Measuring Reflective Lcds • Bringing Backlights to the Fore • LCD-Component Costs • Lcds: Price and Demand E SMAU 2002 Report FEBRUARY 2003 Information VOL
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2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 1 Display Materials 1 Electronics Other Variable Costs Fixed Costs • Measuring Reflective LCDs • Bringing Backlights to the Fore • LCD-Component Costs • LCDs: Price and Demand e SMAU 2002 Report FEBRUARY 2003 Information VOL. 19, NO. 2 DISPLAY 2 Editorial For two quarters in 2002, Taiwan shipped more TFT-LCDs than either Korea or Japan. And with A Visit to Kent Korean and Ta iwanese firms fighting a market Kenneth I. Werner share war that is increasing manufacturing capaci ty dramatically and reducing manufacturing costs, 4 My Turn it's once again a buyer's market for TFT-LCD The Case for- and against- an Independent Test Facility for Projectors modules. Alfred Poor 14 Reflections on Measurement Methods Although some issues remain, measurement methods for transmissive LCDs such as those used in desktop monitors are fairly well stan dardized, but a standard for reflective-LCD performance remains a challenge. Michael E. Becker 20 Bringing Backlights to the Fore The search is on to develop brighter backlights for LCD TVs and environmentally friendly mercury-free lamps - but the paths these developments take will not necessarily go in the same direction. iSuppli Stanford Resources Shigeo Mikoshiba 26 Managing the Cost of LCD Components Next Month in Understanding how regional shifts in LCD production are affecting Information Display the component supply chain will help LCD makers do a better job of SID '03 Preview Issue controlling component costs and weathering industry downturns. • SID '03 Preview Vinita Jakhanwal • Back to the Future 32 LCDs: Price and Demand • Flexible Displays The seesaw dynamics of the LCD market can be painful, but they are • Color Conference Review an important part of the engine that continues to drive the rapid • Flat Information Display Conference expansion of LCD applications. Review Sweta Dash 36 SMAU2002 INFORM ATION DISPLAY (ISSN 0362-0972) is publi shed eleven Bigger LCD monitors and TVs capture the glory, 15-in. LCD moni times a year for the Society for Information Display by Pali sades Conve ntion Management, 4 11 Lafayette Street. 2nd Floor, New tors begin to look passe- even in the cost-conscious Italian market - York, NY I 0003; Leonard H. Klein, President a nd CEO. and CRTs refuse to go away. EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICES: Jay Morreale, Managing Editor, Palisades Convention Management, 4 1 I Lafayette Street, 2nd Bryan Norris and Michelle Barnes Floor, New York. NY I 0003; te lephone 2 12/460-9700. Send manuscripts to the attention of the Editor, LD. Director of Sales: Joann e Morgenthal, Pali sades Convention Management, 4 11 44 SID '03 Hotel Reservation Information Lafayeuc Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10003; 2 12/460-9700. SlD HEADQUARTERS, for correspondence on subscriptions and membership: Society for Information Display, 6 10 S. 2nd Street, 47 Sustaining Members San Jose, CA 95 11 2; telephone 408/977- 10 13, fax - 153 1. SUB SCRIPTIONS: In formation Display is distributed without charge to 48 Backlight those qualified and to SID members as a benefit of membership (annual dues $75.00). S ubscriptions to others: U.S. & Canada: Merger Mania: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow $55.00 one year, $7.50 single copy; elsewhere: $85.00 one year, $7.50 single copy. PRINTED by Sheridan Printing Company, Alpha, David Lieberman NJ 08865. Third-class postage paid at Easton, PA. PERM ISS IONS: Abstracting is permitted with credit to the source. Libraries are permitted to photocopy beyond the limits of the U.S. copyright law 48 Calendar of Display-Related Events for pri vate use of patrons, providing a fee of $2.00 per article is paid to the Copyright Clearance Center, 2 1 Congress Street, Salem, MA 0 1970 (reference seri al code 0362-0972/03/$ 1.00 + $0.00). Instruc For Industry News, New Products, Forthcoming Articles, and Complete, tors arc permitted to photocopy isolated articles for noncommercial classroom use without fee. This permission does not apply to any Continually Updated Conference Calendar, see www.sid.org. special reports or lists published in this magazine. For other copying, reprint or republication permission, write to Society for Infonnation Information Display 2103 I Display, 6 10 S. Second Street, San Jose, CA 95 11 2. Copyright © 2003 Society for Information Display. All rights reserved. Information DISPLAY A Visit to Kent Editor: Kenneth I. Werner Managing Editor: Jay Morreale Ohio isn't the center of too much these days, but it is Administrative Editor: Dian Mecca the center of liquid-crystal research in the United Administrative Assistant: Ralph Nadell States. It owes that honor to the Glenn H. Brown Contributing Editors: David Lieberman, Liquid Crystal Institute (LCI) at Kent State Univer Bryan Norris, Alfred Poor, Advertising