Category Archives: Flexible Displays

Although overall TV shipments in the third quarter of 2018 were flat compared to the previous year, the average TV unit-shipment screen size increased more than any previous quarter in more than a year. While strong seasonality from promotions for the World Cup raised TV unit sales more than 7 percent in the first half of the year, Western Europe, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa all experienced double-digit TV shipment year-over-year declines in the third quarter, according to IHS Markit(Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

Global shipments of 60-inch and larger TV screen sizes increased more than 40 percent, year over year in the third quarter, with even stronger growth in North America and emerging markets, as prices fell to new lows for 65-inch and 75-inch sizes. This growth rate is more than 10 percent higher than in recent quarters.

“Each year during the holiday shopping season, brands and retailers try to push ever larger screen sizes to keep revenues growing and encourage adoption of value-added features like 4K and smart TV,” said Paul Gagnon, research and analysis executive director, IHS Markit. “This year, there’s higher interest in 65-inch 4K TVs for many of the key promotional deals, leading to less focus on smaller screen sizes under 50 inches.”

Growth in larger size TVs leads to a rising share of 4K resolutions since larger sizes have already largely completed the transition from 1080p to 4K. In fact, the share of 4K TV shipments in the third quarter reached a record high of nearly 44 percent. Due to sustained premiums and larger average size, 4K TVs made up more than 71 percent of all TV revenues during the quarter. 8K TV shipments are still very small, with just one brand currently shipping a very small number of units in Japan and China. IHS Markit expects additional brands to start shipping 8K TVs by the end of 2018.

Prices of 65-inch 4K LCD TVs fell to an average of $1,110 in North America during the third quarter, from $1,256 in the previous quarter. In China, the average price of 65-inch TVs was even lower – just $928, after already falling below $1,000 in the second quarter. Xiaomi and other brands have aggressively pushed prices lower as competition intensifies in China. In other regions, prices were considerably higher for 65-inch 4K TVs, due to less intense retail competition and a smaller addressable market.

OLED TV shipments were down slightly in the third quarter compared with the previous quarter, with the anticipated promotional focus shifting to LCD for the holiday season. LCD TV shipments increased by 14 percent, quarter over quarter. Quantum dot LCD TV shipments rose to 663,000 units in the third quarter, with an average size exceeding 60-inches. The average size of OLED TVs increased to more than 59 inches for the first time, as the 65-inch shipments share grew to a new high of more than 38 percent.

SEMI Taiwan today announced the formation of the FlexTech Taiwan Steering Committee. Serving as a platform that connects industry, academia, research and government, the committee will focus on identifying market trends and needs, solving technical challenges and accelerating innovation and business development to advance the flexible hybrid electronics industry and open business opportunities for its members.

Lightweight and highly scalable, flexible hybrid electronics promise to bring new applications and capabilities to consumer electronics, medical and health care, defense, transportation, textile, sports and leisure, robotics and industrial automation. To fulfill the potential of flexible hybrid electronics, the industry must overcome challenges in areas such as yield, cost, regulation and technology standards.

Key focus areas of the FlexTech Taiwan Steering Committee will include:

  • Capitalizing on Taiwan’s success in semiconductor and LCD/LED displays to build a complete flexible hybrid electronics ecosystem
  • Advocating for government policies on developing emerging industries, technology research funding, and talent development
  • Organizing exhibitions and other events to raise awareness and communicate the value of flexible hybrid electronics the electronics industry
  • Establishing industry standards to accelerate research and development and facilitate technology and product development

The FlexTech Taiwan Steering Committee consists of key industry players spanning equipment, materials, design, manufacturing, systems and end applications. Committee members include E Ink, ASE Group, AUO, Hitachi, Brewer Science, CymMetrik, DuPont, Singular Wings Medical, BenQ Materials Corporation, Nagase, Flexterra, Wisechip Semiconductor, AiQ Smart Clothing, Makalot Industrial, Far Eastern New Century, Ritdisplay Corportation, Applied Materials, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), National Sun Yat-sen University, and Chang Gung University.

Over the past 20 years, SEMI-FlexTech, a SEMI Strategic Association Partner, has promoted the development and commercialization of flexible hybrid electronics. Key achievements include:

  • Working with Boeing to develop a flexible electronic control device to reduce the weight of drones and commercial aircraft
  • Teaming with GE to develop RF stickers that measure human hydration
  • Collaborating with the U.S. Air Force to develop a non-invasive wearable device that measures biodata of aircraft pilots

For the past 17 years, SEMI and FlexTech have championed the development of the FHE industry through conferences and exhibitions in major microelectronics manufacturing regions such as North America, Europe, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore and China.

