Requirements for a Marine Application Display

If your design requires a display that needs to endure tough environments such as the outdoors, chances are, you have limited options without going custom.

The major factors that lead to premature degradation include; sunlight, UV exposure, moisture, and temperature.

Other factors to consider are:

• - A typical TFT LCD has a temperature range of around -20 to 70 C°
• - The contrast ratio for a standard TFT LCD is also around 500:1
• - In an outdoor environment, bright sunlight and reflections make it difficult for displays to be efficient with standard contrast ratios and brightness
• - The brightness of a standard display can range anywhere between 200 to 700 nits. The recently released iPhone 7 has a brightness of up to 635 nits and iPhone 6s Plus at 582 nits
• - The standard LCD does not work with water or even salt water environments
• - Standard displays lack Anti-Glare (AG) or Anti-Reflective (AR) coatings
• - Wide operating temperature (ranging -30C to +85C)

The following features make a marine-grade display stand apart:

• - A special coating is applied to combat salty environments  
• - The brightness is at or above 1000 nits which are crucial for outdoor visibility
• - Contrast ratio is at 1000:1 or more
• - The lamination applied is higher quality
• - Optical bonding material is of a higher quality and is designed to withstand high temperatures and humidity
• - The modular design is to hold up against rigid environments
• - Anti-glare (AG)/non-reflective coating is used to increase visibility
• - Increased viewing angles

The marine environment, as many of you might know, can wreak havoc on electronics.

Displays are no different.

During the development of this marine 12.3" TFT LCD, designing a product to withstand such temperature range, humidity, and possibly the most crucial, UV protection, proved to be the most challenging. The sun yellowed the material of bonding/coatings during lengthy tests. 

During the testing process, we perfected the AG coating. By etching the AG coating into the cover glass, UV exposure, humidity, and other environmental conditions will not affect it, allowing for increased durability.

In the meantime, we can also apply AR coating material on the display.

US Micro Products has designed a 12.3" TFT LCD for the marine and automotive industries. The goal was to enable an engineer to plug in this display to different applications without having to pay a tooling cost and waste time working out the kinks, and also enjoy the benefits of an industry tailored display.

See the product table below for more information on our Marine Application Displays

If you are interested in getting more information about our marine displays, give us a call at (800)-741-7755 or email us at sales@usmicroproducts.com and we will be happy to answer all your questions!