When an entire system can be built on

the periphery of a flat-panel display,

a nation’s ability to manufacture those displays
becomes vital to the survival of i t s industries

U S DISPWY INDUSTRY
ON THE EDGE
L
ater this month, display engineers and Now, product planners look at electronic sys-
executives from around the world will tems and see that, with the exception of the dis-
congregate in Orlando, Fla., for the play, every component used today can either be
Society for Information Display’s Inter- miniaturized or replaced by one that can be. Even
national Symposium, Seminar, and Exhibition keyboards can be replaced in many applications by
(SID ‘95).Inevitably, they will agree that flat-pan- voice input, by electronic pens, or by “soft“key-
el displays are a commercially, militarily, and eco- boards presented on a touch-sensitive display.
nomically strategic technology. Inevitably, too, Meanwhile, polycrystalline silicon is starting to
many of them will discuss the latest figures on replace amorphous silicon in the thin-film transis-
where the displays are made, how market share is tors that are basic to active-matrix LCDs. Once
allocated among the diverse technologies, and they have polysilicon to play with, designers can
above all, who is getting to spend the big bucks fabricate other circuitry-the drive, support, and
required for setting up manufacturing facilities for even some system electronics--on the display’s
high-information-contentflat-panel displays. glass panel at the same time as they fabricate the
The general picture painted by these figures is active matrix’s thin-film transistors [see ‘The shape
familiar to the cognoscenti and of deep concern to of things to come,” p. 651.
members of the electronics industry in Japan, Once system electronics can be integrated with
Korea, Taiwan, the United States, and Europe- the display, the display effectively becomes the
although for different reasons. In Japan, which is chassis and, moreover, the completed product.
investing heavily in flat-panel displays and domi- Consequently, anyone whose business currently
nates the worlds high-information-content dis- involves importing a display and adding value to
play market [see pie charts, opposite], industry it-for instance, personal computer manufactur-
leaders are confronting the inevitable erosion of ers-will no longer have a business, as there will be
their market share. Korean companies are invest- little value to add other than their brand name. In
ing the equivalent of hundreds of millions of U.S. this context, the large investments some nations
dollars to seize a chunk of the market. Computer are making in flat-panel display manufacturing
companies in Taiwan-badly bumed in the first facilities (a high-volume manufacturing line costs
half of 1992, when Japanese suppliers rationed in the US $300 million range, and entire plants
their allocation of liquid-crystal displays (LCD) well over half a billion dollars) are not surprising.
modules and prevented them from filling many
orders for laptop computers-are bent on achiev- The other technologies
ing at least a degree of self-sufficiency in LCDs. At the moment “flat-panel display” is almost
For a time, US. and European companies seem- synonymous with ”liquid-crystal display.” LCDs
ed not about to compete for the high-volume part will account for 87 percent of all (not just
of the flat-panel display business. The lead of high-information-content)flat-panel display sales
Asian companies looked too great, and the invest- in 1995,according to Stanford Resources Inc., San
ment needed for new manufacturing facilities is Jose, Calif. [see the pie chart, p. 641. But there are
enormous. But perceptions change, and the cur- certainly other technologies.
rent view is that if a region does not manufacture Electroluminescent displays, though a small
flat-panel displays, it will soon not manufacture a percentage of the total, have a solid and loyal fol-

I KENWERNER
Contributing Editor I great many computer, communications, and con-
sumer-electronic products as well.
lowing. The world market for high-information-
content electroluminescent displays is divided

62 0 0 1 8 - 9 2 3 5 / 9 5 / $ 4 0 0 0 1 9 9 5 IEEE IEEE SPECTRUM hlAY 1995

I
about 55:45between Planar Systems Inc., Beaver-
ton, Ore., and Sharp Inc., Osaka, Japan, according
to Joel Pollack, product marketing engineer at
Sharp Microelectronics Inc., in Camas, Wash.
Planar Systems has developed an innovative full-
color electroluminescent display for commercial
use and is positioning itself for a broader range of
applications. Sharp is at work in the laboratory on
an entirely different approach to color, but
emphasizes the electroluminescent approach for
demanding monochrome uses, Pollack noted.
Plasma display panels, though they have more
than twice the sales of the electroluminescent type,
also have a small market. Still, they are the one
direct-view technology that can produce large, flat,
full-color displays and therefore almost certainly
have a central role to play in large-screen high-def-
inition television receivers. They are being worked
on in Asia, the United States, and Europe, with
Japan's Fujitsu Ltd. supplying the first commercially
available full-color plasma display panel.
Field-emitter-display technology is still in a de-
velopmental stage, but some analysts think it is the
only existing flat-panel technology that could com-
pete head to head with LCDs. There is active
development in France, the United States, and Asia.

