Category Archives: Displays

November 2, 2012 – OLED revenues are currently being driven by display applications (e.g. smartphones), but there’s a new battleground slowly emerging: OLEDs for lighting applications where the technology could offer some advantages in design and efficiency for some applications — if panel makers are willing to make some sacrifices, according to a report from Yole Développement.

Conventional LED technology has paved the way in solid-state lighting, and has a large headstart; OLED has to overcome high costs and current lower efficiency, which are hampering market adoption and penetration. The firm sees OLEDs for lighting making initial inroads in specific lighting applications (automotive, general lighting) and in niche specialty and high-end lighting where it can offer some differentiation in design options. To crack more traditional lighting markets (commercial, office buildings, etc.), however, OLED technology will have to advance the technology and expand across different niche markets to achieve economies of scale and will decrease costs. Yole pegs this happening sometime in 2014, with the rise of larger substrates and better process control.

Pars Mukish, technology & market analyst for LED & OLED at Yole, then foresees an astonishing growth projection for OLED lighting panels: from a $2.8M market this year (2012) to nearly $1.7B by 2020, with general lighting applications representing more than 70% of that business.

OLED panels revenue for lighting applications. (Source: Yole Développement)

That won’t come easy, though. There are a number of materials and OLED structures being explored and in production, tweaked to improve performance and lifetime and also decrease manufacturing costs. Polymer materials for OLEDs continue to struggle (vs. small-molecule OLED materials) in demonstrating their capabilities to lower costs and improve performance to production-acceptable levels. Rigid glass is still the go-to substrate for OLED lighting panels, but work continues on other flexible OLED technologies including roll-to-roll processing, ultrathin glass, and encapsulation options.

To have a chance at fulfilling the aforementioned growth expectations for OLED lighting, OLED panel makers have to quickly identify the winning technology approaches and time-to-market strategies. "New business models are mandatory as the traditional lighting industry will be reluctant to integrate new technology as it could eat away at margins — OLED cost directly impacts the cost of OLED-based luminaires," points out Milan Rosina, Yole’s technology & market analyst for OLED & photovoltaics. The kicker: both the new OLED technology and its integration into production are brand-new to panel makers, who are unlikely to sacrifice existing LED lighting sales and complicate production just to deploy a new technology, he notes.

Thus the key to OLED technology’s future in more mainstream lighting applications, the Yole analysts say, boils down to how and when panel makers can establish vertical integration strategies and figure out how to push the new technology through existing distribution channels. And above all, find that "spark" niche market (or markets) that will pave the way to economies-of-scale, which will open up the conversations to convey opportunities and advantages for OLED technology in general consumer lighting applications.

October 31, 2012 – Applied Materials has announced two new tools for making ultrahigh-definition displays and high-pixel-density screens for mobile devices. One offers a new design for depositing IGZO films for TFTs; the other handles bigger substrates of low temperature polysilicon (LTPS) films to help lower manufacturing costs.

The Applied AKT-PiVot PVD for metal oxide-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) enables a transition from aluminum to copper interconnect bus lines leading to faster pixel response and lower power consumption in LCD TV panels. It overcomes the problem of "mura effect" that reduce display quality, which the company says has hindered metal-oxide technology’s inroads into mainstream LCDs. The "breakthrough" stability of the IGZO films deposited by the tool offers the promise of metal oxide backplanes for OLEDs which would significantly lower their cost as well, the company adds.

(Source: Applied Materials)

A proprietary rotary cathode design employs unique deposition modulation technology to deposit copper layers and form the transistor channel with uniform grain distribution, low resistivity and high thickness uniformity. The technology enables nearly 3× higher target utilization than competitive systems, according to the company, and its rotary targets have >4× longer lifetimes than conventional planar targets.

(Source: Applied Materials)

The Applied AKT-PX PECVD is an extension of the company’s line of PECVD systems to deposit highly-uniform LTPS films on glass substrates. The new tool extends to larger sheets (1.6-5.7m2, or Gen 5 to Gen 8.5 sizes) to help manufacturers increase production and drive down costs, and accelerate the transition of LTPS technology to larger screen sizes for both mobile devices and TVs, the company points out. AMOLED and advanced TFT-LCD displays are switching to the polysilicon-based transistors, which offer higher electron mobility vs. the amorphous silicon (a-Si) used in conventional LCD displays, leading to smaller and faster pixel-controlling transistors, and displays that are brighter, sharper, and use less power — features most desirable for mobile applications.

