The 2011 International Meeting on Information Display (IMID 2011) was held concomitantly with the Korean Electronics Show from October 12-14 at KINTEX. Many next generation products from the display industry designed to overcome the recession, caught the attention of the spectators. Components and equipment manufacturers also were busy, enthusiastically showing their new technology to foreign buyers. Korean IT Times highlights some of the biggest and most interesting exhibits from IMID.
The LCD enterprise division of Samsung Electronics showcased a new technology, dubbed ‘Premium LCDs’ and called the next generation display. They showed for the first time, their 17.3inch no-glasses needed 3D notebook screen that detects the viewer’s eye movements to help provide the best 3D definition. The product’s mechanism is simple; by attaching a 120 Hz liquid crystal barrier to the front of the LCD panel, the viewer can enjoy full HD 3D videos with no glasses and no loss of resolution. Also by using the new ‘Eye Tracking’ technology, they solved the flaw of the original no-glasses typed 3D panels, as it is necessary to maintain a certain distance from the screen in order to enjoy 3D videos.
Samsung had adjusted the screen size and resolution of their electro wetting Display (EWD), which is widely recognized as a new technology to replace LCD. The first disclosure of Samsung Electronics 9.7 inch reflective type color EWD revealed that it uses 10 percent less energy than the former displays by using a low frequency drive.
Johan Fennstra, director of Samsung Electronics (Head of R&D in the Netherlands) said, “EWD manufacture overlaps with 90 percent of the original LCD’s factory processes, and recent technologic progress is being made in order for EWD to be commercialized.” He added, “Soon EWD will be available for e-readers and smart pads”. The recently commercialized transparent LCD and the Dual sided LCD, which provides screens on both sides of the panel, were also products that were viewed with great interest.
LG 3D
LG Display also arranged a large booth and showed off their differentiated technology such as AH-IPS, FPR 3D Display, and sleek new designs. The LG display attracted much attention by advertising their excellence in technology using 50 guides wearing T-shirts with the characteristics of AH-IPS written over them and parading the guides all around the exhibits. The LG display booths explained in detail about the highest resolution humans can perceive and the qualities of low consuming electricity. LG Display also provided 4 comparison experience zones to explain the AH-IPS technology. The AH-IPS technology allows no color distortion and is perfect for smartphones. LG display held demonstrations against competing products in 4 fields regarding resolution, surface heating, color reproduction rate, and energy. LG Display also showcased many cutting edge display panels including the world’s lowest energy consuming 47 inch LCD panel for TVs, Shuriken; a panel for ultrathin notebooks, and a panel attached with movement recognition technology.
Merck Advanced Technologies showed a variety of displays such as Smart TVs, LED TVs, electronic paper, Digital Information Display (DID), 3D display, high resolution AMOLED during the IMID 2011. With high tech products and technology they introduced a concept called “The Perfect Pixel’ for the display material field. Juergen Koenig, President of Merck Korea said, “This event is an important occasion to show the progress of technology in the LCD and display components field.” He also added, “We will announce the current technology trend of the display industry.”
IMID Conference
Merck Advanced Technology, in commemoration of 100 years of liquid crystal research, once again selected the winners of the 8th IMID Merck Awards. The awards were given to Yang Shin-hyuk and 7 others in his team for their paper, “Drain Bias Induced Instability Characteristics in Oxide Thin Film Transistors.” Pankaj Kumar and 4 other members also received the Merck Award for their thesis, ‘Direct Switching between Planar and Focal Conic States of a Bistable Dual Frequency Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Light Shutter’. A total of 261 research papers were presented during this year’s IMID conference, 130 Korean papers and 131 foreign papers. This was the first time in 11 years for foreign papers to make up the majority of the conference.
President of KIDS, Kwon Oh-Kyong explained, "GEN8 is the mostly used substrate although Sharp has developed up to GEN10. GEN8 produces 8 of 46 inch LCD screens, or 6 of 55 inch screens. This saves the cost of production."
The president of the Korean Information Display Society (KIDS), Kwon Oh-kyong looked after not only the IMID exhibits but also the academic rounds. At the show, he noted the shortcomings of the mobile display exhibits. “But I am pleased to say that with the increased number of foreign guests and the leading presentations of people in display, IMID has grown into a world class academic conference specializing in display. From next year, we will host the conference independently without any support from the government or the trade shows,” the President of KIDS said.
President Kwon Oh-kyong is also a Provost and Academic Vice President of Hanyang University. While mentioning that the 12th IMID academic meeting will be held next year from August 28th for 9 days in Daegu, he said, “In order to strengthen its identity as a global academic conference specializing in display, we plan to host the IMID in Daegu exclusively next year. We hope to extend the event with more thesis presentations from experts abroad.”
From 2001 to 2007, the IMID academic discussions and exhibits have been held every August at Daegu EXCO, apart from the one time it was hosted at Seoul COEX in 2005. With the upgraded status of Korean display companies, it has emerged as a display exhibition and conference representing Korea. By hosting the academic conference exclusively again next year, it is expected to strengthen the conference’s weaknesses and stand firm as an international display conference.
Why visit display conference in Korea
Dr. Armin Wedel of Fraunhofer
Dr. Armin Wedel represented the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP as a Division Director of Functional Polymers and gave a panel speech and presentation during the IMID conference. At a brief interview he said, “I’ve spoken earlier about organic electronic photovoltaic. Later in the second part, I’ll give a presentation on OLED and evaporation technology. We feel that printing technology is becoming more interesting to handle the production process. Our research is on what we must develop for future production and how we can improve the efficiency of these devices.” Dr. Wedel studied OLED since 1994. He added, “I came from the Fraunhofer Institute, a very advanced research institute in Germany. We are researching for the industry but the display industry is not in Europe or Germany, but rather in Korea. That is why I am here, to make contacts. I seek to speak with companies and all the institutes in Korea.”
Dr. Chin Byung-doo, mananger of IMID Conference and a Professor of Dankook Univ.
Dr. Chin Byung-doo, Manager of the IMID conference, noted the increased number of foreign speakers this year. “For the first time in 11 years, the foreign papers made up the majority of the conference. I myself am a professor at Dankook University in Korea and my students gave a presentation as well. As an instructor, I believe that a conference like this motivates our scholars to strive for excellence. As a manager of the conference, my primary concern is keeping up with the scheduled presentations and this year the operation is running as planned. Japan, China, Taiwan all have their own display exhibitions. Next year we will hold the display exhibition and conference independently rather than as a joint exhibition. We look forward to this change, believing it as a step forward to gain global experience,” said Dr. Chin.