A national concern
In the United States, government as well as
industry has good reasons to want an indigenous
advanced display manufacturing industry. The
Department of Defense (DOD), in particular, dis-
likes the idea of designing strategic systems
around imported flat-panel displays. This concem
is magnified by a business strategy shared by the
major Asian suppliers of advanced displays, which
is to produce standard items in high volumes and
not bother with relatively small quantities of cus-
tom products.
The problem is, the existing U.S. flat-panel
industry is minuscule-+ertainly too small to sup-
port the manufacturing equipment and material
suppliers that make up the infrastructure an
indigenous industry needs. But without the avail-
ability of such suppliers, each company would
have to custom-design its own equipment, which
small companies cannot afford to do. It's a classic
chicken-and-egg dilemma.
The solution, as developed over the last few
years, has industry-government consortia collabo-
rating on both basic technology and a manufac-
turing infrastructure. The consortia will support
and develop common manufacturing materials,
processes, and equipment that can be utilized by
most flat-panel display manufacturers. Because
equipment makers will be able to sell these rela- A In 1994, Japan's investment in new flat-panel technology research and
tively standardized production tools to many development dwarfed that of the United States and Europe; the only siz-
manufacturers, they will have enough volume to able effort that could be quantified was being launched by South Korea
(figures for Taiwan are not available). Japan-with 95 percent of 1994's $6.3
keep prices affordable. billion world market for 10-inch-class (9.5-10.5 inches) flat-panels-was
In general, the consortia are careful to be tech- the only nation whose private industries could make such an investment
nology-neutral, and not try to outguess the market unaided by government.

WERNER -US DISPLAY INDUSTRY 63

I
 I

and pick winners in advance. (Fortunately, tended and equipment manufacturers panel programs on the chopping block are
many generic manufacturing procedures, complained that there were no associated already building a commercial base that is
such as thin-film sputtering, photolithog- exhibits. DMTC '95, held Jan. 3 1-Feb. 2, generating tax revenues. Consequently, at
raphy, and handling large glass substrates, 1995, in Santa Clara, Calif., attracted 875 least some people in DOD, the display
are common to all or many flat-panel people and 52 exhibitors. Next February, community, and the Clinton administra-
technologies.) Seed money is coming it will be incorporated into Display Works tion are shaking their heads in wonder.
from the industry itself, DOD and its '96, a larger event jointly sponsored by At DMTC '95, Kent H . Hughes, asso-
Advanced Research Projects Agency SEMI, the Society for Information Dis- ciate deputy secretary of the Commerce
(ARPA), and the Commerce Department's play, and the United States Display Con- Department and past president of the Pre-
Advanced Technology Program. sortium. Display Works will include a sident's Council on Competitiveness, said:
T h e industry-government collabora- technical conference, business-develop- ' T h e new legislators need education.
tions have energized the few U.S. produc- ment seminars, and an exhibition planned Some are skeptical of technology policy.
ers of flat-panel displays, stimulated plans t o include Asian as well as North Amer- They think it is similar to an industrial
for new manufacturing efforts, and encour- ican and European equipment makers. policy, which they think is one step away
aged makers of semiconductor manufactur- from a Soviet five-year plan. We think,
ing equipment to invest in modiking their Value subtracted though, we have an effective story to tell."

