Electronic Display Forum, 4/94, Yokohama Japan - Kahaner Report

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

From:
 Dr. David K. Kahaner
 US Office of Naval Research Asia
 (From outside US):  23-17, 7-chome, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106 Japan
 (From within  US):  Unit 45002, APO AP 96337-0007
  Tel: +81 3 3401-8924, Fax: +81 3 3403-9670
  Email: kahaner () cs titech ac jp
Re: Electronic Display Forum, 4/94, Yokohama Japan
05/09/94 (MM/DD/YY)
This file is named "flat.94"


ABSTRACT. Summary of key papers presented at the Electronic Display
Forum, 6-8 April 1994, Yokohama Japan.


This summary was prepared by Dr Hidehiko Kido, US Army Research Office
Far East.


Electronic Display Forum


In Yokohama, the electronic display forum was held from April 6th to 8,
1994.  I attended the special session on 6th, as well as session 1 and
session 2 on the 7th. The following summarizes the discussions during
those sessions.


In the special session, first of all, Mr. Hiroyuki Mizuno,
vice-president of Matsushita electric company discussed the outline of
the development of flat panel display as follows.


In the Multimedia age, people will be able to have a wide variety of
services without any knowledge of hardware. Three items, standardization,
low cost of technology, and "human friendly" will be necessary to
develop and popularize liquid crystal flat panel displays.  In other
words, we are living in the age of "soft computer". The liquid crystal
display business can be expected to expand toward 21st century about 15
years being behind the semiconductor business


(1) The change of industrial structure in Japan


In 50's, heavy industry, like steel making and ship building made
remarkable progress, devoting to the reconstruction of Japanese industry
after the war, and making a solid foundation for the subsequent
development. In 60's and 70's, heavy electric equipment, especially home
appliance made big progress.  In 80's to 90's, computer business had
made big progress not only professional  computer but also personal ones
(including microcomputer). In the area of telecommunication, private
telephone has been popularized and the establishment of NTT contributed
to a wide variety of telecommunication services.


Several business have been developed in the area of both image industry
and information industry. Many now focus on the ability of people to use
computers very freely without any knowledge of hardware. This will be a
very epoch-making change.  As for the multimedia system, the following
requirements are considered.


1. Improvement of hardware technique
   CPU of 100M bit
   main memory of 100M bit/sec
   network of 100M bit/sec
   digital signal processor
   Cd, CD-ROM, VD
   color liquid display
   CD, CD-ROM, VD


2. Existing idea
   dialogue video by MIT media lab
   knowledge by Allan key


3. Establishment standard interface
  popularization of Unix/X window
  popularization of graphical use interface
  popularization of concept of direct manipulation.


Therefore, in order to achieve the innovation, standardization of the
technique, and "human friendly" are necessary conditions. The motto is
that any person can use a panel display anytime and anyplace,
irrespective of ways of handling.


(2) The merge of AV and OA in the display


High quality display is most important factor for "Human friendly"
interface in the age of multimedia. The interface of display through our
vision provide us with characteristics and insights which are different
from the conventional ideas. AV displays such as television and OA
displays such as computers have their own characteristics and use, and
both have been made progress independently up to now. In the AV area,
television tends to large scale, high precision and high vision, In the
area of OA, letter display of mainly black and white tending toward
color, graphics and large capacity. In the age of multimedia, letters
will combined with graphic, stationary pictures with moving pictures and
multicolor with full color.


(3) Age of display


Size of display range from 1 inch for view finder of moving camera to
more than several hundred inches for large scale displays. Numbers of
pixel elements ranges from thousands to millions. In addition, many
functions, that is, color, response and speed. etc. are built into the
display. Now, CRT is most popular device and occupies the largest share
of market.  However, in future, unique characteristics of liquid display
would lead to expansion of its share in the market. Especially, the
active liquid crystal will be expected to gain a large share because of
its superior functions.


(4) Liquid display business


The sales of liquid crystal displays are expected to grow at the rate of
20% to 30% per year. High quality displays will be required in AV area,
and liquid crstal displays used in machinary will play a important role
as the interface between man and machine in the multimedia age. I expect
that the liquid crystal display business will expand in the same rate as
the semiconducter business, but 15 years behind it.




As for the mission of the United States Display Consortium, Mr. Peter H.
Mills, CEO, US Display Consortium (USDC) addressed as follows.


Primary mission of USDC is to develop and organize the U.S.
manufacturing expertise to enlarge the U.S. infrastructure required to
support a world wide U.S. based manufacturing capacity. Memebership
Roaster consists of Advanced Research Projects Agency, AT&T,
Electro-Plasma, Kent Digital Systems, OIS Optical Imaging Systems,
Photonics Imaging, Planar Systems, Plasmaco, Silicon Video Corporation,
Standish Industries, Tektronix, Texas Instruments, Three-five Systems,
Xerox.


Objectives of USDC are


(1) to develop a viable U.S.supplier base capable of meeting worldwide
requirements for materials, manufacturing systems, and equipment for
current and next generation manufacturing process.


(2) to integrate advanced manufacturing capability into U.S. production
facilities.


(3) to drive the development of industry standards for procurement
specifications, computer integrated manufacturing, mechanical
interfaces, and common processing steps and tools.


(4) to provide and maintain open forums for communication,
collaborations, consensus and technology transfer within the domestic
high definition display industry.