FLEX Taiwan, 29-30 May, 2019, is a one-day technical conference that provides a powerful platform for connecting with customers, suppliers, future partners and academia to drive collaboration and uncover new opportunities in flexible hybrid electronics. For more information, please click here.

By Serena Brischetto

SEMI spoke with Prof. Christoph Kutter, executive director, Fraunhofer EMFT, about trends and innovations in flexible hybrid electronics ahead of his presentation at the 2018 FLEX Europe – Be Flexible conference at SEMICON Europa 2018, 13-16, November 2018, in Munich, Germany. To register for the event, click here.

SEMI: Recent developments on thin semiconductors, new materials and cost-effective processing techniques have opened the door to a plurality of new applications and future products. What are the most innovative integration approaches?

Kutter: We have a variety of good examples, from medical to automotive. In his keynote, Philips Research Professor Ronald Dekker will present innovative approaches to integration as electronic devices find their way into the human body. Christian Neumann, head of Digital Printed Electronics at Heraeus, will discuss new markets like smart textiles and in-mold electronics, and Mike Hack, VP of Business Development at Universal Display Corporation, will explore the promise of OLED technology in giving rise to new, exciting products over the next few years.

SEMI: Can you share some details about the Fraunhofer EMFT roadmap?

Kutter: In his speech, Christof Landesberger, department manager at Fraunhofer EMFT will delve into the R2R Manufacture of Flexible Hybrid Electronics technology roadmap.  Flex Electronics allows for the hybrid integration of different functionalities and components for a broad variety of applications, which are needed in IoT scenarios. Christof will show a few examples of that.

SEMI: Are you currently working and experimenting on something particularly exciting?

Kutter: Thin chip foil packages with embedded microcontroller ICs were demonstrated successfully by Fraunhofer EMFT using single sheet film substrates. In order to achieve the next major step towards R2R manufacture, we are currently setting up a laser direct imaging (LDI) system for R2R lithographic patterning of interconnects and wiring schemes. A key advantage of such laser imaging system is its capability to correct the UV exposure process locally and, if necessary, individually at any chip position. Such adaptive lithographic patterning is supposed to bridge the gap between alignment requirements and geometric distortions in the web substrate. First results will be shown at the conference for the first time.

SEMI: What are your expectations for the future and why would you recommend attending the 2018 Flexible – Be Flexible conference at SEMICON Europa?

Kutter:  We expect Flex Hybrid Integration to become more and more important, since it offers the best of each world: mass volume printing technologies integrated with high performance ultra-low power electronics. You will see many examples of hybrid integration approaches during the conference.

SEMICON Europa is a very important platform to highlight the latest developments in the semiconductor industry. During the 2018 Flexible – Be Flexible conference, themed “Innovations enabled by Flexible Electronics,” researchers, market analysts, material and product developers, and equipment suppliers will gather to provide insights into the latest Flexible Hybrid Electronics innovations. We are particularly proud to organize this platform with SEMI and FlexTech Alliance.

Prof. Dr. Christoph Kutter is the director of the Fraunhofer EMFT, focusing on sensing technologies based on silicon electronics and flexible hybrid integration technologies.

Kutter serves as a member of the board of trustees at Fraunhofer Institut Für Nachrichten – Heinrich-Hertz Institut HHI and has been a ember of Supervisory Board at First Sensor AG since May 24, 2017 He completed his physics studies at TU Munich. In 1995, he earned his doctorate in physics at the University of Konstanz.

 

Serena Brischetto is a marketing and communications manager at SEMI Europe.

 

MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation (“MagnaChip”) (NYSE: MX), a designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor platform solutions, today announced that volume production of a new Display Driver IC (DDIC) for automotive panel displays has begun.

MagnaChip is planning to expand its business to various automotive display applications in the market, starting with the design-win of new product at a leading Japanese panel maker of automotive CSD (Center Stack Display) panels. The application of this LCD-based display driver product will be further extended to a wide range of automotive applications such as instrument cluster, GPS navigation and car entertainment displays in the future. Over time, it is widely anticipated that OLED display drivers also will be adopted for use in automotive applications.

The new automotive DDIC, S8311, has a maximum of 1440 channel outputs and an mLVDS (Mini Low-Voltage Differential Signaling) interface and supports all types of TFT-LCD such as a-Si (Amorphous silicon), LTPS (Low Temperature Poly Silicon) and IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) for various automotive applications. MagnaChip fabricates the product in-house using the 150nm process, which is a cost-effective method the company has successfully used for many different products in recent years.