N
products extensively for the efficient pro- ot everything is coming up roses, DOD's appeals so far have fallen on
duction of flat-panel displays. Semicon- however, as far as the flat-panel deaf ears, and the agency's representatives
ductor Equipment and Materials Inter- display crowd in the United States state publicly that they must not be ex-
national (SEMI), the trade association of is concerned. The new leadership in the plaining things clearly enough. Spokes-
semiconductor manufacturing-equipment US. House of Representatives is targeting man Glenn Flood said: "We're still fight-
and materials makers, started its North government-industry cooperative pro- ing for...dual-use programs. We need to
American Flat Panel Division in 1993. The grams as part of its cost-cutting measures. find ways of educating people about the
division now has 103 members. These programs include some that were dual-use concept and its importance to
Another indicator is provided by the carefully crafted to enhance the D O D s DOD and the country."
33-year-old Society for Information Dis- ability to procure commercial technology Aris Silzars, director of the Display Re-
play, which in January 1994 held its first for military applications. DOD is con- search Laboratory at the David Samoff
Display Manufacturing Technology Con- vinced this dual-use approach will allow it Research Center, in Princeton, N.J., is pri-
ference (DMTC). The organizers were to procure systems far more efficiently and vately circulating the draft of a position
pleasantly surprised when 500 people at- quickly than it has in the past. Other flat- paper among senior people in the display
community prior to wider distribution.
Portions of the white paper obtained by
World market in 1995 for flat-panel displays, IEEE Spectrum [see "Excerpts on display," p.
in millions of U.S. dollars 671 indicate just how important some
people in the flat-panel display world
believe these programs t o be.
Meanwhile, DOD's Technology Re-
investment Program, which is dedicated
to realizing the benefits of dual-use tech-
nology for military systems development,
may be the first casualty of Congressional
cost-cutters. Funding for the program has
been cut from the current House and
Senate versions of the appropriations bill.

Cast of players
Against this turbulent background, letS
look at the leading consortia and support
organizations. W h o are the players, what
are their roles, and how can companies
gain access to some of the money and
support services that are now available?
Founded in 1993 by ARPA and indus-
try, the United States Display Consor-
tium quickly emerged as a critical force in
the renaissance of flat-panel display man-
ufacturing in the United States. "The
[consortium's] mission-developing a
U.S.-based infrastructure of equipment
and materials suppliers-is the bridge that
will allow the domestic [flat-panel dis-
play] industry to make the transition from
strong RaD to robust manufacturing," M.
Robert Pinnel, the consortium's chief
A In 1995,87 percent of all flat-panel displays will stilluse liquid-crystaltechnologies. But tech- technical officer, told Spectrum.
nologies just coming on line, such as field-emitter and color plasma, can challenge them, thereby Funds for the consortium come partly
opening a window of opportunity for those who can afford the game's sizable ante. from DOD through ARPA and partly

64 IEEE SPECTRUM MAY 1995

I
 from the industry itself. The first-year goal, proposal that is distributed to the supplier three-level review process IS intended to
c that industry would fund 29 percent of community through SEMl's North Am- ensure that proposals are selected only on
the program, was exceeded-industry ac- erican Flat Panel Division. their business and technical merits.
tually contributed over 50 percent. The suggestion that this arrangement Recent proposals include one for devel-
The consortium's projects are defined compromises the openness of the process oping equipment and processes for pho-
by a technical council [see block diag", is dismissed by Bill Reed, SEMl's presi- tolithographic patteming of a large area-
p. 661 made up of representatives from dent. "SEMI had already established an currently 500 by 500 m m - o f display glass
member companies, which include ATkT, efficient structure with the [Flat-Panel when the electrical and physical features
Motif, Planar Systems, Silicon Video, and Division], which is as open a group as you do not require the very high resolution of
Xerox PARC. Also included are represen- could imagine. Any North American- stepper lithography. Another is intended
tatives of the United States Display Con- based supplier of flat-panel display equip- to establish a competitive U.S. supply base
sortium's commercial user group (Apple, ment or materials can join, including the for light-polarization and -retardation
ATaT, Chrysler, Compaq, Delco Elec- North American divisions of Asian and films, a critical and costly component in
tronics, IBM, InFocus, and Sun Microsys- European companies. In fact, our goal is liquid-crystal displays.
tems), the military and avionics user group that 100 percent of these companies will So far, the United States Display Con-
(which includes Litton Systems Canada, join [the division]." sortium has authorized 13 projects worth
Rockwell, and SAIC), the supplier com- After suppliers submit their proposals, $51 million-a sum that includes both the
munity, and the U S. govemment. the project team selects those they judge ARPA and the consortium's awards and
For each project, a team of experts from best and presents its recommendations to the industry's cost share.
the manufacturing members prepares de- the technical council for approval. Upon The consortium has close ties with
tailed specifications for the next-genera- doing so, the council sends the recom- SEMI and the National Center for Advanc-
tion system or process. These specifica- mendations to the Governing Board for its ed Information Components Manufac-
tions are put in the form of a request for approval and granting of awards. This turing at Sandia National Laboratories. In

