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USDC displays signs of success despite small market share, say supporters

SAN JOSE—Despite its failure so far to spark the creation of the large U.S. industry envisioned by its founders, the United States Display Consortium has done its part to put the American display industry on the world map, asserts a member of USDC's board of directors.

"We consider USDC to be a very successful organization," says Gary Jones, CEO of FED Corp., a manufacturer of field-emission and miniature displays. "It's created a pathway to working with the equipment suppliers and has generated numerous new tools, made by U.S. manufacturers, from projects that might not have been pursued otherwise." Jones made his comments the week following Display Works 98, the third annual collaborative conference and trade show held here January 20—23. The sponsors are USDC, SEMI, and the Society for Information Display.

The company head was one of four participants in a Display Works Q&A session who faced the question of whether the San Jose—based consortium has fulfilled its original mission of birthing a healthy North American flat-panel display manufacturing industry. Reminded later that USDC's organizers had grandly spoken of success in terms of a U.S. industry with a 10—15% share of the global display market, Jones, chuckling, replies: "There were varying opinions among the different companies whether that would be a rational goal. It would have been nice, I suppose. I still think something like that is possible, but it's going to take some time."

The executive points out that most U.S. display producers, with some exceptions, "are primarily in the specialty display business," or related niche markets. "Well over half of our manufacturing members are actively involved in miniature displays," Jones says, adding that these manufacturers could play "a significant part in the overall display industry."

Since its founding in 1993, USDC has begun 33 projects with $48 million funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and $59 million from private industry. Total R&D spending has exceeded $100 million. Last year the consortium signed a cooperative agreement with the Electronic Display Research Association of Korea designed to foster technology transfer. USDC is set to launch approximately six new projects in 1998, according to CTO Robert Pinnell. Market research firm Stanford Resources of Palo Alto, CA, foresees a steady growth curve for the worldwide FPD industry. The industry watcher forecasts the FPD market to reach $15.7 billion in 1998, up from $13.9 billion in 1997. In 2003 the global market will reach $31.6 billion, with computer monitors as the largest segment for FPD use at 67%.

"If you look at the dollar value of what's being produced and look at the research companies that are getting closer and closer to reaching manufacturing status, you can make an argument that it's at least a somewhat successful endeavor," says Ken Werner, an industry consultant and editor of Information Display magazine. Asked whether he believes the members receive a good return on their investment in the consortium, Jones says, "We certainly think so."

On the eve of the Display Works meeting, USDC announced that Three-Five Systems, a Tempe, AZ—based company with the highest-volume LCD manufacturing line in North America, is the latest member to join the consortium. The organization has more than 75 members. Lam Research became the first tool supplier to benefit from USDC backing by adapting its dry-etch technology to FPD manufacturing processes.

"Lam is a big success," Jones argues. "We got them started into it. We ran the program by them, and they made a bid and took on the task of building and delivering the first machine. In the process they discovered there's a worldwide market out there for it."

Called Continuum, the tool is based on Lam's transformer-coupled plasma platform and was developed in partnership with dpiX, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the University of Wisconsin. "Our strategy was to develop a leapfrog technology," says Karl Heiman, Lam's director of product marketing for Lam's flat-panel division. Lam featured the Continuum at Display Works, where Heiman explained its benefits to visitors stopping by the vendor's booth just around the corner from dpiX.

The high-density plasma tool offers display manufacturers two advantages—both related to the industry's sensitive yield concerns—over competing systems, according to Heiman. The first advantage is the system's use of electrostatic clamping on the panel. The "even clamping force keeps the panel cool," he says, unlike contact clamps, which can "create particles, typically polymer, that get into the reactor."

The second advantage of high-density TCP is that its low-pressure operation ensures "a short residence time" for the gas in the reactor, which also reduces particle generation. At low pressure, adds Heiman, "we volatilize the process by-products, which get pumped out." The Continuum was introduced in May 1996, and since 1997 the tool has captured 11% of the etch market for FPDs, Heiman says.

A switch to dry-etch processes eliminates many of the yield-related problems associated with the use of indium tin oxide wet-etch processes in display manufacturing, asserts William Yao, principal engineer and manager for display integration at dpiX. Yao's job as display integration manager is "to put together the process architecture" at dpiX's plant in Palo Alto, CA. He is seeking a solution to the wet-etch problem presented by the use compound targets such as ITO. Yao says that the Continuum tool being used at dpiX "has demonstrated a good ITO process" that presents a potential "way of solving this problem."

The manufacturer showcased a number of displays at its large Display Works booth, including high-resolution AMLCDs, amorphous-silicon x-ray image detectors, and the 7-million-pixel, 14-in. display that launched dpiX. The manufacturing line, which uses Class 1 minienvironments from Asyst Technologies, "is set up to run multiple products much like ASIC manufacturing," says Carl Cobb, the company's general manager for display products. Cobb says that 90% of the equipment dpiX uses is made by U.S. suppliers.

"I think the U.S. display industry is quite healthy and is poised to ramp up quite rapidly," Heiman opines. He adds, however, "I don't believe it will reach the proportion of the market of Korea and Japan for quite awhile." He gives it 8 to 10 years.

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