We consider the backlight calculation of local dimming as an optimization problem. The luminance produced by many LEDs at each pixel considered is calculated which should cover the gray value of each pixel, while the sum of LED currents is to be minimized. For this purpose a specific approach called as "Sorted Sector Covering" (SSC) was developed and is described in this paper. In our pre-processing unit called condenser the source image is reduced to a matrix of much lower resolution so that the computation effort of the SSC algorithm is drastically reduced. During this preprocessing phase, filter functions can be integrated so that a further reduction of the power consumption is achieved. Our processing system allows high power saving and high visual quality at low processor cost. We approach the local dimming problem in the physical viewing direction -- from LED to pixel. The luminance for the pixel is based on the light spread function (LSF) and the PWM values of the LEDs. As the physical viewing direction is chosen, this method is universal and can be applied for any kind of LED arrangement -- direct-lit as well as edge-lit. It is validated on prototypes, e.g., a locally dimmed edge-lit TV.

This report describes a quantification method for luminance non-uniformity of a large LED backlight. In experiments described herein, participants subjectively evaluated artificial indistinct Mura images that simulated luminance non-uniformity of an LED backlight. We measured the luminance distribution of the Mura images. Then, the measured luminance distribution was converted into S-CIELAB, in which anisotropic properties of the spatial frequency response of human vision were considered. Subsequently, some indexes for the quantification model were extracted. We conducted multiple regression analyses using the subjective evaluation value and the index values obtained from measured luminance of Mura image. We proposed a quantification model consisting of four indexes: high and low luminance area, number of Mura edges, sum of Mura edge areas, and maximum luminance difference.

An adaptive dimming technique controls both LCD panel transmittance and its backlight luminance adequately and locally according to the input TV signal. The technique reduces the power consumption and also improves the picture quality. However, a steep change in backlight luminance distribution due to the application of the technique causes image degradation around the boundary of the segments when the LCD is viewed from an angle. The main factor of image degradation is the illumination of a pixel by neighboring pixel's corresponding backlight when the LCD is viewed from an angle rather than normal direction. From the subjective evaluation of image quality and computer simulation, it is found that the gradient of the backlight luminance variation to luminance at the border of the segment should be less than 0.022 per pixel in order to suppress the image degradation.

We have analyzed the dominant noise sources in the driving circuit of an uncooled infrared radiation focal plane array fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate by 0.35 µm CMOS technology and bulk- micromachining. We found no noise property of SOI-MOSFET inferior compared to those of NMOSs formed on SOI and bulk substrate, respectively. In addition, we reduced the total noise of the sensor chip by designing the current source NMOS sufficiently large, and optimized the operating current of pixel pn-junctions.

Ambient light sensors have been used to reduce power consumption of Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Displays (AMLCD) adjusting display brightness depending on ambient illumination. Discrete sensors have been commonly used for this purpose. They make module design complex. Therefore it has been required to integrate the sensors on the display panels for solving the issue. So far, many kinds of integrated sensors have been developed using Amorphous Silicon (a-Si) technology or Low Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon (LTPS) technology. These conventional integrated sensors have two problems. One is that LTPS sensors have less dynamic range due to the less photosensitivity of LTPS photodiodes. The other is that both the LTPS and a-Si sensors are susceptible to display driving noises. In this paper, we introduce a novel integrated sensor using both LTPS and a-Si technologies, which can solve these problems. It consists of vertical a-Si Schottky photodiodes and an LTPS differential converter circuit. The a-Si photodiodes have much higher photosensitivity than LTPS ones, and this contributes to wide dynamic range and high accuracy. The LTPS differential converter circuit converts photocurrent of the photodiodes to a robust digital signal. In addition it has a function of canceling the influences of the display driving noises. With the circuit, the sensor can stably and accurately work even under the noises. The performance of the sensor introduced in this paper was measured to verify the advantages of the novel design. The measurement result showed that it worked in a wide ambient illuminance range of 5-55,000 lux with small errors of below 5%. It was also verified that it stably and accurately worked even under the display driving noise. Thus the sensor introduced in this paper achieved the wide dynamic range and noise robustness.

We succeeded to develop a reference light source in the range of very low luminance using a double integrating sphere system, and calibrated a commercial spectrophotometer below 110^-5 cd/m² levels, which is 1/100 lower than the specified limit for measurement. And we improved measurements in the ultra low luminance range of displays using the calibrated commercial spectrophotometer and a dark sphere to suppress the influence of the surround.

The authors describe a method to produce gold nanoparticle-dispersed liquid crystals by means of sputtering, and discuss how the presence of gold nanoparticles affect the electro-optic response of the host liquid crystal. The method exploits the fact that liquid crystals possess low vapor pressures which allow them to undergo the sputtering process, and the target material is sputtered directly on the liquid crystal in a reduced air pressure environment. The sample attained a red-brownish color after sputtering, but no aggregations were observed in the samples kept in the liquid crystal phase. Polarization optical microscopy of the sample placed in a conventional sandwich cell revealed that the phase transition behaviour is affected by the presence of the nanoparticles and that the onset of the nematic phase is observed in the form of bubble-like domains whereas in the pure sample the nematic phase appears after the passing of a phase transition front. Transmission electron microscopy confirmed the presence of single nano-sized particles that were dispersed without forming aggregates in the material. The electro-optic properties of the nanoparticle-dispersed liquid crystal was investigated by measuring the threshold voltage for a twisted-nematic cell. The threshold voltage was found to depend on the frequency of the applied rectangular voltage, and at frequencies higher than 200 Hz, the threshold became lower than the pure samples.