According to market research firm IHS, automotive display shipments keep growing with three primary automotive display systems: instrument cluster, center stack and heads-up display system. Based on current trends, IHS forecasts that global shipments of automotive display panels will rise to 165Mpcs in 2018 and increase to 200Mpcs in 2022.

“As the global automotive display market continues to expand, demand for high quality display driver products is expected to grow,” said YJ Kim, CEO of MagnaChip. “With our know-how and long track record of success in the Display market, we will continue to cooperate with major automotive display panel makers to extend our automotive DDIC business from a-Si TFT-LCD to LTPS, IGZO TFT-LCD and further to OLED panel-type displays.”

Quantum dots are nanometer-sized boxes that have attracted huge scientific interest for use in nanotechnology because their properties obey quantum mechanics and are requisites to develop advanced electronic and photonic devices. Quantum dots that self-assemble during their formation are particularly attractive as tunable light emitters in nanoelectronic devices and to study quantum physics because of their quantized transport behavior. It is important to develop a way to measure the charge in a single self-assembled quantum dot to achieve quantum information processing; however, this is difficult because the metal electrodes needed for the measurement can screen out the very small charge of the quantum dot. Researchers at Osaka University have recently developed the first device based on two self-assembled quantum dots that can measure the single-electron charge of one quantum dot using a second as a sensor.

The device was fabricated using two indium arsenide (InAs) quantum dots connected to electrodes that were deliberately narrowed to minimize the undesirable screening effect.

This is a scanning electron micrograph of InAs self-assembled quantum dot transistor device. Credit: Osaka University

“The two quantum dots in the device showed significant capacitive coupling,” says Haruki Kiyama. “As a result, the single-electron charging of one dot was detected as a change in the current of the other dot.”

The current response of the sensor quantum dot depended on the number of electrons in the target dot. Hence the device can be used for real-time detection of single-electron tunneling in a quantum dot. The tunneling events of single electrons in and out of the target quantum dot were detected as switching between high and low current states in the sensor quantum dot. Detection of such tunneling events is important for the measurement of single spins towards electron spin qubits.

“Sensing single charges in self-assembled quantum dots is exciting for a number of reasons,” explains Akira Oiwa. “The ability to achieve electrical readout of single electron states can be combined with photonics and used in quantum communications. In addition, our device concept can be extended to different materials and systems to study the physics of self-assembled quantum dots.”

An electronic device using self-assembled quantum dots to detect single-electron events is a novel strategy for increasing our understanding of the physics of quantum dots and to aid the development of advanced nanoelectronics and quantum computing.

SEMI announced today the September 18 deadline for presenters to submit abstracts for the annual SEMI Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FLEX) and MEMS and Sensors Technical Conference (MSTC). The co-located gathering, February 18-21, 2019, in Monterey, California, will feature technical presentations of more than 135 peer-reviewed manuscripts covering leading materials and methods that can enhance an expanding range of markets for microelectronics.

FLEX 2019 sessions will feature demonstrations of flexible hybrid and printed electronics products, equipment, and materials, as well as the unique electronics applications they enable.

MSTC 2019 sessions will address wearables, point of care medical devices, food delivery, and agriculture platforms, remote monitoring systems and other trending applications.

Both events will present opening day keynotes and a panel discussion, networking events, technical sessions on emerging and advanced electronics, tech courses and the annual FLEXI Awards Ceremony.  The conference will feature a special student poster session to highlight student projects related to either flexible electronics or MEMS and sensors and will conclude with an awards ceremony.

NextFlex, The Flex Group, Nano Bio Manufacturing Consortium and MEMS & Sensors Industry Group will hold several leadership meetings throughout the week in Monterey.

Selected FLEX and MSTC speakers will present to more than 700 executives, product marketing managers, business development professionals, researchers and engineers from the flexible, hybrid and printed electronics value chain, as well as the MEMS and Sensors industries; 400 companies, universities, R&D labs and government agencies; and, leading industry analysts and media from around the world. Technical abstracts are due September 28, 2018, and can be submitted here for FLEX and here for MSTC. Submissions are FREE and notifications of acceptance will be issued October 19.

