We at Enplas had already developed and started production of such a new-type Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) backlight that has 30% higher brightness than conventional ones for LCDs, and have obtained a basic patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,328,453) comprehensively covering the new type backlight.

The new backlight basically consists of a prism sheet placed on a light guide plate that has a large number of fine grooves formed on the front or back of it. The patent we have obtained in the United States is a basic patent covering this new concept for backlight systems.

Despite its simple structure, the new technology is featured with a substantial improvement in brightness that has been achieved by enabling the light guide plate itself to collect light. It used to require two prism sheets to do so, but now requires only one sheet thanks to this technology that will enable you to make a thinner and more energy-saving backlight unit, resulting in drastic reduction in cost as well as improvement in performance.

The new backlight draws attention as a next-generation backlight and is expected to take the place of all the conventional displays regardless of their size, which makes this patent even more valuable one. We at Enplas are going to develop a wide range of light guide plates using this technology as our standard lineups so that we can respond even more quickly to even wider demands of the market.

We have already filed a patent for this technology in more than one country besides the United States, which we expect to obtain in future. We have also applied for many patents for peripheral technologies regarding this new backlight.