Direct and Spillover Effects of ATP-Funded Photonics Technologies

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On the manufacturing process side, a major challenge was to reduce manufacturing costs tothe point where commercial applications were economically attractive. The lab-scaleprocesses were labor intensive and had quite high failure rates. The proposed process was“wafer-scale,” that is, manufacturing 50 to 100 or more devices on a single silicon wafer,processed as one unit. However, as shown in Figure 3, the displays have glass, which cover agap in the FLC material, enclosed over a silicon integrated circuit (IC). One major problemwas how to scribe or dice both glass and silicon in order to separate—“singulate” in industryjargon—the multiple microdisplays on the wafer. Traditional liquid crystal display (LCD)manufacturing involved only scribing glass, and traditional microchips involve just silicon.Displaytech wanted to investigate several alternative methods using equipment from variousvendors.Another process focus was improving the edge sealing method for depositing adhesives in thetiny gap between silicon and glass, the “perimeter seal” in Figure 3. Technically, to getbistable behavior, the gap needed to be 1 micron, 10 times smaller than in typical liquidcrystal (LC) displays. So, the sealing process needed to deposit far smaller amounts ofadhesive. Reliably depositing glue for 1-micron spaces, in a repeatable process for high-yield,high-volume manufacturing, turned out to be a significant technical challenge.On the materials side, they hoped to improve the effective lifetime of the FLC materials, inpart through composition and characterization research to overcome electrolytic degradationproblems of FLCs. The bistable property of FLC materials eliminates the need to apply DCvoltage constantly. This has commercial advantages in power consumption, for example.However, in the original composition of the FLC materials, it was difficult to maintain goodbistability over time and wide temperature ranges. Bistable formulations tended to reduceeither switching speed or contrast, both important in commercial applications. Displaytechinvestigated various compounds as components of FLC compositions to improve theseproperties. While the complete multi-ingredient FLC composition developed under ATPfunding is now only used in minor market applications, several of the individual compoundsidentified remain in use in Displaytech’s current commercial applications.PROPOSED APPLICATIONSIn the 1994 proposal, Displaytech envisioned selling the microdisplays to a variety ofmarkets. The hope was that the small-scale, fast-switching characteristics would not onlydisplace conventional CRT tubes in some display markets, but also enable other marketapplications where CRTs and standard LC displays were less than adequate. The mostattractive markets for displacing CRTs, one of the last bastions of vacuum tube technology,were in televisions and computer monitors. Displaytech believed the FLC microdisplays couldbe combined with light sources and optics to make relatively thin, light, yet high-resolutionfront- or rear-projection displays, including high-definition televisions in size ranges up to 60inches and office projectors for computer presentations. They also hoped to enable a majormarket in head-mounted goggles for virtual reality, portable computing, stereo computeraided design (CAD) workstations, medical and industrial hands-free visualization, and 3D16 DIRECT AND SPILLOVER EFFECTS OF ATP-FUNDED PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGIES
FIGURE 3Cross-Section of a Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal on Silicon DisplayPolymidealignment layerFLC materialPerimeter sealAluminumpixel padsCustomsilicon ICEncapsulantConductorFlexible circuit board1 µm LC gapGlassITO coatingSpacer particleCeramic substrateDie attachadhesiveEnd sealadhesiveConductiveadhesiveSource: Displaytechvideo games. Other potential applications Displaytech hoped for their miniature displaysincluded portable wireless communication devices (e.g., cell phones, PDAs, and fax pagers),pocket electronic books, low-cost instant film printers for consumers, fast ultra-highresolutionline-scan medical imaging, and digital pre-press equipment. They also believed thespeed and size advantages of FLC would be useful as input devices in high-capacity, fastaccessoptical (holographic) computer memories. Note that the proposal mentions in passing,but does not envision a major emphasis on, camera or camcorder viewfinders, which turnedout to be the major revenue generator by 2003. Note also that, because the microdisplayswould be only one part of larger complex systems, commercial success in each of theseapplications required parallel innovation, very largely beyond Displaytech’s control, incomplementary technologies. For example, projectors and monitors required longer-life,higher-brightness light sources and lower-loss, lower-distortion optical magnification systems,visual signal processing and addressing microelectronics, and so forth. Holographic memoryneeded, and still needs, better and lower costs along several key fronts: materials for theholographic recording media; information processing algorithms and storage architectures;highly coherent laser sources; and high-speed output detectors. 99. Wilson (2002).Displaytech 17
Page 1 and 2: NIST GCR 06-893Direct and Spillover
Page 5 and 6: AbstractTo evaluate the impact of t
Page 7: AcknowledgmentsThis research would
Page 10 and 11: This report presents the findings f
Page 12 and 13: 6. This case study suggests that ke
Page 14 and 15: 3. Comparison of Displaytech and Un
Page 17 and 18: 1. Introduction and BackgroundThe A
Page 19 and 20: the Department of Defense (DOD), Na
Page 21 and 22: Hence, we consider two additional s
Page 23 and 24: area because many photonics technol
Page 25 and 26: FIGURE 2Worldwide Photonics Compone
Page 27 and 28: TABLE 3.Matched Case Study Firms by
Page 29 and 30: 2. DisplaytechINTRODUCTIONIn June 1
Page 31: significant interest worldwide. The
Page 35 and 36: TABLE 4.Crowded Display Competition
Page 37 and 38: FIGURE 4.Competing Electronic Displ
Page 39 and 40: wafer. For FLC-on-silicon microdisp
Page 41 and 42: FIGURE 5.Within-Market Increase in
Page 43 and 44: FIGURE 6.Estimated ATP Employment E
Page 45 and 46: subtracted the opportunity value of
Page 47 and 48: FIGURE 8.Historic Display Price-Qua
Page 49 and 50: TABLE 6.Estimated Consumer Surplus
Page 51 and 52: TABLE 7.Organizations and Groups Mo
Page 53 and 54: FIGURE 12.Patent Citations to Displ
Page 55 and 56: ColorLink’s pi-cell color switche
Page 57 and 58: FIGURE 14.Geographic Distribution o
Page 59 and 60: competitors, were added by patent e
Page 61 and 62: FIGURE 16.Citations to Displaytech
Page 63 and 64: TABLE 9.Top Organizations and Indiv
Page 65 and 66: FIGURE 19.Corporate Citations to Di
Page 67 and 68: TABLE 10.Corporations Citing Post-1
Page 69 and 70: 3. Comparison ofDisplaytech and Uni
Page 71 and 72: acklights of LCDs; and they are bri
Page 73 and 74: which was to give DuPont access to
Page 75 and 76: FIGURE 20.Timing of Displaytech and
Page 77 and 78: Table 11. Organizations and Groups
Page 79 and 80: FIGURE 23.Patent Citations to Uniax
Page 81 and 82: In summary, together with Uniax ear
Page 83 and 84:
TABLE 12.OLS Regression Results on
Page 85 and 86:
FIGURE 26.Corporate Citations to Un
Page 87 and 88:
TABLE 13.ContinuedTop 25 Individual
Page 89 and 90:
FIGURE 28.Corporate Citations to Un
Page 91 and 92:
4. Findings and ObservationsFINDING
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microdisplays. We cannot fully dise
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TABLE 15.Publication and Citation R
Page 97 and 98:
social ties, distance in the sense
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FIGURE 30.Flowchart of ATP Technolo
Page 101:
government policies, which establis
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• ATP goals inherently involve se
Page 106 and 107:
iv. Suppliers. Three or four on who
Page 108 and 109:
Business Journal of Phoenix, The (2
Page 110 and 111:
Paul, J. (2000), A Brief History of
Page 113:
ABOUT THE AUTHORSTodd A. Watkins is
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Direct and Spillover Effects of ATP-Funded Photonics Technologies

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