SID looks for clarity in the coming display marketplace

SID looks for clarity in the coming display marketplace

At the very end of this month, Display Week, the Society for Information Display (SID) annual meeting, will commence in San Antonio, TX. The main question the group seeks to answer this year is “How can we move forward, given the current economic climate?”

Kicking off the display industry’s week-long gathering on Monday, June 1, this year’s one-day Business Conference a collaboration of SID and market researcher DisplaySearch will focus on opportunities for commercializing display technology in a down market. Mary Lou Jepsen, founder and CEO of Pixel Qi, and Thomas Holder, investment director at Intel Capital, will deliver keynote addresses from their respective perspectives of entrepreneur and investor.

Dubbed one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine , Jepsen will address the challenges of bringing new technologies to market, encompassing technology creation, manufacturing partnerships, customer/applications development, and investment. Intel’s Holder will speak from the viewpoint of an investor looking for both return on investment and a strategic fit with one of the world’s largest technology companies.

Technology keynote addresses will be given on Tuesday, June 2, from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. All three talks center on taking a look into the future of key display technologies, from mainstream to emerging and bleeding-edge.

In his keynote, “LCD’s Future Opportunities with New Technologies,” Dr. In-Jae Chung, executive vice president and chief technology officer of LG Display, Korea, will discuss technological solutions, such as low-resistance copper bus lines and advanced in-plane switching (IPS) technology that can help meet the response-time, driving-rate, and resolution-rate requirements for next-generation displays. He will also delve into touch interfaces, 3-D displays, viewing angle control, and other technologies and applications that may help ensure LCDs’ future viability.

Dr. Yasuhiro Takaki, associate professor for the Institute of Symbiotic and Technology at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, will continue to explore the hot topic of 3-D displays in his keynote “3-D Displays: Present and Future,” beginning with an overview of current 3-D display techniques. The development of a natural 3-D display that would solve the problems associated with traditional 3-D displays, such as visual fatigue and jerky motion parallax, is important for future widespread use of the technology, according to Takaki. Super multiview and high-density displays are natural 3-D candidates, he says, and deems holographic displays ideal, but requiring extremely high resolution.

Martin Jackson, vice president of technology for the Cambridge Technology Center at Plastic Logic, will present a talk entitled, “2010: The Plastic Electronics Display Revolution Begins with eReaders.” It will home in on polymer semiconductors and their readiness, after 20 years of R&D, to change the face of active-matrix displays. Jackson will share how his company is addressing new market opportunities spurred by advancements in digital content, ubiquitous smart phones, a publishing industry in search of transformative business models, and enabling plastic electronics technologies in a new eReader product.

DBEF D3-300 film from 3M enhances an LCD TV’s brightness while cutting power consumption.

Undoubtedly, the exhibit floor will be the best place to see the kind of technology advances the keynote speakers will be talking about. One example will be shown at the 3M Optical Systems Division’s booth, where the company will showcase its Vikuiti DBEF D3-300, dual brightness enhancement film for LCD TVs, The film can reduce power consumption on LCD TVs by up to 37%, without sacrificing image quality. The film in effect recycles polarized light, enhancing viewing angle and uniformity, while cutting the number of light sources needed and eliminating the need for a diffuser sheet.

Richard Comerford

Display Week 2009 will take place Sunday, May 31 through Friday, June 5, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. For more information, visit http://www.sid.org/conf/sid2009/sid2009.html.