Category Archives: FPDs and TFTs

September 24, 2012 – Sharp Corp. is in discussions with Intel to use the Japanese firm’s LCD panels in new ultrabook laptops, and could be seeking a more substantial partnership that would make the chipmaking giant its top stakeholder, according to local media.

The Mainichi reported that the two firms "are in talks" for Intel to invest more than ¥30B (roughly US $380M) in the "financial troubled" Japanese company, with a deal possible as soon as early October. In a terse announcement, Sharp denied any capital tie-up negotiations.

Sharp’s IGZO display technology (indium gallium zinc oxide) for small- and medium-sized LCDs is seen as a good fit with Intel-powered ultrabooks. It offers mobility performance somewhere between amorphous and low-temperature polysilicon. Its benefits include lower power consumption, thinness (less backlighting needed), highly touch-sensitive, and high definition.

Intel, meanwhile, is viewed as something of a white knight for the Japanese firm, which earlier this year tried a similar tie-up with Taiwanese conglomerate Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.. That deal apparently remains in limbo due to a plunge in Sharp’s valuation. Reuters notes that "cash-strapped" Sharp has nearly ¥360B in short-term loans to repay, and is approaching existing lenders for another ¥200B in more loans.

Sharp has separately announced other efforts to improve its financial standing, including the sale of its US subsidiary Recurrent Energy, two years after it bought the solar firm. It also is selling TV assembly plants in Mexico and China to Hon Hai, and instituting early retirement plans in Japan to reduce costs.

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September 17, 2012 – Shipments of tablets are booming, and that means demand for tablet displays is set to spike as well — and some new panel makers are getting in on the action, according to IHS iSuppli.

Shipments of tablet displays, including iPad’s 9-in. model and smaller 7.x-in. models from various brands, will soar 56% to 126.6 million units in 2012, according to the analysis firm. Of those, more than half (74.3, 35% Y/Y growth) will be for the 9.x-in. segment where the iPad rules supreme.

The second-largest tablet display segment, the 7.x-in. category, is taking up some share now (41.1M units, 98% Y/Y), accounting for nearly a third of total shipments vs. 26% a year ago, notes iSuppli. That’s because these smaller tablets will be launching with lower prices than the bigger ones: Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, Amazon’s Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble’s Nook tablet, and others that use the Google Android operating system, explains Vinita Jakhanwal, director for small & medium displays at IHS. (And Apple is expected to come out with its own smaller display later this year.)

Tablet demand strongly follows seasonal trends, and thus shipments of tablet displays fell off in 1Q12 (-20% vs. 1Q12) as suppliers cleared out inventory. Shipments ramped back up in 2Q12 (27M units, 29% Q/Q) once those inventories cleared out, though, and panel orders started coming in for new launches planned in 2H12, iSuppli explains.

LG Display and Samsung Display were by far the top two suppliers of tablet displays in 1Q12 (42% and 38% marketshare, respectively). Both are top iPad suppliers; LG also makes displays for Amazon and B&N, while Samsung sources displays for its own internal tablet business. Both companies are making major investments to upgrade both technology and capacity for high-performance tablet panels, e.g. wide-viewing-angle capabilities such as in-plane switching and fringe-field switching — and both are looking to convert amorphous-silicon (a-Si) fabs to oxide silicon panels to help improve the technology’s resolution, power consumption, and performance.

Another angle in the surge of tablet displays is the arrival of other major LCD panel suppliers, particularly Japanese ones (Sharp, Japan Display, Panasonic) who are dedicating capacity at their Gen-6 and Gen-8 fabs to make room, iSuppli notes. Together they’ll be increasing capacity allocation for small/medium displays by 164% this year to 5.5 mw. Sharp in particular has its eye on oxide silicon capacity, as it’s been supplying panels for the new iPad from its G8 fab. Panasonic is likely to produce 7.x-in. and 8.x-in. tablet panels during 2H12, the firm adds.

