lcd panel cost environment factory

Important technical improvements of LCD, such as LED backlighting and wide viewing Angle, are directly related to LCD. And account for an LCD display 80% of the cost of the LCD panel, enough to show that the LCD panel is the core part of the entire display, the quality of the LCD panel, can be said to directly determine the quality of an LCD display.

The production of civil LCD displays is just an assembly process. The LCD panel, the main control circuit, shell, and other parts of the main assembly, basically will not have too complex technical problems.

Does this mean that LCDS are low-tech products? In fact, it is not. The production and manufacturing process of the LCD panels is very complicated, requiring at least 300 process processes. The whole process needs to be carried out in a dust-free environment and with precise technology.

The general structure of the LCD panel is not very complex, now the structure of the LCD panel is divided into two parts: the LCD panel and the backlight system.

Due to the LCD does not shine, so you need to use another light source to illuminate, the function of the backlight system is to this, but currently used CCFL lamp or LED backlight, don’t have the characteristics of the surface light source, so you need to guide plate, spreadsheet components, such as linear or point sources of light evenly across the surface, in order to make the entire LCD panel on the differences of luminous intensity is the same, but it is very difficult, to achieve the ideal state can be to try to reduce brightness non-uniformity, the backlight system has a lot to the test of design and workmanship.

In addition, there is a driving IC and printed circuit board beside the LCD panel, which is mainly used to control the rotation of LCD molecules in the LCD panel and the transmission of display signals. The LCD plate is thin and translucent without electricity. It is roughly shaped like a sandwich, with an LCD sandwiched between a layer of TFT glass and a layer of colored filters.

LCD with light refraction properties of solid crystals, with fluid flow characteristics at the same time, under the drive of the electrode, can be arranged in a way that, in accordance with the master want to control the strength of the light through, and then on the color filter, through the red, green, blue three colors of each pixel toning, eventually get the full-screen image.

According to the functional division, the LCD panel can be divided into the LCD panel and the backlight system. However, to produce an LCD panel, it needs to go through three complicated processes, namely, the manufacturing process of the front segment Array,the manufacturing process of the middle segment Cell, and the assembly of the rear segment module. Today we will be here, for you in detail to introduce the production of the LCD panel manufacturing process.

The manufacturing process of the LCD panel Array is mainly composed of four parts: film, yellow light, etch and peel film. If we just look at it in this way, many netizens do not understand the specific meaning of these four steps and why they do so.

First of all, the motion and arrangement of LCD molecules need electrons to drive them. Therefore, on the TFT glass, the carrier of LCD, there must be conductive parts to control the motion of LCD. In this case, we use ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) to do this.ITO is transparent and also acts as a thin-film conductive crystal so that it doesn’t block the backlight.

The different arrangement of LCD molecules and the rapid motion change can ensure that each pixel displays the corresponding color accurately and the image changes accurately and quickly, which requires the precision of LCD molecule control.ITO film needs special treatment, just like printing the circuit on the PCB board, drawing the conductive circuit on the whole LCD board.

This completes the previous Array process. It is not difficult to see from the whole process that ITO film is deposited, photoresist coated, exposed, developed, and etched on TFT glass, and finally, ITO electrode pattern designed in the early stage is formed on TFT glass to control the movement of LCD molecules on the glass. The general steps of the whole production process are not complicated, but the technical details and precautions are very complicated, so we will not introduce them here. Interested friends can consult relevant materials by themselves.

The glass that the LCD board uses makes a craft also very exquisite. (The manufacturing process flow of the LCD display screen)At present, the world’s largest LCD panel glass, mainly by the United States Corning, Japan Asahi glass manufacturers, located in the upstream of the production of LCD panel, these manufacturers have mastered the glass production technology patents. A few months ago, the earthquake caused a corning glass furnace shutdown incident, which has caused a certain impact on the LCD panel industry, you can see its position in the industry.

As mentioned earlier, the LCD panel is structured like a sandwich, with an LCD sandwiched between the lower TFT glass and the upper color filter. The terminal Cell process in LCD panel manufacturing involves the TFT glass being glued to the top and bottom of a colored filter, but this is not a simple bonding process that requires a lot of technical detail.

As you can see from the figure above, the glass is divided into 6 pieces of the same size. In other words, the LCD made from this glass is finally cut into 6 pieces, and the size of each piece is the final size. When the glass is cast, the specifications and sizes of each glass have been designed in advance.

Directional friction:Flannelette material is used to rub the surface of the layer in a specific direction so that the LCD molecules can be arranged along the friction direction of the aligned layer in the future to ensure the consistency of the arrangement of LCD molecules. After the alignment friction, there will be some contaminants such as flannelette thread, which need to be washed away through a special cleaning process.

After the TFT glass substrate is cleaned, a sealant coating is applied to allow the TFT glass substrate to be bonded to the color filter and to prevent LCD outflow.

Finally, the conductive adhesive is applied to the frame in the bonding direction of the glass of the color filter to ensure that external electrons can flow into the LCD layer. Then, according to the bonding mark on the TFT glass substrate and the color filter, two pieces of glass are bonded together, and the bonding material is solidified at high temperatures to make the upper and lower glasses fit statically.

