SID Japan Chapter Celebrates 50th Anniversary

THE SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION Display (SID) Japan Chapter (JC) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and credits much of its success to the strong support of the Society and its members. Established in 1975, SID-JC was the first chapter founded outside the United States.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, research and development related to various technologies, such as electrophoretic, vacuum fluorescent, and large-sized video displays, had been conducted in Japan. Around this time, the development of LCD and plasma display panel (PDP) technologies also begun, with similar research in the United States. In 1972, Dr. Akio Sasaki and several Japanese engineers visited Zenith LLC laboratory in the United States and exchanged information regarding various display technologies.¹ Dr. Sasaki and the engineers felt that this collaboration was significantly important to advance technologies. This led to a discussion on founding a display technology organization in Japan. In 1974, the Japanese scientists and engineers asked SID to participate in their meetings for the purpose of exchanging information. Shortly thereafter, the Japan Chapter was founded through great efforts by Dr. Sanai Mito, who was the first chair of SID-JC in 1975² (Fig. 1). Other significant founders include Dr. Toshio Inoguchi, Dr. Chuji Suzuki, and Dr. Sasaki.

While celebrating its 25th anniversary, SID-JC held several commemorative events, and we have continued these activities and traditions by hosting several display technology seminars, discussing trends, and providing an annual report at Display Week for Japanese scientists, engineers, and students.

To commemorate the milestone anniversary of SID-JC in 2025, committee members held meetings to plan a series of celebratory events. Committee members created a SID-JC anniversary logo (displayed on the first page of this article) to honor the chapter's legacy, recognize contributions from its members and the broader SID community, and to foster a sense of unity between SID and SID-JC. Dr. Toshiaki Arai and Dr. Reiji Hattori, the 24th and 25th chairs of SID-JC, suggested the logo type. Then the committee members refined the color tone and shape before finalizing the design. During Display Week 2025, the SID committee prepared a special cake featuring the logo, and all the SID-JC participants were deeply impressed (Fig. 2).

Five commemorative meetings were held between May 2023 and July 2025 in Tokyo. The first meeting focused on the development of LCD. In the late 1970s, the development of an alignment layer treatment was important to elevate LC device technology to a product level. The rubbing treatment—a technique used in the fabrication of LCDs to control the orientation of LC molecules—was a crucial innovation. The first rubbing machine has been preserved in the Memory Room of RIKEN in Japan to celebrate RIKEN's 100-year anniversary (Fig. 3). This method still is used for many LCD applications worldwide. In addition to the alignment treatment, various display technologies, such as colorization, reflective LCD, multi-domain vertically aligned (MVA), in-plane switching (IPS), and optically compensated birefringence (OCB) LCD modes were consecutively developed. Japanese and other worldwide LCD manufacturers applied these technologies to calculators, PCs, TVs, car navigations, and smartphones.

The second meeting focused on backplane technology, which includes hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), low- and high-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS and HTPS), and oxide semiconductor materials for thin-film transistors (TFTs) for LCDs and OLEDs. In 1979, Dr. Walter Spear and Dr. Paul Le Comber were the first to report on a-Si:H TFT technology. This was significant, as they discovered that the hydrogenation of a-Si significantly improved its electronic properties, making it suitable for transistors. In 1981, Toshiba announced a proto-sample of a 3-inch active-matrix (AM) LCD with an a-Si:H TFT. Since the mid-1980s, various LTPS and HTPS TFT LCDs were developed. Oxide TFT LCDs have been subsequently developed since the 2000s, which coincides with the progress of flat-panel displays (FPDs).

The third meeting centered on large-sized display technologies. Conventional cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors were replaced by FPDs since the 2000s, especially for large-sized TV and PC monitors. Further, competition arose between LCD and PDP technologies. In the early 2000s, PDPs were favored for large-screen TVs because of their color and contrast. However, by the mid-2000s, LCDs improved in size, viewing angles, and response times, eventually overtaking PDPs. Through the competition, other distinctive technologies were produced for large-sized displays, which were diverted to other applications such as automotive displays and digital signage. This third meeting covered not only LCD and PDP but also OLED, large-sized vision monitors (Aurora Vision or Diamond Vision), and cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE)-type immersive displays.

The fourth meeting switched gears and focused on small-sized and high-resolution displays. During this time, small-sized displays progressed toward portable PC (notebook or laptop) and smartphone applications. In recent years, remarkable progress has been made toward virtual (VR), augmented (AR), and mixed reality (MR) displays, with resolutions reaching more than 5,000 ppi. High-resolution displays, such as glass-based LCD and OLED, silicon-based microLCD, microLED, and micro-OLED for primary VR and AR applications, were discussed as well as optical technologies for lens applications.

The fifth meeting was held July 11, 2025, and was the final 50th anniversary meeting. It covered advanced trends and future views of FPDs; quantum dots for color-conversion films and electroluminescence displays; light-weight and flexible paper-type large displays; thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) OLEDs; ink-jet printing equipment for high-resolution displays; aerial display technology; and potential applications for TFT technology. Dr. Hirotsugu Yamamoto from Utsunomiya University distributed commemorative aerial display clocks to attendees that featured his research.

Trends and predictions of the display market were discussed, and Dr. Hiroshi Amano served as the final lecturer. This was quite an honor, as he is a renowned Japanese physicist and engineer known for his groundbreaking work in semiconductor technology, particularly the invention of blue LED.

These five meetings included 31 lectures and more than 435 attendees, with 42 students attending both online and onsite. The SID-JC committee members are deeply grateful for both the lecturers and participants (Fig. 4).

The SID-JC committee members also gave a presentation in the exhibition hall during Display Week to announce the 50th anniversary and its activities. Current SID-JC chair Dr. Takashi Nakamura expressed his gratitude to all participants and promoted the commemorative seminar in Tokyo.

SID-JC holds three annual events: a Display Week briefing in July, a Summer Seminar in August, and Display Technology Training School in March. It also publishes a newsletter four times a year.

The number of participants for each event averages 50–100 people, and the seminars always provide useful information related to various display technologies. In addition, SID-JC participates in other international conferences and at seminars held in Japan, such as IDW. The chapter plans to start a new seminar next year and will announce details when they are available. For more information, visit https://sid-japan.org.

We thank all the SID-JC committee members and volunteers for their support and dedication and express deep appreciation to all the SID members for their contributions to the establishment and continuation of SID-JC.