(Source: Applied Materials)

"The display industry is undergoing one of the most critical technical transitions in the last 20 years — which is being driven by advances in TFT technology," stated Tom Edman, group VP and GM of Applied’s display business group. He added that "customers have reported excellent results with our systems and we already have received multiple orders from major display manufacturers."

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October 30, 2012 – This year is shaping up to be a historically lousy year for makers of flat-panel display (FPD) manufacturing equipment, but expectations are looking up that demand will catch up to supply in 2013 and balance the market, according to NPD DisplaySearch projections. Spending on FPD equipment is projected to plummet -69% in 2012 to $3.8 billion, making it the worst year in the sector’s history. But even with slow demand growth in maturing markets (TVs and PCs), the firm sees "significantly improved conditions" in 2013, more than doubling to $8.3B.

Most of that spending will be for new low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) fabs or converting existing amorphous silicon (a-Si) capacity to LTPS, both for use in TFT-LCD and active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) production, explains Charles Annis, VP of manufacturing research at NPD DisplaySearch. "One reason spending is increasing so much is because LTPS fabs cost substantially more than a-Si fabs to build. There are extra process necessitate more than 10 mask steps." LTPS fabs also require higher-priced equipment, particularly high-resolution photolithography tools, he added, but having those technologies does enable production of high-value displays used in smartphones and tablets.



FPD equipment spending forecast. (Source: NPD DisplaySearch)

Such dramatic cutbacks in investment will more quickly rebalance supplies with demand and raise fab utilization rates. Meanwhile, new manufacturing technologies (oxide semiconductors, in-cell touch, flexible AMOLEDs and AMOLED TVs) promise lower costs and higher-value applications. Together that spells improve profitability for panel makers, notes Annis. Even with the cautionary disclaimer that new investments (e.g. AMOLED capacity) can be pushed out or cancelled if performance and cost targets don’t materialize, most of the firm’s indicators project 2013 "to be a much better year than 2012."

October 24, 2012 – Several trends are helping to steer the flat-panel display industry back on the road to recovery, despite excess capacity and eroding prices (and profits). One is the commercialization of advanced technologies and specifications (e.g. higher resolution, wider viewing angels, integrated touch functionality, and slimmer/lighter formfactors). The other is a shift toward larger panel sizes.

“The average diagonal sizes of key FPD applications have increased over the past three years, and every inch of growth in flat panel display applications results in growth in area demand and thus capacity utilization,” points out David Hsieh, VP of Greater China Market Research for NPD DisplaySearch. Consumers won’t want to go back to smaller displays and lower resolutions, so average (diagonal) sizes will accelerate in 2013, spurring long-term growth for the entire flat-panel display industry. DisplaySearch notes that LCD TV panel sizes have increased 2 inches in just the past 12 months (August 2011-August 2012), from 34.8-in. to 36.8-in.. Sharp, which has the highest average screen size of TV panels shipped, has added nearly 10-in. to its panels (39.1-in. to 48.3 in). Given a total typical 18-20M panel shipments/month, those extra sizes add up quickly.

Here’s DisplaySearch’s tracking of multiple key FPD applications and their size differences over a four-year period. Note mobile PCs are actually seeing smaller screen sizes thanks to the rise of tablets and ultrabooks. The firm also notes "challenges" for desktop panels in 2012-2013 as due to PC bundles and fewer standalone PC replacements, though consumers are splurging on bigger LCD monitors (23-in. to 27-in.).

Average diagonal size of key FPD applications, in inches. (Source: NPD DisplaySearch)

What’s behind the increase in screen sizes? Consumers, given the choice, are choosing bigger: 26W to 29 W, 37W to 39W, 46/47 to 50-in, 55 to 60-in. That includes when they upgrade older LCD TVs. Consumers in North America have been upgrading their living room sets from 40-in. to 50-in. or bigger, and from 32-in. to 39-40 in the bedroom, DisplaySearch notes. And for TV firms, larger-sized TVs mean bigger profit margins.

DisplaySearch says to watch for some major holiday promotions around bigger LCD TVs. (Rumor has it there’ll be a Black Friday deal of $999 for a 60-in. LCD TV.) This should keep whetting consumers’ appetites to keep migrating to bigger screens, perpetuating the trend of making the bigger panels.