Color filters are very important components of LCD panels. Manufacturers of color filters, like glass substrate manufacturers, are upstream of LCD panel manufacturers. Their oversupply or undersupply can directly affect the production schedule of LCD panels and indirectly affect the end market.

As can be seen from the above figure, each LCD panel is left with two edges after cutting. What is it used for? You can find the answer in the later module process

Finally, a polarizer is placed on both sides of each LCD substrate, with the horizontal polarizer facing outwards and the vertical polarizer facing inwards.

When making LCD panel, must up and down each use one, and presents the alternating direction, when has the electric field and does not have the electric field, causes the light to produce the phase difference and to present the light and dark state, uses in the display subtitle or the pattern.

The rear Module manufacturing process is mainly the integration of the drive IC pressing of the LCD substrate and the printed circuit board. This part can transmit the display signal received from the main control circuit to the drive IC to drive the LCD molecules to rotate and display the image. In addition, the backlight part will be integrated with the LCD substrate at this stage, and the complete LCD panel is completed.

Firstly, the heteroconductive adhesive is pressed on the two edges, which allows external electrons to enter the LCD substrate layer and acts as a bridge for electronic transmission

Next is the drive IC press. The main function of the drive IC is to output the required voltage to each pixel and control the degree of torsion of the LCD molecules. The drive IC is divided into two types. The source drive IC located in the X-axis is responsible for the input of data. It is characterized by high frequency and has an image function. The gate drive IC located in the Y-axis is responsible for the degree and speed of torsion of LCD molecules, which directly affects the response time of the LCD display. However, there are already many LCD panels that only have driving IC in the X-axis direction, perhaps because the Y-axis drive IC function has been integrated and simplified.

The press of the flexible circuit board can transmit data signals and act as the bridge between the external printed circuit and LCD. It can be bent and thus becomes a flexible or flexible circuit board

The manufacturing process of the LCD substrate still has a lot of details and matters needing attention, for example, rinse with clean, dry, dry, dry, ultrasonic cleaning, exposure, development and so on and so on, all have very strict technical details and requirements, so as to produce qualified eyes panel, interested friends can consult relevant technical information by a search engine.

LCD (LC) is a kind of LCD, which has the properties of light transmission and refraction of solid Crystal, as well as the flow property of Liquid. It is because of this property that it will be applied to the display field.

However, LCD does not emit light autonomously, so the display equipment using LCD as the display medium needs to be equipped with another backlight system.

First, a backplate is needed as the carrier of the light source. The common light source for LCD display equipment is CCFL cold cathode backlight, but it has started to switch to an LED backlight, but either one needs a backplate as the carrier.

CCFL backlight has been with LCD for a long time. Compared with LED backlight, CCFL backlight has many defects. However, it has gradually evolved to save 50% of the lamp and enhance the transmittance of the LCD panel, so as to achieve the purpose of energy-saving.

With the rapid development of LED in the field of lighting, the cost has been greatly reduced.LCD panels have also started to use LED as the backlight on a large scale. Currently, in order to control costs, an LED backlight is placed on the side rather than on the backplate, which can reduce the number of LED grains.

At the top of the diffusion plate, there will be 3~4 diffuser pieces, constantly uniform light to the whole surface, improve the uniformity of light, which is directly related to the LCD panel display effect. Professional LCD in order to better control the brightness uniformity of the screen, panel procurement, the later backlight control circuit, will make great efforts to ensure the quality of the panel.

Since the LCD substrate and the backlight system are not fixed by bonding, a metal or rubber frame is needed to be added to the outer layer to fix the LCD substrate and the backlight system.

After the period of the Module, the process is completed in LCM (LCDModule) factory, the core of this part of the basic does not involve the use of LCD manufacturing technology, mainly is some assembly work, so some machine panel factories such as chi mei, Korea department such as Samsung panel factory, all set with LCM factories in mainland China, Duan Mo group after the LCD panel assembly, so that we can convenient mainland area each big monitor procurement contract with LCD TV manufacturers, can reduce the human in the whole manufacturing and transportation costs.

However, neither Taiwan nor Korea has any intention to set up factories in mainland China for the LCD panel front and middle manufacturing process involving core technologies. Therefore, there is still a long way to go for China to have its own LCD panel industry.

(2 November, 2017) – A major decrease in manufacturing cost gap between organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display and liquid crystal display (LCD) panel is expected to support the expansion of OLED TVs, according to new analysis from

analysis estimates that the total manufacturing cost of a 55-inch OLED ultra-high definition (UHD) TV panel -- at the larger end for OLED TVs -- stood at $582 per unit in the second quarter of 2017, a 55 percent drop from when it was first introduced in the first quarter of 2015. The cost is expected to decline further to $242 by the first quarter of 2021, IHS Markit said.

The manufacturing cost of a 55-inch OLED UHD TV panel has narrowed to 2.5 times that of an LCD TV panel with the same specifications, compared to 4.3 times back in the first quarter of 2015.

“Historically, a new technology takes off when the cost gap between a dominant technology and a new technology gets narrower,” said Jimmy Kim, principal analyst for display materials at IHS Markit. “The narrower gap in the manufacturing cost between the OLED and LCD panel will help the expansion of OLED TVs.”

