Technology development and production of flat panel displays in Korea

The Korean display industry, led by the Samsung and LG Group, has been investing more than 3 billion US dollars in the development and production of large bright high-definition liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) and plasma display panels (PDPs) using new fifth-generation substrate glass. Recent developments have been significant and wide-ranging, with brighter and longer life characteristics as well as improving the manufacturing process for lowered production cost. Samsung Electronics has developed the world´s largest 40-in ultra-extended graphics adapter (UXGA) thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD panel for high-definition televisions and engineering workstations, while LG Electronics manufactured a brighter high-definitional 65-in wide UXGA PDPs competing with projection televisions for home theater. Since the first-stage National Research Project for developing TFT LCDs and PDPs was terminated in September 2001, the second-stage Advanced New Research Program for developing more wearable and reliable organic light-emitting diodes than conventional types are proposed by a group of research scientists and engineers working for novel display materials in academia and government-funded research institutes as well as display industries in 2002