A Comparison of Various Types of LC displays for Automotive Application

In view of the wide range of opto-electronic displays for automotive application /1/, the car manufacturer is faced with the problem that the technology employed might be outdated within one to two years following their introduction in the vehicle. In this particular field of liquid crystal displays the user is confused by the great variety of display effects. Therefore, this paper presents a comparative analysis of the present promising types of liquid crystal displays in order to help the user make his choice.

For more than four years, VDO has made great investments in the development of LCDs. This year, the VDO plant for clusters in Babenhausen has been expanded by another production plant for large-area liquid crystal displays (standard or hybrid displays) /2/ for automotive dashboard instrumentation. The production systems especially developed for this purpose allow for both the production of TN cells as well as of dichroic displays, without involving great difficulties. Therefore, we assume that a comparative analysis of the individual technologies will not require particular pre-conditions.