Meanwhile, major Taiwanese display suppliers also are adjusting their business models, to go after business in the education sector and China’s white-box market, iSuppli notes. While AU Optronics is believed to be qualified as a supplier for the smaller (7.85-in) iPad, generally speaking Taiwanese panel suppliers primarily target the Chinese market that emphasizes lower-priced tablets — which means they must dial back the display specs, e.g. with more basic twisted nematic (LCD) and not the wide-viewing capabilities.

Size 2011 2012
5.x-in. 0.9 0.3
7.x-in. 20.8 41.1
8.x-in. 5.2 10.9
9.x-in. 55.2 74.3
TOTAL    82.1 126.6

Forecasted shipments of worldwide tablet panel displays
by size, in millions of units. (Source: IHS iSuppli)

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September 5, 2012 – Despite the gloomy economy and softness in consumer LCD products, suppliers of thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD) expect moderate growth in both sales and shipments in 2012, according to DisplaySearch. The analyst firm projects sales of TFT-LCD panels to increase 13% to $85.3B, and shipments to rise 8% to 757M units, triggered by strong demand for mobile PCs and LCD TVs.

"The growth in shipments and revenue this year shows that the TFT LCD industry is recovering from price declines and supply chain inventory adjustments, although the recovery looks very modest," stated David Hsieh, VP of the greater China market for NPD DisplaySearch. "Panel makers are quickly adapting to the shifts in demand and developing new technologies, features, and sizes. Chinese LCD makers are rapidly increasing production, and Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese manufacturers are restructuring and deploying new technologies and processes to improve costs and display performance. It is clear that the TFT-LCD industry has not yet reached maturity but is simply entering a new chapter."


Large-area TFT panel shipments, in millions. (Source: NPD DisplaySearch)

Notebook PC panel shipments are forecast to grow 13% in 2012 thanks to strong promotions for existing models and the recently introduced ultrabook models championed by Intel, according to DisplaySearch. Total tablet PC panel shipments are expected to rise 61% Y/Y. Tablet PC panel makers are targeting shipments of 72.8M units of 9.7-in. panels, including the iPad 2 and new iPad, and private-label tablets. Shipments of 10.1-in. tablet panels are expected to exceed 17M in 2012, while shipments of 10.6-in. panels — most notably Microsoft’s Surface tablet — are ramping strongly in 2H12.

After declining for the first time ever in 2011, LCD TV panel shipments have been expected to swing back to around 6% growth in 2012, due to stronger demand in China: replacements, new models, and the country’s energy subsidy program. LCD TV panel prices rebounded in 2Q12 and prices for some panel sizes are still rising due to tight supplies. New TV panel sizes (28-in., 29-in., 39-in., 50-in., 58-in., 60-in., and 65-in.) also are playing a key role in shipment growth. LCD panel revenue growth will help improve overall large-area LCD panel revenues in 2012, notes DisplaySearch.


Large-area TFT panel revenues, in US $B. (Source: NPD DisplaySearch)

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Three leaders in their respective fields have formed a technology alliance to bring a new glass cutting technology to market. InnoLas Systems GmbH licensed process technology developed by FiLaser LLC and will use ultra-short pulse lasers produced exclusively for InnoLas by LUMERA LASER GmbH. This complete turnkey system designed for glass, sapphire and brittle materials cutting will be available exclusively through InnoLas’ worldwide sales network.

Conventional laser cutting is based on rapid heating leading to vaporization and material removal. This process is not only slow, but it also leads to unwanted micro-cracks and a rough surface finish. Material cut with conventional laser processes require post-processing in order to remove the unwanted damage. These subsequent grinding and polishing steps are costly and time consuming. Filament cutting, on the other hand, uses ultra-short laser pulses in the picosecond range that cut brittle materials via plasma dissociation. This new process ensures lower surface roughness, high bend strength, and faster processing speed. This new laser cutting technology works especially well on chemically strengthened glass and sapphire, which have been difficult to cut with conventional methods. Filament cutting thus enables a higher quality, throughput and yield in the production of touchscreen displays for smart phones and tablet PCs. Further areas of application include Si, SiC, and GaAs at very high speeds.

