SID Industry News

Louis D. Silverstein, Pioneer in Human Factors of Displays, dies at 61

Thu, 03 May 2012 16:55:00 GMT

Dr. Louis D. Silverstein, a Fellow of the Society for Information Display, has died at age 61. Silverstein was a highly influential proponent of the application of fundamental vision science, and especially color science, to the design and evaluation of electronic displays. Silverstein published over 130 journal articles, book chapters, technical papers, and technical reports and was awarded over 30 patents on advanced display technology. Silverstein was the recipient of numerous scientific and technical awards including the Alexander C. Williams Jr. Award from the Human Factors Society in 1983, the Honeywell Corporate Technical Achievement Award in 1989, a Fellow Award from the SID in 1997, a Special Recognition Award from the SID in 2004, the MacBeth Award from the Inter-Society Color Council in 2004, and the Otto Schade Prize in 2008, one of the SID’s highest honors.

More details about Silverstein will be published in the Information Display Magazine.

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Kyocera Acquires Optrex

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:21:00 GMT

Tokyo, Japan; April 2, 2012. Kyocera Corporation has acquired LCD manufacturer Optrex Corporation to form Kyocera Display Corporation.

Kyocera offers a wide range of active-matrix TFT LCD panels in sizes from 3.5 to 12.1 inches diagonal and resolutions from QVGA to SVGA. Optrex, founded in 1976, has been focused on small and medium size LCDs in the automotive and industrial market sectors, offering a range of active matrix TFT and monochrome graphic and character LCDs.

The company's acquisition of Optrex America in Plymouth, MI, USA (now Kyocera Display America, Inc.), as well its acquisition of Optrex Europe in Babenhausen, Germany (now Kyocera Display Europe GmbH), will enable Kyocera to expand its presence in the automotive and industrial LCD markets in the Americas and Europe. The acquisition of Optrex will also enable Kyocera to complement its range of resistive- and capacitive-type touch-screen panels with Optrex's touch-screen bonding capabilities.

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LCD Panel Market Shows Resilience after Japanese Earthquake

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:19:00 GMT

El Segundo, CA; March 21, 2012. According to IHS iSuppli Display Materials & Systems at information and analytics provider IHS, although some facilities operated by liquid-crystal display (LCD) panel and component suppliers were impacted by the Japanese earthquake of 2011, it's apparent one year later that the overall effect of the catastrophe on the market was minor, due to the country's limited presence in the display business as well as a serendipitous overhang of inventory.

"A decline in a major country's market share and a buildup in excess inventory normally are regarded as unfavorable developments for a technology market," said Sweta Dash, director of LCD research at IHS. "However, in the LCD market of 2011, Japan's limited presence in the global supply chaincombined with excess stockpiles in the channelhelped soften the blow of the manufacturing disruptions caused by the disaster."

Only 5 percent of large-sized LCD panel manufacturing capacity and just 18 percent of small- and medium-sized LCD manufacturing capacity werelocated in Japan in the third quarter. In comparison, Taiwan accounted for 40 percent of large-size capacity and 55 percent of small and medium. Because of this, disruptions to Japan's manufacturing and shipments had only a minor impact on the global LCD market.

Panasonic, Hitachi and NEC were the only three panel suppliers whose fabs were impacted because of their proximity to the earthquake's epicenter, while Sharp's eighth- and 10th-generation fabs were not impacted at all. Meanwhile, although LCD component supply was affected, panel vendors already had four to eight weeks of inventory in stock, which helped to ride out shortages in supply. Before the quake there already had been an inventory buildup of panels and television sets in the channel, which also reduced any potential negative consequence due to supply disruptions.

For facilities that suffered minor impairment from the quake, production resumed by the end of March and April; other facilities that suffered more substantial damage resumed production by the May or June time frame. Some facilities also were impacted by power shortages or rolling blackouts due to the shortages, but by summer Japan had fewer rolling blackouts or power cuts.

