JTEC panel on display technologies in Japan

This report is one in a series of reports that describes research and development efforts in Japan in the area of display technologies. The following are included in this report: flat panel displays (technical findings, liquid crystal display development and production, large flat panel displays (FPD's), electroluminescent displays and plasma panels, infrastructure in Japan's FPD industry, market and projected sales, and new a-Si active matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD) factory); materials for flat panel displays (liquid crystal materials, and light-emissive display materials); manufacturing and infrastructure of active matrix liquid crystal displays (manufacturing logistics and equipment); passive matrix liquid crystal displays (LCD basics, twisted nematics LCD's, supertwisted nematic LCD's, ferroelectric LCD's, and a comparison of passive matrix LCD technology); active matrix technology (basic active matrix technology, investment environment, amorphous silicon, polysilicon, and commercial products and prototypes); and projection displays (comparison of Japanese and U.S. display research, and technical evaluation of work)

Portable Computer Technology (PCT) Research and Development Program Phase 2

The subject of this project report, focused on: (1) Design and development of two Advanced Portable Workstation 2 (APW 2) units. These units incorporate advanced technology features such as a low power Pentium processor, a high resolution color display, National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) video handling capabilities, a Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) interface, and Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) and ethernet interfaces. (2) Use these units to integrate and demonstrate advanced wireless network and portable video capabilities. (3) Qualification of the APW 2 systems for use in specific experiments aboard the Mir Space Station. A major objective of the PCT Phase 2 program was to help guide future choices in computing platforms and techniques for meeting National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission objectives. The focus being on the development of optimal configurations of computing hardware, software applications, and network technologies for use on NASA missions

Flat Panel Displays in an Automotive Environment

A study was made of the field of flat panel displays, and their potential application in an automotive environment. Using contemporary display technology, semiconductors and software, a model was developed to fit an existing automotive instrumentation application. The resulting model was critically assessed in respect to the demands of such an application in respect to existing instrumentation methods. The viability and suitability of implementing such a design are discussed as well as its ability to be intrinsically portable and adaptable

Options Under Uncertainty: An Empirical Investigation of Patterns of Commitment in Display Technologies in the Flat Panel TV Set Industry

This dissertation considers fundamental questions about real options reasoning and its application in the face of uncertainty: do firms behave as real options reasoning predicts, and are there performance benefits from its application? The concept of uncertainty is further developed by considering two primary types: technological uncertainty and market needs uncertainty. A qualitative industry level historical case study is performed on the flat panel TV industry, chosen because it exhibits high technological uncertainty and low market needs uncertainty. Real options logic predicts, in such an industry, that firms will develop and maintain technology options until uncertainty is resolved. Firm level case studies for major incumbent Japanese TV set manufacturers and other relevant firms are performed. Comparison across the cases, and between several specific firms is conducted to test and further develop theory. The firms studied are found to generally behave as predicted by real options logic. Evidence from the study does not present a clear relation between options-related behavior and performance. Although this study identifies evidence not holding options can have large negative performance results, firms holding options as predicted by theory did not realize lasting performance improvements. With one exception, firms attempting to leverage technological capabilities into improved market positions were unable to realize durable improvements in their positions. The development and release of flat panel TV coincided with changes in performance for many firms in the industry; however, these performance changes were short lived. By the end of the study period, industry players had generally returned to the trajectories they were previously on. Between-case analysis of several outlying firms in the sample provides a rich and nuanced view of requirements for firms to dramatically improve performance in the face of high technological uncertainty in a market with very large size potential and relatively well-understood customer needs. This research contributes to the empirical literature on real options and is novel amongst academic research in its coverage of the flat panel display history using Japanese sources. Finally, this dissertation includes managerial implications regarding the usefulness of real options reasoning as well as practical issues in its implementation

High definition systems in Japan

The successful implementation of a strategy to produce high-definition systems within the Japanese economy will favorably affect the fundamental competitiveness of Japan relative to the rest of the world. The development of an infrastructure necessary to support high-definition products and systems in that country involves major commitments of engineering resources, plants and equipment, educational programs and funding. The results of these efforts appear to affect virtually every aspect of the Japanese industrial complex. The results of assessments of the current progress of Japan toward the development of high-definition products and systems are presented. The assessments are based on the findings of a panel of U.S. experts made up of individuals from U.S. academia and industry, and derived from a study of the Japanese literature combined with visits to the primary relevant industrial laboratories and development agencies in Japan. Specific coverage includes an evaluation of progress in R&D for high-definition television (HDTV) displays that are evolving in Japan; high-definition standards and equipment development; Japanese intentions for the use of HDTV; economic evaluation of Japan's public policy initiatives in support of high-definition systems; management analysis of Japan's strategy of leverage with respect to high-definition products and systems

JTEC Panel report on electronic manufacturing and packaging in Japan

This report summarizes the status of electronic manufacturing and packaging technology in Japan in comparison to that in the United States, and its impact on competition in electronic manufacturing in general. In addition to electronic manufacturing technologies, the report covers technology and manufacturing infrastructure, electronics manufacturing and assembly, quality assurance and reliability in the Japanese electronics industry, and successful product realization strategies. The panel found that Japan leads the United States in almost every electronics packaging technology. Japan clearly has achieved a strategic advantage in electronics production and process technologies. Panel members believe that Japanese competitors could be leading U.S. firms by as much as a decade in some electronics process technologies

Design and characterisation of a ferroelectric liquid crystal over silicon spatial light modulator

Many optical processing systems rely critically on the availability of high performance, electrically-addressed spatial light modulators. Ferroelectric liquid crystal over silicon is an attractive spatial light modulator technology because it combines two well matched technologies. Ferroelectric liquid crystal modulating materials exhibit fast switching times with low operating voltages, while very large scale silicon integrated circuits offer high-frequency, low power operation, and versatile functionality. This thesis describes the design and characterisation of the SBS256 - a general purpose 256 x 256 pixel ferroelectric liquid crystal over silicon spatial light modulator that incorporates a static-RAM latch and an exclusive-OR gate at each pixel. The static-RAM latch provides robust data storage under high read-beam intensities, while the exclusive-OR gate permits the liquid crystal layer to be fully and efficiently charge balanced. The SBS256 spatial light modulator operates in a binary mode. However, many applications, including helmet-mounted displays and optoelectronic implementations of artificial neural networks, require devices with some level of grey-scale capability. The 2 kHz frame rate of the device, permits temporal multiplexing to be used as a means of generating discrete grey-scale in real-time. A second integrated circuit design is also presented. This prototype neuraldetector backplane consists of a 4 x 4 array of optical-in, electronic-out processing units. These can sample the temporally multiplexed grey-scale generated by the SBS256. The neurons implement the post-synaptic summing and thresholding function, and can respond to both positive and negative activations - a requirement of many artificial neural network models