128 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING, VOL. 33, NO.
1, FEBRUARY 2020
TFT-LCD Contrast Ratio Improvement by Using
Design for Six Sigma Disciplines
Feng-Min Su and Chao-Ton Su
Abstract—The current market demands for thin-film tran-
sistor (TFT) liquid crystal display (LCD) is high; however,
the LCD televisions still have contrast ratio-related issues. To
resolve this, researchers conventionally use trial and error meth-
ods for parameter optimization and adjustment. However, this
method is slow and can delay the development of new prod-
ucts. Therefore, this study focused on the high contrast ratio
of the in-plane switching (IPS) panel. The Define–Measure–
Analyze–Design–Verify procedure, comprising the methodology
of the Design for Six Sigma, was used to help the researchers
enhance the ultra-high contrast ratio of LCD panels. In this study,
customer requirements were confirmed, after which the quality
function deployment method was used to establish the technical
requirements of the enhanced high contrast ratio of LCD. The
contradiction matrix of TRIZ was then used to find the corre-
sponding principles and thus propose the design scheme for the
LCD contrast ratio. Methodologies, such as design failure modes
and effect analysis, Taguchi’s parameter design, and reliability
tests were used to enhance the ultra-high LCD contrast ratio.
After the implementation of an actual case, the ultra-high con-
trast ratio of LCD panel was enhanced to 1000000:1; the benefits
of such an improvement exceeded U.S. $9.5 million. This has also
driven market orders for TFT IPS LCD. This study can serve as
a reference for product design, product performance enhance-
ment, pilot run yield improvement, and patent applications of
LCD panel plants.
Index Terms—TFT-LCD, contrast ratio, DFSS, QFD, TRIZ,
DFMEA, Taguchi method.
I. I NTRODUCTION
LONG with the development of information products
A and compared with the liquid crystal display (LCD), the
organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are equipped with the
features of self-illumination, high contrast ratio, wide viewing
angle, high response rate, and thin and light structure. The use
of small-scale OLEDs has even more advantages in terms of
power saving and high contrast ratio through wearable devices
that can be widely used in various portable consumer elec-
tronic products. According to a forecast by “HIS Markit,” 42%
of the smart-phones worldwide will carry OLED panels by
2019. The total revenue of OLED panels for smart-phones will
Manuscript received May 29, 2019; revised August 26, 2019; accepted
November 25, 2019. Date of publication November 28, 2019; date
of current version February 3, 2020. This work was supported in
part by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, under Grant
MOST-107-2221-E-007-070-MY3. (Corresponding author: Chao-Ton Su.)
The authors are with the Department of Industrial Engineering and
Engineering Management, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013,
Taiwan (e-mail: stevensu650109@gmail.com; ctsu@mx.nthu.edu.tw).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this article are available
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increase by three times in 2020 to reach U.S. $24.8 billion—
far exceeding that of U.S. $7.6 billion in 2014. Although the
market demand for OLED panels with a high contrast ratio
has grown substantially, currently, very few affordable OLED
panels with a contrast ratio of 10000:1 or greater are available
in the market. The prices for OLED panels with a contrast
ratio greater than 1000000:1 are extremely high. Therefore,
enhancement of the contrast ratio is a research and develop-
ment (R&D) objective for all panel makers. If the LCD panel
contrast ratio can be enhanced and low-cost products can be
introduced sooner than those of competitors, a market edge
can be secured; this can further increase product unit price
and sales volume.
Six Sigma is a management method developed by Motorola in
1987; over the years, this method has been successfully incor-
porated into various enterprises worldwide. The method and
logic of Six Sigma can be adopted to reduce operational
defects; it exhibits outstanding performance in terms of yield
improvement. Moreover, Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) employs
a systematic engineering technology to design a product or pro-
cess that meets the six sigma level and the requirements of
external customers and relevant internal activities. At the ini-
tial stage of product design and planning, DFSS can be used
according to customer needs and requirements to ensure failure
prevention, risk control, and proper performance management
measures with respect to critical quality issues. This can ensure
that product design and planning meet the six sigma level of
quality, thus enhancing a company’s corporate competitive-
ness. In this study, DFSS methodology was used to improve
the high contrast ratio of an LCD in-plane switching (IPS) panel,
a problem which was previously been difficult to resolve.
The involved applying the Define-Measure-Analyze-Design-
Verify (DMADV) procedure, where the first step is to confirm
the customer requirements. Next, quality function deploy-
ment (QFD) is used to screen out the important technical
features. TRIZ is then used to obtain a technical solution for
improving the contrast ratio and determine the most appropriate
design. Methodologies, such as design failure modes and effect
analysis (DFMEA), Taguchi’s parameter design, and reliability