However, it is not just the material that determines the cost gap. In fact, when the 55-inch UHD OLED TV panel costs were 2.5 times more than LCD TV panel, the gap in the material costs was just 1.7 times. Factors other than direct material costs, such as production yield, utilization rate, depreciation expenses and substrate size, do actually matter, IHS Markit said.

The total manufacturing cost difference will be reduced to 1.8 times from the current 2.5 times, when the yield is increased to a level similar to that of LCD panels. “However, due to the depreciation cost of OLED, there are limitations in cost reduction from just improving yield,” Kim said. “When the depreciation is completed, a 31 percent reduction in cost can be expected from now.”

by IHS Markit provides more detailed cost analysis of OLED panels, including details of boards, arrays, luminescent materials, encapsulants and direct materials such as driver ICs. The report also covers overheads such as occupancy rate, selling, general and depreciation costs. In addition, this report analyzes OLED panels in a wide range of sizes and applications.

More and more manufacturers are using LCD enclosures on dirty, dusty plant floors. With digital signage, management can communicate vital information efficiently to employees with a few clicks of a button.

Deploying an LCD in a warehouse or factory environment involves extensive planning. The same dangers that harm a computer or printer system will also exist for an LCD. Dust, humidity, liquids and temperature fluctuations can wreak havoc on a standard display. Manufacturers recognize the need for an enclosure to house a large commercial monitor, and enclosures are available in various shapes and sizes.

Now more than ever, visual communication is a powerful tool to engage, educate and even inspire employees.Loud machinery and large open spaces with high ceilings can make real-time company communication (via a loudspeaker) a real challenge on the plant floor. Regardless if your goal is to improve performance, increase safety or empower your workforce, be sure to choose the rightLCD enclosure that will keep your message running 24/7.

Liquid Crystal Displays or more commonly known as LCDs are one of the most common electronic components which help us interact with an equipment or a device. Most personal portable equipment and even gigantic industrial equipment utilize a custom segment display to display data. For many portable consumer electronics, a segment LCD display is one of the biggest contributors to the overall cost of the device, hence designing a custom segment display can drive the cost down while also utilizing the display area in the most optimum manner. These displays have the lowest cost per piece, low power requirements, and a low tooling fee too.

At first thought, designing a custom segment LCD might look like a Herculean task, but trust me that it is easier than it seems. In this article, we have summarised and compared the display types and available technologies which are required to construct a custom segment LCD. We have also provided a flowchart that can act as a step-by-step guide while you design your own custom LCD. We have also provided the process we followed, a require gathering sheet we used for communicating our needs to the manufacturer, and a few other data and the quotation we received from the manufacturer.

LCD Bias– It denotes the number of different voltage levels used in driving the segments, static drives (explained later in this article) only have 2 voltage levels or 2 bias voltage while multiplex drives have multiple voltage levels. For example, 1/3 will have 4 bias voltages.

LCDs utilizes the light modulating properties of liquid crystals which can be observed by using polarizing filters. Polarizing filters are special materials that have their molecules aligned in the same direction. If the light waves passing through polarisers have the same orientation as the filter, then the molecules of lights are absorbed by the filter, hence reducing the intensity of light passing through it, making it visible.

A custom LCD is important for maximizing the efficiency of the display area by adding custom symbols and characters. It also helps in reducing the cost and improving energy efficiency of the product. A higher number of custom symbols and specified placement of numerical and alphanumerical characters make the display more informative and readable for the user. This makes it look better than the plain old boring displays we get in the market. Furthermore, we can specify the viewing angle, contrast, and other specifications which can increase durability or give a better value for money for our intended usage.  A typical Custom Segment display is shown below, we will also show you how to design and fabricate the same further in the article.

The LCD display doesn’t emit any light of its own, therefore it requires an external source of illumination or reflector to be readable in dark environments.

While designing a custom segment LCD display, we have the leverage of choosing a lot of parameters that affect the final product. From the color of the display to the illumination technique and color of illumination as well as the type of input pins. Some important considerations we need to take while designing a custom 7 segment display are - the type of display, i.e. positive or negative, illumination method, driving technique, polarising type, and connection method. All these design criteria are explained below:

So, which one should you choose? When the displays are to be used in areas with higher ambient light, we should select positive segment LCD display as it has better visibility than negative segment LCD displays without using a backlight.

As we know that LED displays don’t emit any light, hence to illuminate it and make it visible in a dark environment, we can use different methods of illumination. The most common LCD Illumination methods are compared below:

For displays that need to be used for budget-friendly devices that should be small and rugged, LED lights are preferred for the displays due to the high durability and low cost of operations. For high brightness, CCFL and Incandescent lights can be used.

A polarizer film is the most important component of an LCD display, which makes it possible to display characters by controlling the light. There are 3 types of polarizers that can be used in the LCD display, the properties and difference are given below:

If your products need to be used with a switchable backlight, then trans-reflective reflectors are best to be used for front reflectors. If the device has to be used without backlight, then we can select a reflective polarizer for the back-panel as it gives the best contrast ratio.