D&pplay's last International Display Research Conference, Seifert

predictedthat the h m and Mice telephone of the future will
hint of the future is apparent in one of today's com- be an inexpensive multimedia terminal plugged into an

A mercial products: DisplayPac, from Computer Dy-

namics Inc., Greer, S.C. A complete computer, it is
only slightly larger than its largest functional component-a
advanced broadband network. ATBT's current concept of such
a terminal is an abive-matrix LCD with chips around the dis-
play's periphery. These chips would not be limitedt o the display
color liquid-crystal display (LCD) with a 10.4-inch diagonal. drivers, but would also include a e l a s s processor, support
The entire 4860x4 is 64 mm thick, and is intended for ma- chips, memory, disk controller, and local network interface. The
chine control and similar embedded applications. LCD would be the chassis for the terminal, and most of the ter-
As the photograph shows, the Computer Dynamics product minal's cost and size would be in the display.
is built on a conventional chassis, which is dominated by the "The display is the product," Seifert said last October in
LCD. It is now technically possible t o mount many of the Monterey, Calif.
required ICs directly on the LCD's glass substrate with tape Polysilicon is being used now t o fabricate small (2.5-5tm)
automated bonding or chip-on-glasstechnology. Chip-on-glass active-matrix LCDs for the next generation of LCD projection
is particularly attractive because it permits dense packaging. displays. It will be some time before the process can be KO-
Reality does rear its ugly head here. Many of the required chips nomically scaled up t o 10-inch (%lOS-inch)-class displays. B u t
are not available.in a form compatible with chipon-glass, and papers that describe how integrated display drivers can be
building a chip-on-glass computer would not be economically made with amorphous silicon will be presented at the Society
viable today. When it is viable, the LCD's glass substrate would for Information Display's International Symposium, Seminar,
be the primary chassis for the display, and the conductors con- and Exhibition (SID '95) in Orlando later this month.
necting the chips would be part of the display substrate. -K. 1. W.

BERNER - U S DISPLAY INDUSTRY 65

 1

I
~ Governing board of the
i United States Display Consortium

I 1 -- 1 I.
I

-- I
r--- I
r--- I r- I
Commercial
'
1
I
1
Material 1 1 Flat-pane' '
' Advanced
Research
!1 '
Military and
display
users
I ' suppliers
1 i display
manufacturers
Projects Agency
(ARPA)
avionics
users

_- I

I Chief executive officer,

1 Chief technical officer, a n d staff

I -1
General
members i Technical
Council
I I L I

I
Project t e a m 1 0 0 I
Project team n
I

A The United States Display Consortium makes sure that the selection of projects IS unbiased by using a multitiered review path [shown in redl
-_I -. I"