Richard Grundmüller, CEO InnoLas: “This innovative laser cutting technology gives us access to new markets, where we can leverage our core competencies in laser machining and glass handling in order to offer our customers a clear competitive edge.”

Jeffrey Albelo, CEO FiLaser: “We have created a novel laser process technology that is at the nexus of physics and materials science. It is purely disruptive and will provide our customers with a compelling motivation to acquire this capability. We believe the combination of these leaders in their respective fields will produce world-class results and will aid in putting this capability into the hands of our customers with speed and 24/7/365 reliability. Looking ahead, we have great expectations as the application potential spans far beyond glass, sapphire, and wafer singulation."

Dr. Achim Nebel, CEO LUMERA LASER GmbH: “LUMERA LASER is delighted to be part of this new partnership. LUMERA has been the leader in ps-laser systems for quite some years and our lasers’ capabilities are a perfect fit for this new application. Up to now the field of glass cutting had mostly been the domain of high average power CW lasers. The FiLaser technology utilizes unique aspects of our ultra-fast lasers providing a fast and high quality solution.”

August 23, 2012 — Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers are building various electronic components out of a 2D form of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2).

Compared to limited results with 2D graphite — graphene — the MoS2 research is a starting point for walls that glow, clothing with embedded electronics, glasses with built-in display screens, and other applications.

This is the start of a “new realm” of research into 2D materials for electronic materials and devices, according to Tomás Palacios, the Emmanuel E. Landsman Associate Professor of EECS.

Large sheets of MoS2 were fabricated by Yi-Hsien Lee, a postdoc in associate professor Jing Kong’s group in EECS, via a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. Lee came up with this method while working with Lain-Jong Li at Academia Sinica in Taiwan and improved it after coming to MIT.

Palacios, Han Wang and Yu then produced building blocks of electronic circuits on the sheets, as well as on MoS2 flakes produced by a mechanical method. Wang and Palacios were able to fabricate a variety of basic electronic devices on the material: an inverter, which switches an input voltage to its opposite; a NAND gate, a basic logic element that can be combined to carry out almost any kind of logic operation; a memory device, one of the key components of all computational devices; and a more complex circuit called a ring oscillator, made up of 12 interconnected transistors, which can produce a precisely tuned wave output.

Wang found the material easier to use than graphene, since graphene lacks a bandgap. Graphene must be precisely modified to create a bandgap for transistors. This is not a problem with MoS2.

MoS2 is widely produced as a lubricant, and thanks to ongoing work at MIT and other labs on making it into large sheets, scaling up production of the material for practical uses should be much easier than with other new materials, Wang and Palacios say.

The material is so thin that it’s completely transparent, and it can be deposited on virtually any other material. Palacios says one potential application of the new material is large-screen displays such as television sets and computer monitors, where a separate transistor controls each pixel of the display. Because the material is just one molecule thick — unlike the highly purified silicon that is used for conventional transistors and must be millions of atoms thick — even a very large display would use only an infinitesimal quantity of the raw materials. This could potentially reduce cost and weight and improve energy efficiency.

In the future, it could also enable entirely new kinds of devices. The material could be used, in combination with other 2D materials, to make light-emitting devices. Instead of producing a point source of light from one bulb, an entire wall could be made to glow, producing softer, less glaring light. Similarly, the antenna and other circuitry of a cellphone might be woven into fabric, providing a much more sensitive antenna that needs less power and could be incorporated into clothing, Palacios says.

A report on the production of complex electronic circuits from the new material was published online this month in the journal Nano Letters; the paper is authored by Han Wang and Lili Yu, graduate students in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS); Tomás Palacios, the Emmanuel E. Landsman Associate Professor of EECS; and others at MIT and elsewhere.

In addition to Palacios, Kong, Wang, Yu and Lee, the work was carried out by graduate student Allen Hsu and MIT affiliate Yumeng Shi, with U.S. Army Research Laboratory researchers Matthew Chin and Madan Dubey, and Lain-Jong Li of Academia Sinica in Taiwan. The work was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the Microelectronics Advanced Research Corporation Focus Center for Materials, the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Laboratory.

