The most common of the 5 problems is obsolete displays. This is where our customers are still producing their end product, but the display supplier has discontinued the display without providing a suitable replacement.
We will cover: Why this happens and What you can do about it.
Why does this happen?
2 reasons:
- 1) The overall volumes for this part reached a low threshold and the supplier no longer wants to support it.
- 2) A component within the LCD display has gone obsolete.
What can you do?
Because we create custom displays, and custom means creating something new for us even if it is matching something that already exists, we have the “superpower” of being able to un-obsolete displays.
- 1) If volumes are too low to support a custom display, we would still typically recommend changing the end product to accommodate an available standard display. Too low can be below 5K per year for a smaller display, or for larger more completed displays volumes could be as low as 1K/yr.
- 2) Solving an obsolescent component is a little more complicated. Within a display we have complete control of all components, with the exception of:
the color TFT LCD glass (monochrome glass is not an issue) and the LCD driver IC.
Our process is then to find the closest standard TFT panel (if obsolete) and/or closest standard driver (if obsolete).
We do an obsolesce analysis on these replacement components prior to starting the design work to ensure we have the longest lifetime possible with this new configuration.
We then use our Crossmatch program to re-design the display around these non-obsolete components.
Our focus is to eliminate any differences between the obsolete display and our new replacement so that it goes unnoticed by the end customer, as well as, not impacting the design and manufacturing of the end product.
Not only is this process for new customers, but it’s standard operating procedure for our current clients. We do not obsolete configurations due to low volumes and if any component goes obsolete within our display, we automatically go through the redesign process at no cost to our clients. Therefore, we come to our clients with both the obsolescence notification and the solution to keep them up and running.
Feel free to reach out for more information,
Thanks for listening.
