GE Showcases Wing-to-Wing Materials Solutions for Displays at SID 2006; Company's New Innovative Prismatic Film Boosts Brightness, Hides Moire, and Delivers High-Temperature Performance for Today's Large LCD Screens

Business Wire, June 6, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO -- At the Society for Information Display (SID) exhibition here at Moscone Center from Jun. 4-9, GE Plastics and GE Advanced Materials are showcasing their portfolio of proprietary breakthrough materials solutions for the global electronics industry, including high-performance plastic resins, sheet, and films, as well as silicones and quartz products. In booth 1214, GE is also displaying the world's largest backlight module, which, at 110 inches, features GE's Illuminex(1) diffuser film and plate products to demonstrate their ability to support today's demanding liquid crystal display (LCD) TV screen applications. Further, the company is highlighting the latest expansion of its Illuminex display film portfolio with the addition of new proprietary Illuminex ADF film - a prismatic film that can boost screen brightness by up to five percent while hiding moire and defects.

"GE Plastics is focused on anticipating and proactively solving key display industry challenges, such as the performance requirements of ever-larger LCD screens," said Arlene Borkowski, general manager, Displays & Optical Films at GE Plastics. "As the only major supplier with the ability to integrate resin and optical technologies into film and plate solutions such as Illuminex ADF prismatic film, we are able to provide exceptional brightness, temperature resistance, and blocking of interference patterns. Through our full range of innovative products, we offer display manufacturers comprehensive performance and quality advantages in a range of applications with our diffuser film, diffuser plate, and now prismatic film solutions."

Introducing Illuminex ADF film

New Illuminex ADF film is a prismatic film that provides manufacturers a superior alternative to existing materials for LCD displays. Typical prism films often have issues with moire due to the pitch of the prism film and the pattern of the LCD pixels. Frequently, a top diffuser and/or slight rotation of a typical prism film must be used to minimize moire. GE Plastics' Illuminex ADF film uses a patented, proprietary pattern to reduce this moire effect without having to rotate the film.

GE's Illuminex ADF film features excellent optical properties that are created using proprietary GE coatings applied to a high-quality polycarbonate (PC) optical film. With Illuminex ADF film, customers have achieved improved luminance of up to five percent higher than best-in-class competitors. Illuminex ADF film can be superior in reliability to coated polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film, offering performance in high-temperature and high-humidity environments due its higher Tg (130 C) of the base film. Further, because they hide moire and defects so effectively, Illuminex ADF films may allow manufacturers to avoid adding a top diffuser film, lowering system costs. Use of the new film grades in desktop monitors and other applications are being shown at the GE booth.

GE is also featuring its complete portfolio of Illuminex diffuser films and plates and their use in applications such as televisions, computer monitors, and automotive global positioning system (GPS) displays. These materials provide both top and bottom diffuser film solutions in LCD backlight modules to help enhance performance under demanding environmental conditions. GE's Illuminex diffuser films offer key advantages over traditional PET films by eliminating the coating, which can experience failures from flaking, voids, and scratching of light guides, resulting in poor customer yields. Illuminex diffuser plates used in LCD TV applications can provide an excellent balance of luminance and hiding power in increasingly larger LCD TV applications.

All of GE's Illuminex diffuser products - Illuminex TS2034 top diffuser film, a new bottom diffuser film launching in 3Q 2006, and SS2005 diffuser plate - are combined into a 110-inch backlight module featured in the GE booth. As LCDs continue to evolve, becoming larger and thinner with an increased number of light sources, there is a need for higher performance. GE products help address these requirements, offering a heat deflection temperature (HDT) of 130 C and outstanding performance in high-temperature and high-humidity conditions with these products positioned for larger monitor and LCD TV applications.

In response to growing customer demand, GE Plastics is accelerating manufacturing efforts for its Illuminex product line with film capacity expansions in both 2006 and 2007 at its Nansha, China manufacturing facility. Additionally, through its Global Application Technology (GApT) initiative, GE is adding resources and expanding capabilities at its China Technology Center in Shanghai - and other GApT Centers of Excellence in Asia - to work more closely with customers in the development of next-generation display applications.

In addition, GE continues to innovate through its network of global research centers, on new and exciting emerging technologies. For example, GE's recent addition of a flexible OLED system features a developmental high-temperature Lexan(1) polycarbonate (PC) film combined with a transparent, ultra-high-barrier coating to protect a flexible OLED device against oxygen and moisture damage. This research, jointly funded by the U.S. Display Consortium (USDC) and GE, is designed to address the critical need for plastic substrates that can enable cost-effective, lightweight, flexible organic displays in the future.