Standards for information displays

Standards ... ???

SEMI Europe is linked to the international SEMI association with very strong activities in display materials and equipment standards making, especially in the Asian chapters. SOA has a reverse membership with the US VESA organization issuing standards in the display electronics and metrology field. Both organisations and VDMA have established links to national and international standardization bodies. Standardization experts are active within the membership of the organisations or even as staff. This fact will be applied to compile a condensed view on existing display standards on one hand and to get timely updates on developments and changes in the display standardisation field.

SEMI, SOA and VDMA-DFF form the standards task force. With their strong involvement in standards making, SEMI Europe is the task force leader.

The work package is divided in two distinct areas:

Manufacturing Equipment & Materials and Recycling Standards,
Metrology, Ergonomics & Design Standards.

Standards !!!

Since the technology roadmapping process can also help to identify gaps in standards making, the standardisation activities within adria are combined with the roadmapping activities (i.e. roadmapping workshop meetings as well as web-based input to roadmaps). Two working groups for standards in the two areas mentioned above have been established attached to the working groups for roadmapping, thus making use of the expertise condensed there. Therefore, the working group meetings are held in conjunction with the regular roadmapping workshop meetings. Also here, contributions in kind from experts in the field are expected at a high level.

The need for new standards in emerging display technology and application fields has been identified, also through close interaction with the roadmapping activities in WP2. The research and technology roadmaps (WP2) are related to the standardisation reports (see deliverables D.4.1 - D.4.3), being a "European view" on the standardisation items identified before. The working group also identifies the relevant international standardisation committees that can possibly be influenced. Furthermore, training workshops in WP3 can also address standards and their application. It should be emphasized explicitly that it is not intended to create a new standardisation body within adria, or to create own standards.

Even if there are more than hundred standard organisations worldwide involved in FPD standards, there is still a lack of standards in the flat panel displays industry. Despite the large number of organisations claiming to have display-related standards, there are actually very few such standards. Most applications are without display-related standards like automotive, digital still cameras, video cameras… Even broadly accepted standards face conflicting guidelines - NTSC vs. PAL vs. SECAM…Emerging technologies are generally without standards, LCD has a few standards; PDP, LCOS etc., are almost without standards.

"If there were no standards, we would soon notice." Standards make an enormous contribution to most aspects of our lives - although very often, that contribution is invisible.

In general: Standards are considered to provide an agreed basis for communication of technical data (on a national and international level), definitions of mechanical, electrical, data and other interfaces ("... to make things fitting ..."), definitions of terminology, letter symbols, measurement and evaluation methods, etc. and thus to make possible an understanding between communicating parties in industry, commerce and daily life.

The adria Report on Standardisation Awareness looks at the state of the art and gaps of international standardisation work and gives recommendations for improvements. Insights in the benefits of standards are given along with examples for existing FPD standards.

European companies should be much more involved in the processes of the creation of international FPD standards and attend the classic standard meetings in Asia (in Japan, Korea, Taiwan). A stronger European voice/ input into the development of international FPD Standards is welcome.

adria Report on Standardisation Awareness

We are very happy to announce that the Report on Standardisation Awareness is now available for all adria members!

The full document can be downloaded in the adria Forum (login required)

Download an executive summary of the report [pdf, 33,9 kB]

Download the table of contents of the report [pdf, 34,1 kB]