NEW: CA-310 the new Color Analyzer for the next Display generation
Introducing the Color Analyzer CA-310, a high-speed instrument that offers higher accuracy for measuring LED-backlit displays
July 2010
Konica Minolta Sensing, Inc. (Headquarters: Sakai, Osaka, JAPAN; President: Toshihiko Karasaki; hereinafter referred to as “Konica Minolta”) is proud to announce that the Color Analyzer CA-310, a high-speed instrument that enables higher-accuracy measurements of displays such as LCD TVs that use LED backlights by reducing errors due to variations in the peak wavelengths of LED backlights, will be introduced in September 2010.
Product: Color Analyzer CA-310
Start of sales: September 2010
LCD TVs with LED backlights have become very popular in recent years since such technology can make the TV flat and lightweight. However, when conventional color analyzers are used for white- balance adjustment on LED-backlit LCD TV production lines, measurement errors are considerably larger than when non-LED backlights are used. A high-end luminance colorimeter could be used for accurate measurement of the screen but such measurements would be too slow for practical use on production lines.
To solve this problem, Konica Minolta, a leader in color analyzers for display white-balance adjustment for the last quarter of a century with a top market share, have succeeded in developing a new sensor which is suitable for measuring the brightness characteristics of LED backlights.
Although the emission wavelength distribution*1 of conventional backlights such as fluorescent lamps is uniform, it varies somewhat from LED to LED. When TVs with different LEDs are adjusted using a conventional color analyzer, they may show colors that are significantly different from each other, resulting in color reproduction that is incorrect compared to the original colors. In order to resolve this problem, Konica Minolta developed a new sensor with sensitivities that even more closely match the CIE 1931 color-matching functions*2 to enable correct measurements even if emission wavelength distribution varies. The CA-310 equipped with this new sensor makes it possible to properly adjust even LED-backlit LCDs TVs to reproduce images very close to the original with natural color.
The CA-310 also offers ten times the measuring speed of our luminance colorimeter (Konica Minolta Chroma Meter CS-200) which provides the equivalent high level of accuracy as the CA-310 but is intended for different purposes. The greatly enhanced work efficiency of the CA-310 makes it ideal for use on LED-backlit LCD TV production lines, where it can contribute to increased production efficiency.
Konica Minolta continues to develop precise sensing technology and applications in order to offer solutions matching customer needs and to maintain our status as “essential” for customers.
*1: How much light is emitted at each wavelength by a light source
*2: Spectral response curves defined by the CIE (International Commission on Illumination) in 1931 which express the sensitivity of the human eye.
Main Features of Color Analyzer CA-310
1 Sensors that more closely match the CIE 1931 color-matching functions
For the CA-310, Konica Minolta used how the human eye sees color as the model, and succeeded in developing sensors that even more closely match the color-matching functions defined by the CIE in 1931 which express the sensitivity of the human eye. This makes it possible to minimize measurement error for most light sources regardless of emission distribution.
2 Reduces errors due to LED emission distribution variations to less than 1/3.
Variations in the emission distribution of LED backlights result in individual differences of about 10nm in peak intensity wavelength. If LED-backlit LCD TVs with such individual differences are adjusted using conventional color analyzers, color differences of close to 0.010 on the xy chromaticity diagram may occur. But with the CA-310, the color difference in the same case is reduced to around 0.003, enabling errors to be suppressed to less than 1/3.
3 High-speed measurements of even extremely low luminances down to 0.005cd/m2
Sensor noise reduction technology has been used to enable measurements even in the extremely low luminance region around 0.005cd/m2 at speeds as fast as 4 times per second. This allows the high-speed high-accuracy measurement essential for manufacturing high-grade displays. In addition, at luminances higher than 2.0cd/m2, 20 measurements per second are possible.