addition, it works with the other display and Manufacturing at the University ot search facilities at several universities
organizations of importance. T h e five Michigan was first funded in July 1993. across the United States. It solicits the
described h p e are the Society for Infor- T h e center focuses on research and devel- membership of for-profit companies and
mation Display, the Center for Display opment in manufacturing processes and performs applied research, as well as sup-
Technology and Manufacturing, the Phos- materials, which the group's administra- porting general research, on phosphors.
phor Technology Center of Excellence, the tors believe are the keys to producing According to Aron Vecht of the
National Center for Advanced Information low-cost, high-quality displays. University of Greenwich in England, dis-
Components Manufacturing, and the Am- Any for-profit company manufacturing play-phosphor research languished in the
erican Display Consortium. displays, display components, or display 1970s and '80s. Now, the research is
The Society for Information Display materials in the United States may become catching up with other display advances,
(SID) is devoted to advancing display tech- a member of the center for an annual fee and the center is a worthy contributor.
nology, manufacturing, and applications. that, depending on the company's gross As an example, the current interest in
Founded in the United States in 1962,the sales and location, ranges from $5000 to field-emitter displays has generated a need
international nonprofit organization has 18 $50 OOO. (Michigan companies pay half the for low-voltage phosphors with improved
chapters in Europe, North America, and fee of out-of-state companies.) US. univer- performance. A paper presented at the
Asia. Its intemational technical conferences sities, research centers, and other not-for- Display Manufacturing Technology Con-
and exhibits are events at which issues hav- profit organizations active in the field of ference '95 and written jointly by the
ing to do with business, as well as technol- high-definition or flat-panel-display tech- Georgia Tech phosphor center and by
ogy, have long been discussed. nology are eligible for associate member- personnel from SI Diamond Technology
Its largest conference of the year, the ships at an annual fee of $5000.Members Inc., Austin, Texas, discussed the develop-
lntemational Symposium, Seminar, and include Delco Electronics, IBM, and Philips ment of low-voltage phosphors with long-
Exhibition (SID '99,will be held May Display Components, as well as the er lifetimes and lower voltage thresholds.
2 1-26 in Orlando, Fla. Display Works '96, Georgia Institute of Technology and Kent These phosphors can be nm at higher cur-
which it sponsors together with the Un- State University. rent densities, resulting in displays with
ited States Display Consortium and SEMI, With initial support from ARPA, the higher luminance and efficiency.
will be held next year, during Feb. 6-8, in Phosphor Technology Center of Excel- The National Center for Advanced In-
San Jose, Calif. lence set up its headquarters at Georgia formation Components Manufacturing
The Center for Display Technology Tech in August 1993,but it utilizes re- (NCAICM, pronounced en-cake-um) was

66 IEt E SPECTRUM ,MAY 1995

 On quantifying the payback of government investment:
"Programs such as ARPA's are not charities. They are the best
The following passages have been taken f" a privately cir- return on investment the US. Government can hope to
culated report witten &yAriS K. Silirarz director of the Display achieve. It takes between $2 million and $5 million govern-
Researd, Laboratory at the David Semoff Research Center, ment dollars to demonstrate a technology concept. Once
Princeton, NJ. demonstrated, that concept attracts $10 million to $20 million
* of private investment. In 5 to 10 years, t h e company grows to
On t h e benefits of f o c d investments: $100 million while additional private dollars are added to fund
"Recently, there has been considerable discussion in growth. All through this growth process the company has
Congress about replacing focused technology investments been adding employees and, at the $100-million level, is typi-
with across-the-board investment t a x credits. Across-the- cally a 1000-employee company. with the government earning
board credits may be useful but their benefits are hard to back over $30 million annually in corporate, personal, and
assess. On t h e other hand, we can already quantify the posi- social security taxes. This is a return on investment that any
tive effect that t h e ARPA programs have had on leveraging business would be proud to show. Even if only one business in
modest investments. Private capital is available, but investors five succeeds, it's still a great deal. The companies that grow
must be convinced that they are investing in something that large contribute substantially, but even those companies that
is likely to become a business success. They are reluctant to put stay small have attracted private investments, are employing
money into something t h a t has not even been demonstrated people, and are creating a tax-paying base of skilled workers."
in a laboratory. As with ail of us, it's a 'show me something
exciting' mentality. When ARPA provides its modest funding, On t h e effects of this investment:
in the few-million-dollar range, so a new technology can be "The U.S. can only succeed in being a leader in the
demonstrated, this investment can result in private and insti- Information Age if it can assure access to t h e best display tech-
tutional investors putting up the $10 million to $20 million (or nologies. Thus, the government's investment plays a surp:is-
more) needed to create a successful company. Real-world ingly vital and multiplicative role. If we don't have the best
examples indude Planar Systems, Inc. [Beaverton, Ore.]; Kopin displays, we lose this access, we lose our competitiveness in
Corp. [Taunton, Mass.]; SI Diamond Technology, Inc. [Austin, products using these displays-products such as computers,
Texas]; and OIS Optical Imaging Systems, Inc. [Troy, Mich.1- telecommunications, and semiconductors. The $100 million
and there are many others. Once this private investment has [per] year investment the government is currently providing
been triggered, and t h e company becomes a viable business, begins to look like pocket change compared to the tax rev-
t h e government's investment is returned many times over. enues that will be lost if t h e govemment turns its back on this
Planar, for example, is today a nearly $100 million corporation already proven investment opportunity.
paying corporate income taxes, as well as personal income "We have good, modest, carefully crafted programs in
taxes through its employees. Is it not ironic that ARPKs place. They work. All w e have to d o is stick with those pro-
focused-investment programs-proven money makers for t h e grams, nurture our entrepreneurs, and let American creativity
Federal, State, and Local Governments-are now being and energy contribute to the wealth of t h e nation-and
threatened under t h e banner of govemment cost-cutting?" return t h e Government's investment many times over."

