Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., jointly with Cheil Industries Inc.,* an affiliated company of the Korean Samsung Group, is developing an adhesive for use with LCD panel electronic components. Yokohama Rubber will provide Cheil Industries with materials for the electrically conductive adhesive and, after development, will supply the adhesive to companies throughout the Samsung Group, the world's largest LCD panel manufacturer.

Composing dispersed conductive particles, this material will feature three properties: connecting, conductivity and insulation. In the mounting of semiconductors on LCDs, electrical anisotropy - conductivity where they are pressed and insulation where they are not pressed - will be created by applying the adhesive between the circuits to be connected, and heating. Available in two forms, film and paste, such an adhesive is essential in assembling LCDs for TVs, computers and cellular phones.

Achieving stable performance when combining connecting, conductivity and insulation in a single material is difficult. Yokohama Rubber, with its experience with adhesive technology - the company's core technology - and nanotechnology, succeeded in evenly dispersing!!rubber particles within a resin base material. Cheil Industries then disperses conductive particles through the base material and processes it into tape and paste.

The adhesive is already in use for connections in organic EL displays and connections of semiconductor chips to circuit boards (flip-chip connections), and demand for it is expected to grow. Based on the results of this joint development, Yokohama Rubber will pursue further applications of its adhesive technology to electronic materials.



*Samsung Cheil Industries Inc.
Since its establishment as the parent company of Samsung in 1954, Cheil Industries has been a prime force in the development of Korea's textile industry. Since the 1980's, when it first launched its fashion business, Cheil Industries has emerged as successful leader in a number of diverse sectors with the launch of its chemical business in 1990's and electronic chemical materials in 2000's.