Another factor that limited the impact of the earthquake was that Japan accounts for less than 10 percent of the world's LCD TV production. Among those companies with TV production facilities in JapanPanasonic, Sony, Sharp and Toshibaonly Panasonic sources the majority of its LCD TV products from Japan. Sony, for its part, produces only a very small percentage of its TVs in the country. Even before the disaster, most Japanese-branded manufacturers already had established production facilities outside the country in places like China, Malaysia, Brazil, Poland and Mexico, serving those regional markets or operating as outsourced original design manufacturers (ODMs). For these reasons, the earthquake disaster in Japan had only a very minor impact on TV production restricted to some power outages, with the majority of Japanese TV assembly plants remaining unaffected by the disaster. Many Japanese TV manufacturers also have decided to increase their outsourcing of TV production to ODMs since then.

On the LCD component side, the biggest concern related to worries about supplies of anisotropic conductive film (ACF) and indium tin oxide (ITO) materialsareas that Japanese suppliers dominate. Hitachi and Sony Chemical, for instance, control 80 percent of ACF material supply. Fortunately, those suppliers were able to restart production by March.In the case of ITO materials, JX Nippon, Mitsui and Tosoh together accounted for 80 percent of that market. JX Nippon's facilities were impacted by the earthquake, but some production had resumed by April and full production was restored by June. Among suppliers with four to eight weeks of component inventories, very little impact was felt. And for many components, other suppliers also increased their production, helping to reduce the deleterious effect of the disaster.

Other component shortagessuch as in bismaleimide-triazine-resin (BT resin), hard drives and batteriesalso upset panel demand by impacting the production of notebooks, tablets or other consumer electronic products. For BT resin, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co. Inc. held a 50 percent share, while Hitachi Chemical had a 40 percent share of supply. By April one month after the tragedy, Mitsubishi Gas had recovered 25 percent. For its part, Hitachi Chemical resumed production on March 17, 2011, but power outage issues continued for some time, and a full recovery didn't come until the second half of 2011. Meanwhile, other companies in Taiwan, South Korea and China geared up to develop BT resin materials in order to reduce the impact of the shortage.

For more information on this report, contact IHS.

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Solar-Tectic Develops Method for Manufacturing Single-Crystal Thin Films

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 23:58:00 GMT

New York, NY; February 13, 2012. Solar-Tectic LLC reports that it has been granted a world-wide exclusive license for a method of manufacturing single-crystal thin films on ordinary glass over a large area for photovoltaic and display applications.

The method stems from a Dartmouth College-sponsored research agreement with Solar-Tectic, initially inspired by a related technology disclosed by the late Dr. Praveen Chaudhari, renowned materials scientist and winner of the National Medal of Technology.

Dartmouth researchers at the Thayer School of Engineering invented this technology, which allows for single-crystal thin-films (composed of Si, Ge, GaAs, CdTe, CIGS, etc) to be monolithically fabricated on large-area amorphous substrates such as ordinary glass, at a cost that, according to Solar-Tectic, should be orders of magnitude lower than the price of manufacturing crystalline silicon solar cells (or c-Si).

The new technology is monolithic since it does not glue the single crystal layer to the substrate via bonding techniques. Compared to existing thin-film solar cell materials, this invention can increase efficiency by ~2x due to a significant improvement in material quality.

Solar-Tectic is currently seeking to sub-license this technology and an evaluation license is also being offered. A patent application for this invention has been filed by Dartmouth College with the United States Patent Office.

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AMOLED TV Market Slowed by High Prices, Manufacturing Challenges

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 23:48:00 GMT

High prices and manufacturing challenges to limit supply?

2011 Holiday Display Sales Highlights

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 23:47:00 GMT

Sales up 4.1 %

SID-Wiley announce new 3D display technology book!

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:44:00 GMT

Covers key issues for engineering 3D FPD.

SID Debuts Innovation Zone for Cutting-Edge Display Technologies

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:38:00 GMT

At Display Week 2012, the Society for Information Display is providing a new forum for live demonstrations of emerging information display technologies and related areas. This new exhibit platform is called the “Innovation Zone” (I-Zone) and will appear in the main Exhibit Hall, under the sponsorship of E Ink Holdings, on June 5-6 in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

"Display Week has always been the best place for companies to exhibit their display products," says Jerzy Kanicki, Chairman of SID's I-Zone Committee. "The missing piece has been a platform concentrated in one area for small companies, labs, institutes, and other research entities with limited funding to exhibit the very newest display technology." The I-Zone will allow researchers to demonstrate their prototypes or other hardware demo units for two days free of charge at the premier display exhibition in North America. This new platform will also enable attendees to view best-in-class emerging information display technologies in a dedicated area on the show floor. Access to free exhibition space encourages participation by small companies, startups, universities, government labs, and independent research labs. The I-Zone will make Display Week an even more exciting and relevant show, says Kanicki, noting: "Some of this year's exhibits will showcase cutting-edge demos and prototypes that will power the products of tomorrow."

