Rebirth of Northland Technology

LCD, everyone is familiar with it, mobile phones, notebooks, TVs, monitors, it has been ubiquitous.

The liquid crystal display was first discovered, invented, and put into practical use in 1961 by the American RCA company.Although the liquid crystal display technology was born in the United States, the real large-scale industrialization was in Japan.

Throughout the 1990s, Japan basically monopolized this lucrative market.Its market share is always higher than 90%, and the highest is 94%.

Why can Japanese manufacturers monopolize this market?

It is the result of the national will, and the joint effect of finance and the technology industry.

1. Industry Association

In 1980, 11 well-known large companies in Japan jointly initiated the "Optical Industry Technology Promotion Association (OITDA)" with the support of the Japanese government to promote the development of optoelectronic technology.

The establishment of the association allows some scientific and technological achievements to be shared among manufacturers, which avoids the repeated investment of various companies in the research and development process.This is also the basic reason why a large number of Japanese manufacturers will emerge in the 1990s while entering the LCD market.

2. Government support for optoelectronics research

In 1979, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan and 16 companies initiated a seven-year photonics basic research project with a total funding of 770 million US dollars.

In 1986, after the completion of this plan, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry established an optoelectronic technology research company on the original basis to conduct basic research on optoelectronic materials.The operation time of this plan was extended for 10 years, and the budget was increased to 820 million US dollars.

3. Enterprises vigorously develop and produce.

Japanese companies focus on the development of production technology and consumer markets.Some large Japanese companies, such as NEC, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), have established their own basic research laboratories for optoelectronics.

From this perspective, Japan’s LCD industry is actually a feast for all Japanese chaebols, backed by the country and market-oriented.

This successful route was later learned by South Korea, Taiwan, and even the mainland.This is also the fundamental reason why these companies can catch up with Japan one after another, and each dominate an era.

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status quo.

At this node in 1991, it was just in the first construction cycle of TFTLCD.

The first generation of TFT-LCD production lines have been put into production one after another. NEC's production line began in August 1990, DTI, a joint venture between IBM and Toshiba, began in August 1991, and Sharp's production line began in the fall of 1991.At this time, three TFT-LCD production lines have been completed and put into production.

Since 1992, manufacturers such as Matsushita Electric and Sanyo Electric will also build their first-generation TFT-LCD production lines.

The first batch, as of 1994, Japan had a total of nine first-generation TFT-LCD production lines put into production.

In other words, the competitor faced by optoelectronics research is no longer the lucky guy in scientific research like Nakamura Heroes, but the collective will of an advanced country, an alliance of semiconductor and electrical giants that has achieved a leading position in the world!

These manufacturers are not only leading in technology and financial strength, but more importantly in the industry chain!In the past two decades, Japan's LCD industry chain has been completely constructed.

In this case, where are the opportunities for optoelectronic research?

Optoelectronics research, during this period of time, even scams and abductions, relying on selling expectations for the future, can be regarded as saving several million dollars.

Even if the profits of the future LED large screens are counted in, how can you dare to confront an advanced country and an advanced industrial alliance with the confidence of tens of millions of dollars?

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The answer is to find the answer from several throne changes in the LCD industry.

Throughout the 1990s, the LCD market was dominated by the Japanese, and they have always firmly controlled this lucrative market.

In response to Japan's factual monopoly in the LCD market, many countries have repeatedly challenged it.

The first to challenge was the United States!

In the early 1990s (it should be 1994), the United States launched a precision attack on Japan from the national level.The first is the implementation of anti-dumping lawsuits against Japanese flat-panel display manufacturers and the increase in tariffs on TFT-LCD.

American companies hope to require trade protection and the government's flat-panel industry promotion plan to ensure American market share in the world.

But this road did not succeed.

American companies at that time were more confident in their own technology.Therefore, on the production line, American companies use a higher percentage of American equipment.

However, many of the devices here are the first time for manufacturers to take risks, and they have never been used in low-generation lines, and it is difficult to achieve a yield level suitable for commercialization.

So this attempt by American companies ended in failure.

The summary given by later generations is that the strategy adopted by the United States is to create its own path, leading to too many immature technologies.

The second challenge is South Korea.

South Korea implements a strategy of concentrating national power to make super investments for innovation

LG Group began investing in LCD panel business in 1987. Samsung’s LCD panel business has never been profitable since 1990, but Koreans have been investing in R&D and process improvement.In 1995, the second-generation lines of the two companies were put into production, which became the symbol of South Korea's large-scale production of LCD panels.

In the various MBA and market analysis of later generations, it is generally believed that South Korea and Taiwan made their counterattacks through the two counter-industry investments.

These conclusions seem to have become a truth, but is the result really so?

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In fact, since the 1980s, Taiwan has been continuously introducing various liquid crystal technologies, even directly from the United States, but it has never been successful.

The same is true in South Korea.As mentioned earlier, Samsung's LCD panel technology did not even make a profit before 1995!

This example of unsuccessful introduction of technology also occurred in the mainland!

In September 1998, Lin Caijing introduced a first-generation TFT-LCD production line (the old line built by DTI in 1991) from DTI Japan at a cost of US$84 million, but it has not been able to break through the bottleneck of low yield, which led to the project Could not be mass-produced.

Nanjing Xinhua Day spent 54 million U.S. dollars to introduce a Gen 1 line (the old line built in 1991) from the Kagoshima plant of NEC in Japan, which was unable to mass-produce after being shipped back to China.

In other words, even if the time came to the end of the 90s, the mainland introduced a production line that has not been successfully built by the Japanese today, but it could not be put into production smoothly!

But only a few years later, on October 8, 2004, the first 5-generation line was put into production in Shanghai (the seventh 5-generation line in the world).

Since then, we have been able to continuously hear the news of the successful introduction of LCD production lines across the country.

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There is a very big secret here!

The 5th generation line can be successfully introduced!And the 1st generation line, no!