Yokohama, Japan - At Flat Panel Display International (FPDI), which ends today at the Pacifico Yokohama exhibition center here, there was more to be seen than exciting individual displays, display technologies, materials, and manufacturing equipment. In addition, several distinct patterns could be seen, which together reveal some of the outlines of a new era for the display industry.

Ken Werner
Senior Analyst and Editor
of HDTV Retailer and
Mobile Display Report

Pattern 1:  As Hugo Steemers (Business Development Manager for the VOIP-focused fabless semiconductor company Marvell) observed, it was clear at FPDI that the major Taiwanese LCD panel-makers have essentially reached technological parity with their Japanese and Korean competitors.  LCD panels from AUO, CMO and CPT looked excellent, and the “Advanced Technology” walls in the booths of these companies looked similar to those in the Sharp, LG.Philips LCD and Samsung booths.  CMO and AUO both showed technology demonstrators featuring adaptively controlled direct LED backlights.

Pattern 2:  The advanced specifications typical of TV panels are working their way down to monitor panels, notebook PC panels, and even cell-phone panels.  Those specifications include greater brightness, faster response time, and wider color gamut.  TMD showed a wide range of LCD modules for lightweight notebook PCs that use edge-lit LED backlight units (BLUs) for ruggedness, power saving and improved gamut.  One example included a Sony VAIO notebook.  Some of these computers will be available for sale in 1H’07, if not before.  Another example was a cell-phone technology demonstration display from AUO that showed response-time compensation (overdriving).

Pattern 3:  The OLED club is getting bigger.  It was no surprise that Samsung SDI had an extensive demonstration of active-matrix OLED displays for cell phones and other portable devices, similar to what was shown at IMID/IDMC 2006 in Daegu, Korea in August and at the Mobile Display Conference in October.  But CMO and CMEL debuted a 25-inch AMOLED made with a low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) active-matrix backplane.  CMEL’s Edward Liu told Insight Media that the panel will go into volume production sometime in 2008.  The demonstration units are being made 2-up on Gen 3.5 substrates, Liu said.  Production units will be made in a Gen 4 or Gen 5 plant, which may be the largest-substrate LTPS fab in the world when it begins production.  CPT showed a 9-inch, 800×480 AMOLED with an amorphous silicon backplane, with the a-Si pixel switching circuits designed by the Canadian company Ignis Innovation.  The backplane has a lifetime of 20K hours before threshold shift exceeds specifications, said Ignis VP Corbin Church, which is significantly greater than the OLED material lifetime to half-luminance.

Pattern 4:  As LCD and PDP panels for TV both get significantly better, the battle between their purveyors continues to heat up. The Advanced PDP Development Center and FHP both mounted side-by-side demonstrations purporting to demonstrate the superiority of PDP-TV over LCD-TV.  There was no equivalent attack mounted by the LCD forces, perhaps because LCD market share in many key product segments is growing, and it’s the PDP makers that feel themselves to be on the defensive.

There’s a lot more to be said about FPDI ‘06, and we will in the coming issues of Projection Monthly and Mobile Display Report.