founded in the fall of 1993 at Sandia ATaT, Coloray, Electro-Plasma, Kent nology research or manufacturing, accord-
National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, Display Systems, Motif, Norden, OIS, ing to two sources: Masahiro Kosaka, direc-
N.M., to work with commercial and non- Photonics Imaging, Planar Systems, Plas- tor of Matsushita Ltd.'s Liquid Crystal Dis-
commercial orginizations. Currently, maco, SI Diamond, Silicon Video, play Development Center in Osaka, and a
projects include modeling flat-panel fac- Standish, Three-five Systems, and Xerox. second member of the display community
tory costs; laser alignment and the sealing who asked not to be identified. Recall,
of flat-panel display glass; vertical-cavity The other side of the Pacific however, that Japan's share of the global

T
surface-emitting lasers, and contamina- aken together, the initiatives being flat-panel display sales, which today con-
tion-free microelectronic manufacturing. mounted in the United States to sists primarily of LCDs, was 95 percent in
The surface-emitting-laser project is gen- simultaneously spark a flat-panel 1994; clearly, the industry has become large
erating commercial interest. display manufacturing industry and the enough that one could reasonably expect it
Since 1990, the American Display Con- infrastructure needed to support it are prov- to be self-funding.
sortium, Beaverton, Ore., has been develop- ing remarkably effective, in spite of their Given the investment being made in
ing generic pre-competitive technology- relative infancy. For sure, the intensity of Korea and elsewhere, it is obvious that
technology general enough to be jointly the debate might imply they are mammoth Japanese companies cannot maintain this
developed and shared by competing com- investments. Yet from an international market share, but how much erosion will
panies that differentiate their products at viewpoint, the efforts are modest. Through Japan tolerate? Speaking last year at the
subsequent manufacturing stages. Pmjects late 1994, according to the United States 4th Annual Fine Process Technology
include two National Institute of Standards Display Consortium, Japan's publicly an- Japan Conference in Tokyo, Tsuyoshi
and Technology programs valued together nounced production investment in flat-pan- Kawanishi from Toshiba Corp., Tokyo,
at $28 million: the development of high- el displays was US $4.9 billion, Korea's $2.0 observed that LCDs will be even more
density interconnects and panel-inspection billion, and Europe's $300 million. The U.S. important in the future. According to
systems; and the development of techniques outlay was only $200 million. conference attendee William Bohannon
for patteming flat-panel displays. In Japan, the world flat-panel leader, the of Manx Research, Escondido, Calif.,
The American Display Consortium is Ministry of International Trade and Indus- some believe that Japan will always retain
also the industry representative on the try (the Government's main arm for devel- more than an 80 percent market share.
phosphor center's executive steering com- oping competitiveness) does not now have Matsushita's Masahiro Kosaka does not
mittee. Consortium members include any major programs supporting FPD tech- foresee any significant reduction in market

WERNER - U S [)ISPLAY IUUUSTRY 67

share through the end of the decade. Al-
though the company does not estimate
Japan's market for the longer run, another
senior person stated that, while Japan's mar-
ket share would necessarily decrease (al-
though probably not to as little as 80 per-
cent), the innovative, high-margin products
would continue to come from Japan.

