Samsung announced today the development of a mobile display driver IC (DDI) that combines the display driver and readout functions for touch-sensor-embedded display panels. Touch screen applications provide a more intuitive user interface combined with easier and faster information entry. Its use is quickly spreading to diverse consumer electronic products, including PDAs, car navigation systems, digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) handsets and portable multimedia players (PMPs).

Today, LCD panel with touch screen need an additional panel that contains touch sensors mounted on the top of the LCD panel. This requires special assembly of extra components and consumes additional volume and weight. The extra layer of the touch-screen panel also reduces the amount of the transmitted light from a display and causes the ambient light to reflect off the display panel, resulting in degradation of the display's front-of-screen performance.

Samsung's new DDI device enables the AMLCD itself to be touch-sensitive eliminating the need for extra layer of the touch screen panel layer. This is done through the introduction of a touch-sensitive sensor into the pixel. This approach enables designers to dispense with the separate touch panel, raising light transmissivity, improving brightness and providing sharper on-screen images.

"Samsung's new DDI with readout function does more than drive the display. The device senses either charge or current signals from the TFT sensor array and converts them into data appropriate for image processing for detection of the touched location. By eliminating the need for a readout chip, the sensor embedded touch-screen system can be more compact and cost effective.