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Volume 21 (June 18, 2004)
The challengers who developed the PDP Driver IC (2/2)
Part 2: The early morning meetings begin once again.
Trouble strikes on the brink of mass production.
It was now 2003. The team members were about to learn that the success or failure of the development of a product cannot be known for sure until the new product actually goes to market. At the beginning of February, a problem surfaced with the sample. This problem, which had not come to light during the initial-stage evaluations, had been brought to light just before the start of mass production. The state of the problem was even worse than had been imagined, and top executives felt that it would be impossible to go ahead with mass production as originally planned. However, the development team members were not rattled by this, but rather began to check the entire process from the very beginning.
All of the team members had a strong sense of confidence they had gained through their experience in overcoming numerous difficulties and crises. Since the team had slowly but surely built a deep relationship of trust with their customers, they were able to ask for their cooperation in carrying out analyses and investigations. Just as the development team members expected, it didn't take very long to solve the problem. Moreover, the problem was taken care of just in time to start mass production. In June, they were able to begin full-scale mass production and shipments according to schedule.
On July 2, NEC Electronics won the Advanced Display of the Year (ADY) 2003 Grand Prize in the Display Materials and Components Category for the 192-output µPD16347 PDP data driver IC (Photo 3). The road they had traveled to get to this point had not been an easy one. The tough early morning regular meetings, the all-night shifts, the trouble that occurred on the brink of mass production . . . the trial-and-error process that went on for eight years had been one of tribulation after tribulation. However, winning the ADY 2003 Grand Prize gave the development team members a great sense of achievement and tremendous joy. At the same, however, they felt it was all just part of the process. Now awaiting the team members was a new challenge that was about to begin.
Moving into the future with PDP
Currently, NEC Electronics holds a top-class share in the domestic PDP driver market. However, there is no room for complacency. With the rise of competitors and talk of large-scale capital investment, each and every one of the team members knows that they must continue with their efforts. The competition in the expanding PDP market is growing in intensity by the day. PDP makers-our customers-are aiming toward the achievement of even thinner panels, higher luminance, lower power consumption and further cost reductions. In the future, multi-output products such as 256- and 288-output products will most likely be called for. Moreover, a new type of package technology may also be demanded. To meet these and other requests, NEC Electronics will continue its development of driver ICs (Figure 3).
Prefacing his comment with "This may still be a long way off, but . . .," Takahashi says, "Development is now being conducted on a three-dimensional display PDP." Naturally, a driver IC for these 3D displays will become essential. "I can't imagine anything more fascinating than developing a more complicated driver IC and contributing to the evolution of a new generation of PDPs." The sparkle in his eyes as he said this reflected his burning passion as a true challenger. It can be said that the next chapter in the history of PDP driver ICs is about to be written.
