DuPont Expands Display Work In Asia

SAN FRANCISCO — DuPont is focusing on Asia for next-generation display technologies.

During the Society of Display Information conference here, the company announced the opening of the DuPont Korea Technology Center in Seoul and a LCD fab extension in Shenzhen, China.

The Korean center will initially focus on basic research and applications development in materials for flat panel displays. Projects are already in progress.

"These labs will, and have already, become a valuable extension of the groundbreaking science that DuPont performs at the Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware," said DuPont Research Director Steven Freilich. "It will provide research activities and scientific services to the corporation in a way that better enables global collaboration."

Dupont also announced that it has begun construction on a second line of LCD products in Shenzhen. The new line will more than double the company's direct bonding production capacity and cleanroom space in China. Direct bonding of an antireflective glass or filter element directly onto the front of an LCD increases a display's durability and readability.

DuPont's first direct bonding production line in Shenzhen was the first of its kind in Asia. The second line is scheduled for startup in the fourth quarter, and the company plans to launch a third line in 2007.

DuPont, which entered China in the mid-1980s, has 34 wholly-owned and joint venture facilities there. It employs about 5,500 workers in China.