If your displays have fewer segments, then static LCD drive is preferred as it is easier to control and cheaper to construct, and has a better contrast ratio. But let’s say that if the number of segments in the display are more than 30-40 then a multiplex LCD drive should be preferred as it has multiple common pins, hence reducing the total number of pins required to drive the display.

Choosing a connector type!!! For the prototyping phase or if you need to connect your LCD display on a Microcontroller directly, a pin type connector is the best and most economical option you have. If you need to connect your LCD display in a final product with a high volume of production which also requires to be extremely durable, but at the same time should not take up a lot of space, a Flex type LCD Connector will work best for you

LCDs have limited viewing angles and when seen from an angle they lose contrast and are difficult to be observed.  The viewing angle is defined by the angles perpendicular to the center of the display towards its right, left, up, and down which are denoted by the notations 3:00, 9:00, 12:00, and 6:00 respectively. The viewing angle of LCD can be defined as the angle w.r.t. to the bias angle at which the contrast of segments is legible.

To improve the viewing angle in an LCD, a Bias is incorporated in the design which shifts the nominal viewing angle with an offset. Another technique is to increase the Voltage, it affects the bias angle, making the display crisper when viewed from a direction.

For example, the viewing angle of a TN type TFT LCD is 45-65 degrees. Extra-wide polarising film (EWP) can increase the viewing angle by 10 degrees, using an O film polariser can make the viewing angles 75 degrees but these come at a cost of reduced contrast.

LCD Control chip or LCD driver chips can be mounted on the flex cable, display, or externally on a PCB. The placement of LCD control chip can affect the cost and size of the display. The 2 most common methods of chip placement are-Chip of Board (COB)and Chip on Glass(COG) which are described below:

We planned to design an air quality monitoring system for which we needed a custom segment LCD panel for an air quality monitoring device. Our product needs to display the following data: 2.5-micron and 10-micron particulate matter (PM) suspended in the air; the units should be in parts per million (PPM). CO2 in the air in PPM along with total volatile organic compounds present in the air in parts per billion (PPB). To make the product more usable, we included time in 24-hour format, Temperature in ºC, Battery status, loudspeaker status, Bluetooth status, and Wi-Fi status. And for some personal touch, we also added how good the air quality in the room is by using 3 different smileys.

We realized that it was impossible to provide all these data in a generic LCD available in the market, thus decided to build a custom LCD for our project.

A step-by-step flowchart is shown below to walk you through each and every step of selecting components and getting your custom segment LCD manufactured.

Since the device was meant to be used inside houses and offices, which are more often than not well lit and protected from environmental conditions, we opted for a positive mode display. For superior contrast ratio and better viewing angle, we chose a Film Super Twisted Nematic Display (FSTN) with a drive condition of 1/8 Duty and bias of 1/4.

Usually, the displays are mounted at a height of 4.5 feet from the ground, thus the viewing direction was selected to be 12"O clock with an operating frequency of 64Hz. We selected a Transmissive polarizer for the front glass and a reflective polarizer for the rear glass so that the natural light can pass through the front panel and the display can achieve the maximum contrast without the need for backlighting and we opted for the pin type connectors as they are easy for prototyping and are suitable for harsh environment with a lot of vibrations and shocks which best suited our purpose.

We mailed our requirements to multiple LCD manufacturers, (you will find a lot of LCD manufacturers on the Internet). Most LCD manufacturers have competitive pricing, and reply within a week. A sample requirement sheet is shown above which a customer needs to fill to specify all the details to the manufacturer.

This is a sample Custom Segment LCD quotation we got from one of the manufacturers. As you can see, the cost is based on the quantity. Higher the quantity, lower the cost. Apart from the cost per quantity, there is one more component called tooling fees. Tooling fee is a one-time fee charged by the manufacturer. It is for the technical design, support, and customization of the product. Customization of PCB or tooling of LCD can drive the tooling price higher or lower.

The tooling time and cost depend on how detailed and accurate designs you sent to the manufacturer. They then send the exact dimensions and technical details of the product they will be manufacturing. Once you confirm the design, they manufacture and ship the product which might take 4-8 weeks to arrive depending on the size of the order and mode of transportation selected.

A custom segment LCD can help you personalize your product while also saving the overall cost of your product. The whole process will take you around 2-3 months, which will include the designing phase, prototyping phase, and getting your custom segment LCDs delivered to your doorstep. Higher ordering quantity will reduce the cost per piece of each unit, thus driving down the cost of your final product.

Foxconn, which received controversial state and local incentives for the project, initially planned to manufacture advanced large screen displays for TVs and other consumer and professional products at the facility, which is under construction. It later said it would build smaller LCD screens instead.

Now, those plans may be scaled back or even shelved, Louis Woo, special assistant to Foxconn Chief Executive Terry Gou, told Reuters. He said the company was still evaluating options for Wisconsin, but cited the steep cost of making advanced TV screens in the United States, where labor expenses are comparatively high.

Rather than a focus on LCD manufacturing, Foxconn wants to create a "technology hub" in Wisconsin that would largely consist of research facilities along with packaging and assembly operations, Woo said. It would also produce specialized tech products for industrial, healthcare, and professional applications, he added.

