Milestone-Proposal:Sharp 14-inch thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT-LCD) for TV, which has ushered in TFT LCD industry

Docket #:2013-04

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Is the achievement you are proposing more than 25 years old? Yes

Is the achievement you are proposing within IEEE’s fields of interest? (e.g. “the theory and practice of electrical, electronics, communications and computer engineering, as well as computer science, the allied branches of engineering and the related arts and sciences” – from the IEEE Constitution) Yes

Did the achievement provide a meaningful benefit for humanity? Yes

Was it of at least regional importance? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to pay for the milestone plaque(s)? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to arrange the dedication ceremony? Yes

Has the IEEE Section in which the milestone is located agreed to take responsibility for the plaque after it is dedicated? Yes

Has the owner of the site agreed to have it designated as an Electrical Engineering Milestone? Yes

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Year or range of years in which the achievement occurred:

1987-1988

Title of the proposed milestone:

Sharp 14-inch thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT-LCD) for TV 1988, which has ushered in TFT LCD industry

Plaque citation summarizing the achievement and its significance:

Sharp demonstrated a 14-in. TFT-LCD for TV in 1988 when the display sizes of the mass-produced TFT-LCD and CRT TVs in the largest number were 3-in. and 14-in. respectively. The breathtakingly high display quality in CRT-size convinced vacillating electronic companies to decide to join the burgeoning TFT-LCD industry, vaulting it to the major league status in emerging full-color portable PCs, and replaced CRTs in TVs about 2 decades later.

In what IEEE section(s) does it reside?

IEEE Kansai Section

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) which have agreed to sponsor the Milestone:

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) paying for milestone plaque(s):

Unit: IEEE Kansai Section
Senior Officer Name: Senior officer name masked to public

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) arranging the dedication ceremony:

Unit: IEEE Kansai Section
Senior Officer Name: Senior officer name masked to public

IEEE section(s) monitoring the plaque(s):

IEEE Section: IEEE Kansai Section
IEEE Section Chair name: Section chair name masked to public

Milestone proposer(s):

Proposer name: Proposer's name masked to public
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public

Please note: your email address and contact information will be masked on the website for privacy reasons. Only IEEE History Center Staff will be able to view the email address.

Street address(es) and GPS coordinates of the intended milestone plaque site(s):

2613-1 Ichinomoto-cho, Tenri, Nara 632-8567 Japan

Describe briefly the intended site(s) of the milestone plaque(s). The intended site(s) must have a direct connection with the achievement (e.g. where developed, invented, tested, demonstrated, installed, or operated, etc.). A museum where a device or example of the technology is displayed, or the university where the inventor studied, are not, in themselves, sufficient connection for a milestone plaque.

Please give the address(es) of the plaque site(s) (GPS coordinates if you have them). Also please give the details of the mounting, i.e. on the outside of the building, in the ground floor entrance hall, on a plinth on the grounds, etc. If visitors to the plaque site will need to go through security, or make an appointment, please give the contact information visitors will need.

Sharp Technology Innovation Museum, R&D Group, Sharp Corporation

Are the original buildings extant?

Yes

Details of the plaque mounting:

The milestone plaque is to be kept in Sharp Technology Innovation Museum, and shown to the public along with other milestones of Sharp business activities of 100 year history. Sharp Technology Innovation Museum is located in the premise of Sharp Technology Center where LCD research was started and culminated in mass-producing the would-first mini-calculator mounted with LCD and C-MOS logic : the calculator is displayed at the British Science Museum.

How is the site protected/secured, and in what ways is it accessible to the public?

Public visitors have to go through security.

Appointment has to be made to visit the site.

The appointment contact: +81-743-65-0011

                        http://www.sharp.co.jp/corporate/showroom/tenri/index.html

Who is the present owner of the site(s)?

Sharp Technology Innovation Museum, R&D Group, Sharp Corporation

A letter in English, or with English translation, from the site owner(s) giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property:

File:20130209 IEEE History 130208 14in LCD Milestone Sharp Fukushima.pdf

A letter or email from the appropriate Section Chair supporting the Milestone application:

File:20130216 Endorsement of Milestone Proposal Sharp 14-inch TFT-LCD enc.pdf

What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)?

What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?

What features set this work apart from similar achievements?

References to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement: Minimum of five (5), but as many as needed to support the milestone, such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or citations to pages in scholarly books. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article.

Supporting materials (supported formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC): All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. For documents that are copyright-encumbered, or which you do not have rights to post, email the documents themselves to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please see the Milestone Program Guidelines for more information.