TCZ Pte. Ltd., a joint venture between Carl Zeiss SMT AG and Cymer, Inc., announced that it has received its first order – for the TCZ-900A, TCZ“s production tool for flat panel display (FPD) manufac…
TCZ Pte. Ltd., a joint venture between Carl Zeiss SMT AG and Cymer, Inc., announced that it has received its first order – for the TCZ-900A, TCZ“s production tool for flat panel display (FPD) manufacture – from a large Korean display maker. The TCZ-900A is used in the manufacture of advanced liquid crystal displays (LCD) and next generation Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) displays for cell phones, laptops and televisions. Combining Cymer“s industry-leading light source technology and innovative optics expertise of Carl Zeiss SMT, TCZ has developed a patented laser crystallization technology which improves uniformity, while increasing throughput and reducing the cost of crystallization by up to 50% compared to current industry standards. “With their dynamic colours and ultra thin-screens, OLED displays are forecasted to be the next big growth engine for the FPD industry,” said David Knowles, president and chief executive officer of TCZ. “Our first order, from a market leader in OLED manufacturing, validates the unique enabling technology of our product.” Laser crystallization, during which a glass plate, coated with a thin film of amorphous silicon, is exposed to a high-power laser that converts the silicon into a poly-crystalline form, used to create the pixel control circuit, is a key step in the manufacturing process for many types of LCD and OLED displays. The TCZ Crystallization System forms a very narrow line focus that is 730mm long, allowing a gen 4 size glass plate (730mm x 920mm) to be processed in a single pass, thanks to the use of a 600W laser, twice the power of current systems. This approach, says TCZ, produces very uniform crystalline silicon material across the entire glass plate, which is needed to support the high-performance OLED pixel circuits.