Rather than manufacturing LCD panels in the United States, Woo said it would be more profitable to make them in greater China and Japan, ship them to Mexico for final assembly, and import the finished product to the United States.

Heavily criticized in some quarters, the Foxconn project was championed by former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican who helped secure around $4 billion in tax breaks and other incentives before leaving office. Critics of the deal, including a number of Democrats, called it a corporate giveaway that would never result in the promised manufacturing jobs and posed serious environmental risks.

Industrial Display Systems provide a wide range of reliable displays from 5.7" to 55" including LCD displays, touch screen panels, outdoor displays and digital signage displays, and a series of industrial monitors including open frame monitors and panel mount monitors, which work perfectly with embedded boards and systems to fulfill various application needs.

Smart factories have entered the manufacturing mainstream. In this environment, intelligent platforms that connect facilities, integrate data with the Internet, and visualize every step in the production process provide a massive competitive edge for producers operating across a wide range of industries. Further actions — analyzing data, adjusting supply chains, and reducing facility failures — can now be efficiently completed using visible data. Technology companies are continually deploying smart systems in their factories.

In LCD factories, implementing intelligent platforms has become the preferred method for monitoring mask aligners. In the past, data acquisition (DAQ) on mask aligners was done with oscilloscopes during the TFT array process. Electronic testing instruments displayed signal voltages as a two-dimensional plot. The waveform was then analyzed for properties such as amplitude, frequency, and rise time. However, while oscilloscopes processed data, they couldn’t capture and display signals. Processing time became dead time and the immediate management of mask aligners during the manufacturing process wasn’t possible. In addition to the difficulties with immediate monitoring, the high price of oscilloscopes was another essential factor influencing decisions to seek out an alternative approach. A brand new oscilloscope often reached the $1000usd range — rendering it unaffordable for many companies.

In this case, Advantech provided a one-stop solution with services. By introducing Advantech’s advanced measurement techniques, LCD factories achieved better system monitoring. Each LCD mask aligner was connected with the DAQ system, which then transferred facility data to the online platform. Devices deployed in this system included Industrial Ethernet switches EKI-5629CI-MB for wired network communication, cellular router BB-SR30310125-SWH for wireless data transmission, Intel 8th generation core i processor compact fanless system MIC 770, analog input universal PCI card PCI-1747U, and machine condition monitoring software WebAccess/MCM.

To provide a customized system with flexibility, the MIC-770 host computer was equipped with i-Module and flexible I/O interfaces. i-Module, an original flexible expansion module that provides 2~4 expansion slots for the PCIe/PCI interface; while flexible I/O interfaces, located in the front panel for convenient cabling, can support various displays, expansion I/O, and intelligent alarm functions to enable diverse machine automation applications. With the modular-design, MIC-770 let users add expansion cards or I/O corresponding to their own factory facility interface and save time on changing the existent interface design.

Several industrial computers were connected to an industrial Ethernet switch, and the collected data was therefore entering the network communication world. The EKI-5629CI-MB Industrial Ethernet switch supported not only Ethernet communication but also ModbusTCP/IP that allowed for seamless machine data exchange and transmission. Its rugged industrial -40 ~ 75oC duration design guaranteed continuous operation in harsh environment. Supporting network redundancy functionality, the non-stop network communication service was stable and reliable.

As the Ethernet switch was in charge of local network connectivity, the SmartFlex LET/LAN cellular router was there for remote wireless connectivity. Equipped with multi-interface design, the cellular router provided connectivity of I/O, serial and Ethernet devices. When the LCD factory status was delivered to the SmartFlex cellular router, it would be then sent to remote control center in real-time without any network infrastructural or geographical limitation.

As an alternative monitoring system, the host installed WebAccess/MCM offering multiple functions such as sensor signal collection, signal analysis, data management, and alert notification. Depending on different situations and managed targets, customers chose different application modes from MCM. For LCD factories, the Scope Mode presented a suitable alternative monitoring system with functions similar to oscilloscopes — including cursor measurement tools, automatic measurement functions which could be triggered under certain condition such as amplitude and frequency, and immediate display of the spectrogram.

As intelligent monitoring platforms increasingly enter the mainstream, companies are rushing to implement them into their factories. In LCD production facilities — where oscilloscope cannot capture signals from mask aligners during the processing phase — data is not collected and analyzed instantly. Due to the high price of oscilloscopes, companies are searching for alternative methods to manage mask aligners. To meet customization needs, Advantech provides a one-stop shop for equipment, including the EKI-5629 Ethernet switch, SmartFlex cellular router, MIC 7500 industrial computer, PCI-1747U DAQ cards, and WebAccess/MCM software. With the host offering flexible expansion modules, high-speed DAQ cards, reliably non-stop network transmission and software supporting immediate monitoring systems similar to oscilloscopes, customers will spend less time on facility management while improving production rates by accessing instantly visible data.

Smartflex LAN wired routers, with their wide operating temperature range and as well as C1D2/Atex certifications, are proven devices which can operate reliably in a variety of harsh environments.

Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) recieved a 2017 R&D 100 Award as well as a Merit in the Special Recognition: Green Tech category for the LCD Waste Recycling System. They were presented both awards at The R&D 100 Awards Gala held in Orlando, Florida on Nov. 17, 2017. See the full list of 2017 R&D 100 Award Winners here.

With more and more electronics in the home and the car featuring liquid-crystal display (LCD) screens, reducing the environmental impact once the devices are no longer used is crucial moving forward.

Research has repeatedly shown the harmfulness of the liquid crystal, indium and other heavy metals which LCD panels contain, but currently there is no suitable model for recycling these panels

Researchers from the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) are working to change that, developing a new LCD Waste Recycling System that is cost-effective, does not produce any waste and will allow manufacturers to save and reuse some of the valuable heavy metals used to create LCD panels. ITRI received a 2017 R&D 100 Award for the technology at the R&D 100 Awards Gala held in Orlando, Florida on Nov. 17, 2017. At the same event, ITRI also received a Merit in the Special Recognition: Green Tech category for its LCD Waste Recycling System.

Liquid crystal—a synthetic chemical with a high unit cost and high stability—is not very biodegradable. Liquid crystal’s structure contains a large volume of benzene rings, fluorine, chlorine and bromine, which if buried, can seep into subterranean water systems and impact ecosystems.

“LCD panels, which are only a few millimeters thick, contain over ten kinds of materials, making their disposal and recycling especially difficult,” Chien-Wei said. “We thoroughly analyzed the characteristics and reusability of each material contained in LCD panels, and designed a logical separation procedure according to the associations between each material, first separating liquid crystal, indium, and glass, and then developing purification technology for each material which enables the reuse of these materials.”

The method begins with a panel-smashing system that shatters the LCD panel, exposing the liquid crystal. The separated LCD panel then enters the continuous liquid crystal extraction system and an agent that can be used on multiple cycles extracts the liquid crystal. The liquid crystal is exposed on the surface of the glass substrate, enabling the system to shorten the processing time by integrating the extraction and purification functions.

The impurity is removed by a salt adsorption method. After the liquid crystal has been removed, the panel fragments enter the indium extraction system and an agent is used repeatedly as a scrub to enable the removal of the indium from the panel fragment.

Extracting liquid crystal from waste LCD panel achieves a nearly 100 percent liquid crystal recovery rate and a 90 percent recovery rate of indium. The process could reduce the production of new liquid crystal, lessening the environmental impact.

“Treating waste LCD panels with this system can transform the panels’ material [liquid crystals, indium, and glass] into valuable, reusable products, not only increasing profits but effectively reducing the production of waste material,” Chien-Wei said.

“The liquid crystals with halogen-substituted aromatics are designed and synthesized for LCD,” Chein-Wei said. “Their production process and their final disposal both cause severe health and environmental impacts. However, people cannot get this information.

“Waste LCD panels are generally disposed of in landfills or by incineration in most countries, due to lack of proper environmental regulation. Without strict environmental regulation, it is difficult to promote new disposal method.”

Current treatment technologies disassemble LCD devices into multiple components and recycle them according to their materials. However, there is no model for treating LCD panels.

If incinerated at high enough temperatures, liquid crystal may transform into CFCs and damage the ozone and if incinerated at low temperatures, liquid crystals may become dioxin, PCB, hydrochloric acid, or hydrofluoric acid, which is harmful to the environment.

To physically process the panels, the panels must be broken down and then added to cement or concrete, which does not remove liquid crystals, indium, tin and molybdenum from the panels. Therefore, the liquid crystals and heavy metals could still enter the environment following rain or washing.

This has led to an increasing number of countries, including Hong Kong and China, to label LCD panels as hazardous waste. This requires future processing of LCD panel waste to be buried on-site, burnt or physically disposed, which increases both the processing costs and the environmental damage.

To test the new technology, ITRI has built a pilot plant that can treat three tons of LCD panel waste per day, producing three kilograms of liquid crystal, 750 grams of indium, and about 2550 kilograms of glass, which can be reused as green construction material or heavy-metal adsorption material.

TRU-Vu offers the largest selection of industrial-grade small LCD monitors and touch screens in the world. Choose from over 125 models of 8.4 inch to 12″ industrial-grade small lcd monitors, including small HDMI monitors, waterproof monitors, Sunlight Readable monitors, 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio, panel-mount and custom displays.

TRU-Vu offers over 235 standard, off-the shelf 13.3” to 19” industrial-grade LCD monitors and touch screens. Industrial LCD monitors offer many advantages over consumer or commercial-grade displays. They are more rugged, have higher shock and vibration resistance and can be modified or customized to meet your needs. Industrial and medical-grade monitors, Sunlight Readable, waterproof, open frame monitors and more.

TRU-Vu offers the largest selection of industrial LCD monitors and large touch screens in the world. We have an impressive line-up of over 175 off-the-shelf industrial LCD monitors with large screen sizes from 21.5" to 75". This includes Medical-Grade, Sunlight Readable, open frame, bezel-less, waterproof, 4K, custom and OEM widescreen monitors, with a wide range of configurations and enclosure types.

