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Manager, interconnect technology
The answer: unique vision. IBM researcher Robert Wisnieff has led a team in the development of a 200 pixel-per-inch flat panel display with resolution so precise that you can actually see images at x-ray quality. Suitably code named Roentgen after the inventor of the x-ray, the new 200 ppi Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) enables users to see text and images with resolution and fidelity that is virtually indistinguishable from a printed page.
As an adolescent in the 1960’s, Wisnieff was fascinated with America’s quest to reach the moon. That fascination led him to science as a field of study. After earning a graduate degree in solid state physics from Yale with a thesis on electronic conduction, Robert joined the display technology team at IBM Research in 1986, and began work on what he considers one of his proudest professional achievements, the LCD-Thin Film Transistor (TFT) Array Tester. The Array Tester revolutionized the display industry, and made possible the relatively inexpensive, high-resolution displays used in laptops today. The device uses patented technology to solve what was once a tremendous problem in the manufacturing of LCD displays: how to improve the yields of active-matrix LCDs. The Array Tester allows manufacturers to test an array of transistors before it is made into a display. This technique makes it possible to catch and remove defective components early in the manufacturing process, vastly improving product quality and reliability.
Wisnieff and the display technology team at IBM believe that one day, computer screens will be easier to read than paper printouts. Generally, paper documents have a resolution of 300-600 ppi, which is much sharper than the 85-100 ppi screen resolution found on laptops. One particular milestone in the quest for higher resolution was the development of a display that was nicknamed, “Monet,” because it can produce detailed images that are fine enough to show the individual brushstrokes of a Monet painting. Monet is a 10.5-inch, active-matrix LCD display with a resolution of 157 dpi. The results from this research are integrated in the ThinkPad 770.
Though pleased with the success of Monet, Wisnieff and his team worked diligently to take display technology to the next level of resolution --200 ppi. For Wisnieff, developing displays with higher and higher resolutions is not enough: the high-resolution displays he develops must be cost effective enough to gain mainstream use in laptop and desktop systems. The goal of Wisnieff and his team: meeting the challenges of making high-resolution displays the global standard.
The team's current 200 ppi LCD achievement has more than five million total pixels. Each pixel is small enough that letters have laser printer sharpness. The design of this display allows a user to see a full page of information at one time with quality equivalent to a sheet of paper.
Wisnieff is married with three children. In his free time he enjoys woodworking, controlling stepper motors with computers, and building computer-controlled LegoŽ toys.
Papers:
A Six-Mask, TFT/LCD Process Using Copper Gate Metallurgy, October 1996
Copper Gate Process for High Information Content a-Si TFT LCD’s, September 1996
AMLCD Design, August 1994
A High-Resolution, Copper-Gate TFT/LCD Process, June 1994
Numerical Simulation for Large-Area TFT-LCD’s, March 1993
Method and Apparatus for Analog Testing, January 1993
Functional Testing of TFT/LCD Arrays, January 1992
Patents:
5561381 Method for testing a partially constructed electronic circuit
5546013 Array tester for determining contact quality and line integrity in a TFT/LCD
5179345 Method and apparatus for analog testing
4803402 Reflection-enhanced flat panel display
4428764 Method of making fusible spacer for display panel
4385293 Gray shade operation of a large AC plasma display panel
4378556 Gray shade operation of sequentially addressed AC plasma panel
See also: · Press Resource: Roentgen