tests are then employed to enhance the contrast ratio of the
LCD panel. The effectiveness of these methodologies is then
demonstrated by executing an actual company case.
II. R ELATED S TUDY
A. LCD
LCD can be divided into the following categories: thin film
transistor (TFT), ultra-fine and brightness, thin-film diode, and
 SU AND SU: TFT-LCD CONTRAST RATIO IMPROVEMENT BY USING DFSS DISCIPLINES
Fig. 1. Basic structure of LCD [1].
Fig. 2. Fabrication process of LCD [2].
supertwisted nematic. LCD structure includes a liquid crys-
tal (LC) box placed between two parallel glass substrates. is
based on LC (Liquid Crystal) box placed in between two
parallel glass substrates. A TFT is installed on the lower
glass substrate, whereas a color filter (CF) is installed on the
upper glass substrate. The rotational direction of LC molecules
can be controlled by changing the signal and voltage passing
through the TFT, thus controlling the polarized light emitted
by each pixel to achieve the image display (Fig. 1) [1]. The
display principle of LCD determines its poor viewing angle.
When backlight passes through the polarizer, LC, and
rubbing layer, the output light polarizes. In other words,
most of the light is emitted vertically from the screen, such
that the original color cannot be seen when observing LC
from a broader angle. Sometimes the viewer may see only
a completely white or black image. To resolve this problem,
Panasonic developed IPS technology, which can increase the
horizontal and vertical viewing angle to 170◦ while enhancing
the contrast ratio.
The panel fabrication process flow (Fig. 2) includes the CF,
array, cell, and module processes. On the basis of the pro-
cess station, it can be divided into a panel critical material
process and the CF process. After the glass substrate is fed, it
demonstrates Cr sputter and an etching process to form a black
matrix (BM). After repeated resist or photo resist coating,
development, and cleaning, the panel is coated with indium
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129
Fig. 3. OLED multi-layer structure [4].
tin oxide (ITO). The process is completed after inspection.
When the panel plant receives CF to begin its production, the
fabrication of array substrate material is conducted. The glass
substrate undergoes repeated exposure, chemical vapor depo-
sition, development, and etching to form the TFT substrate.
The cell process is conducted directly after the panel receives
the CF material. The CF substrate and the TFT substrate are
laminated before LC injection. This process is conducted in
the panel plant.
B. OLED and IPS LCD
The light emission principle of OLED is that under a bias,
the electrons and holes are injected from the cathode and
anode, respectively, and move in the opposite directions under
an electric field. When the electrons and holes are recom-
bined, light emission occurs [3]. The color of the light emitted
from OLEDs is determined by the organic material in the
device, which has a fluorescent property. The light emis-
sion efficiency can be enhanced by adding a small amount
of a guest emitter into the host emitter and the color of the
emitted light can cover the entire visible light range. OLED
is composed of organic substances. The advantage of this is
that the frequencies of the photons absorbed by the organic
material mostly fall outside the visible light frequency spec-
trum, such that the OLED display can generate highly efficient
light. The basic structure of OLED [4] is shown in Fig. 3. The
organic material layer is placed between the anode, a thin and
transparent conductive ITO, and the cathode, a metal com-
pound. The organic material layer comprises hole-transport,
light-emitting, and electronic-transport layers. Under appropri-
ate current, the holes injected into the anode and the electric
charge from the cathode recombine in the light-emitting layer.
The released energy then excites the organic material to gen-
erate light. Different organic materials emit light of different
colors. The disadvantage of OLED LCD televisions (TVs)
is that the antioxidative capacity of conducting an OLED is
extremely poor and there requires a vacuum glass package and
a LTPS TFT substrate. Consequently, the cost of a large-sized
OLED TV is very high. Furthermore, the differences in the
performances of various light-emitting materials indicate need
to extend the service life of OLED panels.
 130 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING, VOL. 33, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2020
IPS LC, simply known as IPS, is a LCD wide viewing
angle technology developed by Hitachi, which has been widely
applied to fabricate LCs and tablet personal computers and can
effectively improve the chromatic aberration on TN screens
and other problems [2] resulting from poor viewing angles.
The main feature of IPS is that it has both electrodes on the
same plane, unlike the electrodes of other LC modes, located
on the upper and lower plane. This technology has optimized
the alignment of LC molecules while adopting a horizontal
alignment. In case of external pressure, the molecular structure
is slightly depressed downward, but the molecules remain in
horizontal alignment. In other words, neither the image is dis-
torted nor the color is affected. This greatly protects the image
without any compromise. In addition to the 10% enhancement
of screen brightness, the cost is also lower than that of an
OLED panel.
C. DFSS
