is Coming to Korea - Korea IT Times

Electronics Special | Electronics 50 Years
Tracing 50 Years of Korea's
Electronics Industry Development
Memoir of TFT LCD
The eighth installment in a twelve-part series - Ed.
President of Korea Nitto Optical
Corporation, Kim Hong-in
A Fateful Meeting
Tokyo, 1990 - a New Project Business
Plan Researcher from Samsung spotted
the strangest yet most incredible device
while visiting NTT Docomo. Not only
was it the first time for him to see the
small flat screen, but this black and white
display also showed a man jumping rope
without an after-image. "This is what they
call TFT LCD," a reporter who accompanied
him to the site said.
When a New Business Plan
Researcher from Samsung
Questioned What Art Thou
When most Koreans were still trying to
get their hands on basic color televisions,
54 KOREA IT TIMES | February 2010
Japan had already shifted their focus to
thin film transistor liquid crystal display
(TFT LCD). Shortly after the visit, the researcher
Kim Hong-in found a venture
company Hoshiden whose technology
strength was equivalent to Sharp. And
Sharp was the number one LCD company
at the time. "1990 was the third year of the
former chairman Lee Gun-hee since his
succession of Samsung Electronics. When
I learned that Hoshiden wanted to have
Samsung as an investor to further develop
their technology, we organized that nation's
first LCD panel exhibition at the
Okura Hotel in Tokyo. We invited the
chairman Lee Gun-hee to this exhibition,"
Kim Hong-in continued, "The moment he
saw the 8.4-inch color LCD screen with
zero after-image, he said, 'This is it!'"
This is IT
Half of the TFT LCD technology is
semiconductor technology. The Golden
Age for semiconductors was the early
nineties for Samsung. During a blind
meeting with Hoshiden's TFT LCD that
led to a prosperous partnership by sharing
the common ground. Meanwhile,
Samsung sought to launch the TFT LCD
Project as the next generation business.
"It is then we learned Samsung SDI, the
Braun tube maker, has already been exchanging
TFT LCD technology with an
American venture company. I suggested
to Chairman Lee Gun-hee to send about
50 semiconductor personnel to Samsung
SDI. However, he envisioned a bigger picture
and encouraged SDI staff and engineers
to join the semiconductor division,"
Kim Hong-in recalled.
Road Taken
Straight from guts and from a scratch,
Samsung started to research and develop
TFT LCD technology one by one. "I returned
to Korea from Tokyo to be in
charge of the project. The engineers and I
stayed up most of the nights at the semiconductor
factory and we succeeded to
make a pilot line within six months. This
is when we were recognized in the global
market as an emerging company. Not only
we succeeded to develop the top quality
semiconductor products and we did it
within a short period of time. Moreover,
we also came up with a TFT LCD pilot
line in six months. This was an inspiration