Thin Film Diode - Commercial Applications

Commercial Applications

Flat panel display manufactures have found use for MIM TFDs as switches in active matrix technology such as active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCD). Historically in AMLCDs the switching device of choice for pixels has been the thin film transistor, however MIM TFD based displays have had some commercial success as they are simpler to make; only requiring two to three photo-lithography steps rather than the typical 5 or more needed to produce thin film transistors.

In short, the millions of switches housed on an active matrix display's back-plane, be they TFTs or TFDs, must each be able to accurately and repeatably control the voltage applied to their respective pixel in order to control its grey scale. While thin film diodes are cheaper to manufacture than TFTs it can difficult to achieve a wide color gamut and grey scale using single TFDs. These limitation can be overcome however by using a dual select diode circuit which incorporates two MIM TFDs per pixel circuit.

South Korean electronics manufacturers LG and Samsung have both previously incorporated MIM TFDs into mobile phone displays. The American company Amorphyx Inc. was founded in 2012 to commercialize MIM-TFD technology incorporating amorphous metal materials.