Display

The 2002 hit movie, Minority Report is the ultimate precursor for the use of touch panel displays today. As you may remember, Tom Cruise’s character is being blamed for a pre-crime that he has not yet committed and manages to stay one step ahead of the police using a multitude of touch panel displays as a control center dashboard with information at the touch of a finger.Today’s reality is not so far removed from this promise of touchscreen technology. Smart phones and tablet PCs are the most prolific applications for touch panel today. A touch interface allows one to interact directly with a display without the use of a keyboard or mouse and is an enabling technology for the mobile display market which will have sales of around 60 million tablets and 500 million smartphones out of a total of close to 1.7 billion mobile phones in 2011 according to published reports. Almost all tablets and smartphones have touch displays, and touch panel penetration in conventional mobile phones will surpass 50% by 2014.

Applied Materials' display technology is the talk of the town in the news this week.   Wired Magazine's May 2011 issue includes an article titled, "How Flatscreen TVs Get Cheaper," which breaks down the science behind flat-panel LCD displays and how Applied Materials' machines print arrays of circuits on sheets of glass and then slice them into screens "like high tech brownies."

Tom Edman, vice president and general manager of Applied Materials' Display Business Group, discusses the enormous growth in demand for mobile computing devices and the quantum leap in mobility made possible by touch panel technology as well as the company's latest manufacturing technology - the Applied AKT Aristo Twin.

It is likely you did not hear about the latest exploits of Charlie Sheen or the recent natural disasters from the evening news on television or from the newspaper. You probably did not buy Lady Gaga’s latest CD at a record store. It is more likely that you are participating in a new wave of information sharing – social networking and media downloading – these are driving demand for mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet PC’s . We refer to this latest shift as the “fourth wave” of demand expansion in the thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD) industry.The history of the cyclical expansion of the TFT-LCD display industry centers on the introduction of popular new display applications that were enabled by ever larger sheets of glass. The first wave being the laptop PC in the mid-1990’s; the desktop monitor in early 2000 and large area TFT-LCD TV’s in the mid-2000’s.The fourth wave is driven by nothing less than the complete transformation of how we buy music; how we read books; how we get the news; how we watch video, television, movies; and how we socially interact with each other.

On exhibit at CES - “Surface PCs"  - a PC with a very large unbreakable screen with touch panel capability.At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, 140,000 attended to check out the 20,000 products being introduced. Luckily, it was a tradeshow, so they don’t actually sell you any of the gadgets, otherwise, I could've really burned a hole in my wallet. Here’s a quick recap of what I noticed at this year’s Gadgets "R" Us.

L to R: World’s slimmest 42” LED LCD TV by LGD; Sharp’s I wall public information display;  71” 3-D LED TV by AUO I am reporting on the last day of the  FPD International/Green Devices 2010 show and several new trends in flat panel displays are repeated around the exhibit hall.Thin is in.  The LG Extreme slim LCD TV is an amazingly thin 1/8 inch and weighs under 9 lbs!  This is accomplished by edge lit LED with local dimming; full HD 1080p resolution and 120Hz refresh rate provide an amazingly sharp picture with high contrast ratio.  The 73 watt power consumption is up to a 40% power savings over CCFL backlighting.  The extreme slim design requires a separate box with the tuner and other TV electronics.

Left to Right: Samsung's Galaxy Tab; Applied Materials' Tom Takeoka, Energy and Environmental Solutions, Advanced Energy Products with Apple iPad; Applied’s touchpanel equipment solutions.A key theme at this year’s FPD International/Green Devices 2010 show was touchpanel applications for mobile devices. These shows are incredible because they are the first place to see new and exciting devices—and to actually hold and demo upcoming ‘hot’ devices.

I am in Makuhari, Japan just outside of Tokyo this week for the FPD International/Green Devices 2010 show, running from Nov 10-12. Applied Materials’ theme at this year’s show is “Display Innovations for a Visual World” and the objective is to demonstrate our technology leadership in thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD) and emerging displays.

I’m sure most of you are aware of the tremendous success of the Apple iPad, which was released in April of this year. There were great expectations and hype leading up to its release, and reported sales so far have more than met the expectations, with more than 10M units expected to be sold this year, and multiple “Tablet PC” products expected to be released by other makers late this year and early 2011.Actually the iPad success is part of a larger trend in display products that has been developing over the past few years, which I call the “Fourth Screen.”