Six Sigma [5] can aid cost reduction and customer satisfac-
tion through an understanding of customer demand, analysis
of facts and data, and improvement of the corporate man-
agement process. DFSS handles the design of products and
process flows by integrating several tools, methods, processes
and project plans to achieve the six sigma quality level. The
objective of DFSS is to design each critical process with
the risk no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities.
In general, if DFSS-related methods can be introduced at
the beginning of the development stage of a new product
or process, mistakes can be prevented during the subsequent
execution stage. DFSS ensure both innovation and quality
to achieve “source broadening” while continually increasing
company profitability.
Various enterprises usually develop different DFSS action
items, such as the frequently used DMADV, Identify-Design-
Optimize-Verify (IDOV), and Identify-Characterize-Optimize-
Verify (ICOV). Although these steps differ in certain aspects,
their objectives and basic steps are broadly similar. The five
steps of DMADV are as follows [6]: identify the project goals,
determine customer needs and specifications, analyze product
design options to meet customer needs, design the product
and process in detail to meet customer needs, and verify the
design performance and its ability to meet customer needs.
The four steps of IDOV are as follows [7]: identify, which
means collect the voice of customer (VOC) and determine the
critical to quality; design, which involves selecting an optimal
design concept according to the detailed design and fabrication
of the product; optimize the product design and performance;
and verify whether the product meets customer needs. The
selection of DFSS-related methods can be based on these two
frequently used models and adjusted according to the special
requirements and business styles of organizations.
D. QFD, TRIZ, and Taguchi Method
Several tools need to be used in the DFSS problem-solving
steps; of these, QFD, TRIZ, and the Taguchi method are the
three most frequently used. For instance, QFD is a method
for converting VOC to product design specification; it can also
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convert non-quantitative customer needs to quantitative charac-
teristics, and expand quality-forming functions into sub-system
parameters, parts, and fabrication procedures [8]. With QFD,
we can implement the design concept to fabrication to reduce
the number of engineering changes, the product development
time, and improve product quality.
TRIZ, abbreviation for Teoriya Reshniya Izobretatelskikh
Zadatch (in Russian), is a theory proposed by Genrich
Altshuller in 1946. Altshuller examined almost 2.5 million
patents in a patent database in the former Soviet Union
and other countries to screen out more than 200,000 useful
patents before proposing TRIZ. This theory consists of various
tools such as 40 Inventive Principles, Contradiction Matrix,
Substance Field Resources, Rules of Evolution, and Ideal Final
Result. A TRIZ-centered innovative problem-solving method-
ology has been constructed from a combination of primary
tools and is widely used in practice. Unlike conventional inno-
vative methodology, with TRIZ, emphasizes that an invention
or innovation can proceed according to certain procedures
and steps, rather than through simple brainstorming or trial
and error.
The Taguchi method [9], developed by Genichi Taguchi
in Japan, is frequently used in the design and manufactur-
ing of industrial products. Taguchi advocated the use of an
orthogonal array for the design of experiments and the use of
signal-to-noise ratio (SN ratio) for the analysis of experimen-
tal data. The Taguchi method generally starts by understanding
the problem from an engineering perspective. If we assume y
represents the quality characteristic or response of the prod-
uct or process to be investigated, factors affecting y can be
divided into signal, control and noise factors. There is an input-
output relationship between these factors and y; this is usually
selected by design personnel according to engineering knowl-
edge of the product and process. The adjustment of control
factors can minimize the loss of y, and a factor that can-
not be controlled by design personnel is called a noise factor.
When the signal factor is a constant, the problems are termed
static characteristic problems. By contrast, problems involv-
ing changeable signal factors are called dynamic characteristic
problems. The objectives of the Taguchi method are low cost,
high quality, and using fewer experiments to pursue an optimal
control factor level combination by minimizing the influence
of noise factors so that the product/process can achieve high
robustness. Some recent research of applying Taguchi methods
in semiconductor manufacturing can be found in [10]–[12].
E. Recent Research
Choi et al. [13] applied the carbon nanotube field emission
backlight unit for LCD, which resulted in a contrast ratio for
the LCD TV as high as 300000:1. Although the practitioners
aimed to enhance the contrast ratio of the LCD, research on
this topic in the existing literature remains rare.
DFSS has been widely used in the industry. For
example, Wang [14] employed DFSS to optimize the
intake and exhaust system of a heavy-duty diesel engine,
which minimized fuel consumption. By using DFSS,
Koziolek and Derlukiewicz [15] presented a methodology
 SU AND SU: TFT-LCD CONTRAST RATIO IMPROVEMENT BY USING DFSS DISCIPLINES 131