Its function is to coordinate the R&D programs among consortium
members, focus on common technologies and a flexible approach which
benefit the major flat panel display technologies, and direct the
administration of funds to suppliers of flat panel displays manufacturing
equipment and materials. The USDC's operating structure has been
established to develop, divest and execute USDC's program of work with a
minimal of full-time staff members.


Mr. Kwang-Ho Cho, senior managing director and president of liquid
crystal division, Goldstar Co. Ltd. commented about the outlook of flat
panel display industry in Korea as follows.


The Korean government expects the potential of the liquid crystal
display business to be very large. Basic research related to the flat
panel display such as TFT- LCD, plasma display and electroluminescence
have been performed in universities and the government-funded instituts
since 1ate 70's. The study on the basic amorphous silicon TFT started in
1980, and also reserach for the liquid crystal has been performed in
universities from the late 80's.


At the present time, TFT-LCD industry of Korea is led mainly by Goldstar
and Samsung Electronics. Hyundai Electronics and Orion Electronics are
reportedly active in TFT-LCD developments. Goldstar and Samsung
announced large scale investments in TFT-LCD, and that mass production
is expected to start in 1995.  Goldstar is developing panels in a wide
range of sizes. A 12.1 inch XGA color TFT-LCD was developed in 1993.
Samsung is reported to have developed 9 to 10 inch panels for notebook
personal computer application and is now producing 9.4 inch panels in
its pilot production line. Efforts are made through the Electronic
Display Research Association of Korea to organize the LCD manufactures
for the developers.


The total production volume of TN and STN-LCD reached 150 million
dollars in 1993, an increase of 50% compared with to that of 1992, and
market share of Korean LCD manufactures in the world market will
increase from 2.5% to 7.5% in 1997, thus ranking Korea as the second
largest supplier in the world. TFT-LCD makers in Korea are making
efforts to overcome every handicap, but it will take time for makers to
be considered to a threat to Japan.


One of the companies which has devoted itself to the development of
liquid crystal displays prior to other companies is Sharp company.
Mr.Yukihiko Nakata, explained the general development and marketing
trends for TFT-LCD in Sharp Company.  A 10 inch VGA is on the stage of
mass production, and 10-12 inch XGA went into production in compliance
with the demand of large scale and high production. A 13-17 inch EWS is
in the stage of development. Technical innovation which Sharp is
planning to perform is as follows.


(1) wide viewing angle
(2) low index of reflection
(3) high resistance to harsh environment
(4) low power consumption related to high aperture ratio
(5) thickness
(5) large scale and high precision.


The following measures have been underatken to reduce price.


(1) panel: reduction for the number of production steps.
           low voltage
           homogeneous


(2) materials: reduction of liquid chemicals, resist.
               recycle system.


(3) color filter: new manufacturing system.
                  low reflection materials.


(4) Driver-LSI: lower voltage 5v tend to 3v.


(5) Peripheral equipment: long life backlight
                   small size.
                   noizeless inverter.


(6) manufacturing machine: more than four times productivity.
                  design with high reliability.


Technical breakthroughs since 1984 are as follows.


(1)  Sharp developed the method of using  alpha-Ta, whose specific
resistance is one-seventh of that of  beta-Ta, at room temperature.
alpha-Ta could be filmed om the Nb film or TaN film that functions as a
seed.


(2) The length of large channel was shortened for making small size
panels.  n^+ type  a-microcrystal was applied, since it has very small
resistance compared with that of n^+ type a-silicon. Ion doping
technology was applied to make n^+ type layer in alpha-Ta for shortening
the channel length.


(3) For the improvement of mobility, quality of insulating film of gate,
interface and semiconducter were improved.


Concerning note-book type low consumption LCDs, Mr.Washida and
Mr.Higuchi of Toshiba Corporation explained as follows.


Liquid crystal display is one of the most important components for
portable personal computer and must be small. At the present time,
note-book personal computers are popular for space saving. However, it
seems to be unsatisfatory as a portable machine, because it is still
heavy and its working time is only 3 hours. It cannot be carried with a
sense of security. In compliance with the need of long life and long
battery life, a new design with high aperture ratio of 7.8 inch diagonal
TFT-LCD as the same as 10 inch diagonal TFT-LCD's was developed.
Integrated black matrix on TFT-array makes the process margin of the
cell alignment low. The shield Cs structure moves the storage capacitor
area around the pixel electrode, and covers the area between the pixel
electrode and the signal bus-line in the electrode capacitor without the
black matrix. High accuracy process technology makes the signal bus-line
width narrow. The aperture ratio of 7.8 in diagonal TFT-LCD can be
increased from 30% to 50% by using the above technologies. In this case,
the power cosumption would be less than 1.5W.  Sharp has succeeded in
making a 7.8 inch type VGA (0.25mm pitch) with 50% aperture ratio and
less than 1.5W power consumption.


Concerning the development of a-Si TFT-LCD panel for workstation
projector, Mr.Osamu Sukegawa of NEC Corporation explained as follows.


NEC has been developing 4.2 inch LCD using TFT for the projector of
workstation as high precision media. Its specifications are as follows:
pixel number is 1280x1924, display area is 83x66.2mm^2 and aperture ratio is
35%. A unique design by NEC is that whole black matrix is set on the
substrate of TFT. TFT is set on the shielding layer of Al/Cr on the
lowest  layer of substrate. This results in a high aperture ratio. Also,
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