Elsewhere out East

A
cross the Sea of Japan, Korea is
intent on making its mark in dis-
plays. Government aid is avail-
able, a multi-company project and a mul-
ti-company research organization have
been set up, and more Koreans attend
international symposia.
Most LCD production is currently in the
older twisted-nematic and supertwisted-
nematic types, but a thin-film transistor
production line began operation just last ~ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~ ~ ~

year. Total 1994 sales of all types were

A Workers at Sharp Corp.'s Camas, Wash., facility assemble highly integrated active-matrix flat-
panel displays. Japan's display manufacturers are now able to fund such facilities without gov-
about $1 50 million. Goldstar Electronics ernment aid, and are investing heavily to ensure future competitiveness.
Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. expect to
start producing thin-film transistor LCDs in jointly develop technology and standards; op a respectable LCD manufacturing
1995, followed by Orion, Korea Elec- 28 companies are now affiliated. capability. "[Our] dependency [on Japan
tronics, and Hyundai Electronics, accord- Korea has established an international for LCD modules] caused a crisis in the
ing to Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry cooperation policy, too. One element is a industry when LCD module supplies ran
and Energy as well as Myung-Hwan Oh, a commitment to contribute more to world- short from Japan during the first half of
professor at the Korea Institute of Science wide display organizations, including the 1992. In 1993, even though a total order
and Technology, and Sungkyoo Lim, an development of exchange programs and [for] 1350 thousand notebooks was re-
associate professor at Dankook University. entering into joint and mutually beneficial ceived, the Taiwanese manufacturers were
The Korea Semiconductor Industry As- R&Defforts. The policy recognizes Korea's not able to produce that much due to the
sociation expects LCD production to hit $1 position in the global display market. As shortage in LCD supply. The establish-
billion by 1997. That would be an estimat- the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy ment of a local LCD industry is therefore
ed 8 or 9 percent of the world market- sees it, Korea is strong in conventional pro- indispensable for the Taiwan computer
impressive in light of Japanese producers' duction (with a global CRT market share industry," said David C. Hsing of Taiwan's
95 percent of today's market. of 25 percent), but is relatively weak in the Industrial Technology Research Institute
Industry and government have invested development of new technology. in prepared comments presented by H. Y.
$700 million in building the factories that For their part, Taiwan companies pro- (Jim) Chen at this January's Display
will produce those LCDs. As yet, no pro- duce more than half of the worlds supply Manufacturing Technology Conference.
duction plans for other flat-panel display of computer monitors and a substantial Jim Chen is senior consultant in the de-
technologies exist, but Samsung is pursu- number of notebook computers-nearly sign department of Chunghwa Picture
ing joint development with Japan on plas- 1.3 million units in 1993. Tubes' RkD Center and was the first pres-
ma display panels, and Orion is pursuing Picvue Electronics Ltd. currently oper- ident of the SIDS Taiwan Chapter.
plasma panel development with Russia. ates a production line of supertwisted- "While the size of LCD industry is rel-
The Korean ministries of Trade, In- nematic LCD modules that are intended atively small right now," Hsing's com-
dustry, and Energy; of Information and for hand-held games, word processors, ments continued, "the Taiwanese comput-
Communication; and of Science and and notebook computers. Nan Ya Plastic er manufacturers believe that LCDs will
Technology each have programs that Corp. established a pilot line last year and play as the key to the Republic of China's
make government loans available to ap- will begin mass production by the end of future growth in the information industry.
proved projects at annual percentage rates this. The final targets of both companies Public and private sector organizations
of about 6.5-8 percent, up to a limit of 10 are 10-inch VCA modules. Chunghwa are working together in cultivating funda-
percent of the projected investment. At Picture Tubes Ltd. finished construction mental LCD technologies, and are aware
the R&Dlevel, the Korean government has of a supertwisted-nematic LCD pilot line of the distance needed to be traveled
made a $20 million loan to a project for in the first half of last year and has signed before a solidly-built LCD industry can
developing wide cathode-ray tubes (16:9 a cooperative agreement with Toshiba for be achieved." Added Chen, "The govern-
aspect ratio) with 16- to 36-inch diagonals. the mass production of 10-inch super- ment tries to help, but what it is able to
The companies involved include Gold- twisted-nematic VCA LCDs. offer is nothing like Japan."
star, Korea Electronic Glass, Orion, Sam- Unipac Optoelectronics Inc. started
sung, and Samsung Corning. producing thin-film transistor LCDs last Activity in Europe
A multifaceted LCD project involving 14 year. Prime View International started In the European Union (known as the
companies has received a contribution of $6 construction of a high-volume thin-film European Community through November
million and a low-interest loan of $6 million. transistor LCD plant in June 1994. Both 1993), the European Information Technol-
The Electronic Display Industrial Re- companies intend to produce 1 0-inch- ogies Program (Esprit) is a sector of the
search Association of Korea was set up in class color thin-film transistor LCDs. European Research and Technology De-
1990 to represent display industries and Taiwan is strongly motivated to devel- velopment Framework Program (FWP).