TABLE I
for assessing the quality of the design process of construc- T HE DMADV I MPLEMENTATION S TEPS A DOPTED IN T HIS S TUDY
tion equipment; therefore, they could determine how defects
affected the quality of the structure and thus avoided potential
defects. DFSS is a powerful tool for product development [16].
By using DFSS and TRIZ, Wang et al. [17] presented a case
study for developing a new product (the digital subscriber
line access multiplexer). This method yielded large profits
and the researchers invented seven patents. DFSS can also
be used in the service sector. For instance, Yang et al. [18]
developed a service system improvement project by redesign-
ing troubleshooting and service delivery processes in a telecom
company by using DFSS. The implementation results showed
that the case company met the high-quality requirements
of key clients and yielded significant economic benefits.
Riley et al. [19] presented a case study that described how
a financial institution successfully used DFSS to create a poli-
cies and procedures manual to eliminate compliance gaps and
improve the lending process for its bankers and customers.

III. DFSS M ETHODOLOGY: DMADV

This study enhanced the contrast ratio of LCD using the
DMADV. The “define” stage mainly involved finding an
opportunity for new product development. In this stage, we
use a questionnaire survey to elicit customer needs and their
importance. In the “measure” stage, the QFD was used to
convert customer needs into product design requirements. To
avoid any failures of design issues, DFMEA was used to
predict these issues and find solutions. In the “analyze” stage,
TRIZ was used to propose possible design concepts with
respect to the technical requirements affecting the contrast
ratio of LCD. A feasibility study was then conducted to select
the proper design concept. In the “design” stage, Taguchi’s
static method was used to optimize product design parameters.
Finally, the “verify” stage ensured that design quality met cus-
tomer needs. This stage involved the use of a reliability test
and Taguchi’s dynamic method to improve the variance of film
thickness, the use of Taguchi’s static method to improve the
uniformity of BM CD, and relevant error proofing measures
and a control plan. The implementation steps adopted in this
study for DMADV are shown in Table I.
In the QFD related matrix, if the achievement of one
design requirement hinders the achievement of another, there
contrast ratio and the development of an IPS LCD panel by
is a negative correlation between these two requirements:
Panasonic in 2016, LCD panels with a high contrast ratio have
TRIZ can be used to solve this contradiction. To achieve
been attracting increasing market attentions.
this, Altshuller [20] proposed utilizing 39 engineering param-
The company in this case study is a LCD panel maker,
eters and 40 inventive principles. Potential inventive principles
which provides customized production or OEM (original
can be selected using the contradiction matrix. More feasible
equipment manufacturer) service. It has a customer base, cov-
inventive principles can then be recommended based on the
ering renowned domestic and foreign enterprises, and product
knowledge and experiences of experts in the field, following
applications, including electronic products, automobile video
which feasible design schemes with competitive edges can be
and audio products, and LC screens. Considering IPS LCD
selected.
panels to mostly be non-consumer products, the company
planned to develop low-cost IPS LCD panels with a high
IV. C ASE S TUDY contrast ratio, which are yet to be seen in the current market.
Competition in the LCD market is intense. In addition to However, the company identified a severe smear issue in
the comparison of product specifications and prices among the design of its current OLED LCD panels. Furthermore,
makers, good product quality is key in attracting customers. poor product innovation and development capability, and the
With growing market demands for LCD panels with a high amount of compensation resulting from customer complaints

