Presenter: Clay Shepherd
, Advanced Display Consulting, Palo Alto, California & Tokyo, Japan
Abstract: LCD technology remains dominant in virtually every display market, and OLED display technology is rapidly maturing in selected applications, including smartphone and TV. Meanwhile, newly emerging MicroLED technology outperforms LCD and OLED technologies in all display performance parameters, including efficacy (power consumption), luminance, response time, operating temperature range, lifespan and resistance to moisture and oxygen.
However, the manufacturability and cost competitiveness of MicroLED displays remain a significant concern, and it remains to be seen the degree to which they will be adopted in the display market, particularly in consumer applications. Accordingly, MicroLED display manufacturing cost economics and benchmarking are critical to understanding how MicroLED display technology will potentially compete against LCD and OLED technologies, in what applications and how it can best be positioned in the display market.
This presentation will review author’s assessment of the potential for MicroLED displays, taking into account their production costs in direct-view display applications and providing insights on MicroLED display technology supply chain and market opportunities. Specifically, the presentation will discuss the enabling MicroLED manufacturing technologies and explore the projected production cost economics in premium TV display applications, benchmarking manufacturing costs vs. OLED and QLED technologies.
Bio: Clay Shepherd has devoted his professional career to the semiconductor device and flat-panel display and related manufacturing industries, in the process gathering diverse functional experience and making significant professional contributions to research, engineering, sales, marketing, product management, operations and new technology development.
Early in his career, Clay worked in Japan with Hitachi Central Research Laboratory and Tokyo Electron Ltd. His later employment also included stints at international corporations including Applied Materials, Seiko Epson Corporation, and Philips N.V., as well as two startup companies.
Clay has worked extensively to further the industrialization of advanced flat-panel display technologies at places like the Philips N.V. components division, where he worked as the manager for display manufacturing technology to improve manufacturing operations and evaluate business opportunities for new display technologies. He later consulted and worked full time for Cambridge Display Technology, to promote the development and to license of its OLED technology in Asia.
Clay has worked since 2003 as an independent consultant in positioning, promoting and supporting emerging as well as next-generation display manufacturing technologies throughout the supply chain. Since 2011, he has worked as a part-time professor at Yamagata University’s Research Center for Organic Electronics (ROEL) in Japan. Clay earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of California, Berkeley; and a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering and engineering management from Stanford University. He resides in both the U.S. and Japan and is fluent in the Japanese language.
