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Visionox First to Deliver Under-screen Capability to Chinese OEMs
June 14, 2020
Recently, a report shows that Huawei seems to be working on a smartphone
with a highly rounded display and an under-screen camera. This is evident from two patent applications which now have CNIPA approval.
Figure 1: Unnamed Future Huawei Phone W/Under Screen Camera
June 14, 2020
Recently, a report shows that Huawei seems to be working on a smartphone
with a highly rounded display and an under-screen camera. This is evident from two patent applications which now have CNIPA approval.
Figure 1: Unnamed Future Huawei Phone W/Under Screen Camera
The publication date of both patents is June 2, 2020 and each includes 7 product images of an unannounced Huawei smartphone. Basically, the two patents are alike – only the rear camera system differs by model. The product images show a full-screen Huawei phone. The screen extends very far to the sides – further than the current waterfall display on the Mate 30 series. There are also no physical buttons on the sides of the device. For the volume keys, Huawei has long used the principle that these can be called up virtually via the sidebar. The bottom of the device offers space for a USB Type-C connection.
Huawei may be looking at Visionox for the display as they have announced a new under-screen camera solution using cameras that do not take up any screen real estate. Xiaomi’s Mi Mix Alpha OLED display is supplied by Visionox. South Korean and other Chinese panel producers have been working on those problems for years, as current smartphone resolutions of over 400 pixels/inch limit the amount of light available to cameras that are positioned under a display. Attempts at reducing pixel count over the camera’s position lead to color shift issues and an overall reduction in pixel count across the display to allow more light to the camera degrades the whole display, and camera areas in prototypes tend to become visible when viewed off axis.
Prototypes from other smartphone brands have promised under display cameras with no compromises but no commercial product has been able to deliver on those promises, with most using some combination of larger camera lenses (to bring in more light) and software to compensate from haze or color bleed that comes from the display itself. The Visionox solution called InV see™ is said to be based on a new higher transparency material used in the OLED display along with new driving circuits and pixel structures, all designed to allow more and higher quality light to reach the camera, without compromising display quality and eliminating the potential differences between the OLED screen and the section above the camera.
Visionox starts mass production of OLED panels that support under screen cameras, with the first smartphones with a sub-screen camera appearing this year. OnePlus product manager said that already in the second half of this year, the technology of the sub-screen camera will enter mass production and will be embodied in commercial products. At CES, we reported on in-display, or in-screen selfie cameras shown by Samsung with a prototype, set to replace notches, holes, pop-ups for capturing selfies from front-facing cameras.
Huawei may be looking at Visionox for the display as they have announced a new under-screen camera solution using cameras that do not take up any screen real estate. Xiaomi’s Mi Mix Alpha OLED display is supplied by Visionox. South Korean and other Chinese panel producers have been working on those problems for years, as current smartphone resolutions of over 400 pixels/inch limit the amount of light available to cameras that are positioned under a display. Attempts at reducing pixel count over the camera’s position lead to color shift issues and an overall reduction in pixel count across the display to allow more light to the camera degrades the whole display, and camera areas in prototypes tend to become visible when viewed off axis.
Prototypes from other smartphone brands have promised under display cameras with no compromises but no commercial product has been able to deliver on those promises, with most using some combination of larger camera lenses (to bring in more light) and software to compensate from haze or color bleed that comes from the display itself. The Visionox solution called InV see™ is said to be based on a new higher transparency material used in the OLED display along with new driving circuits and pixel structures, all designed to allow more and higher quality light to reach the camera, without compromising display quality and eliminating the potential differences between the OLED screen and the section above the camera.
Visionox starts mass production of OLED panels that support under screen cameras, with the first smartphones with a sub-screen camera appearing this year. OnePlus product manager said that already in the second half of this year, the technology of the sub-screen camera will enter mass production and will be embodied in commercial products. At CES, we reported on in-display, or in-screen selfie cameras shown by Samsung with a prototype, set to replace notches, holes, pop-ups for capturing selfies from front-facing cameras.
- Cameras embedded under the display deliver a full and complete screen without a chunk taken out.
- Just as fingerprint sensors moved into the display of many new devices or were replaced with Face ID, improving the screen area size on a phone.
- But in-display camera technology has taken time. A Samsung patent revealed the tech back in early 2018, and last year we saw a flurry of prototypes, from OPPO and Xiaomi, where you see how it all works below:
- But the image quality remained a problem.
- In January this year, Xiaomi executive Lu Weibing talked about tech issues with the implementation. He noted that higher-quality screens with >400 pixels per square inch (ppi), used in most smartphones, reduce the amount of light getting to the sensor, meaning lower quality selfie camera quality. He said dropping the pixel density in a region just for the camera would cause other problems, like a drop in image quality just in that spot, while lower resolutions generally satisfy some consumers.
- Visionox, which has its own foldable AMOLED display technology has been supplying Xiaomi with displays for its prototypes including the Mi Mix Alpha, announced it is mass-producing the world’s first under-display camera solution.
- One report suggests some breakthroughs to get past tech hurdles, including improved transparency in the camera area of the screen, and an “industry-first drive circuit and pixel structure design” (according to machine translation) to minimize interference.
- Visionox is also working with device manufacturers to offer pre-written imaging algorithms to reportedly minimize diffraction, glare, and reduce the “fogging” effect. This algorithm is therefore designed to help produce selfie photos with expected brightness and clarity, according to ITHome.
- Based on Xiaomi's fairly close relationship with Visionox, a Xiaomi or Redmi branded phone might be released first.