October 18, 2012 – Worldwide flat-panel display (FPD) revenues will reach a record $120 billion in 2012, up 8% from a challenging year in 2011, and the recovery is entirely on the backs of TFT-LCDs and AMOLED displays, according to NPD DisplaySearch.

TFT-LCD displays still make up the vast share of all display sales (~90%), and so the overall market tracks in-step with this segment, rebounding from a -5% decline in 2011 to an 8% rise in 2012. Note, though, that of all the other display technology slices, AMOLEDs have by far the best growth trajectory — two years ago it was fourth in total market share (1%) behind plasma, passive matrix, and roughly tied with CRT; now it’s the second-most-popular display technology with a 5.4% share and the gap is widening. Credit surging manufacturing capacity and expansion of market players, DisplaySearch says. The only other segment to see any growth is liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) used for microdisplays. Also note the sharp rise and sharper plummet of active-matrix electrophoretic displays (AMEPD), used in monochrome e-reader devices, which are giving up ground to TFT-LCD tablet PCs.

Worldwide FPD revenues by technology, 2010-2012. (Source: NPD DisplaySearch)

2011 was a tough year for displays due to price erosion in TFT-LCD panels, particularly for TV applications, DisplaySearch notes. The rebound in 2012 has many factors behind it: bigger average sizes and shipments of LCD TVs, higher prices for high-resolution mobile displays, strong unit growth for tablet PCs, expansion of AMOLED shipments and applications, thinner and lighter ultraslim notebook PC panels, the emergence of 4k × 2k LCD TVs, and demand for a number of applications including games, car navigation systems, and digital signage.

"While the industry faces challenges in traditional applications such as plasma TVs and mainstream sizes of LCD TVs and desktop monitors, the addition of new features and lower prices are driving growth of applications such as tablet PCs and smartphones," explained David Hsieh, VP at NPD DisplaySearch.

The outlook for the FPD industry isn’t entirely cloud-free: there’s a lot of saturation in several major markets, Hsieh noted. Nevertheless, the supply chain is figuring out how to "increase the value proposition" of FPDs by emphasizing their technology improvements: higher resolution for mobile devices, bigger screens, thinner and lighter versions for mobile PCs, improved wide-viewing angle, and desirable functionalities like touchscreen. "We expect 2013 to be a good year for the FPD industry, with revenue increasing, as TFT LCD prices recover and AMOLED demand grows," Hsieh said.

FlexTech Alliance announced the completion of a development project with Etched in Time, Inc. (EITI), for a plasma etch system that is compatible with a wide array of roll-to-roll equipment.  The result of the project is a tool that can be used in the manufacture of a broad range of products including LED lighting or solar panels fabricated on plastic substrates.

The purpose of this FlexTech Alliance funded project was to create a plasma etching tool for dielectric films that offers a number of manufacturing advantages for flexible electronics. For example, plasma etching is cleaner than a wet etching manufacturing process due to the lack of chemicals to dispose after use. Additionally, incorporating the system into a roll-to-roll process allows large area and flexible products to be fabricated at low cost.

After the successful system development, the final step of the project was installation of the EITI plasma tool into the roll-to-roll flexible processing equipment at Binghamton University’s Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM), where the follow-on work will take place of fine tuning processes with the new system for different materials.  

The new tool has gained commercial traction since the project completion. For example, a joint venture has been established between EITI and the Solar Product Lab (SPL) at Arizona State University to build and install a demonstration tool to etch silicon nitride for solar cell production.
“Not only will this project refine the manufacturing process of printed, flexible electronics through the continued work at CAMM,” commented Michael Ciesinski, CEO of the FlexTech Alliance. “Etched in Time has also been very resourceful using the results of this project and their design and build expertise to adapt the technology for commercial markets.”

Additional applications of the tool include texturizing a silicon surface during the manufacture of solar cells fabricated with multi crystal silicon, a material currently in wide industry use.

by Mark Danna, VP of business development, Owens Design

Continuing a series of columns for SST, Mark Danna from Owens Design highlights common mistakes that can cause an outsourced partnership to fail and detail a methodology for approaching an outsourcing agreement that can minimize the risk and costs involved and help ensure a successful partnership.

