On December 29, news: According to the latest report of Taiwan media DigiTimes, Apple has begun to evaluate the feasibility of equipping all iOS devices (excluding Apple TV) with IGZO screens. If all goes well, we will be able to see IGZO screens on iPads, iPad mini and iPhones in 2013.

About IGZO screen:

IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) is the abbreviation of indium gallium zinc oxide. Amorphous IGZO material is the channel layer material used in the new generation thin film transistor technology. IGZO material was first proposed by Hideo Hosono of Tokyo University of Technology in Japan to be applied in the TFT industry. At present, the material and technology patents are mainly owned by Japanese manufacturers. IGZO-TFT technology was first mass produced by Sharp in Japan.

Analysis of IGZO technology

IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) is the abbreviation of Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide. It is a thin film transistor technology, which means that a layer of metal oxide is placed on the TFT-LCD active layer. Therefore, it has nothing to do with the arrangement of liquid crystal molecules (it is not a concept category with IPS, PVA, etc.), but an improved technology based on TFT drive. Sharp uses it to improve its competitiveness in small and medium-sized liquid crystal panels. In other words, even the IPS LCD panel can also use IGZO TFT technology at the same time, there is no contradiction between the two.

TFT (Thin Film Transistor) refers to thin-film field effect transistor. TFT liquid crystal screen refers to that every liquid crystal pixel on the liquid crystal panel is driven by the thin-film transistor integrated behind it, which is the "TFT screen" often heard in the mobile phone field. Common TFT driving categories include a-Si TFT (amorphous silicon), LTPS TFT (low-temperature polysilicon), and IGZO TFT also belongs to this category. So in the end, the IGZO panel proposed by Sharp this time is still a TFT LCD screen. In fact, IGZO TFT technology can also be used on OLED panels. IGZO technology can make the display power consumption close to OLED, but the cost is lower, the thickness is only 25% higher than OLED, and the resolution can reach full HD or even Ultra Definition, with a resolution of 4k * 2k Level.