Date: 26/04/2011

Sharp uses compound semiconductor material InGaZnO in its TFT LCD panels

Sharp Corporation has announced it has developed high performance small- and medium-size LCD panels using oxide semiconductor, InGaZnO (oxide consisting In (Indium), Ga (Gallium), and Zn(Zinc)).
InGaZnO, as a channel material of thin-film transistors (TFTs) helps in realizing light flexible active-matrix flat-panel displays at low cost. InGaZnO is advantageous due to its properties of high carrier mobility in amorphous phase, from the viewpoint of panel uniformity and possibility of low-temperature fabrication of TFTs on flexible (e.g. polymer) substrates. It said in a related paper "Oxide semiconductors whose conduction bands are composed of hybridized s orbitals of post-transition metals can exhibit relatively large carrier mobility in amorphous phases." To read the paper visit,
http://www.electrochem.org/meetings/scheduler/abstracts/210/1596.pdf

Sharp has developed and will commercialize a thin-film transistor using InGaZnO in collaboration with Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. High energy performance LCD panels will be made possible by downsizing the transistor and by increasing the light transmittance for each pixel. Sharp's Ultraviolet induced multi-domain Vertical Alignment (UV2A) tech helped to achieve high display quality small- and medium- size LCD panels. The cost-competitive high efficiency production line will use 8th-generation glass substrates, and will utilize the current Kameyama Plant No.2 production line, with manufacturing to start within this year.