FLEX 2019 will cover the following topics:

1. Application market segments and IOT for:

  • Agriculture
  • Consumer Electronics and Agriculture
  • Consumer Electronics: Appliances, Wearables & Textiles
  • Smart Infrastructure: Buildings, Surfaces & Lighting
  • Smart Manufacturing
  • Smart MedTech: Health and Wellness & Human Performance Monitoring
  • Smart Transportation: Automotive, Aircraft & Public Transit

2. Flexible electrical components for:

  • Advanced Packaging
  • Batteries & Energy Sources
  • Flexible Displays
  • Lighting
  • Other Hybrid Devices
  • Sensors
  • TFTs, Memory & Logic
  • User Interface

3. Materials for:

  • Barrier Films
  • Conductors, Insulators & Semiconductors
  • Electronic Fibers & Fabrics
  • Functional Inks
  • ITO & ITO Replacements
  • Substrates & Substrate Treatments

4. Processes and manufacturing for:

  • Equipment & Metrology
  • Failure & Lifetime Reliability
  • Hybrid Printing Processes
  • Integrated Manufacturing
  • Integration of Hybrid Devices
  • Multi-layer Additive Printing
  • Roll to Roll & Web Processing
  • System Interconnects
  • Testing

5. Standards for:

  • Design & Modeling File Format
  • Processes & Manufacturing
  • Reliability & Qualifications

MSTC 2019 will cover wearables, point-of-care medical devices, food delivery and agriculture platforms and remote monitoring systems such as environmental, weather, energy, industrial IoT and more. The conference will focus on the technical aspects of system-level solutions for these areas incorporating MEMS/Sensor and Actuators, Unique Applications and Innovative Technologies.

The co-location of FLEX and MSTC is organized by SEMI Americas to connect more than 2,000 member companies and 1.3 million professionals worldwide to advance the technology and business of flexible electronics and MEMS and Sensors.

Tight supplies of display panel materials and components, such as driver integrated circuit (IC), glass substrate and polarizer, are expected to slow the decline rate of liquid crystal display panel costs, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO).

Supply of driver IC is forecast to tighten throughout 2018, estimated to exceed demand by 4 percent, per the new Display Driver IC Market Tracker by IHS Markit. Foundries have cut their production capacity of cheap driver ICs while increasing production of high-profit ICs and large-scale integrations (LSIs), mainly to satisfy orders from industries producing Internet of Things (IoT) and automotive technologies.

In addition, large panel driver ICs are mainly produced using 8-inch wafers but no foundries are making further investments into these wafer sizes as a generational transition is making its way into 12-inch wafers. “It seems that panel makers can secure driver IC supplies only by offering higher prices,” said Tadashi Uno, senior analyst at IHS Markit.

The average driver IC price increased by about 10 percent during the first half of 2018. Tight supply of driver ICs has impacted the prices of IT panels, such as desktop monitors, notebook PC and tablet PC panels, and has also extended into TV and smartphone panel prices since the third quarter of 2018.

Glass substrates are also in a tight supply situation since the beginning of  third quarter2018, according to the Display Glass Market Tracker by IHS Markit. The supply-demand glut in the third quarter has been below 5 percent, which is considered a tight supply threshold, while taking into account later delivery times.

“Major glass makers are investing in glass-melting tanks in China, but the higher glass consumption of Chinese panel makers’ means it exceeds more than double the glass production capacity of the country,” Uno said. “Chinese panel makers also import products from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan but they are stymied by glass production delays and delivery.”

According to the Display Optical Film Market Tracker by IHS Markit, polarizers have been in a tight supply situation since the third quarter. In July, film makers, such as Dai Nippon Printing and Nitto Denko, stopped operations for more than a week due to heavy rain in Japan. The production facilities are not damaged directly, but damaged infrastructures, such as roads, waterworks and electric facilities, have caused delivery delays.

Logistics issues remain even though operations have resumed. “Non-TAC polarizers, especially acryl polarizers, were already in tight supply but the recent floods have made the situation worse,” said Irene Heo, senior principal analyst at IHS Markit. Polarizer supply-demand glut is expected to be 4 percent in the third quarter, below the 5 percent balance bar.

The cash cost of a typical 32-inch high-definition (HD) open cell is expected to decline 1.4 percent in third quarter2018 compared to a year ago, according to the Large Area Display Cost Model. The contraction rate has slowed from 2.9 percent in the same period last year. “The main reason for the slow cost reduction is the increasing price of driver ICs,” Uno said. “However, glass substrate and polarizer price reductions have been relatively stable.”

Universal Display Corporation (Nasdaq: OLED), enabling energy-efficient displays and lighting with its UniversalPHOLED® technology and materials, announced today the recipients of the UDC Innovative Research Award in Organic Electronics and the UDC Pioneering Technology Award in Organic Electronics. These awards were presented at the 18th International Meeting of Information Display (IMID) conference on August 30, 2018 in Busan, Korea by Dr. Julie Brown, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Universal Display.

