Search

Abstract A huge quantity of end-of-life liquid crystal displays (LCD) is collected, every year, around the world. Nowadays, this equipment is disassembled, for the removal of hazardous components (e.g. the backlight fluorescent lamps), and the resulting panel is stored. The reason is the significant content of valuable fractions (e.g. glass, metals and liquid crystals) and the lack of a recycling process, sustainable from an economic and an environmental point of view. Considering the relevance of this critical issue, the scientific community focused on the development of different recovery strategies, summarized in several available reviews. Nevertheless, the literature has not yet dealt with the technological innovation aspect. With the aim of filling this gap, the present review presents the international patents about LCD recycling, from 1999 to 2017, using the Espacenet platform, that has access to all the most relevant patent databases worldwide. The inventions include a first waste disassembling, followed by the classification of the target fractions and the recovery of metal (e.g. indium, indium tin oxide) and non-metal (e.g. glass, polarizing film, liquid crystal) components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A record is given of the special meeting organised by the UK&I Chapter of the Society of Information Display held at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the RCA announcement of the first Liquid Crystal Display on 28th May 1968. Coming exactly eighty years after the report of the first liquid crystal materials, this announcement sparked interest across the globe, and particularly in the UK, Switzerland and Japan. Presentations of the early LCD history from Hilsum, Schadt and Raynes give insights into both the science and also the process of invention itself. These early contributors are followed by a view from the USA from Bos and representation from the companies Sharp and Merck that helped shape the success of these fascinating and useful materials. Also reviewed are talks on the use of organic semiconductors to drive plastic LCD by Sirringhaus, reflective LCD of Folium Optics, retail signage of Displaydata, as well as a look to the future from LCD competitors from Bodle (Phase Change Material displays) and BOE (OLED). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the drastic growth of the liquid crystal display (hereafter LCD) industry in the last decade, lots of waste glass is being produced. There are three types of waste glass derived from LCD glass manufacturers, LCD panel manufacturers and end-of-life LCD devices. Among them cullet from Lber glass (hereafter E-glass). However, the recycling of waste glass from LCD panel (LPWGCD glass is being recycled into a raw material for commercial electric continuous fi) and end waste glass is limited due to various reasons such as contaminants, toxic components and inhomogeneous glass compositions etc. Despite use of LPWG in the cement industry, it is not an effective form of recycling, considering the characteristics of LCD glass. In this work, to examine the possibility of recycling LPWG in the E-glass industry, several glass batches containing LPWG were prepared. First, some optical properties of the prepared and commercial E-glass were examined. Then, the viscosity and liquidus temperature (T L ) were determined. The effect of LPWG was negligible in the transmission and color of the resultant glasses, considering that commercial bulk E-glass has an emerald-green color due to refractory corrosion. With an increase in the LPWG content, the isoviscosity and liquidus temperatures showed opposite behaviors; the temperature (T W ) corresponding to the fiber forming viscosity (10 3 dPas) decreased, whereas the T L increased. Based on T W -T L , the replacement of 50 wt% of the original E-glass with LPWG was recommended. Additionally, economic and environmental effects were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a new concept, 'production innovation'. In the capital-expenditure-intensive electronic device industry, latecomers from foreign countries often surpass the first mover. This paper explains the factors driving this latecomer advantage from the industry lifecycles. Several studies have adopted the Abernathy-Utterback model to understand industry lifecycles. This research aims to further this discussion through a reappraisal that focuses on innovation types based on the Abernathy-Utterback model, as well as the ideas of Schumpeter and Kirzner. This research observed that production innovation, as it relates to the global supply chain, emerges through product and process innovation and revealed that latecomers are always alert to opportunities to realise this type of innovation. We defined this production innovation as the process by which latecomers seize opportunities offered by newly standardised manufacturing processes to establish new customer markets, create large-scale, highly efficient plants, and reduce costs of materials and facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional control charts, such as Hotelling’s T 2 , are effective in detecting abnormal patterns. However, most control charts do not take into account a time-varying property in a process. In the present study, we propose a parameter-less self-organizing map-based control chart that can handle a situation in which changes occur in the distribution or parameter of the target observations. The control limits of the proposed chart are determined by estimating the empirical level of significance on the percentile using the bootstrap method. Experimental results obtained by using simulated data and actual process data from the manufacturing process for a thin-film transistor-liquid crystal display demonstrate the effectiveness and usefulness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces a novel unified interface design (UID) concept to develop factory automation production manufacturing systems in the LCD industry. In response to the recent needs of smart factory production and integration of manufacturing information for the manufacturing sector, automation technology and systems play an increasingly important role in integrating production applications. The implementation of automation transportation system (ATS) also started off as single systems (material systems) and evolved to incorporate multiple applications and roles (material + information + intelligent management). Since upgrading manufacturing technology, developed UID innovative models integrate manufacturing engineering concepts that effectively integrated system of material and information flow. