Scottsdale, Arizona, United States
Applied Photonics, Inc. (AP), a prominent developer and manufacturer of laser-based solutions for the Flat Panel Display Industry, today announced that it has installed its cutting-edge LaserMagic(TM) TFT-LCD glass cutting equipment at one of world's largest TFT panel suppliers in Taiwan and that the system has been used successfully in production for over six months.
Based on innovative technologies developed by scientists and engineers at AP, the LaserMagic(TM) Gen 5 In-line system (LM1500) uses powerful laser beams to fully separate TFT-LCD glass in a one step process in an automated clean room environment. As compared to competing products, the LM1500 improves the property of the cut glass edge by eliminating common defects, such as micro-cracks, associated with the mechanical breaking process. It, thus, increases the edge strength of the glass to make it more robust. This significantly improves the overall yield and throughput of the production line. In addition, the LM1500 also requires less preventative maintenance and fewer consumables during operation, which helps the manufacturing fab achieve higher machine and production line up-time. Because it uses a patented, clean laser process, the LM1500 generates no micro-particles that pollute the clean room. All these features ultimately help customers improve their total cost of ownership. In fact, based on conservative estimates, AP's Gen 7.5 laser glass cutting system could help a TFT-LCD fab recover their initial capital investment in the first year.
"Since beginning production, our LM1500 system has cut over a half million panels," said Brian Hoekstra, CEO and President of AP. "This demonstrates our technology's maturity and product's reliability. We are extremely proud of and excited about this latest accomplishment. And we will continue to commit ourselves to helping our customers achieve lower total cost of ownership and higher profitability through implementation of our cutting edge technology."
About Applied Photonics
Applied Photonics, Inc. is a leading provider of laser-based solutions to the semiconductor and flat panel display industries. We are best known for our laser glass cutting technology used for singulation of laminated glass LCD panels which replaces traditional in-line mechanical cutting equipment. AP has in-depth knowledge of how lasers interact with electronic and optical materials, and, as a result, is pursuing a number of flat panel display applications. Core competencies include lasers, optics, materials processing, design engineering, and precision motion control.
Founded in 1999, AP was launched out of the University of Central Florida business incubator in Orlando, Florida, in 2001 and moved operations to Scottsdale, Arizona, in October 2002. AP completed a series A financing round in 2005 bringing its current capitalization to US$10M.
AP will participate in the upcoming Society for Information Display (SID) conference in Long Beach, CA, on May 20-25. AP's management and engineers will be present in booth #1014.
Source: Business Wire (Business Wire India)