Courtesy of David Chandler, MIT News Office. Learn more at www.mit.edu.

August 23, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS), a technology licensing company, will undergo a restructuring and related cost saving measures to cut its expenses by$30-35 million annually. The majority of the reduction in expenses are being made in general and administrative, while the company continues to invest in strategic businesses.

 “After reviewing our expenses in detail, we have concluded that the support infrastructure can be reduced to improve profitability,” said Dr. Ronald Black, Rambus CEO. This includes a 15% cut to its workforce and a new, 3-business organization structure around memory and interfaces, lighting and display technologies, and Cryptography Research Inc.

Rambus recently partnered with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan on the development of interconnect and 3D packaging technologies.

“While we have refined some of our R&D investments, we are preserving all of our strategic initiatives as we believe they will drive significant growth in the future,” Black added. The engineering design teams, Rambus Labs, and other strategic initiatives will be consolidated under Dr. Martin Scott, who will take the new role of CTO.

The reductions in expense and associated workforce will be completed in 2012. Satish Rishi, Rambus CFO, stated: “We expect to take a charge for severance, on a cash basis, of approximately $6 million over the next two quarters. We are also reviewing our assets, businesses, and other contractual obligations and may take additional charges by the end of the year. Excluding these charges, and including additional investment in strategic initiatives, we expect significant net cash savings of approximately $30-$35 million annually.” Jerome Nadel will be joining Rambus as chief marketing officer, responsible for repositioning the company and creating closer relationships with customers.

Business units:

 -Memory and Interfaces, led by Kevin Donnelly

 -Cryptography Research Inc., led by Paul Kocher

 -Lighting and Display Technologies, led by Jeffery Parker.

Rambus is a technology licensing company. Additional information is available at www.rambus.com.

Technologies, Business Models, Applications and Materials Management Strategies in Transition — SEMI reports.

August 22, 2012 — The $100B+ electronics materials industry is undergoing rapid metamorphosis as technologies, markets, business models, and materials management practices are all being restructured to meet the needs of a profit-hungry, environmentally-conscious and innovation-dependent world. The $50 billion semiconductor materials industry alone, for example, needs investment in new lithography resists, novel device architectures, and advanced interconnect and packaging while trying to maintain margins in a consolidating industry where manufacturers know how to leverage buying power. At the same time, advanced electronics materials markets in displays, LED, PV and power semiconductors — collectively larger than traditional semiconductors — are providing new, potentially higher-profit opportunities for suppliers. Both manufacturers and suppliers are responding to these dynamics through joint development agreements and other collaboration models, increasingly important resource recovery strategies, and capitalizing on the synergies between advanced materials requirements among different industries.

These and other issues will be the focus of 2012 Strategic Materials Conference (SMC) to be held on October 23-24 at SEMI headquarters in San Jose, CA. For more information on the conference, visit www.semi.org/en/node/41386. SMC is the only conference dedicated to exploring the synergies, trends and business opportunities in advanced electronic materials. Many of the developments, trends and collaboration in one industry are applicable to other industries, creating potential valuable synergies across the materials spectrum. With presentations by leading market analysts, academic researchers, industry consortiums, leading manufacturers, and top suppliers, SMC will serve as a valuable forecasting tool and accelerator for advanced materials usage in the electronics industry.

To provide a broad reach, the 2-day SMC will feature four 2-hour tracks in semiconductors, carbon-based materials for energy storage and ICs, LED/Power devices, and OLED/printed electronics. Each of these areas are characterized by significant opportunities and challenges. In LEDs and power semiconductors, for example, dramatic increases in solid state lighting and emerging markets for electric vehicles, Smart Grid, solar inverters and other areas have a driven a race in Si, GaN on Si, GaN on GaN, SiC, and sapphire-based technologies. In organic and printed electronics, OLED displays are quickly emerging as a replacement for LCDs even in large format displays, potentially creating opportunities for leveraged technologies in OLED lighting, thin film batteries, printed logic and memory.