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the innovative concepts used to implement ATS with UID concepts into integrated production engineering to effectively combine system material and information flow. Through the actual process allows us to identify critical elements that may be emulated or used as a reference for other similar companies or industries interested in developing UID while reducing the risks of failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a life cycle assessment of an organic light emitting diode display for smartphones, in which our research concentrated on generating a life cycle inventory of specialty chemicals and a fabrication process in manufacturing scale. Previous studies to investigate the environmental impact of organic electronics have been limited to organic photovoltaic cells in a laboratory scale fabrication, which prevents understanding of the practical impact of organic electronics. In this study, we computed cradle-to-gate environmental impact of the most commonly used organic electronics today: active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) display for smartphones, through the formulation of new approaches to construct inventories for emerging materials and processes. The approaches for constructing inventories of chemicals and fabrication process involve manipulation of existing inventory with stoichiometry, and application of observed correlation between display area and production cost in the display industry. The environmental impact assessment results communicate that integration of detailed material flow improves data representation of the production of complex chemicals. Additionally, environmental impact per AMOLED display exhibited superiority in global warming potential, when compared with a previous study on a comparative size of liquid crystal display. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the competitive market nowadays shortens the life cycle of products, new products should be designed to meet the customer's demand under a dynamic marketing environment so as to efficiently enhance the product strength of new products with maximization of profit. Hence, the key solution for enterprises to succeed will be the precise evaluation of new product development (NPD) performance, particularly for those who manage to survive in the intensely competitive market in Taiwan. This study is to identify the thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) touch panel industry and then establish an integrated model of NPD performance evaluation for enterprises. Firstly, literature review and interviews with experts are conducted to select the four aspects and 15 criteria as the main factors affecting NDP performance evaluation. Secondly, Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) is employed to identify the interrelationships among those factors. Finally, a Fuzzy theory is applied to resolve the linguistic hedges and an Analytic Network Process (ANP) is adopted to obtain the weights of all factors. A case study is performed to validate the proposed model in a Taiwanese TFT-LCD company. It not only provides the decision maker with a guidance system but also increases the competitive advantages for the TFT-LCD industry to design new products in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As of 2012, LG Display was one of the largest LCD manufacturers in the world. Headquartered in Seoul, Korea, LGD had one R&D center, twelve LCD panel plants, and nine LCD module plants in Korea, China, and Poland. As the head of his company's Strategy and Marketing Center, Senior VP Champ Shin was evaluating one of the most important long-term strategic choices he had helped LGD to undertake in 2004. It was the company's decision to build its first module plant in Europe. In fact, it was the first plant LGD had ever built outside Korea and China. Now he had to assess the performance of the module plant in Europe for the last 5 years since it had started manufacturing in 2007 and report the overall evaluation result to the company's executive committee. Mr. Shin was preparing the report in two parts, one about the decision-making processes in 2004 his team had gone through to decide to build the European plant in Poland and the other about the plant's performance since its construction completed in 2007. In the report, he planned to describe the detailed steps taken by his team when making the decision and the plant's various performance outcomes. Shin thought he and his team had made a good choice, which was evidenced by the excellent performance observed from the module plant in Poland. Believing that his experience in making LGD's first European operations successful would be a valuable lesson for the entire company, Shin already started to chart out the company's next strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The awareness of the need for environmental protection is increasing throughout the world. The focuses of green supplier selection are on considering environmental criteria and strengthening the competitiveness of the entire supply chain. The purpose of this study is to develop a green supplier selection procedure for the thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) industry using polarizer suppliers as an example. First, a decision framework for green supplier selection is developed based on literatures and the supplier audit forms provided by an anonymous flat panel display manufacturer in Taiwan. Then, a hybrid multiple criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) method is proposed based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP), entropy, elimination and choice expressing the reality III (ELECTRE III), and the linear assignment method to assist the manufacturer in