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 132 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING, VOL. 33, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2020
Fig. 4. The QFD of customers’ needs converted to design requirements.
also led to increased costs and loss of reputation. The com-
pany hopes to incorporate an effective management method
to enhance design innovation capability and reduce customer
complaints. In this study, the DFSS method was used to help
the company conduct new product development to reduce pro-
duction costs, shorten the launch time for new products, and
enhance the design quality.
A. Define Phase
To complete the project of creating the high contrast-ratio
LC panels, the company formed a project team comprising
R&D engineers of an internal engineering department; direc-
tors, managers, and senior engineers of an R&D department;
supervisors and engineers of a QA department; and vari-
ous customer representatives. To understand customer needs,
a survey of important attributes customers used to select LC
screens with a high contrast ratio was performed. According
to collected data and affinity diagram analysis, the highest
scores in terms of product features were given to the impor-
tance of “whether the pixel color is clear,” “requirement of
high contrast ratio,” “product specifications,” “whether qual-
ity led to severe customer complaints,” and “service life.”
In terms of product value, the highest scores were given
to the importance of “product price,” “additional function,”
“brand image,” and “product after sales service.” Additionally,
most customers believed that “contrast ratio, smear, color, and
sharpness” were LCD image quality items required the most
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urgent improvement. They also believed that in addition to bet-
ter image quality, an LCD panel with high contrast ratio can
achieve better market competitiveness. Therefore, the project
team listed “sharpness of pixel color,” “requirement of high
contrast ratio,” “product specifications,” “service life,” “prod-
uct prices,” “additional function,” “brand image,” and “product
after sales service” as the most important items in terms of cus-
tomer needs; these were placed in QFD in the measure stage
to be deployed.
The project team used an analytic hierarchy process to
weight various important customer needs items. The project
team also conducted analysis of the financial risk of this
project through an internal R&D process flow, financial indica-
tors, indicators related to manufacturing capability, and orders
from the target market. The results showed that technology
development, customer complaints, manufacturing capabil-
ity, and market orders were the aspects needing significant
improvement. The sales department also compared the pricing
situations, R&D costs, and qualities of models of OLED pan-
els, similar to this project. The results indicated that mass IPS
panel production can lead to lower costs. Therefore, the project
team believed that this case was worthy of development.
B. Measure Phase
In the measure stage, the first step is to convert cus-
tomer needs into design requirements. In this study, the QFD
(Fig. 4) was used to expand the eight customer needs generated
 SU AND SU: TFT-LCD CONTRAST RATIO IMPROVEMENT BY USING DFSS DISCIPLINES 133

TABLE II
DFMEA A FFECTING THE C ONTRAST R ATIO OF LCD PANE (B EFORE I MPROVEMENT )

at the define stage into 13 design requirements. Based on

engineers’ knowledge, the matrix in this QFD highlighted
the relationships between customer requirements and engi-
neering characteristics, and 1, 3, and 9 were used to denote
weak, moderate, and strong relationships for the QFD com-
putation, respectively. Hence, we calculated the absolute and
relative weights of various design requirements. Following
these calculations, the important product design requirements
were “high contrast ratio,” “reliability,” “color saturation,”
“dark gray level,” and “resolution.” These were the tech-
nical items related to LCD image quality that need most
improvement. Fig. 4 shows that the enhancement of con- Fig. 5. QFD of characteristics of High Contrast Ratio.
trast ratio can increase competitiveness against opponents,
that product reliability is very important, and that an increase
in brightness and color saturation can result in enhanced requirements (Fig. 5). Figure 5 indicates that in terms of the
product value; however, because brightness and color satu- design issues affecting the high contrast ratio, the five most
ration are negatively correlated with product value, a choice important part characteristics were: phase difference of polar-
must be made. izer compensation film (POL WVF Rth), negative rubbing
After discussion between the project team and various cus- angle of polarizer compensation film (POL WVF AA), BM
tomers and a comparison with current products in the market, thickness on the panel, Birefringence of LC(LC delta nd), and
the important product design requirements were as follows: Brightness Enhancement Film (BEF).
the contrast ratio, viewing angle, response time, color satura- After ascertaining the design requirements, the R&D engi-
tion, and brightness of the IPS LCD panel must be greater neering supervisor led the fabrication and revision of the
than 1000000:1, larger than 80◦ , shorter than 5ms, higher DFMEA of the screen display function of an IPS LCD TV
than NTSC 92%, and higher than 1000cd/m2 , respectively. with a high contrast ratio (Table II). In the “Class” section
Additionally, the LCD must comply with green product regu- of Table II,  represents the main features including customer
lations and the contrast ratio of LCD must be enhanced without needs. Potential failure modes and possible causes of failure
increasing the material costs. from the design concept stage to mass production are listed in
The project team continued to conduct the second Table II. The project team then proposed proper improvement
QFD to convert design requirements into part characteristic and preventive measures at the design stage.

