How thin is too thin? TV and flat panel displays continue to push the boundaries of this dimension.

One of the most compelling features of flat screen displays has always been their inherent “thinness” relative to now nearly obsolete CRT TVs. But thin panels have traditionally posed a number of design quandaries, such as energy consumption, heat dissipation, source electronics, and where to connect the cables.

As is often the case with technologies that have both consumer and commercial application, some of the latest entries in the “thinnest” competition were shown at last January’s Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.

JVC showed a prototype 32-inch LCD panel that measures just .28 inches thick, and weighs only 11 pounds. The panel is just a display; no integral tuner or electronics are on board, so external electronics are required for most signal sources. The technology uses approximately 50 percent less material resources and approximately 10 percent fewer LCD module parts than current comparable JVC displays, while maintaining optical, intensity, and low-heat radiation performance. It’s also more “green”; using an LED as the light source eliminates the need for mercury.

Although details are somewhat lacking, JVC says they’ve developed new optical elements to realize this new LCD technology, overcoming technological restraints on thin displays to deliver an energy-efficient, high-resolution display that exhibits high contrast and luminance uniformity and a wide color palette. The company says it’s too early to announce an availability date or pricing.

Fellow Japanese electronics giant Panasonic is also working on diminishing depth in both LCD and plasma displays (PDPs). The newly developed NeoPDP technology has been incorporated into two types of plasma displays. The first is a super high-efficiency 42-inch plasma that achieves triple luminance efficiency, while reducing the power consumption to 1/3 of previous models, yet achieving the same brightness. The second is an ultra-thin 54-inch plasma display just 1/3 of an inch thick.

Their approach to minimizing girth is similar to JVC’s — remove the source electronics. What’s makes it even more impressive, however, is their use of wireless AV signal transmission. There’s a separate AV box, with a tuner and connections like HDMI and component-video, which wirelessly streams audio, video, and control signals to the panel. The company uses a 60 GHz millimeter wave radio system that sounds similar to the one employed by LG for its wireless displays, and, like LG, claims the ability to transmit full, uncompressed 1080p video.

Since plasma displays are self-illuminating — capable of adjusting luminance levels according to scene brightness — it is inherently advantageous for both picture quality and environmental performance. PDP TVs deliver dynamic contrast, high moving picture resolutions, true-to-life color reproduction, a wide viewing angle, and energy efficiency. Employing newly developed materials such as discharge gas and phosphor for electron-generation source, they’ve been able to improve discharge efficiency and cell structure. The introduction of a new circuit drive method has cut the electricity loss to 1/3 and has enabled low-voltage drive. The triple luminance efficiency technology has reduced the number of components and enabled a higher integration of components.

Further advancements made to the panel structure and circuit layout have led to an even thinner profile. While a full HD PDP has a moving picture resolution of more than 900 lines, the newly developed drive technology and materials have attained the world’s highest moving resolution of 1080 lines, realizing precise reproduction of full HD programs of any speed without loss of detail. The Panasonic Z1 series shown at CES will be available in the summer of 2009 in the new 54-inch TC-P54Z1.

On the LCD front, Panasonic’s newly developed NeoLCD technology is integrated into a super energy-efficient 90 kW per year 37-inch LCD panel. According to the company, it has the lowest energy consumption of any LCD HDTV in the world, cutting the energy requirement almost in half compared to the previous model.

The Panasonic LCD uses technology developed by IPS Alpha Technology, a joint venture owned by Hitachi, Toshiba Matsushita (Panasonic), and wholly owned Hitachi subsidiary Hitachi Displays. It uses Hitachi Displays’ IPS (in-plane switching) mode system technology. IPS mode is distinguished by a wide 170-degree viewing angle, both horizontally and vertically, along with minimal grayscale inversion and viewing-angle dependency, reproducing lifelike images, which is made possible because the liquid crystal molecules can rotate while remaining parallel to the substrate when a voltage is applied, yielding perfect orientation of the crystals.