A report on AppleInsider today sheds a little more light on the manufacture of the new iPad’s Retina display. According to a post on the NPD Group’s DisplaySearch blog, the display was particularly difficult for its suppliers, namely Samsung, Sharp and LG, to manufacture. This is because they were all using a production process called “a-Si TFTâ€, which, the report says, was tested to its very limits by the requirements of the iPad’s Retina display. Apparently, the iPad’s 264-pixels-per-inch really stretched the upper limits of the a-Si TFT technology’s possible pixel density. The report goes on to say that Sharp had initially wanted Apple to use its IZGO display technology, but apparently the screens didn’t make it past Apple’s stringent testing process. The fact that the display has double the pixel density of the iPad 2 also means that the display manufacturers have had to double the number of backlighting LEDs, with NPD Group saying that the new displays have at least 72 LEDs, which place quite a drain on the iPad's power supply. In another blog post also referred to by AppleInsider, NPD Group said that the new iPad’s Retina display has Super High Aperture pixel designs, which enable Apple to have more pixels than previously in the same-sized screen without affecting the quality of the image.
Source: iPad Retina Display features Super High Aperture pixels, double the LEDs