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 134 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING, VOL. 33, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2020

TABLE III
C OMPARISON OF I MPROVING F EATURES , W ORSENING F EATURES , AND TRIZ E NGINEERING PARAMETERS

C. Analyze Phase
At the top of the correlation matrix, Figure 4 demonstrates
a negative correlation of color saturation with contrast ratio
and brightness. This indicates that the use of a CF with high
color saturation can reduce the contrast ratio. To reduce such
conflicts, the project team used the contradiction matrix in
TRIZ to conduct an analysis and obtain better solutions.
In the contradiction matrix for inventive principles
(Table III), the project team located the parameter to be
improved (32. ease of manufacture) and the parameter to
be deteriorated (9. speed). The matrix offers the following
principles: 35, 13, 8, 1 . . . , and 15. Based on these princi-
ples, the project team then suggested several possible solution
strategies (Table IV). According to the descriptions of coun-
termeasures in Table IV and the consideration of existing
processes, cost, and time, the project team proposed six
primary solutions, which were: (1) adopting LC with high
delta_n, (2) using high OD BM to reduce the smear caused
by angle difference, (3) using a polarizer to enhance Rth and
negative rubbing to meet the requirement, (4) using BEF to
increase contrast ratio, (5) increasing the cell gap to meet the
requirement, and (6) using photoresist material with a high
concentration and small pigment size. The new design concept
for an LCD with a high contrast ration was then proposed
based on these six methods (Fig. 6).
D. Design Phase
The goal of the design phase is to develop a detailed
product design to meet customer needs. To achieve this, the
project team applied the Taguchi method to optimize the out-
put, product’s contrast ratio (Y). Y is the larger the better.
After brainstorming with company staff and suppliers, the
project team selected five control factors: POL WVF Rth,
POL WVF AA, BM thickness on the panel, LC delta nd, and
BEF; these factors were denoted as A, B, C, D, and E, respec-
tively. There were two levels set for each factor. In addition,
the primary consideration regarding the noise factor was the
variance caused by different plants. One value was randomly
taken from a single line in the array plant, and one was taken
from each of the left and right side production lines in the
CF plant.
Control and noise factors were assigned to the L8 orthogonal
array to simultaneously study the control factor effects. On
completion of the experiments, the data were collected and

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 SU AND SU: TFT-LCD CONTRAST RATIO IMPROVEMENT BY USING DFSS DISCIPLINES 135

Fig. 6. Conceptual design of LCD with high brightness and contrast ratio.

TABLE IV
D ESCRIPTION OF S OLUTION OF TRIZ I NVENTION P RINCIPLES

SN ratio was calculated. The response graph of each fac-

tor to the SN ratio was then drawn (Fig. 7). Based on this
information, the optimal control factor level combination was
set as A1 B1 C2 D2 (factor E was not significant). The optimal
condition was ensured by a confirmation run. Therefore, WV
Rth was set to be 156, WV AA was set to be −0.5, BM was
set to be 1.05um, and there were two sheets of BEF. However,
after consideration of the cost factor by the project team, BEF
was reduced to 1 sheet. The aforementioned optimal parame-
ter conditions were applied to the conceptual design in Fig. 6.
With a small amount of verification, the process capability
indicator Cpk was increased from 0.26 to 1.98, indicating
that this optimal parameter setting can clearly improve the Fig. 7. Main effect analysis of SN ratio.
contrast ratio.
Actions were also taken to reduce the RPN to a value by DFMEA, and selected personnel to take charge of the
below 100 (Table II). The project team proposed counter- implementation of countermeasures and the dates of comple-
measures with respect to various causes of failure provided tion. After the recommended actions were taken, the project

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 136 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING, VOL. 33, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2020

TABLE V
DFMEA A FFECTING THE C ONTRAST R ATIO OF LCD PANEL (A FTER I MPROVEMENT )

team recalculated RPN. Table V shows that RPN was signifi-
cantly reduced, indicating that the project team had greatly
reduced the possibility of a potential failure mode occur-
ring. This enabled the team to further achieve their goal of
improving the contrast ratio of the LCD panel.
E. Verify Phase
The focus in the verify phase is on a reliability test, pilot
run, fool-proofing measures, and other control plans.
1) Reliability Test: This was implemented in two phases.
Phase 1 is the initial reliability test conducted in the midterm
of the design, and includes a functional test, environmental
stress screening, transportation reliability test, tolerance test,
and safety test. Phase 2 is the accelerated life test, which
occurs near the end of design. Testing was performed at 50◦C,
which is associated with high relative humidity of up to 80%,
and various patterns were applied to the TFT-LCD panel. The
test condition and results were as follows.
a) Test condition:
• Temp. ambient = 50◦ C ± 3◦ C, Humidity ambient = 80%
± 5% R.H.
• Dynamic operating with 16 cycling patterns (e.g., R, G,
B, W, Gray scale, Color-bar, Strip, Checker, Window, etc.
• Readouts at 0, 100, 300, 500 h.
b) Test result:
• Product: HSD190MEN3-A (backlight unit excluded).
• Number of samples: 38 pieces.
• Number of failures: 0 pieces.