“Universal Display Corporation is proud to sponsor and support the innovative and brilliant research work in the organic electronics industry,” said Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer. “As a leader in the OLED industry, we believe that it is important to encourage and foster the relentless pursuit of exploration, experimentation and education in the scientific community. We congratulate the award recipients, and commend all the researchers for the important role they play in the field of organic electronics.”

The UDC awards recognize outstanding individuals or teams that have demonstrated innovative ideas or research initiatives impacting the organic electronics industry. The winners were selected by IMID and KIDS (Korean Information Display Society). The recipients for 2018 are:

UDC Innovative Research Award in Organic Electronics

Byung-Jun Kang, Dong-Myung Lee, Chang-Jae Yu, E-Joon Choi (Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Korea), and Jae-Hoon Kim (Hanyang University, Korea)

UDC Pioneering Technology Award in Organic Electronics

Hwang-Beom Kim and Jang-Joo Kim (Seoul National University, Korea)

 

SEMI today announced that all legal requirements have been met for the ESD (Electronic Systems Design) Alliance to become a SEMI Strategic Association Partner.

Full integration of the Redwood City, California-based association representing the semiconductor design ecosystem is expected to be complete by the end of 2018. The integration will extend ESD Alliance’s global reach in the electronics manufacturing supply chain and strengthen engagement and collaboration between the semiconductor design and manufacturing communities worldwide.

As a SEMI Strategic Association Partner, the ESD Alliance will retain its own governance and continue its mission to represent and support companies in the semiconductor design ecosystem.

The ESD Alliance will lead its strategic goals and objectives as part of SEMI, leveraging SEMI’s robust global resources including seven regional offices, expositions and conferences, technology communities and activities in areas such as advocacy, international standards, environment, health and safety (EH&S) and market statistics.

With the integration, SEMI adds the design segment to its electronics manufacturing supply chain scope, connecting the full ecosystem. The integration is a key step in streamlining SEMI members’ collaboration and connection with the electronic system design, IP and fabless communities. The Strategic Association Partnership will also enhance collaboration and innovation across the collective SEMI membership as ESD Alliance members bring key capabilities to SEMI’s vertical application platforms such as Smart Transportation, Smart Manufacturing and Smart Data as well as applications including AI and Machine Learning.

“The addition of ESD Alliance as a SEMI Strategic Association Partner is a milestone in our mission to drive new efficiencies across the full global electronics design and manufacturing supply chain for greater collaboration and innovation,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. “This partnership provides opportunities for all SEMI members for accelerated growth and new business opportunities in end-market applications. We welcome ESD Alliance members to the SEMI family.”

“Our members are excited about becoming part of SEMI’s broad community that spans the electronics manufacturing supply chain,” said Bob Smith, executive director of the ESD Alliance. “Global collaboration between design and manufacturing is a requirement for success with today’s complex electronic products. Our new role at SEMI will help develop and strengthen the connections between the design and manufacturing communities.”

All ESD Alliance member companies, including global leaders ARM, Cadence, Mentor, a Siemens business, and Synopsys, will join SEMI’s global membership of more than 2,000 companies while retaining ESD Alliance’s distinct self-governed community within SEMI.

Amid growing demand for active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) panels for smartphones, shipments of flexible AMOLED panels are expected to account for more than 50 percent of total AMOLED panel shipments by 2020.

According to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, shipments of flexible AMOLED panels are expected to reach 335.7 million units by 2020, topping those of rigid AMOLED panels at 315.9 million units. Flexible AMOLED panels are predicted to make up 52.0 percent of total AMOLED panel shipments, up from 38.9 percent in 2018.

“Growth in demand for smartphones with flexible AMOLED panels has accelerated since 2016 as demand increased for curved form or full screen displays,” said Jerry Kang, senior principal analyst of display research at IHS Markit. “Major smartphone brands have been promoting flexible AMOLED screens for their premium products, which allow a differentiated form factor from ones with rigid AMOLED and low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) liquid crystal display (LCD) panels.”

Apple has applied flexible AMOLED panels first in 2017 to the iPhone X. It is expected to launch its second phone with a flexible AMOLED panel, slightly larger than the first one, in 2018. Demand for the new iPhone is expected to contribute to boost the shipments of flexible AMOLED panels.

“Another factor is that high-end smartphone brands are now planning to launch foldable applications using flexible AMOLED panels, which is not possible using rigid AMOLED or LTPS LCD panels. Foldable AMOLED panels will be key in changing the demand situation from mobile devices in the foreseeable future,” Kang said.

Shipments of flexible AMOLED panels are expected to reach 157.6 million units in 2018, more than triple compared to 46.5 million units in 2015, with a compound annual growth rate of 50 percent.