking) light entering from the back to pass through the liquid crystal panel sandwiched between glass panels. The biggest issue with LCD TVs is how to offer large-screen LCD TVs featuring high-quality images at reasonable prices. In addressing this issue, a backlight using LEDs as a light source has been brought to the attention of the industry.

With OMRON's flat light source technology currently on the path to commercialization, precise optics design was implemented for the reflective area and reflective mirror. This simultaneously enables a low-profile design and large surface area with uniform illumination. Compared to a typical LED, it provides approximately 50 times greater illumination surface area with between one-tenth and one-fifth the thickness.

OMRON is advancing efforts toward the development of backlight modules for large-sized LCDs to keep up with the growing LCD market trends toward larger formats. Adopting the flat light source for these backlight modules will give rise to LCDs capable of delivering clearer and sharper pictures, while consuming less energy and lowering costs for consumers. OMRON's optical display devices are enjoying steadily growing applications ranging from compact mobile terminal displays to large-screen LCD TVs. OMRON is determined to accelerate its move toward refining its optical display device technology to introduce even more innovative products.

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