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 SU AND SU: TFT-LCD CONTRAST RATIO IMPROVEMENT BY USING DFSS DISCIPLINES
TABLE VI
R ESPONSE TABLE OF FACTOR E FFECTS (SN R ATIO A NALYSIS )
TABLE VII
L IST OF BM CD C ONTROL FACTORS AND T HEIR L EVELS
• Acceleration Factor (AF): 6.1 (to room temp. = 25◦ C).
If we assume the failure distribution follows an exponential
distribution.
 
AF = exp (Ea /k) × (1/T1 − 1/T2 )
 
= exp 0.6/8.617 × 10−5
× (1/(25 + 273) − 1/(50 + 273)) = 6.1
where Ea is the activation energy (Ea = 0.6eV for metal-
lization defect), k is the Boltzmann’s constant (k = 8.617 ×
10−5 eV/K), and T1 and T2 are both absolute temperature (K).
• Failure rate estimation
Failure rate (λ) = χ 2α,2(r+1) /2T
where χ 2α,2(r+1) is the value of the Chi-Square distribution
with failure number r at confidence level α and T is the
accumulated number of device hours.
T = (test time × number of samples) × acceleration factor
= (500 × 38) × 6.1 = 115900, at a confidence level of 90%
λ = χ 20.9,2(1+1) /2T = 4.61/2T = 19887 FIT (failure in time)
Mean time to failure (MTTF) = 1/λ = 50282 h.
Service life = (50282/24)/365 = 5.74 years > 2 years
(warranty period).
The result of internal verification reveals that at a confidence
level of 90%, the MTTF of the company in this case is around
50000 h. Assuming that our customer uses it 24 h a day, the
service life will be 5.74 years, which is 2 years longer than
the warranty period. This was also qualified by the customer
verification. The design and development project was therefore
now complete and ready for a pilot run.
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137
TABLE VIII
R ESPONSE TABLE OF FACTOR E FFECTS (SN R ATIO )
TABLE IX
R ESPONSE TABLE OF FACTOR E FFECTS (M EAN )
2) Pilot Run: The main purpose of the pilot run was to
evaluate whether the product was mature enough to enter
mass production. The R&D department used a small-quantity
production pilot run to ascertain the presence of any design
problems with the product and determine product specifi-
cations. Numerous problems can arise during the pilot-run
phase, and here, we discuss the problems that affect the
contrast ratio.
Problem 1: The specifications of film thickness during the
array thin film process
Different specifications of film thickness need to be pro-
duced by the array thin film process due to the contrast ratio
problem. The ideal function of a thin-film generation system
involves the input “power” (M) being proportional to the out-
put of the “film thickness” (T). That is, T = βM (Fig. 8),
where β is the slope of the line. Film thickness (T) will vary
in line with the value of power per customer request. However,
in practice, noise factors influence this ideal function. To min-
imize the variation of T, Taguchi’s dynamic approach was
applied.
The project team set the signal factor (power) at three lev-
els: M1 = 2, M2 = 4, and M3 = 6, by the unit of 100KA. The
noise factor takes into consideration the variance of display at
two different measurement positions, and the experiment was
conducted based on two noise levels (located on top or beneath
the sample to be tested). The team members determined the
control factors and their levels according to the experience of
the engineers. Factor A was the film-forming exchange mech-
anism with two levels; moreover, factors B, C, D, E, F, G,
and H were the sputter time, Ar, N2, temperature, pressure,
magnet MG, and TS, respectively—all with three levels.
Overall, there were seven 3-level control factors and one 2-
level control factors in this problem, such that the L18 (21 ×37 )
orthogonal array was used to simultaneously study the effects
of all control factors. Factors A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H
 138 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING, VOL. 33, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2020

TABLE X
CF C ONTROL P LAN (C APTURING PART OF THE C ONTENT OF CF)

Fig. 8. Relationship between film thickness and power.

