Sharp transferred some of its shares in Sakai Display Products to SIO International Holdings

Sharp announced that it transferred some of its shares (436,000shares) in Sakai Display Products Corporation, to SIO International Holdings Limited in the amount of 17,170 million yen as of December 28, 2016.

By this transfer, Sharp's voting rights holding percentage in Sakai Display Products will be reduced from 39.88 ％ to 26.71 ％.

Hitachi Chemical releases a quantum-dot film, which is enabled LCD to wide color gamut

Hitachi Chemical announced to release a quantum-dot (QD) film, which is enabled LCD to wide color gamut. The company has introduced manufacturing technology of QD film from Nanosys (USA), which is a giant of QD film；as a result, succeeded to release in a short span of time (1 year).

If this QD film is adapted to LCD, color gamut is greatly wider same as 90 % and over of BT.2020 color gamut standard. By the way, this film can be assembled in LCD panel with some other optical films, PCB, and others at the same time in the LCD module manufacturing process. Therefore, LCD makers don't have to introduce a new manufacturing system.

Fuji Film establishes ink-jet department

Fuji Film announced to establish ink-jet department in Jan 1st, 2017, to expand ink-jet business.

From 2005 onward, the company has bought up IJ head maker (FUJIFILM Dimatix, USA), IJ ink makers (FUJIFILM Imaging Colorants and FUJIFILM Speciality Ink Systems, UK). The company has developed an advanced IJ technology by mixing these IJ head and ink technology and original image processing technology and chemical synthesis technology.

In this time, by establishing ink-jet department, head, ink, and image processing become to be developed with consistency in Fuji film group only.

Japan Display accepts financial assistance from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan

Japan Display announced to accept financial assistance from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), which is a public and private found. Capital value is 75 billion yen at a maximum.

Japan Display acquires ownership of JOLED which is a development company of OLED

Japan Display (JDI) announced to acquire ownership of JOLED which is a development company of OLED by acquirement of JOLED's stock from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), which is a public and private found. JDI will sign a formal contract with INCJ until end of March, 2017. JDI accelerates OLED to market.

V Technology accepts an order of manufacturing systems for FPD from major overseas makers

V Technology announced to accept an order of manufacturing systems for FPD from several major overseas makers. Total order volume is approximate 18 billion yen. By the way, maker name and kind of manufacturing system are not disclosed.

Showa Denko to Establish Monofluoromethane Gas JV in South Korea

Showa Denko and SK Materials (South Korea) announced to conclude an agreement to establish a joint corporation which is to produce and sell high-purity Monofluoromethane gas (CH3F) to be used in the manufacturing process of semiconductor chips.

CH3F is a specialty gas used in the manufacturing process of semiconductor chips for micromachining nitride film by etching. The two parties plan to establish the new company (SK Showa Denko Co., Ltd.) in February 2017, and finish construction of the new plant in August 2017.

Asahi Glass establishes a new production base for TFT-LCD glass substrates in Shenzhen, China

Asahi Glass (AGC) announced to establish a new production base for TFT-LCD glass substrates in Shenzhen, China.

A new company “AGC Advanced Electronics Display Glass (Shenzhen)” will be established jointly with Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Semiconductor Display Technology in 3Q/2017. The glass substrate processing line (the 11th generation) will be installed at the plant. Mass-production is planned to start in 2019.

Kyushu University discovers OLED is degraded by slightly small impurities in the vacuum chamber

The research group of Kyushu University, Fukuoka Industry, Science & Technology Foundation, and Institute of Systems, Information Technologies and Nanotechnologies discovered that durability of OLED device was greatly enhanced by producing at short times in collaborative research with Sumika Chemical Analysis Service. This is reason why slightly small impurities in the vacuum chamber are immixed into OLED device in the evaporation process of organic semiconductor material; as a result, OLED device was degraded.

Idemitsu Kosan expands production capacity of the OLED materials in Korea

Idemitsu Kosan announced its decision to expand production capacity of the OLED materials at its 100% subsidiary Idemitsu Electronic Materials Korea (Paju, Gyeon-do, South Korea) to respond to the expected increase in demand for OLED materials due to increased penetration of OLED displays as well as to install additional evaluation equipment.

Production capacity will be increased from 5t/year to 8t/year. Combined with Omaezaki Factory, Idemitsu Group’s overall production capacity will increase from 7t/year to 10t/year as a result. In addition to evaluation equipment for OLED materials, evaluation equipment for OLED light-emitting devices will be newly installed. Both construction projects are expected to begin in December 2016 and end in the first half of fiscal year 2017.

Showa Denko to Install New Plant to Produce Super-High-Purity Solvent

Showa Denko announced to develop new-grade products to be added to the lineup of its high-purity solvents “Solfine” series, and decide to install a new purification plant to produce the new-grade products at its Tokuyama Plant in Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. Construction of the new purification plant will be completed in May 2017, and the company will be start commercial operation of the new plant in June 2017.

The new-grade products are super-high-purity solvents developed by upgrading purity of existing high-purity solvents which SDK sells under the trade name of “Solfine.” SDK is already selling high-purity solvents mainly as cleaning agents to be used in manufacturing processes of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels and semiconductor integrated circuits. SDK will offer the new-grade super-high-purity solvents mainly as solvents for photoresist for the manufacture of semiconductor integrated circuits.