Proposals to demonstrate new displays, input technologies, and innovations in related fields such as solid-state lighting, flexible organic electronics, and bio-inspired electronics are currently being solicited by the I-Zone selection committee. Technologies should be in the pre-product stage, and demos that are being shown for the first time in a public forum are particularly encouraged.

The I-Zone selection committee will evaluate submissions and select the strongest proposals to receive free space within the I-Zone. Submissions are due by Monday, April 2, 2012, and anyone interested should visit http://www.sid.org/AboutSID/Awards.aspx for more details. To submit a proposal please visit http://www.cloznet.com/pcm/sidi3d/sidi3d.cfm

As an added incentive, at Display Week 2012, the I-Zone Committee will select and announce a winner of the "Best Prototype at Display Week." The winning technology will also be featured in Information Display magazine.

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DuPont Licenses OLED Technology to Major Asian TV Manufacturer

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:00:00 GMT

In November, Dupont said that it had signed a licensing agreement for its proprietary solution-based printing technology to be used by a leading Asian manufacturer to make large AMOLED televisions. At press time, DuPont was at the manufacturer's request -- not at liberty to reveal the name of the manufacturer. Since Asian TV makers with a vested interest in OLEDs can be counted on the fingers of one hand, the pool of possible partners is small indeed, with online speculation leaning in the direction of Samsung or LG. Nothing is certain until the partnership is made public, which, according to Bill Feehery, Global Business Director for Dupont, will definitely happen on an as-yet undisclosed date.

DuPont's technology is of particular interest because it allows the OLED materials to be spray-printed on a backplane using a superfast multinozzle technique. The printer, developed by DuPoint in conjunction with Dai Nippon Screen, uses a continuous spray of ink rather than droplets, and coats the substrate at rates of four to five meters per second. According to DuPont, a Gen 4 OLED display can be printed in about 2 minutes.

The company has been working on this technique for several years. "We've had many iterations," says Feehery. "It wasn't easy." The key challenges were improving the performance of the material, including its color and efficiency, and being able to print at a high yield without mura. The key to scaling up to Gen 4 was using multiple nozzles, notes Feehery.

This announcement would seem to indicate that OLED TVs are inching closer to commercial reality, although "We're only a piece of the OLED puzzle," Feehery is quick to point out. Other developers have had to solve issues such as reliable encapsulation and the ability to make backplanes at a larger size. And this has been happening. Feehery notes that even if DuPont had had the process ready five years ago, there wouldn't have been a market for it because the other pieces of the OLED equation weren't ready. Are they ready now? We'll have to wait just a bit longer to find out.

For more background on this technology, see the article from DuPont Displays, Clearing the Road to Mass Production of OLED Television, in the October 2011 issue of Information Display.

--Jenny Donelan

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Kyocera to Acquire 100% Ownership of OPTREX Corp.

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:58:00 GMT

Kyocera Corporation has announced that it has completed a share transfer agreement with three investment funds operated by Japan Industrial Partners, Inc. to acquire all shares of Optrex Corporation a specialized manufacturer of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and related products in order to further strengthen and expand its LCD and touchscreen panel businesses. Effective February 1, 2012, Optrex will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyocera Corporation.

Kyocera's corporate Thin Film Components Group develops, manufactures, and markets small- and medium-sized LCDs for industrial applications worldwide. Since 2010, Kyocera has been expanding its capacitive touchscreen panel business with an emphasis on features such as thinness, strength, and waterproof functionality for use in smartphones.

Optrex manufactures LCDs for automotive applications and has a strong customer base both inside and outside of Japan. Kyocera expects that the acquisition will allow the company to further enhance the product lines of both its conventional industrial equipment applications and newly acquired automotive applications, and thus contribute to business expansion.

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