Manager: Jay Morreale sity in Kent, Ohio. Sales Manager: Joanne Morgenthal The LCI was founded by Glenn H. Brown in 1965, and quickly sparked liquid-crystal-related research in the physics and chemistry departments. Grants from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Science Foundation Regional Associate Editors (NSF) helped fund rapid growth and establish LCI as a major force in liquid Allan Kmetz (Americas) crystal research. Agere Systems In 1983, Brown retired. J. William Doane replaced him as Director and had to Berkeley Heights, New Jersey face a serious challenge. LCI had been established as an institute to foster basic, Shigeo Mikoshiba (Asia) collective research, but now the basic properties of liquid crystal were becoming University of Electro-Communications understood and LCI needed a new mission. Doane decided to move the institute Tokyo, Japan into the area of applied research and, in his words, have it "become more tech Alan Mosley (Europe) nologically oriented in order to attract funding." Doane recruited John West, Central Research Laboratories and together they built a technological program centering on polymer-dispersed Hayes, Middlesex, U.K. liquid crystals (PDLCs). In 1985, General Motors licensed the PDLC technol ogy from LCI. The income from the licensing fees, and joint research projects Advisory Editors with GM Research Laboratories and Hughes Research Laboratory, confirmed Carl Machover the success of the applied approach. Machover Associates In the early '90s, with the support of the Governor of Ohio, the Ohio Board of White Plains, New York Regents, and Ohio Senator John Glenn, LCI won an NSF grant to establish the Alan Sobel Center for Advanced Liquid Crystalline Optical Materials (ALCOM), which Consultant became highly regarded and successful. Doane retired as Director in 1996, just Evanston, Illinois as the new Liquid Crystal and Materials Sciences Building - which he had had a Webster E. Howard hand in designing- was completed. The new building is impressive, with eMagin Corp. 22,000 square feet of research laboratories, cleanrooms, a display-manufacturing Hopewell Junction, New York line, classrooms, offices, and support facilities, for a total of 65 ,000 square feet. Ernst Lueder Included is the plush, 150-seat Samsung Auditorium, where I gave my invited University of Stuttgart seminar. (Giving the seminar was my excuse for visiting Kent and the LCI.) Stuttgart Germany LCI's current Director is John West, who received me graciously and is Sungkyoo Lim apparently well on his way to securing funding that will assure LCI's good Information Display Research Center health into the foreseeable future. Choongnam, Korea It is worth noting that LCI is a liquid-crystal institute, not a liquid-crystal display institute. A substantial amount of display work goes on, of course, but other applications abound - from beam-steering to bacterial detection. The presence of LCI on the Kent State campus has stimulated liquid-crystal studies in more traditional divisions, such as the chemistry and physics departments and in the medical school. Also important to the missions of LCI and ALCOM is the spinning off of The opinions expressed in editorials, technology companies. In what turned out to be a very busy day, I was able to columns, and feature articles do not neces visit only two of the 30 liquid-crystal-related companies in the area. The first sarily reflect the opinions of the editor or was Kent Displays, which was founded in 1993 by Bill Doane and the financier publisher of Information Display Maga William Manning (Doane is chief scientific officer). The company is well zine, nor do they necessarily reflect the known for its continuing development and application of cholesteric liquid position of the Society for Information crystal displays (Ch-LCDs), which are reflective, visible in bright sunlight, and Display. bistable, with very low power consumption. While at Kent Displays, I saw a continued on page 40 2 Information Display 2/03 SID Executive Committee President: A. Kmetz lhiji!iii' President-Elect: S. Mikoshiba Regional VP, Americas: M. Anandan Regional VP, Asia: M. H. Oh Regional VP, Europe: J-P. Budin Treasurer: R. Seery Secretary: P. Drzaic The Case for - and against - an Indepen Past President: A. Silzars dent Test Facility for Projectors Directors Bay Area: N. Balram Beijing: B. P. Wang by Alfred Poor Belarus: A. Smirnov Canada: T. C. Schmidt Dayton: D. G. Hopper One day - as I was looking over the latest press Delaware Vall ey: J. W. Parker ill release trumpeting the launch of a new data projector Detroit: R. L. Donofrio France: M. Hareng boasting so many zillion "ANSI" lumens -I was Hong Kong: H. Leung struck by a vision. In order to get brightness specifi India: K. R. Sarma Japan: M. Maeda cations that buyers can trust, why not create an inde Korea: M. K. Han Los Angeles: P. C. Baron pendent testing lab that will test new projectors and give them a "seal of Mid-Atlantic: A. Ghosh approval" brightness rating? Wouldn't this be a great idea? And after some Mid-Europe: J.