Oxide TFTs: A Progress Report

摘要

Oxide thin-film-transistor (TFT) products are a recent development. The path toward commercialization began in the spring of 2012, with Sharp's announcement that Gen 8 Kameyama Plant No. 2 would be retrofitted to the production of indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) LCD panels for tablets, high-resolution notebook PCs, and monitors. Sharp's first IGZO product was the Aquos Phone Zeta SH-02E, appearing (in Japan) in the fall of 2012. In early 2013, LG Display began taking pre-orders (in South Korea) for its 55-in. OLED TV, which employed an IGZO-TFT backplane. In retrospect, the period of early commercialization of oxide TFTs that occurred between spring 2012 and fall 2014 can be characterized as a time of high expectations, over-promising while under-delivering, skepticism, hype, over-optimistic timelines, misinformation, excitement, apprehension, giddiness, and confusion. Thus, in all respects the introduction of oxide-TFT technology was a "situation normal" rollout.