October 12, 2012 – One of the toughest things about getting started on a tool development design and build project is that in most cases the overall requirements for tool functionality and performance have not been focused yet. Nevertheless, the group tasked with tool development responsibility is told to get moving on the project because "we are already late." In fact, from the point of view of most of those involved, the picture of what is needed is still kind of fuzzy and none of the critical details are well-defined.

It is, however, possible to launch the project, get it off the ground, and make progress while still clarifying tool specifications and requirements. A disciplined phased approach to the program can resolve many of these open issues (technical, commercial and market-related) in the first phase of any project.

For example, at the start of most tool development projects there usually is a gap between desired tool functionality and target tool cost. The engineers want to design the tool to meet all potential market requirements and perform at the highest level. The marketing group wants a tool that meets a specific set of market requirements and can be produced at the lowest cost possible. Very early in the program a functional/cost trade-off analysis needs to be done — and well understood — by both parties before tool specifications and performance can be agreed upon and finalized. One of the most critical parts of finalizing the tool specification is to really understand how the functionality of the tool will be validated at the end of the program. Without an agreed-upon functionality test, tool performance cannot be validated and the specification is meaningless.

Unfortunately, not all tool functionality can be nailed down in the first phase of the tool development project. For some projects, it is standard procedure for final tool production launch to begin before the overall tool characterization has been completed. During this process, if overall tool functionality changes significantly, tool specification changes are the inevitable result and most likely will affect overall tool design. Going into this phase with a tool design that can accommodate a wide range of design parameters can minimize the risk of a total design restart. The trade-off, of course, is that this increase in functionality will most likely lead to an increase in overall tool cost. By thinking about these potential issues early on, it may be possible to minimize the impact of design-related change by having the ability to easily change the design to meet the tool requirements once overall tool functionality has been solidified.

A lack of clarity early on in design requirement can exist whether the project is handled as an in-house development project or is outsourced. If it’s an outsourced project, the selection of a design-and-build partner and its ability to help clarify and focus the development effort is critical to the overall success of the program. While there is always a desire in a tight economy to keep as many costs in-house as possible, the money spent engaging the right outsource design-and-build partner at the beginning is likely to end up benefiting the project budget long-term. Where a typical equipment OEM may produce a new tool every couple of years, a good outsource partner might go through this development process 10-20 times per year. As a result, this outsource design-and-build partner will have established and proven procedures that can take that fuzzy picture at the beginning of the project and put it into focus.

Time must be committed early in the development phase of a project to bring the fuzzy parameters into focus. Tool cost vs. functionality trade-offs must be well understood by all stake holders. By leveraging either in-house or outside expertise in project planning and management, as well as design input from the very beginning, one can end up saving a lot of time, money, and aggravation.

Mark Danna is VP for new business development at Owens Design.

October 11, 2012 – High pricing and ineffective marketing, in a consumer market fighting for attention against hot-selling mobile devices, are weighing down expectations for ultrabook demand — but the future’s still bright with new models promising more tablet- and smartphone-like features.

IHS iSuppli has slashed its estimates for 2012 ultrabook shipments to 10.3M units (with hopes of half of them coming in 4Q12), down from 22M units earlier this year. The firm also has lowered its outlook for 2013 ultrabook shipments, to 44M units from 61M units. (Part of this forecast-lowering is a classification issue: Intel’s rigid definition of what qualifies as an "ultrabook" has redefined many notebooks as "ultrathins," iSuppli notes.)

1Q12 2Q12 3Q12 4Q12 1Q13 2Q13 3Q13 4Q13
714 1,540 2,692 5,392 8,752 9,806 11,473 14,297

Forecasted global ultrabook unit shipments, in thousands of units. (Source: IHS iSuppli)

So far, the PC industry has failed to create the kind of buzz and excitement among consumers that is required to propel ultrabooks into the mainstream," noted Craig Stice, senior principal analyst for compute platforms at IHS. "This is especially a problem amid all the hype surrounding media tablets and smartphones."

The other sticking point for ultrabooks: pricing. Systems need to get from today’s ~$1000 levels to below the $600 threshold to achieve mainstream-friendly volumes. Ramping up sales for 2013 especially will depend on this, while also incorporating the new Windows 8 operating system as well as attractive features (read: expected by consumers) such as touchscreens. If they don’t, they’ll continue to face an uphill battle, in a persistently languishing economy against a growing roster of lower-priced tablets and smartphones (iPhone 5, Kindle Fire HD, forthcoming Microsoft Surface).