Other portions of the conference will be devoted to critical trends and issues in materials usage and materials development, including rare earth supply dynamics, materials recovery, collaboration models and joint development strategies, investment opportunities, and more. Leading industry analysts will also provide market forecast and insights into application trends. Significant networking opportunities including a dinner reception will be included in the conference.

Figure source: SEMI Materials Market Data Subscription May 2012

One of the collaboration strategies explored in the conference will discuss how equipment OEMs, materials suppliers and major manufacturers can work more effectively together. Today, frequent R&D efforts can be distributed at research consortia, manufacturer process development labs, and at materials suppliers, each in conjunction with key equipment suppliers who have their own development programs. Speakers from Intel, Micron, Air Liquid and Applied Materials will discuss common development strategies and ways they can be improved.

Materials refining, recycling and recovery is also becoming a critical issue for many industries due to regulatory compliance and as a cost reduction imperative, with implications for fab design, intellectual property protection, onsite materials infrastructure and other areas. Experts from Envirodigm, Sachem, Intel and Air Products and Chemicals will discuss this “paradigm shift” in manufacturing and how it provides both opportunities and challenges.

SMC has provided valuable information and networking opportunities to materials and electronics industry professionals since 1995. SMC 2012 builds on that legacy, expanding the reach and focus of the conference to examine advanced electronics materials for the semiconductor and adjacent industries. SMC is organized by the Chemical and Gas Manufacturers Group (CGMG) is a SEMI Special Interest Group comprised of leading manufacturers, producers, packagers and distributors of chemicals and gases used in the microelectronics industry. For more information on the conference, visit www.semi.org/en/node/41386.

August 22, 2012 — LG Display (LGD) more than doubled its tablet display sales revenue sequentially in Q2, thanks to panel shipments for Apple Inc.’s iPad, according to the IHS iSuppli Small and Medium Display Service. LGD is also moving forward on a plan to convert some amorphous silicon (a-Si) production to low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) fab, despite a yield loss inherent in the change.

During its most recent results announcement with industry analysts, LGD said its tablet panel revenue reached $610 million in Q2, indicating tablet panel sales performance was up 126% from $270 million in Q1.

Table. LG Display tablet display sales revenue. SOURCE: LG Display results announcement, August 2012.
  Tablet Sales % in Total LGD Product Line LGD Total Sales Revenue (Billions of US Dollars) LGD Tablet Sales Revenue (Millions of US Dollars)
Q1 2012 5% 5.48 270
Q2 2012 10% 6.12 610

LGD also said the sales percentage of tablet panels in the firm’s overall product line doubled between the two quarters — from 5 to 10%, as shown in the table. By the end of Q2, LGD’s total sales revenue stood at $6.12 billion, compared to $5.48 billion in Q1, according to the company.

“LGD can credit Apple for its outsized presence in the market for small- and medium-sized display panels, defined as those sized less than 10.X”, and used in products like smartphones and digital still cameras, in addition to tablets,” said Vinita Jakhanwal, director for small and medium displays at IHS. “The company started volume shipment for the higher resolution, new iPad panels — the third iteration of Apple’s best-selling media tablet device — during Q2, IHS believes, on top of furnishing panels for the older iPad 2 version. This amplified LG’s presence in the Apple supply chain, in addition to the company already supplying tablet panels in Q1 to other tablet players such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Research In Motion.”

Overall, LGD commanded a 38% share of the tablet display market sized smaller than 10” during Q1, when total industry shipments reached some 21 million units. LGD’s share is estimated to come at 37% in Q2, based on that period’s total shipments of 32 million units. The company said it expects its tablet panel sales to increase in Q3 by anywhere from 40 to 50%, which would mean a corresponding rise in LGD’s tablet panel revenue to between $850 million and $920 million.

