Japan Gambles on Displays Consortium of Three Big Brands Gains Government Backing to Spur Mobile Technologies

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TECHNOLOGY Japan gambles on displays Consortium of three big brands gains government backing to spur mobile technologies.

BY KATHERINE BOURZAC A DISPLAY OF UNITY ith ever more beautiful and Toshiba, Sony and Hitachi hope to reverse a steady decline in their share of the mobile display-screen market by combining forces to form ‘Japan Display’, with a market share that will be the second largest worldwide. addictive smartphones and tablets captivating consumers, the market Other brands Samsung Mobile Sharp LG Display Chimei Innolux AUO Wfor mobile display screens is booming. Yet Toshiba Sony Hitachi Japan Display SOURCE: DISPLAYSEARCH Japanese display makers Hitachi, Sony and 2009 Toshiba, once industry giants, have languished. 2010 Now the three companies have merged their mobile-display subsidiaries to form Japan Dis- 2011 play Incorporated, launched on 1 April. With Q1’12 ¥150 billion (US$1.85 billion) in research and Q2’12

development funding over the next five years, 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 the Tokyo-based endeavour aims to launch Worldwide market share (%) technologies that will help its members to recapture the display market. “We expect this company will be driven by richer colour than conventional liquid-crystal now trying to get the research teams to work research and development,” says Hiroyuki displays (LCDs), and use less power. together. However, Japan Display may have Oshima, Japan Display’s deputy chief technol- Stephen Forrest, vice-president of research at some catching up to do: on 13 April, Sharp, ogy officer. Many of the features that sell tablets the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, notes another Japanese maker, announced that it and smartphones are based on display innova- that OLEDs are a speciality of South Korea’s will become the first to bring metal oxides into tions, such as the super-high-resolution screens Samsung Mobile Display, the world leader with production. of Apple’s iconic iPad and iPhone devices. Now 23.3% of the mobile-display market. Yet, he In other areas, Oshima says, the research the race is on to lengthen battery life, make adds, there is still room for innovation. “Some strengths of the three merged companies are gadgets thinner and lighter, and provide rich things about OLED technology are not settled,” more complementary. For example, Sony colours that can be seen from wide angles for he says. For example, researchers are still figur- has developed a technology for embedding watching videos with a friend. “The display tech- ing out the most cost-effective design for the touch-screen sensors, typically a separate ele- nologies that have the slickest stuff command electronics that drives the displays. Low-cost ment sold by another company, into the display the biggest market,” says ‘amorphous-silicon’ transistors are adequate itself. If it can be made to work, this ‘embedded’ Nick Colaneri, head of the “Aggressive for conventional LCD screens, whose pixels touch should make phones thinner and lighter, Flexible Display Center at investment in change their light-transmitting properties and reduce costs. Arizona State University research and depending on an applied voltage. By contrast, Analysts at DisplaySearch, a market research in Tempe. development OLED pixels are driven by changes in current, company headquartered in Santa Clara, Cali- Japan Display’s bid and amorphous-silicon transistors cannot pro- fornia, predict that Japan Display will become is mainly financed by could make a vide enough. One solution is to subject amor- a big player, starting with a projected 13.8% a government-backed difference.” phous silicon to a laser treatment that upgrades market share in its first quarter (see ‘A display investment fund, the it to better-quality polysilicon. But this is an of unity’). Prior to their joint effort, the three Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, expensive process. companies didn’t invest enough resources in which has contributed ¥200 billion and holds The leading alternative to polysilicon for innovation in the mobile-display market, says a 70% share in the company. A particular area OLEDs is a new class of transistor material, Oshima. Now, Japan Display will put all its of focus, Oshima says, will be organic light- based on metal oxides. These materials research efforts there. Colaneri thinks that the emitting diodes (OLEDs), which the com- promise good performance at lower manu- more focused approach could help the company will begin producing by the end of next facturing costs than polysilicon. Before the pany to grow further. “Aggressive investment year. OLEDs, which use polymers or smaller merger, the three companies were all develop- in research and development could make a carbon- and metal-based molecules, provide ing metal oxides, and Oshima says that he is difference,” he says. ■

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