INDUSTRY NEWS

DISPLAY WORKS 2000

Display industry's push to larger panel sizes continues to pull at production yields

Domestic FPD manufacturers will continue to grapple with relatively low yields as the industry continues its push toward larger panel sizes. Robert Pinnel, chief technical officer for the United States Display Consortium (USDC), says a demand for larger displays is fueling a need for substrates big enough to adapt to the new process needs. As next-generation display production increases, though, any chance of yields improving beyond 30% is slim to none, Pinnel asserts.

"There is a demand to increase the size of the substrate on which displays are manufactured in order to accommodate larger displays and not impact productivity," he says. "At the same time, even keeping the same type of displays or the same display size, there's a desire for increased panel size to increase productivity. We're currently manufacturing displays 6 up on a substrate; you can get 9 or even 12. The desire, of course, is to enhance throughput with a reasonably constant level of capital in order to get the cost per display down."

FPD manufacturers in the United States have made only incremental improvements in yields, and the aforementioned trends mean that this slow approach will continue. No yield breakthrough is anticipated in any case. "Nothing dramatic has unfolded," Pinnel replies in response to the question of whether any major advance in yields could be expected within the next 5 to 10 years.

"It's been a case of fighting for every one-tenth and one-quarter percent improvement by working the fundamentals," says the CTO. "I'd love to see a dramatic breakthrough in the industry, to see it work its way up from fighting over the last five years at the 20 to 30% [yield] level to get to the mid-80s, or even to 90% in some cases. But with each new manufacturing generation that grows the panel size there's a step function backwards, and we walk the same curve again. Now the industry is looking at generation four to get the panel size up to somewhere near a meter on a side, and it's probably going to face the same issues."

These issues will be addressed at a manufacturing conference during Display Works 2000, which will be held February 1­4 at the San Jose Convention Center. USDC is cosponsoring the conference with SEMI and the California Display Network, an autonomous arm of USDC. In its fifth year, the conference will cover topics such as improving the ability to manufacture liquid crystal-on-silicon microdisplays as well as defect detection in reflective liquid microdisplays. Another session will address ways to reduce production costs in areas such as parts and materials, equipment, and processes.

Kam Law, senior vice president of Applied Komatsu Technologies, will deliver the keynote address. He will offer an overview of display manufacturing challenges as the industry moves to larger panel sizes and more complex process steps. The speech will take place February 2. Another highlight of the event is the first English-language release of the SEMI Japan Production Cost Saving report, a major Japanese report on LCD cost-reduction strategies.

This year's show will mark the debut of the Display Applications Conference, or Dappcon, which will be held in conjunction with Display Works. Dappcon targets FPD manufacturers, integrators, and sales personnel. The conference is designed to highlight alternative markets and offer a forum for discussing applications, specifications, and product requirements, USDC says. Approximately 5000 visitors are expected to attend both events. More than 90 exhibitors will have booths at Display Works and approximately 25 will show their wares at Dappcon.

The consortium brought in Dappcon because it recognizes that U.S. manufacturers cannot compete in the AMLCD market with Asian producers, who have that segment sewn up. "AMLCD is in the Far East--Japan, Korea, and Taiwan--and that's where it will remain," Pinnel acknowledges.

He says the effort to focus on alternatives to AMLCD manufacturing is an ongoing endeavor. "Absolutely. It's got two things going for it. First of all, it's more of a market pull of the alternative applications that can utilize displays. That's why USDC has become very heavily involved in Dappcon: in order to have that as a draw to what are not just the niche markets, but to broader, large-volume manufacturing areas other than computing that will need displays. Within those we want to identify what the technologies of choice are, other than AMLCDs, that could effectively compete or capture those marketplaces.

"That will help identify and stimulate further work in the U.S. on alternative technologies that could meet those needs," he continues. "A principal area here is moving from manufacturing displays on glass toward making them on plastic in order to accommodate what DARPA is looking for, and that is to have rugged, flexible displays [for military defense use]."

More futuristic uses will have to wait, Pinnel says. "I'm thinking of things more real than the display-on-the-refrigerator application. Certainly, there will be some displays in appliances, but where the evolution of the home information center will go from the PC is still an area of high speculation."

Further information is available at http://www.displayworks.org and http://www.dappcon.org.

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