Also read: The iPhone 5 bottleneck of in-cell touchscreens — Can Sharp, LG, and Japan Display meet demand?

LGD also said during its results announcement it would move forward with a plan to partially convert its a-Si liquid crystal display (LCD) fab into making LTPS LCD panels suitable for high-resolution, high-end displays that are more likely to be used in smartphones. LTPS LCDs can also be used as backplanes for organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, and the company could have the option of adding its converted G6 LTPS line to active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) capacity if it elects to do so.

The current conversion plan calls for keeping 60% of the G6 fab output still dedicated to making a-Si LCDs for tablets, mobile phones or other such applications. The remaining 40% of capacity, however, will now be devoted to producing the high-resolution LTPS LCD displays.

The conversion process will entail an 80% loss in yield as is inherent with the process, LG Display indicated. But despite the capacity loss, the G6 LTPS LCD line will give LGD access to a larger size and more efficient LTPS fab in order to address the fast-growing, high-end smartphone panel market characterized by higher average selling prices. Apple and LG Electronics are currently LG Display’s main customers for smartphone display panels.

The G6 LTPS LCD line will also prove beneficial as Apple continues the evolution of the iPhone display, and as other smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) also keep improving the display resolution specifications. Given current manufacturing and performance guidance, more than 60 million 4.1” LTPS LCD panels can be produced in a year from a G6 LTPS LCD fab.

The LGD fab conversion move could prove prescient, especially since the company could be competing with Japan’s Sharp Corp. and Japan Display in supplying panels for the new iPhone. By initiating its fab conversion, LGD not only will be able to help support Apple, it will also allow the company to cater to the ever-growing panel needs of the smartphone market.

The conversion is expected to take place in stages over a yet unspecified number of quarters, but its effects will most likely be seen starting in H2 2013 at the earliest.

IHS (NYSE: IHS) provides information and insight in critical areas that shape today’s business landscape, including energy and power; design and supply chain; defense, risk and security; environmental, health and safety (EHS) and sustainability; country and industry forecasting; and commodities, pricing and cost. For more information, visit www.ihs.com.

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August 21, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Various techniques create the illusion of depth in 3D movies, often relying on glasses for the viewer and a cumbersome 2-projector method. Researchers at South Korea’s Seoul National University have developed a quarter-wave retarding film that changes light polarization, applied to the display screen as a specialized coating.

With further research, the film could enable “a simple, compact, and cost-effective approach to producing widely available 3D cinema, while also eliminating the need for wearing polarizing glasses,” said lead researcher Byoungho Lee, professor at the School of Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University in South Korea.

To create modern 3D effects, movie theaters use linearly or circularly polarized light. In this technique, two projectors display two similar images, which are slightly offset, simultaneously on a single screen. Each projector allows only one state of polarized light to pass through its lens. Polarized glasses cause each eye to perceive only one of the offset images, creating the depth cues that the brain interprets as three dimensions.

Various single projector methods achieve similar effects. The parallax barrier method creates the illusion of 3D with a combination of rear projection video and physical barriers or optics between the screen and the viewer. These obstructions are likened to the slats in a venetian blind, creating a 3D effect by limiting the image each eye sees.

Also read: 2012 brings major changes to the display polarizer films

The South Korean team’s glasses-free 3D method uses a single front projector against a screen. The venetian blinds’ “slat” effect is achieved by using polarizers that stop the passage of light after it reflects off the screen. A specialized coating, quarter-wave retarding film, was added to the screen to change the polarization state of light so it can no longer pass through the polarizers. As the light passes back either through or between the polarizing slates, the offset effect is created, producing the depth cues that give a convincing 3D effect to the viewer.

Figure. The experimental set up of a proposed glasses-free 3D theater experience is shown, with the projector in the familiar front position, creating 3D images. Credit: Optics Express.

The team’s experimental results show the method can be used successfully in two types of 3D displays: the parallax barrier method, described above, which uses a device placed in front of a screen enabling each eye to see slightly different, offset images and integral imaging, which uses a two-dimensional array of many small lenses or holes to create 3D effects.

