02/13/2007  February 12, 2007 -- /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. -- Air Products (NYSE:APD) today announced it has broken ground on the first phase of its nitrogen trifluoride (NF₃) plant in Ulsan, Korea.

02/02/2007  February 2, 2007 - Seven Taiwanese equipment suppliers are banding together to explore R&D of key manufacturing equipment for the $30B flat-panel display industry -- even as global capital spending by top panel makers is expected to brake significantly, according to reports in the Taiwan Economic News.

01/23/2007  The growing consumer appetite for large-area flat-panel displays (FPDs) -- particularly for TVs, but also for notebook computers and PC monitors -- presents enormous opportunities for FPD makers. But to meet demand they must first overcome some major technological and manufacturing hurdles, according to Jyh Chau Wang, VP of Taiwanese LCD supplier Chi Mei Optoelectronics, speaking at the recent Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) at Half Moon Bay, CA.

01/16/2007  DuPont Microcircuit Materials, part of DuPont Electronic Technologies, announced the introduction of its 7th Generation DuPont Fodel photoimageable thick-film pastes for the metallization of the front bus electrode used in plasma display panels (PDPs).

01/15/2007  January 15, 2007 - In an effort to overcome legal concerns with a US licensor, Canon Inc. is taking full control over its 50-50 joint venture with Toshiba Corp. to bring to market a new display technology, which promises cost and quality advantages in cost and quality -- and is potentially the first significant major opportunity to bring nanoelectronics into a volume-produced product.

01/05/2007  Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., created an LCD panel that generates two independent displays, front and back, using proprietary amorphous silicon gate (ASG) technology in conjunction with double-gate thin-film transistors (TFTs).

01/02/2007  The IX-70 ChromAblate on-target inspection and short-deletion system is said to deliver high precision and power in a small footprint. The laser-based materials-processing system has a compact benchtop configuration.

11/29/2006  November 29, 2006 - Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is laying out plans that it hopes will support a doubling of production value for Taiwan's flat-panel display (FPD) industry by 2009, according to the Taiwan Economic News.

11/17/2006  November 17, 2006 - Days after posting significantly lower financial results and even weaker next-quarter projections, Photon Dynamics Inc., San Jose, CA, says it will discontinue its PanelMaster line of flat-panel display inspection products.

11/01/2006  November 1, 2006 - Manufacturers of thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal-displays (TFT-LCD) are expected to reduce their equipment investments by roughly 30% over the next three years, to help maintain manufacturing pace, ease overcapacity, and keep prices from falling, according to market research firm DisplaySearch.

10/10/2006  Optoelectronic materials supplier Braggone of Oulu, Finland, announced a new product line intended to enable end-user manufacturers of flat panel displays to cost effectively tune their newest product models to significantly better levels of quality and performance.

10/04/2006  October 4, 2006 - Air Products says it will build a new nitrogen trifluoride (NF₃) plant adjacent to existing facilities in Ulsan, South Korea, to support growing demand from domestic manufacturers of semiconductors and liquid-crystal displays. Phase One of the new site will ramp to around 500 metric tons/year by late 2007, accounting for about 20% of the company's projected NF₃ global output of 2500 metric tons/year.

10/04/2006  October 4, 2006 - Major Taiwanese manufacturers of thin-film transistor liquid-crystal displays (TFT-LCD) are expected to borrow roughly US $5.18 billion this year, to make up for a poor business climate suffered in 2Q, according to the Taiwan Economic News.

10/04/2006  October 4, 2006 - Honeywell Electronic Materials and the US Display Consortium have agreed to jointly develop new materials for flat panel displays, focusing on overcoming the challenges of planarization in fabricating thin-film transistors on low-temperature flexible substrates, and improve display performance for use in ultrathin, lightweight, and rugged displays.

09/18/2006  At a recent Applied Materials investor meeting in New York, CEO Mike Splinter announced the company's entry into the rapidly growing solar photovoltaic (PV) market. Manufacturing PV modules is a different ballgame than making ICs or FPDs, but the company believes it can apply technology similar to what it's supplied to those core markets to help drive down costs in the PV industry, and capture a major share of the equipment market.

09/05/2006  September 5, 2006 - In a launch dubbed "the new face of solar," Applied Materials has unveiled its strategy to make solar photovoltaic equipment its biggest growth engine, leveraging recent acquisitions and existing technology and processes from its semiconductor and flat-panel areas.

08/30/2006  August 30, 2006 - Chinese manufacturers of thin-film transistor liquid-crystal displays will invest between $4-$5 billion on equipment and materials per year in 2007-2008, while the rest of the world slows down TFT-LCD capacity, according to a new report from SEMI.

08/07/2006  August 7, 2006 - Arrowhead Research Corp. and the U. of Florida say they will collaborate on development of flexible thin-film transistors (TFT) using carbon nanotubes.

08/01/2006  August 1, 2006 - Photronics Inc., Brookfield, CT, has lowered its outlook for fiscal 3Q06, citing a shortfall in flat-panel display mask orders and shipments vs. previous forecasts, particularly in Korea and Taiwan.

07/10/2006  July 10, 2006 - SEMATECH's Advanced Technology Development Facility (ATDF) and Novellus Systems Inc. are readying next-generation porous low-k test wafers for equipment makers and materials suppliers to evaluate their products with leading-edge ultralow-k (ULK) materials, eyeing the 2007 production target set down by the ITRS.