Intel seems to be focusing its attention on the mid-2013 introduction of its Haswell chip, which it hopes will "catalyze[e] the ultrabook revolution" with improved performance, lower power consumption, security features, and support for multiple displays and high-definition monitors, iSuppli notes. At the recent Intel Developer Forum, the chipmaking giant reportedly mapped out 40 ultrabook designs in progress with touchscreens, and showed survey results indicating consumers prefer touchscreens 80% of the time. Ultrabooks with convertible form factors — e.g. with a detachable touchscreen, usable either as a traditional clamshell laptop or as a tablet — offer the best of both worlds.

Ultrabooks: Key market for motions sensors

One component sector that’s counting on that ultrabook demand to materialize is motion sensors. Various accelerometers, gyroscopes and compasses will be required to deliver the new features promised in new ultrabooks, from gaming to indoor navigation to augmented reality. IHS iSuppli projects an eye-popping 14-fold growth for motion sensor sales over the next four years to $117.3M, up from just $8.3M in 2012 — that’s a 93% CAGR. Before ultrabooks, the only motion sensors found in notebooks were accelerometers used to identify if the unit was dropped, to trigger protection of the hard-disk drive’s read/write head. With more solid-state devices (SSD) being used in notebooks, that functionality isn’t needed, notes iSuppli.

But the new ultrabooks do use accelerometers for functions such as auto screen rotation, and will employ compasses and gyroscopes to detect direction and motion — functions already common in games for tablets and smartphones. While Intel had originally asserted that it wouldn’t make sense to incorporate such motion sensors into conventional ultrabooks, the planned future convertible/detachable ultrabook models will indeed require them, points out Jérémie Bouchaud, director and senior principal analyst for MEMS and sensors at IHS. And that’s the kind of assured end market that component suppliers need.

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
0.4 8.3 32.8 60.2 92.3 117.3

 Forecast of global motion sensor revenues in ultrabooks. (Source: IHS iSuppli)

Semiconductor technology is increasingly being implemented in a variety of healthcare applications. At the recent imec International Technology Forum Press Gathering in Leuven, Belgium, imec CEO Luc Van den hove outlined uses in blood cell sorting, mobile apps for personalized medicine (such as brain monitoring of EEG activity), and advanced bio research.

“The cost of healthcare is exploding,” he said, noting that one in three people will develop diabetes in their lifetime. It is estimated that the cost of treating diabetes patients will exceed $500 billion 20 years from now (for U.S. and Europe). “This number is larger than the entire turnover of the entire semiconductor industry today,” vVan den hove said. “The cost of treating heart diseases will be even more than triple that. These numbers are really frightening and the problem is tremendous.”

Presently, today’s healthcare system is relatively inefficient. “We are treating illnesses with generic treatments which are optimized for the average population of patients, sometimes leading to overconsumption, sometimes under consumption,” said Van den hove. “We go to the doctor when it’s too late, when symptoms occur. Often, the treatments will be more expensive. If we implement a more proactive way to perform healthcare, it would be much more effective.. It is really time for a change here. We need to implement this vision of more personalized, more preventive, predictive and participative healthcare system,” he said.

Van den hove believes the healthcare system will soon see the kind of evolution of that the semiconductor industry has witnessed. “We have created this fabulous revolution in compute power. We went from mainframe to desktop type systems to a computer in our pocket that is more powerful than a mainframe computer we were using 20 years ago. We’re convinced that we will see a similar revolution in the domain of medical diagnostics,” said Van den hove. “We are clearly at a turning point and we will go from these very sophisticated clinical labs with big medical analysis tools to tools that will be implemented on a doctor’s desk, eventually to tools we will be using in our homes which are add-ons to our smart phones, which will allow us to do part of the analysis at home. We are convinced that if you combine that capabilities of semiconductor technology with the know-how that is available in the medical profession, we can come up with solutions that are more sustainable.”

One cornerstone of such a medical system will be early diagnostics. One example is the early detection of cancer cells in blood. “Typically today, when you have a primary tumor, it will spread out tumor cells that will circulate through the blood and will create secondary tumors that are usually the more fatal ones. If we can find a way to detect those circulating those tumor cells in the blood in an easy way, then we can come up with a way to detect cancer at an early stage,” Van den hove said.