were configured in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth,

seventh, and eighth rows of the L18 orthogonal array.
In this case the experiments were implemented by the
new product R&D engineers, and the 18 combinations of
experiments were randomly implemented according to the
configuration in the L18 orthogonal array. The SN ratios were
calculated on the basis of film thickness measured under three
power conditions. Table VI shows the factor effect on the SN
ratio. The optimal condition was set to be C3 D3 E3 G3 H3 (only
the significant factors were selected) based on these data and
relevant engineering experience. The team members compared
the obtained optimal parameter level setting (after implemen-
tation of 10 experiments) with the conventional engineering
setting, and a satisfactory result was produced in that the SN
ratio was enhanced by 13.12µm. This new design combination
could then be applied to the stage of mass production.
Problem 2: The issue of poor uniformity of BM CD
produced by CF BM process.
The distribution of the process parameter CD variance
problem produced by the CF BM process is shown in
Fig. 9 with a specification of 24.5±2µm. The project team
used Taguchi’s approach to improve the uniformity of BM
CD. After brainstorming, four 2-level control factors and three
Fig. 9. BM CD distribution before improvement.
noise factors were considered in this experiment. These factors
are listed in Table VII.
The project team used L8 orthogonal array for the exper-
iment, which resulted in 32 pieces of data. After calculating
the mean value, standard deviation, and corresponding SN ratio
of each experiment, response tables containing SN ratio and
means are listed in Tables VIII and IX. The optimal condition
was selected based on these data according to the principle
of maximizing the SN ratio. Because factor B has very lit-
tle impact on the SN ratio, and we predicted that the mean
would be close to 24.5, the optimal factor level combination
was set to be A1 B1 C2 D1 . The project team later implemented
10 confirmation experiments and obtained a mean of 24.12µm
and a SN ratio of 44.2498µm (SN ratio was enhanced by
20.1469µm). These two values were fairly close to the pre-
dicted value, which indicated that the selection of significant
factors and the number of levels were appropriate. This new

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 SU AND SU: TFT-LCD CONTRAST RATIO IMPROVEMENT BY USING DFSS DISCIPLINES
design combination could therefore be applied to the stage of
mass production.
3) Fool Proofing Measure: The project team used the fool-
proofing method to implement the following three measures
and prevent design errors:
a) Using the color and shape of the POL mark to distinguish
of upper and lower substrates and the axial direction. After
the protection film is peeled off, the corner cut can be used to
identify the supplier.
b) Using differently colored bottles or caps to distinguish
the photoresists of different colors such as BM, R, G, and B.
c) Labeling the green product with a RoHS mark.
4) Control Plan: To ensure effective monitoring of the
contrast and relevant process parameters, the company imple-
mented the control plan to maintain the operation process
under minimum variance to minimize interference. The com-
pany also provided proper training with respect to all pro-
cedures and checklists to ensure that the new procedure can
effectively improve the yield. The project team modified the
array, CF, and cell control plans and modified the SOP and pro-
duction line checklists. Only part of the content was captured
in this study (refer to Table X for details).
F. Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Improvement and
Performance Benefits
Before adopting DFSS, the product yield of the company
was 86.36%; after DFSS was adopted, the mass production
yield exceeded 99.63%, and the first-year return rate fell from
7.08% to 1.54%. Following mass production in this project,
an additional sales volume of 600000 pieces is expected every
year, which will lead to an increase in unit price of U.S. $4 per
piece. After deducting investment development costs in the
first year, the net profit of mass production is expected to
exceed U.S. $9.5 million. The result of implementing this
project is that the use of DFSS for product and process
design will contribute to a reduction in R&D design issues
and enhance product yield and customer satisfaction.
V. C ONCLUSION
A panel maker with market competitiveness must develop
and produce LCD products that can meet customer needs so
that the goal of profitability can be maintained. The DMAVD
methodology of DFSS was used to find a counter measure
to enhance contrast ratio of LCD, thus improving the pro-
cess performance. Through an actual case study, we first
used QFD, TRIZ, and Taguchi methods to find the optimal
component design method. Ultimately, the customer require-
ment was met via a reliability test. At the pilot production
stage, the Taguchi’s dynamic method was used to improve
the film thickness specification problem that arises a high
contrast ratio product, while the Taguchi’s static method
was used to improve the uniformity of BM CD. This study
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139
successfully integrated a daily development project with DFSS
to greatly improve design quality and reduce design costs.
The experience of this study can be applied to TFT-LCD,
Semiconductors, the Solar Industry, and the LED industry to
serve as a reference for the improvement of new technology
development projects.
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