Sharp could revolutionize electronics with its “free-form” display technology

When we think of displays, we usually think in terms of boxes, like a square shaped display or a rectangular shaped display. For the most part, that is how displays usually look like. However who’s to say that displays need to be box-shaped all the time? Well Sharp doesn’t. The Japanese company has recently taken the wraps off a “free form” display technology that they believe will help break convention. Sharp’s new technology will be based on their IGZO technology, along with proprietary circuit design which would organize the gate drive power amplifier setup. It seems that prior to this, the technology would require rectangular displays, but with Sharp’s new technology, new form factors could be created.

Sharp is showing off a ‘free-form’ display technology that it believes could break consumer tech devices out of the rigid convention of using rectangular and square shaped screens. The Japanese company’s new display type, which is based on its IGZO technology and “proprietary circuit design methods”, takes a different approach to organizing the gate drive power amplifier setup. That system has required rectangular displays, so Sharp’s technology is opening the door to new design types. Sharp explains the technology in more detail: “Conventional displays are rectangular because they require a minimal width for the bezel in order to accommodate the drive circuit, called the gate driver, around the perimeter of the screen’s display area. With the Free-Form Display, the gate driver’s function is dispersed throughout the pixels on the display area. This allows the bezel to be shrunk considerably, and it gives the freedom to design the LCD to match whatever shape the display area of the screen needs to be.”