TRU-Vu Sunlight Readable Monitors and Daylight Screens (with Optical Bonding) and touch screen monitors are ideal for use in direct sunlight, or in other high-ambient light environments. These outdoor monitors offer 1,000 nits to 2,500 screen brightness. They are ideal for outdoor digital signage, military, law enforcement, amusement parks, way-finding, marine, and more.

Industrial-grade monitors and touch screens with standard brightness (250-350 nits) are ideal for use indoors or in environments without sunlight or bright lighting. We offer waterproof monitors, panel mount monitors, custom LCD displays, private label monitors, Medical Grade monitors, outdoor monitors, 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratio, and more, from 7" to 65" lcd monitor screen sizes.

Our waterproof monitors and water proof touch screens are perfect for use as outdoor monitors, or in industrial settings where high humidity, liquids, and daily wash-downs may exist. Stand-alone or panel mount waterproof enclosures are available in stainless steel, painted steel or aluminum, with protection ratings up to IP68.

Panel mount monitors and panel mount touch screens can be flush-mounted into doors, walls, kiosks and cabinets for improved ergonomics and safety. They are available with standard and high brightness screens, waterproof front face, and 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio, in a wide range of sizes and configurations.

Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) have replaced Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) as the main display devices in recent years. To satisfy the increasing demands, billions of LCDs are manufactured annually. As more LCDs are produced and used, the amount of LCD waste is increasing at an alarming rate. Current treatment technologies can disassemble LCD into multiple components and recycle them according to their materials. However, there is no suitable model for treating LCD panels. Research has repeatedly shown the harmfulness of liquid crystal, indium and other heavy metals which LCD panels contain. As a result an increasing number of countries have classified LCD panels as hazardous waste. Because of this, future processing of LCD panel waste will require on-site burial, burning, or physical disposal, not only increasing processing costs, but also causing environmental damage. This is a huge problem. That is why this recycling technology for waste LCD panels is a kind of revolutionary breakthrough.

The pilot plant handles 3T of waste LCD panels daily, with a liquid crystal recycling rate of 100%, indium recovery rate of more than90% and glass recycling rate of 100%

Liquid crystal is the main component of LCD. It is a chemical with a high unit cost, high stability and low biodegradability. While the harmfulness of liquid crystal is uncertain, its structure contains a large volume of benzene rings, fluorine, chlorine, and bromine, which, if buried, may seep into subterranean water systems and impact ecosystems. Physical processing entails breaking down LCD panels and adding them to cement or concrete, which does not remove liquid crystals and heavy metals from the panels, so they may still enter and harm the environment following rain or washing. Based on environmental and economic considerations, the liquid crystal in the LCD panel should be reused.

To prevent the pollution caused by waste LCD panel disposal, and to control processing costs, ITRI thoroughly analysed the characteristics and reusability of each material contained in LCD panels, and designed a logical separation procedure according to the associations between each material, first separating liquid crystal, indium, and glass, and then developing purification technology for each material which enables the reuse of these materials. Liquid crystal can be reused in new LCDs or liquid crystal smart windows. Indium can be refined as the raw material of sputtering targets. Glass can become a humidity-controlling green building material or heavy-metal adsorption material.

ITRI’s pilot plant can treat 3 tons of waste LCD panel per day of operation, producing 3 kilograms of liquid crystal, 750 grams of indium, and about 2,550 kilograms of glass, which can be reused as humidity-controlling green building material or heavy-metal adsorption material. ITRI’s team uses the pilot plant for technical verification of on-line scrap LCD panels and end-of-life LCD panels. ITRI can build the LCD panel processing center for LCD manufacturers and e-waste recycling companies.

The use of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in user interface assemblies is widespread across nearly all industries, locations, and operating environments. Over the last 20 years, the cost of LCD displays has significantly dropped, allowing for this technology to be incorporated into many of the everyday devices we rely on.

The odds are high you are reading this blog post on a laptop or tablet, and it’s likely the actual screen uses LCD technology to render the image onto a low-profile pane of glass. Reach into your pocket. Yes, that smartphone likely uses LCD technology for the screen. As you enter your car, does your dashboard come alive with a complex user interface? What about the menu at your favorite local drive-thru restaurant? These are some everyday examples of the widespread use of LCD technology.

But did you know that the U.S. military is using LCD displays to improve the ability of our warfighters to interact with their equipment? In hospitals around the world, lifesaving medical devices are monitored and controlled by an LCD touchscreen interface. Maritime GPS and navigation systems provide real-time location, heading, and speed information to captains while on the high seas. It’s clear that people’s lives depend on these devices operating in a range of environments.

As the use of LCDs continues to expand, and larger screen sizes become even less expensive, one inherent flaw of LCDs remains: LCD pixels behave poorly at low temperatures. For some applications, LCD displays will not operate whatsoever at low temperatures. This is important because for mil-aero applications, outdoor consumer products, automobiles, or anywhere the temperature is below freezing, the LCD crystal’s performance will begin to deteriorate. If the LCD display exhibits poor color viewing, sluggish resolution, or even worse, permanently damaged pixels, this will limit the ability to use LCD technologies in frigid environments. To address this, there are several design measures that can be explored to minimize the impact of low temperatures on LCDs.