choosing among four polarizer suppliers. The final ranking results for green supplier selection and different opinions from each department are provided. An improvement report is suggested to enhance suppliers' performance. For the evaluation procedure, most managers emphasize the importance of current capability and the capability of research and development. Furthermore, we found that the subsidiary supplier should improve quality control competence immediately to be considered as the potential candidate of primary supplier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study investigated the feasibility of producing insulating glass ceramic from thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) waste glass and calcium fluoride sludge by vitrification and ceramization processes. This study also explored the effects of MgO as a modifying agent on the flexural strength and dielectric constants. Five different mixing ratios of waste and MgO were analyzed. The major mixture composition is CaF2–MgO–SiO2–Al2O3. In the experiments, the initial glasses were obtained by vitrifying mixtures and then heating the initial glasses to produce glass ceramics. The mixture in which the proportion of TFT-LCD waste glass to calcium fluoride sludge was 7 to 3, with 5 wt% MgO added, underwent complete densification at a relatively low temperature (780 °C). Compared to other mixtures, its flexural strength (140 MPa) was higher, and its dielectric constant (6.4 at 1 MHz) was lower. With increasing MgO content, the initial glasses exhibited lower crystallization temperatures. The results also indicate that densification is considerably hindered by the onset of crystallization, resulting in a decrease in the apparent density and flexural strength. The results demonstrate that the TFT-LCD waste glass with calcium fluoride sludge as the fluxing agent and MgO as the modifying agent can be used as a raw material for producing insulating glass ceramics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Mother glass production for liquid crystal displays involves the cutting of small rectangles from a large rectangle (strip) to minimize the length of the strip used. This is called the strip packing problem. The main concept for formulating this problem is to generate cutting patterns that can be used to produce items from the strip. This problem is a non-convex mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem due to the bilinear terms in the demand and objective function. To obtain global optimal solutions, this problem should be transformed into several linear forms. Numerical examples based on the strip packing problem in LCD mother glass production are provided. Different objective functions for two problems are presented and compared. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article offers information on the impact of globalization which is supporting transnational mobility of knowledge and talent from Japan to Taiwan. It mentions the Japanese Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD)industry which is spreading the technical knowledge and Japanese talent drain helping in Taiwan's future economic linkage with China. It also discusses several topics including Transnational Talent Diffusion, absorption of Japanese technologies by Taiwanese firms for technological talent and development of domestic manufacturing technology.

Abstract: This paper analyzed the process of the LCD and the industrial structure in the typical countries to reveal the Causality Relationship between LCD and Industrial Structure. First, most of the developed countries industry have experienced the high-carbon period. When the economy evolved to a certain extent, the base level of the LCD increased. And In developing countries, especially in China, the tertiary industry shared a much smaller part in the whole economy system comparing with that of the developed countries. Then, Based on the output of regression analysis, the appreciable correlation between the LCD and the industrial structure was found. Finally, the results of Granger causality tests lead to the conclusion that the tertiary industry of China is the Granger cause of the LCD within 98 percent confidence intervals. It suggests that the industry structure should be adjusted before the LCD, especially the development of tertiary industry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The amount of pollutants produced during manufacturing processes of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) substantially increases due to an increasing production of the opto-electronic industry in Taiwan. This study presents the treatment performance of one aerobic and one anoxic/oxic (A/O) sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) treating synthetic TFT-LCD wastewater containing dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), monoethanolamine (MEA), and tetra-methyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH). The long-term monitoring results for the aerobic and A/O SBRs demonstrate that stable biodegradation of DMSO, MEA, and TMAH can be achieved without any considerably adverse impacts. The ammonium released during MEA and TMAH degradation can also be completely oxidized to nitrate through nitrification in both SBRs. Batch studies on biodegradation rates for DMSO, MEA, and TMAH under anaerobic, anoxic, and aerobic conditions indicate that effective MEA degradation can be easily achieved under all three conditions examined, while efficient DMSO and TMAH degradation can be attained only under anaerobic and aerobic conditions, respectively. The potential odor problem caused by the formation of malodorous dimethyl sulfide from DMSO degradation under anaerobic conditions, however, requires insightful consideration in treating DMSO-containing wastewater. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The present paper addresses an improved low-power high-speed buffer amplifier topology for large-size liquid crystal display applications. The proposed buffer achieves high-speed driving performance while drawing a low quiescent current during static operation. The circuit offers enhanced slewing capabilities with a limited power consumption by exploiting a slew detector which monitors the output voltage of the input differential amplifier and outputs an additional current signal providing slew-rate enhancement at the output stage. Post-layout simulations show that the proposed buffer can drive a 1 nF column line load with 8.5 V/μs slew-rate and 0.8 μs settling time, while drawing only 8 μA static current from a 3 V power supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, controlled low-strength concrete (CLSC) is mixed using different water-to-binder (W/B) ratios (1.1, 1.3 and 1.5) and various percentages of sand substituted by waste LCD glass sand (0%, 10%, 20% and 30%). The properties of the fresh concrete, including compressive strength, electrical resistivity, ultrasonic pulse velocity, permeability ratio and shrinking of the CLSC, are examined. Results show that increases in amount of waste glass added result in better slump and slump flow, longer initial setting time and smaller unit weight. Compressive strength decreases with increasing W/B ratio and greater amounts of waste glass added. Both electrical resistivity and ultrasonic pulse velocity increase with increases in amount of waste glass and decreases in W/B ratio. On the contrary, the permeability ratio increases with increases in W/B ratio, but decreases with greater amounts of waste glass added. CLSC specimens cured for different durations show little changes in length with shrinkage below 0.025%. Our findings reveal that CLSC mixed using waste LCD glass in place of sand can meet design requirements. Recycling of waste LCD glass not only offers an economical substitute for aggregates, but also an ecological alternative for waste management. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the approaches of liquid crystal display (LCD) industry to address the issues of manufacturing strategies and yield management practices. The display market is dominated by LCD technology, which is used in computer monitors and televisions (TV). The LCD factories use technologies that are similar to semiconductor firms for processing thin film transistors. Furthermore, yield management strategies are driven by high resolution requirements for monitors and TV displays.

The authors have developed an LCD overdrive featuring a feedforward driving technique with frame memory reduction. Adapting an image compression technique for the reduction of stored frame image data has resulted in a frame memory which uses less DRAM In this report we discuss a method of suppressing the noise caused by memory reduction when a specific pattern is applied such as a dithering image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to improve yield in the manufacturing process is an important competitiveness determinant for LCD factories. The TFT-LCD contains three major manufacturing sectors: the array, cell, and module assembly processes. The yield loss from the cell process is one of the most critical steps. To increase the cell process yield, more conforming LCD panels must be produced from one glass substrate. The sorter is a robot used in LCD manufacturing systems to achieve higher yield for matching TFT and CF plates. This sorter contains several ports that can transfer CF glasses from CF cassettes to match TFT glasses. In this paper, the Hungarian method is applied to solve the yield-mapping problem with the sorter. This method provides an optimal solution to improve the cell process yield . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author introduces the concept of strategic learning to explain long-run dynamics of strategic behaviors and organizations. Because a firm's long-run adaptation is realized through a series of strategic behaviors and organizational innovations, organizational capability to design effective strategic behaviors and organizational structure is critical for a firm's growth and survival. A series of strategic behaviors is shaped through the stable generation mechanism. Strategic learning is organizational learning that improves the strategic capability of the organization and changes the basic assumptions underlying the stable generation mechanism that structures the strategic behavior design process. Organizations have various levels of knowledge and learn at all levels. The levels of organizational learning interact, making higher order learning such as strategic learning problematic. Distinguishing characteristics of strategic learning are that it is learning without questioning and without unlearning in advance. It starts from a current set of basic assumptions and ends with a new set of basic assumptions. Referring to related literature and a case study, the author describes the process of strategic learning as an intraorganizational ecological process, integrating various levels of learning in organizations and including processes of both strategic knowledge creation and strategic knowledge distillation. He also discusses theoretical and practical implications derived from the strategic learning model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on cutting liquid crystal display (LCD) cost by inkjet printing in the U.S. It is stated that LCD parts require several processes to manufacture and has high manufacturing cost. The move of lowering down consumer prices on products such as LCD, forced manufacturers to find alternatives in cutting the costs. Inkjet printing is one way of reducing the cost of LCD by using molds for printing instead of masks in the exposure process provides huge savings to manufacturers.

The article discusses the holistic strategy employed by panel manufacturers to reduce the exposure cost of lithography in liquid crystal display (LCD) industry in the U.S. Since LCD exposure and lithography processes require higher costs, panel suppliers are expected to increase the adoption of four-mask processes that rely on gray-tone lithography to ensure the continuous demand of LCDs. Meanwhile, technology trend of thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) is presented.

The article focuses on the report of NPD Display Search which indicates potential 11 percent increase in large-area thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panel shipments in the 2nd quarter of 2012.