Busy picture rouses display session

Electronic News, May 29, 1995 by Anthony Cataldo

ORLANDO, FLA.--Emboldened by spectacular sales of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in the portable PC market, flat panel display (FPD) manufacturers here at the Society for Information Display conference were showing signs of branching off into more niche markets as well as areas long considered hallowed ground for cathode ray tubes (CRTs). Meanwhile, Japanese LCD stalwarts and newcomers, shrugging off fears of an LCD supply overkill, are gearing up for a new infusion of both active matrix and lower-grade passive LCDs for the U.S. market.

While the Japanese companies' zeal to boost their market share in the high-volume portable market continues unabated, the same companies are betting FPDs may become more common in applications such as workstations, navigational equipment and instrumentation because of their advantage in size and ever-improving image quality.

LCDs with larger screens, better viewing angles, brighter colors and lower power operation--attributes considered critical to expanding LCDs beyond portable applications--were highlighted at this year's SID conference. These include new active matrix LCDs from Sharp, NEC and late-comers Fujitsu and Mitsubishi.

Some third-party companies also reported strides in improving LCD picture quality in hopes of generating interest in LCDs from market segments such as aviation and the military. Allied Signal introduced thin plastic films which redirect LCD backlight, resulting in better LCD visibility under ambient light. Known as SpectraVue, the solution redirects the backlight into parallel rays that are then dispersed on a special viewing screen, resulting in high contrast at wide viewing angles and reducing color and gray scale shifts. In a similar vein, Motorola and Polaroid said they have developed a holographic reflective material that reduces glare.

Sharp Electronics, which claims 55 percent of the market for VGA-class LCDs and more than 45 percent of the total $4.2 billion worldwide market for all LCDs, is one of several high-volume manufacturers making a bid to grab a piece of the non-portable market by introducting 10.4-inch active matrix LCD with a horizontal viewing angle of 70-degrees and a luminance ratio of 120 candela-per-square-meter, nearly twice the brightness of conventional active matrix displays. Now available, the LQ10D344, is targeting point-of-sale terminals, medical imagining, instrumentation and factory automation and is intended to replace CRTs in many applications, said Joel Pollack, Sharp's display marketing manager. The company also introduced two 11.3-inch displays--the active matrix LQ11DS01 and passive LM80C20P--that can be used in the same notebook package.

On the U.S. front, Three-Five Systems said it had successfully run its first test panels from its new $26 million passive LCD production facility in Tempe, Ariz.--capable of producing 40 million square inches of panels annually. The panels will be used to make custom LCD modules and user interface systems.

Dan Clarke, VP of sales and marketing for Three-Five, said the company has experienced tremendous growth for custom displays because they allow OEMs to differentiate their products and enable new applications. "We're seeing a continuing demand for thin, low-power, lightweight portable devices."

The company, which has experienced a sales growth from $17 million to $85 million since 1990, has tripled the capacity of its Manila facility over 1993 levels. Mr. Clarke said building a plant adjacent to its design center permits greater control over throughput, reduces lead times and limits dependence on Japanese suppliers.

The new plant is also able to produce 10.4-inch panels in high-volume, but the company has not decided whether to compete in that market. "Building large color panels is something we couldn't do before our new facility," Mr. Clarke said. "We think there's so much (OEM) interest that there's probably an opportunity to get a premium for being a U.S. supplier. They know they are now locked into certain suppliers."

NEC is making a push to bring active matrix LCDs to workstations (now dominated by CRTs) by introducing a 12.1-inch XGA LCD panel expected to start sampling in July for $3,900. Frank Eveleno, sales engineer for active matrix LCD products at NEC, said the high resolution and large screen area opens up new opportunities for the active matrix screens. "I think (thin-film transistor) pricing is now becoming attractive enough to where it can be integrated into certain applications, like securities trading and workstations."

NEC, which recently said it would spend $149 million to double its active matrix LCD production at its Akita, Japan facility by yearend (EN, May 22), is also rolling out a 10.2-inch VGA panel and a 10.4-inch SVGA panel, respectively priced at $1,600 and $1,900.

Additionally, the "TV-on-a-wall" concept was again broached at this year's SID by plasma display proponents promoting the display technology as a conduit for high-definition television.

Plasmaco, Highland, N.Y., demonstrated a 640 x 480-pixel, 21-inch plasma display featuring 16.7 million colors, 256 gray shades per primary color and a 160-degree viewing angle. Emerging from a restructuring that wiped out $10 million in debt last year, the company is now under the tutelage of a New York-based venture capital firm and has taken an investment by an undisclosed company with an option to act as a second manufacturing source, said John Antretter, president of the Atlantic Venture Group. The company hopes to beta test the display within the next six months and be in volume production within 18 months, he said. Pricing is targeted between $3,000 to $4,000 for each display.