San Jose Gets Nod for Flat-Panel Consortium : Technology: Developing high-resolution screens could eventually yield 15,000 manufacturing jobs.
San Jose on Friday beat out rivals in Michigan and Texas to become the permanent headquarters for a government-aided consortium seeking to develop the factory equipment to make flat-panel displays, a technology now dominated by Japan.
Although capturing the five-person office of the U.S. Display Consortium--won with $500,000 in incentives--is nice enough, the big prize will be the actual manufacturing of the ultra-light, high-resolution screens.
Securing that aspect, with its eventual promise of 15,000 jobs, is far from assured for San Jose, since many communities, including others in California, would undoubtedly pursue the opportunity. Yet being headquarters for the effort should give San Jose an edge, said Peter Mills, president and chief executive of the U.S. Display Consortium, now based in Austin, Tex. Austin and Ann Arbor, Mich., were the other contenders.
“You’re dealing with an industry that doesn’t really exist in this country,” Mills said. “The thinking is . . . that the critical mass (of suppliers, manufacturers and users) will evolve around this.”
Mills said actual production is not expected for two to five years.
A factor in the decision was that Silicon Valley is home to many key potential customers for the technology, including Apple Computer Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Silicon Graphics Inc.
Invented in the United States in the 1960s but now used primarily by Japanese manufacturers, flat-panel displays are belatedly getting the close attention of the U.S. government and high-tech manufacturers. The reason is that the market has taken off in recent years, as high-definition screens become more common in airplane and auto instrument panels, video telephones, high-definition TVs and hand-held personal communicators. Current sales of about $3 billion a year are expected to soar to $10 billion or more by the year 2000.
The display consortium is backed by $20 million in U.S. funds. Mills said that amount is expected to grow to as much as $50 million annually, to be matched by the industry.
