Merck's Success in the Japanese Liquid Crystal Market 

Liquid crystal displays are a key component of the information society. They are found in many places in cars, measurement equipment, portable computers, and portable communication equipment. A typical state-of-the-art active matrix colour liquid crystal display today has a diagonal of 10 in, 550 650 pixels, and costs about US$ 1200 each in industrial quantities. In many products the liquid crystal display is the dominant component in terms of value. Each pixel has it's own transistor control circuit which at the moment uses amorphous silicon thin film transistor (TFT) technology. Very soon, however, polycrystalline silicon will be used instead of amorphous silicon. Since polycrystalline silicon is the same as that used in ordinary silicon VLSI, all other electronic circuits including the CPU can then be integrated onto the substrate of the liquid crystal display. Therefore, very soon, the business of all those companies will be threatened, who at present purchase liquid crystal displays externally, and build a product around it (see also: IEEE-Spectrum, May 1995, pages 62-69).