The team plans to refine the method, and apply it to developing other single-projector, frontal methods of 3D display, incorporating passive polarization-activated lens arrays and the lenticular lens approach.

While their experimental results are promising, it may be several years until this technology can be effectively deployed in movie theaters.

The technique is described in the Optical Society’s (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express. Paper: “A frontal projection-type three-dimensional display,” Optics Express, Vol. 20, Issue 18, pp. 20130-20138 (2012).Optics Express reports on new developments in all fields of optical science and technology every two weeks, published by the Optical Society and edited by C. Martijn de Sterke of the University of Sydney. Optics Express is an open-access journal and is available at no cost to readers online at http://www.OpticsInfoBase.org/OE.

The Optical Society (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. For more information, visit www.osa.org.

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August 14, 2012 — Printed electronics is a set of printing methods used to create electronic circuits, sensors, devices, and various electronics products. Printing is emerging as a technology that can replace traditional photolithography processes for electronics manufacturing, reducing costly material use, very complex processes, and expensive equipment. Printing enables direct patterning of desired materials on the desired location without complex processes, and production is cleaner and more productive, according to Displaybank, an IHS analyst business.

Figure. Steps in printing electronics compared to steps in current electronics manufacturing methods.

Printing devices can lead the creation of new industries through technology fusion.

Printed electronics can be classified as substrate and printing material-related technology: various technologies that allow functional materials to be deposited at a desired position, equipments and parts that can run these technologies, and methodologies.

Printed electronics process technology includes material technologies of printed electronics inks such as conductive inks, insulating materials, and metal nano-inks, new printing process technologies such as inkjet printing, µ-contact printing, and imprinting to print materials, and various equipment technologies to support these.

Table. Printed electronics technology applications.

Area

Detail

Applicable processes

Displays and Lighting

LCD

-Color filter, alignment film, spacer: Inkjet, roll printing.

-TFT backplane: Semiconductor layer, gate, S/D electrode, insulating layer, printing.

PDP

-Wiring: Inkjet printing

-Electromagnetic waves shield: Ag conductive film filter screen printing

OLED

-organic light-emitting layer: Inkjet and nozzle jet when polymer-method OLED.

-Transparent electrode layer: Conductive polymer inkjet, slot die coating.

e-Paper

-Frontplane: Septum in wetting, inkjet and roll printing in solution injection.

-TFT backplane: Active layer and insulating layer imprint, inkjet.

Lighting

OLED

-Organic light-emitting layer: Inkjet and nozzle jet when producing polymer-method OLED.

Smart products

RFID

Antenna: Roll printing

-Others: Roll-to-roll to capacitors and chips

Packaging

Sensor: Inkjet, roll, and screen printing in sensor layer.

Energy

Solar cells

-CIGS, CdTe, DSSC absorber layer: Spray, screen.

OPV active layer: Inkjet, slot die, roll method.

-Si electrode layer: Screen printing, inkjet, AD method.

Battery

-Electrode layer: Slot die to electrode layer.

Others

Touchpanels

-Wiring: Screen and roll printing to electronic wiring.

-Transparent electrode layer: Jetting and roll printing to replace patterned ITO.

Flexible PCBs

-Wiring: Roll printing when forming high-density wiring.

 

The report, “Printed Electronics Technology Trend and Market Forecast (2011~2020)” from Displaybank talks about printed electronics material technology, issue, process technology issue, and applicable areas throughout chapter 3~5, and chapter 6 and 7 summarize trends of companies and research institutes that are developing technologies in their fields. Lastly, chapter 8 forecasts and analyzes the size of printed electronics-applicable application in the next 10 years, and speculates the size of market, which can be created as printed electronics is introduced, for the first time in the world.

This report will help printed electronics-related technologies developing companies, companies reviewing new businesses, and companies that want to innovate through printed electronics process to understand an industry-wide trend and forecast future prospects. Learn more at http://www.displaybank.com/_eng/research/report_view.html?id=847&cate=6

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