A 12K Display

In other locations, I discuss some benefits of leaving out the color filter from LCD designs for signage: lower thermal radiation absorption, no cf fading, a brighter image. There is, of course a 4th benefit to removing the color filter in that you automatically get 3X more addressable pixels. That could give you a 3K display if applied to what would otherwise be an HDTV resolution screen or a 12K display if applied to the new 4K format.

Corning used to supply the glass for a 19” 12K monochrome CRT in the 1980’s. The customer used Corning’s standard 19” CRT glass to build the display although only about ½ of the glass supplied actually was within their spec. The 12K benchmark was important to the customer as it was a replacement for medical X-ray film. Because of liability concerns, the electronic replacement had to have at least the resolution of what it was replacing. I am unsure what X-ray film resolution is, but my understanding is that standard portrait film is the equivalent of 8K. With the transition to flat panel technology and the requirement of multi- billion dollar fabs, the opportunity to build such displays went away, replaced in part by the ability to pinch and zoom.

With the widespread availability of imagers well in excess of 12K, the market for 12K devices might extend well beyond the medical device market. Again, “digital signage “ is a possibility but there are a variety of other workstations where people look at images where 12K could be useful. … certainly defense as well. I would expect that whether they be field sequential color or monochrome, the product orders for 12K displays will start showing up.