Big, bigger

Sharp of Japan has created the world's largest thin-film transistor liquid crystal display by joining two 52.5 cm-display panels -- the largest available -- into one 70 cm-panel. The joining line of the panels virtually disappears on the screen thanks to a precision glass-cutting technique that preserves the standard pixel pitch (number of dots that create an image) of 880 micrometres across the joint and a polymer seal which has the transparency and low refraction of glass. The panel could be used in information boards, pre sentation displays and wall-mounted TVs ( Popular Science , July '96).