68 I F E E SPECTRUhl hlAY 1995

I
Of the $16 billion budgeted under the Union. Main exploitation is at General style is to kick-start an industry with rela-
fourth framework program (which runs Electric facilities in the UK. Esprit is fund- tively small investments. Once the engine
from 1994 to 1998), $128 million is ear- ing half the cost of all these projects. starts turning, it will demonstrate its abil-
marked for display projects, according to ities and generate continuing investment
sector head John Tsalas. In the balance from more traditional sources. Witness
The lion's share-$108 million-funds Andras 1. Lakatos, president of SID, (they say) the enthusiasm already aroused
a cluster of four tightly linked active-matrix notes that the total of U.S. government by the existing programs and consortia.
LCD projects. Participants are the Flat- and cooperative programs amounts to one By the time you read this, senior repre-
Panel Display Consortium (Philips, Merck, seventh of Korea's investment, which is sentatives of the display community will
Sagem, and Thomson), 17 industries, 2 in- intended to capture less than 10 percent have come en masse to Washington, D.C.,
stitutes, and 3 universities-all in 6 of the of the world LCD market. That raises the to tell their story to a sympathetic admin-
European Union countries. The main site of question of whether the current level of istration, a perhaps hostile House of Re-
activity ("exploitation" in Esprit lingo) is U.S. investment is adequate to earn the presentatives, and a Senate whose leanings
the FPD Consortium's facilities in Eindhov- country the 15-percent market share tar- had not been well probed as this article
en, the Netherlands. Main topics are mate- geted by the Department of Commerce. was completed. The display community is
rials, processes, manufacturing, equipment, U.S. optimists look at the Sematech hoping that Congressional opposition is a
standards, and application demonstrators. organization and its role in reviving the transient historical anomaly.
As for the rest of the $128 million, the U.S. semiconductor industry, the ability The programs, after all, are pro-business,
sum of $10 million is going to a two-year of Planar Systems to compete head to and many small businesses are benefiting.
FED display project concluding by the head with Sharp in the electrolumines- They also have strong implications for U.S.
end of this year. Participants are 10 indus- cent arena; the world-class innovations in trade, and they are strongly supported-
tries and 2 institutes in 6 European Union flat-panel technology from the likes of many were initiated-by DOD. The agen-
members. Main exploitation is at the facil- Planar Systems, Xerox, Motif, Kopin, and cy regards them as the best (perhaps only)
ities of Pixel International SA, Mont- SI Diamond, the high-level interest of way to ensure the U.S. military has early
pellier, France. Finally, another $10 million large companies such as AT&T and IBM; access to the most advanced display tech-
is going to a two-year ferroelectric liquid- and the success of some small U.S. com- nology at a far lower cost than traditional
crystal display project, which is also panies in developing front-line equipment procurement methods would allow.
scheduled to conclude by the end of this for Asian, as well as U.S.,customers. Can Congress rebuff these appeals?
year. Participants are 5 industries and 2 The optimists also point to the habits of That will surely be another topic of con-
universities in 4 countries of the European U.S. investors, and emphasize the U.S. versation in Orlando. +

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WERNER ~ U S DISPLAY INDUSTRY 69