Monitor with IGZO Panel: Pros and Cons, are They Worth it?

The first commercial LCD panels incorporating IGZO panel technology first appeared in 2012; In the following years, the first televisions and consumer electronics products such as smartphones and tablets appeared, but it was not until recently that this technology was implemented in PC monitors. In this article we are going to analyze what are the advantages and disadvantages of these panels, and if it is worth paying the extra cost that they entail compared to the already traditional IPS, VA or TN monitors.

Apple‘s iPad Mini 2 or iPad Air, as well as the Dell XPS 13 or Razer Blade 14 laptop are some of the products that already incorporate IGZO panel technology. With the industry trend and market clamor for ever higher resolution and low power display panels, IGZO is fast becoming one of the preferred display technologies for users and manufacturers.

Monitor with IGZO Panel

What is IGZO technology and how is it used?

Professor Hideo Hosono together with his team from Tokyo Institute of Technology and Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) developed the IGZO-TFT technology in 2003. JST owns the patent and its applications. Samsung acquired a user license in 2011 and Sharp did the same in 2012, yet the latter was the first to successfully design the first technology-based display panels, so it seems that initially Samsung left it a bit of side.

Sharp IGZO 8K

The name IGZO is an acronym for “Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide” ( zinc oxide, gallium and indium ). It is a semiconductor material manufactured by crystallizing indium, gallium, zinc and oxygen, and it must be taken into account that the crystallization process is quite expensive and complicated. However, doing so successfully results in a new atomic arrangement and a unique crystalline structure, characterized by its transparency and stability.

Transparency is the key feature of IGZO panels, as all flat panels consist of several very thin layers with different functions. These layers range from polarizers and light diffusers to the LCD or OLED screen, so transparency is essential for these layers, as it allows light to pass through the entire panel without causing loss of brightness or blurring the image.

In an IGZO panel, a transistor accompanies each pixel on the LCD or OLED layer so that it can be turned on or off. Making these transistors transparent is a critical aspect of flat panel manufacturing, and the performance and size of the transistors also define the performance and quality of the panel itself.

Tecnología de panel IGZO

Standard screens have transistors made of amorphous silicon called aSi or a-Si, a material that is not transparent and that literally blocks part of the light. For their part, the IGZO panels have managed to miniaturize this transistor so much that it is practically invisible (coupled with the fact that it is transparent), allowing more light to pass through because the connections are also smaller. You can see it clearly in the image above, comparing a conventional screen with an IGZO.

To be true, IGZO is actually the manufacturing technology of these transistors and not the panel itself as it is actually used in the TFT backplate of display panels in conjunction with different panel technologies such as it can be IPS, VA or TN, and even on OLED screens.

What advantages does an IGZO panel provide? Worth?

IGZO’s transparency translates into a specific advantage: lower energy consumption. Compared to aSi-TFT panels, less energy is used due to the lower need for the monitor’s backlight intensity, since as we have explained before, as the transistors are transparent and much smaller, much less light is covered (practically nothing, in fact).

Another advantage of this type of panel is that it has 30 to 50 times the mobility of electrons compared to amorphous silicon. Higher electron mobility means that there is less mass required for the same conductivity, allowing the pixel size to be greatly reduced to provide much higher resolutions. And it is that the size of the transistors, which are smaller, also affects the size of the pixel and therefore a higher pixel density is achieved on the screen. Although currently the “standard” is 498 pixels per inch, densities of 736 ppi have already been achieved.

Densidad de píxeles panel IGZO

IGZO transistors also consume less power due to their small size (plus they block much less light as noted earlier). In screens with high pixel density, it must be taken into account that we are talking about millions of transistors, and in the end the consumption and the heat generated can make a quite remarkable difference.

Finally, another advantage of an IGZO panel is the lower influence of noise . This is due to the fact that it is a type of intermittent semiconductor, and the conditioning of an IGZO panel does not need to be continuous. On touchscreens, this means greater sensitivity and precision, and while noise is a natural by-product of any touch-sensitive screen, noise generated by touching an IGZO-based touch panel is very brief, allowing for much more accurate detection of even the weakest pulsation.

This means that an IGZO touch panel can pick up lines as thin as the tip of a pencil and give the same feeling as writing on paper, being obviously especially useful for tablets and digitizing tablets.

Firma panel IGZO

In short, this type of technology is likely to end up being the future of monitors for PCs, televisions, smartphones, tablets and in general of all types of screens. Currently it has a high cost, but the advantages are more than notable, and answering the owner’s question, the answer is that if you are demanding in terms of pixel density and display clarity, the investment is certainly worth it.