The displays offer a variety of options for brightness, contrast, temperature range and power consumption, and they vary in size from 3.5 to 15 inches.

Several of the smallest displays targeting industrial applications were unveiled at the Society for Information Display (SID) Symposium and Conference earlier this year. Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas (Camas, Wash.), for one, has expanded its lineup of industrial displays, offering a variety of options for brightness, contrast, temperature range, power consumption and size.

The Sharp introductions include a 3.7-inch continuous-grain silicon display (the LS037V7DW01), a 5.7-inch amorphous silicon transmissive thin-film-transistor display (the LQ057Q3DC12), and 3.5-inch and 4.3-inch Advanced Super View (AD-TFT) displays (the LQ035Q7DH06 and LQ043T3DX02, respectively). All are optimized for handheld and portable devices that can be used in a range of environments.

NEC Electronics America Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif. ) has added four small industrial-grade amorphous-silicon TFT LCD modules, ranging in size from 2.7 to 4.3 inches for mobile equipment. NEC claims the displays offer high brightness, low-power consumption and high contrast levels, making them suitable for mobile devices that need to operate in a range of viewing environments and applications. The modules target RFID devices, handheld scanners, temperature-testing devices and global positioning systems.

-- Gina Roos