Most LCD displays utilize pixels known as TFT (Thin-Film-Transistor) Color Liquid Crystals, which are the backbone to the billions of LCD screens in use today. Since the individual pixels utilize a fluid-like crystal material as the ambient temperature is reduced, this fluid will become more viscous compromising performance. For many LCD displays, temperatures below 0°C represent the point where performance degrades.

Have you tried to use your smartphone while skiing or ice fishing? What about those of you living in the northern latitudes - have you accidently left your phone in your car overnight where the temperatures drop well below freezing? You may have noticed a sluggish screen response, poor contrast with certain colors, or even worse permanent damage to your screen. While this is normal, it’s certainly a nuisance. As a design engineer, the goal is to select an LCD technology that offers the best performance at the desired temperature range. If your LCD display is required to operate at temperatures below freezing, review the manufacturer’s data sheets for both the operating and storage temperature ranges. Listed below are two different off-the-shelf LCD displays, each with different temperature ratings. It should be noted that there are limited options for off-the-shelf displays with resilience to extreme low temperatures.

For many military applications, in order to comply with the various mil standards a product must be rated for -30°C operational temperature and -51°C storage temperature. The question remains: how can you operate an LCD display at -30°C if the product is only rated for -20°C operating temperature? The answer is to use a heat source to raise the display temperature to an acceptable range. If there is an adjacent motor or another device that generates heat, this alone may be enough to warm the display. If not, a dedicated low-profile heater is an excellent option to consider.

Made of an etched layer of steel and enveloped in an electrically insulating material, a flat flexible polyimide heater is an excellent option where space and power are limited. These devices behave as resistive heaters and can operate off a wide range of voltages all the way up to 120V. These heaters can also function with both AC and DC power sources. Their heat output is typically characterized by watts per unit area and must be sized to the product specifications. These heaters can also be affixed with a pressure sensitive adhesive on the rear, allowing them to be “glued” to any surface. The flying leads off the heater can be further customized to support any type of custom interconnect. A full-service manufacturing partner like Epec can help develop a custom solution for any LCD application that requires a custom low-profile heater.

With no thermal mass to dissipate the heat, polyimide heaters can reach temperatures in excess of 100°C in less than a few minutes of operation. Incorporating a heater by itself is not enough to manage the low temperature effects on an LCD display. What if the heater is improperly sized and damages the LCD display? What happens if the heater remains on too long and damages other components in your system? Just like the thermostat in your home, it’s important to incorporate a real-temp temperature sensing feedback loop to control the on/off function of the heater.

The first step is to select temperature sensors that can be affixed to the display while being small enough to fit within a restricted envelope. Thermistors, thermocouples, or RTDs are all options to consider since they represent relatively low-cost and high-reliability ways to measure the display’s surface temperature. These types of sensors also provide an electrical output that can be calibrated for the desired temperature range.

Another important consideration when selecting a temperature sensor is how to mount the individual sensors onto the display. Most LCD displays are designed with a sheet metal backer that serves as an ideal surface to mount the temperature sensors. There are several types of thermally conductive epoxies that provide a robust and cost-effective way to affix the delicate items onto the display. Since there are several types of epoxies to choose from, it’s important to use a compound with the appropriate working life and cure time.

For example, if you are kitting 20 LCD displays and the working life of the thermal epoxy is 8 minutes, you may find yourself struggling to complete the project before the epoxy begins to harden.

Before building any type of prototype LCD heater assembly, it’s important to carefully study the heat transfer of the system. Heat will be generated by the flexible polyimide heater and then will transfer to the LCD display and other parts of the system. Although heat will radiate, convect, and be conducted away from the heater, the primary type of heat transfer will be through conduction. This is important because if your heater is touching a large heat sink (ex. aluminum chassis), this will impact the ability of the heater to warm your LCD display as heat will be drawn toward the heat sink.

Before freezing the design (no pun intended) on any project that requires an LCD display to operate at low temperatures, it’s critical to perform low temperature first. This type of testing usually involves a thermal chamber, a way to operate the system, and a means to measure the temperature vs time. Most thermal chambers provide an access port or other means to snake wires into the chamber without compromising performance. This way, power can be supplied to the heater and display, while data can be captured from the temperature sensors.

The first objective of the low-temperature testing is to determine the actual effects of cold exposure on the LCD display itself. Does the LCD display function at cold? Are certain colors more impacted by the cold than others? How sluggish is the screen? Does the LCD display performance improve once the system is returned to ambient conditions? These are all significant and appropriate questions and nearly impossible to answer without actual testing.

As LCD displays continue to be a critical part of our society, their use will become even more widespread. Costs will continue to decrease with larger and larger screens being launched into production every year. This means there will be more applications that require their operation in extreme environments, including the low-temperature regions of the world. By incorporating design measures to mitigate the effects of cold on LCD displays, they can be used virtually anywhere. But this doesn’t come easy. Engineers must understand the design limitations and ways to address the overarching design challenges.

A full-service manufacturing partner like Epec offers a high-value solution to be able to design, develop, and manufacture systems that push the limits of off-the-shelf hardware like LCD displays. This fact helps lower the effective program cost and decreases the time to market for any high-risk development project.