DAEGU, KOREA – The International Meeting on Information Display (IMID 2012), hosted by the Korean Information Display Society (KIDS) and the Society for Information Display (SID) took place during August 28 to 31 at EXCO, Daegu. Academic, industry, and business leaders worldwide gathered at the conference to publish results and share knowledge in the information display sector with over 2,500 attendees.The conference featured more than 430 presentations, which included 99 invited presentations, 320 contributed presentations, 12 tutorial presentations, 63 technical sessions, and 3 keynote addresses from Soo-In Cho, President of Samsung Display, Yasuhiro Koike, Professor of Keio University and Henning Sirringhaus, Professor of the University of Cambridge. Tutorials comprised of four sessions provided attendees a chance to study the state-of-art technologies on OLED Lighting, AMOLED, 3D Display, and Flexible displays.
Jin Jang, General Chair and President of KIDS, delivered welcoming remark at the opening ceremony saying that, “IMID has grown substantially since its inception 12 years ago and has been serving as a premiere gathering place for the world’s most talented scientists and engineers from information display industries, universities, and research laboratories. The presence of so many prominent industry forces allows this conference not only to share research papers, but also feature tangible examples from the cutting edge of the industry. The most important reason for getting together in our conference will be a creation of personal leadership. Many opportunities for casual and business conversation are prepared during oral/poster sessions, award, banquet, and other small-group association forming the international community.”
Soo-In, Cho, President of Samsung Display, a keynote speaker stated that, “Mass production of flexible display is expected to be on schedule.” Samsung Display is aiming to develop flexible display this year. “OLED displays, faster, lighter and thinner features with vibrant color, are emerging as leading players in the display market. As OLED has no burn-in effect even with fast video can produce high-definition images, and is lighter without back light, it is perfectly fit for electronics good in this mobility generation. At the global display market expected to reach USD 120 billion this year, TV screen accounts for half the market while mobile display 30%. However, with 26% annual growth expectation, mobile display market will grow to come close to TV screen in 2015. From the technical perspective, OLED made up only 15% last year, with a-Si dominating the mobile display market in 2011, but is predicted to grow to 40% by 2015.
He continued on explaining how OLED will shift the lifestyle and industrial structure. “OLED has been expanding its sphere into electronics from MP3, phone, digital camera, tablets to games since 2006. In the future, with its unique features of flexibility and transparency, they will be applied to diverse industries including advertisement, distribution, publishing, fashion, and architecture, further increasing mobility and bringing about a revolution of electronics design.”
“Current advertisement delivers only one message at a time. OLED, however, will enable to deliver diverse advertisements at the same time along with video showing, enhancing the advertisement effect. For architecture, the exterior glass of buildings will not only improve exterior designs but also deliver contents, realizing smart window. As for publishing, OLED provides portability, child care and unbreakable features.” He presented video to demonstrate the unbreakable feature, which shows intact display even by hitting it with a hammer. “OLED also enables diverse curve and soft car designs and even for fashion items such as bracelet phones or necktie. As the commercialization of CRT reshaped human life in 1921, and LCD led to space revolution with slim design in 1986, OLED starting from 2006 will bring about new lifestyle. Future is closer to us than you expected.”
Together with Cho, Henning Sirringhaus, professor from the University of Cambridge, presented cuttable display, proving that display design can be limitless which can advance the flexible display market. He presented video to demonstrate that thin display using OTFT(Organic Thin-Film Transistor) was intact even by hitting it with a hammer and cutting with scissors. “OTFT excels ITO(Indium Tin Oxide) in technical flexibility and has diverse competitiveness including low temperature process. In this sense, more research should be followed”
“We have been developing technologies based on organic molecule with the goal of attaining flexible displays for electronic paper which you can band and roll up. This is something you can expect to use in electronic reading applications where you want to have a display that is not rigid and also light so that it is large enough to read but is also transportable and convenient. Oxide TFT are some of the elements that you need to realize the fully functional display on a plastic substrate, but there are a few challenges related to that. You cannot make transistor electronics in the same way as you do for a plastic substrate. For example, you can make the electronics at very high temperature but on a plastic substrate that is not possible. You have to make electronics at much lower temperature and require special materials to enable that. As a solution to process oxide, we have been developing organic semiconductor that allows you to make the electronic circuit and electronic transistor at much lower temperature which is compatible with plastic substrate. We have been actively developing flexible display products based on this technology,” he said in an interview with IT Times.
Four sessions of tutorial programs were held on the first day of the conference: OLED lighting technology, AMOLED technology, 3D display technology and Flexible Display technology. Mr. Munisamy Anandan, a former president of SID and President of Organic Lighting Technologies, was invited to give a lecture on “OLED Lighting”, a future technology of lighting.
“The OLED lighting industry is now in batch manufacturing and is expected to be a substantial technology only in 2020 as it has to make a lot of breakthroughs in performance to be on a par with LEDs. OLED (50 lm/W) lighting efficiency is still less than half of LEDs (120 lm/W), and its life span is only 10,000 hours compared to LEDs, 50,000 hours. LEDs are so far ten times brighter than OLEDs."
“OLED lighting also has many attractive characteristics which will allow it to dominate the market in the future. OLEDs do not need any fixtures to add on. Unlike LEDs, which are small point sources, OLEDs are by itself a sheet of light and provide a diffuse area light source. OLED lighting does not need heat sink unlike LEDs that generates heat and thus needs extra cooling. For this reason, OLEDs cost less, are thinner and lighter than LED. On top of this, the color of OLED lamps is also more stable than LEDs. Even though you increase brightness, it is still white, while the color of LED becomes bluish white. The biggest advantage of OLED lightings, however, is its flexibility which allows a variety of designs such as roll-up lighting.”
As a former president of SID and continuous supporter of IMID, he stated that, “With increasing quality speakers and papers, IMID has grown to the second largest display conference worldwide follow SID Display Week. KIDS has better display activities compared to any other societies. Both organizations have long maintained a good relationship and many of KIDS’ board members also belong to SID. A unique feature of IMID 2012 is its strong encouragement to promote student research by providing Student Travel Grants for students who present outstanding achievement. This helps technologies advance and allows the next generation to begin taking over.” For the future display technologies, he stated that, “It will be flexible display, glass-free 3D, touch sensor display and electro wetting e-paper, some of them will be in the marketplace in three to four years.”
This year, the IT Convergence EXPO Korea 2012 (ITCE) and International LED & Display Expo (LED+) were held from August 29 to 31 at the same venue to allow participants to experience the latest trends and the diverse technological features of the display industry. 115 companies participated and 11,000 people, including 600 international buyers visited the Expo during the three-day periods.
