The display industry is a $50 billion dollar high growth industry of which the optical compensation film market segment is projected to reach $3.1B by 2009. The dominant technology within the display industry is liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and despite the many advantages of LCDs over competitive display technologies, one drawback is that LCDs inherently have poor optical viewing angle characteristics. This means that when viewed from a position other than straight on the picture quality is substantially diminished. With laptop displays this is not such a big issue, in fact the poor viewing angle can be desirable for privacy purposes. However, in order for the LCD industry to begin selling into the home TV market, wide viewing angles are critical. The industry has addressed this problem through the use of compensation films typically made from high performance polymeric materials that have high optical clarity, thermal stability, and mechanical strength. The use of compensation films dramatically improves the viewing angle, contract ratio, and color performance of the LCD.
APS has substantial experience in the development of compensation films. APS co-founders, Drs. Frank Harris and Stephen Cheng, invented a polyimide material that can be solution cast into colorless, transparent film and is a major compensation film used on the market today. APS was founded in part to develop next generation compensation films and has developed new materials and intellectual property in this area. Our focus in this area is on innovative, higher performance optical films that can be produced at lower costs.