The challenge is huge: one has to have the ability to detect one bad tumor cell in 5 billion blood cells. This equate to a requirement to detect 20 million cells per second. “This is a real challenge, but the parallelism that can be realized with semiconductor technology is a tremendous opportunity. We can fabricate thousands of those parallel circuits on one device. This will allow us to create this kind of sensitivity,” he said. “The system we are building here is a combination of very sophisticated microfluidics, electronics and very sophisticated on-chip imaging. We also require a lot of compute power because we have to analyze 20 million images per second. It will become possible to realize these kinds of detection systems.”

The second pillar of a sustainable healthcare system, according to imec, is mobile diagnostics that will allow patients to be monitored in their homes and also better access to healthcare in places that are difficult to reach.

One example of such a device under development at imec is smart health patches. We’ve been working on these technologies now for several years and one of the key aspects of it today is that we are trying to measure multiple parameters with one health patch – not only heartbeat, but skin temperature, skin conductance and chemical sensing. We’ve developed several prototypes of these kinds of devices over the years, refined the prototypes and we’re now doing clinical trials, both for cardiac monitoring and monitoring of epileptic patients. We have also been developing further versions of the wireless EEG concept,” Van den hove said.

A third pillar of such a sustainable healthcare system will be personalized therapy which could lead to the discover of cures of illnesses that are now uncurable.  “It will at some time, a few years from now, be possible to cure diabetes patients by replacing their failed pancreas cells with new cells, reprogrammed based on their own stem cells,” said Van den hove. “We are developing bio-reactors in order to realize that, in which cells and tissues can be grown in a more controlled way. By realizing a two-way communication between the tissue and the cells that grow on it, we can indeed control the growth of this tissue. We’re doing that by using the multi-electrode arrays that we have developed for cell recording.”

Caption: CMOS chip with a matrix of micronails with various dimensions, packaged in a dish suitable for cell cultures. With these micronail-electrodes individual cells can be stimulated and recorded. This platform for two-way electrical communication can be an interesting instrument for research on in-vitro cell cultures (e.g. Alzheimer research; drug development).

Van den hove said one way to realize personalized diagnostics is also to tune the treatment based on, for example, information that can be obtained from DNA sequencing. “This will also be an application where we will need a lot of compute power in order to realize it. We’re working in our high performance computing program together with several partners on solutions for these applications,” he said. “Technologies that are enabled through progress in semiconductors, combined with the knowledge of the medical experts, will indeed allow us to implement a more sustainable healthcare system.”

One example of a future healthcare concept is called “Guardian Angel Devices,” a new program (in which imec is involved) that will develop technologies for extremely energy-efficient, smart, electronic personal companions that will assist humans from infancy to old age. These devices will be private and secure systems featuring sensing beyond human capabilities, computation, and communication, The angel devices will be developed using advanced semiconductor and nanotechnology, such as that shown below (captured from the video on the project’s website).  

 

Related articles: TEL and imec extend partnership into life science related research, EEG headset prototype developed

October 8, 2012 – Solvay Specialty Polymers USA LLC has extended its line of high-performance polyester compounds with a new version targeting light-emitting diode (LED) TVs with higher heat and light stability.

Seeking to reduce product costs, TV manufacturers are finding ways to reduce the number of LEDs by sending more amps through the devices to hike brightness. (Another cost-lowering strategy: go the other way and give up some brightness in LED backlit models.) This raises the junction temperatures, though, and some materials can’t handle the higher heat and light output, e.g. discoloring more quickly in applications such as reflector cups.

Solvay’s new "Lavanta" 5115 WH 011 high-performance polyester line of liquid-crystal polymers, is a 15% glass fiber-reinforced injection molding compound developed specifically for LED electronic packaging applications that utilize surface mount technology. It has high reflectivity (>95%) with excellent whiteness retention even after thermal and light aging, translating to better reliability for LEDs that operate at high junction temperatures — e.g. filling very thin-walled sections required for low-profile, side-view LEDs. It also offers dimensional stability due to its low moisture absorption and exceptional weld line strength, according to the company.

The company plans to expand the Lavanta line with an enhanced version possessing even greater heat and light stability for longer product life and reliability. In addition to LED TV applications, the material is targeted for general lighting for indoor and outdoor applications.