Electrochromic (EC) type e-paper is attracted with colorfulness and clearness. We have been researching and developing the material for EC type e-paper. We developed novel EC Polymers for e-paper. Our EC polymers are kinds of conductive polymers (CP). CP has some characteristics. One is electrochromism, and the other is electrochemical polymerization. Electrochromism of CP has a good memory effect. And electrochemical polymerization is suitable for printable electronics, for instance, ink-jet, screen print, and so on. Our EC polymers are comprised with thiophene derivatives and pi-conjugated X unit. To our knowledge, this thiophene derivatives are novel structure for EC polymers. These EC polymers have the electrochromic characteristic which change from coloration state to clear state. And we can adjust the color which we want by changing only X unit. And we made segment matrix EC display with our EC polymers by ink-jet printing. Our EC polymers are suitable for printable electronics, flexible substrate, and roll-to-roll process. We introduce our developing technologies.

Recently, it is demanded to form a high performance pattern on an enlarged circuit board in a low cost in the process to produce LCD devices. In the part of upgrading the performance, the materials are reexamined such as Al or Mo to Cu. Furthermore, in the process of reexamining the materials, it is demanded that such materials are low in environmental load. Therefore, we examined if it is possible to reuse Ethylene Carbonate, a photo resist stripper, with low environmental load by decomposing dissolved photo resist using ozone gas. Furthermore, we examined if it is possible to apply Ethylene Carbonate without damaging the next generation wiring materials. As a result, we were able to identify the most efficient condition for ozone gas to recycle Ethylene Carbonate used as a photo resist stripper. Ethylene Carbonate was not only suitable for Al · Mo wiring, but was also suitable for the next generation Cu wiring. Therefore by using Ethylene Carbonate for the new and old process for stripping photo resists, it is able to reduce the environmental load and also reduce the cost for stripping.

We proposed a method for reducing LCD motion blur in MPEG domain and analyzing the cause of LCD motion blur. The problem of LCD motion blur is caused by slow response time of liquid crystal and hold-type displaying method of LCDs. The proposed method uses MPEG motion vectors and frequency coefficients of DCT blocks to improve the motion blurs. First, we interpreted the aperture and response time effect of LCD in frequency domain then, modeled sharpening mask filters for the compensation. We confirmed the reduction of motion blurs in LCDs by a motion image simulator.

This paper proposes a new auto flesh tone balance algorithm for the picture that is taken for people. In this paper, the basis of auto white balance (AWB) is human face in photo. For experiment, the transfer characteristic of camera image sensor is analyzed and the camera output RGB is calculated by measuring the average face chromaticity under standard illuminant. For the face region taken under unknown illuminant, the proposed algorithm makes RGB output rate of face region become its rate of standard face color. For this, it adjusts the R and B channel and performs the chromaticity correction. Algorithm is applied to the light skin color (average face color) in Macbeth color chart and average color of various face colors that are actually measured.

Various studies of specific absorption rates (SARs) using liquid phantoms imitating human body tissues have been widely carried out in electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) research fields. In order to establish accurate SARs for measurement, a faithful mockup of human body tissue is needed. Therefore, knowledge of the accurate measurement of sample materials with high permittivity and high loss is very important. In this study, the complex permittivity of tap water, ethanol, methanol and isopropanol is measured by the open-ended cut-off circular waveguide reflection method. The effectiveness of the method presented here of measuring a liquid phantom with high-permittivity and high-loss is also confirmed by comparing the measured results with the results obtained by the TM₀₁₀ circular cavity resonator method. At this time, the effects on the input impedance under variations of the insertion length and termination conditions were studied. Then the complex permittivity of tap water, ethanol, methanol and isopropanol was measured at frequencies ranging from 0.5 to 3.0 GHz using the measurement procedure above. As a result, we confirmed the frequency characteristics of the complex permittivity for a wide variety of high-loss liquid materials.

We present self-calibration techniques for an interleaved SAR (Successive Approximation Register) ADC. The calibration technique is based on hardware corrections for linearity of single stage, gain error and mismatch errors of parallel ADCs. The 4-interleaved 11-bit ADC has been fabricated in a 0.18-µm CMOS process. Using the calibrations, measurement and calculation results show that the differences of ramp characteristic among the 4-interleaving ADC can be decresased to under 0.63 LSB.

The structure of the nanograting channel MOSFET was optimized by simply rounding the corners of the nanogratings. The current drivabilities of the optimized nanograting channel MOSFETs were enhanced by about 20% and 50% for both n-channel and p-channel MOSFETs, respectively. The mobility changes were analyzed on the basis of channel stress as well as theoretical change of mobilities by various surface orientations. The internal compressive stress of 0.23% was measured in the channel. By suppressing the electric field increase at the corner edge of the nanograting channel to less than 10%, the fabricated rounded nanograting MOSFETs achieved lifetimes of NBTI and TDDB as long as those of conventional planar devices.

We propose a new parameter-extraction approach based on a mixed-mode genetic algorithm (GA), including the efficient search-space separation and local-minima-convergence prevention process. The technique, substantially extended from our previous work, allows the designed figures-of-merit, such as internal quantum efficiency (η_i) as well as transparency current density (J_tr) of lasers and minimum noise figure (NF_min) as well as associated available gain (G_A,assoc) of low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), extracted by an analytical equation-based methodology combined with an evolutionary numerical tool. Extraction results, which agree well with actually measured data, for both state-of-the-art InGaAs quantum-well lasers and advanced SiGe LNAs are presented for the first time to demonstrate this multi-parameter analysis and high-accuracy optimization.

In this letter, a novel wideband traveling wave power divider/combiner based on the finline with irises is presented and studied. Experiments on the four-way passive divider/combiner demonstrate a minimum overall insertion loss of 1.5 dB at 35.8 GHz, and the insertion loss across 32-38 GHz is less than 2.5 dB.