To date, the dual brightness enhancement film-embossed (DBEF) has been solely produced by 3M, a US chemical company. The DBEF is the essential material for LCD module. But, a Korean maker was able to develop the DBEF by its own technical capability.The development will boost the competitiveness of Korea, which has been strong in the LCD panel manufacturing with relevantly weak part of the relevant industry. Also, the development will help a Korean company challenge 3M in the LCD market.On April 17, industrial sources said that MNTech, an LCD optical film maker, recently completed the development of 32 inch nano-polarization recycle film, which can replace 3M’s DBEF.The DBEF is the most expensive optical film applied to the LCD modules. To date, 3M has monopolized a KRW 1 trillion’s worth of the global market. 3M’s DBEF costs $12 per sheet, 12 times as higher as diffusion film, 5 times as higher as microlens film and 2 times as higher as prism film. Particularly, it is the most essential part for full HD TV sets to boost the brightness. Many film makers tried to develop the alternative to 3M’s DBEF. However, it was hard for them to develop due to the technical requirement. Also, 3M’s monopoly made them harder to maintain the R&D activities.MNTech has invested KRW 5 billion in R&D activities for the past two years to develop NPRF. Now, it became the world’s second developer of the advanced optical film. Therefore, it is expected to compete against 3M in the global monitor market for notebook computers, desktop monitors and TV panels.It plans to build up a manufacturing facility for NPRF in the next month. The construction is scheduled to be complete in October. It will begin the supply to domestic and foreign panel makers in the early next year. President Kim Yung-chul said, “In a test, our NPRF was competitive against 3M’s DBEF in terms of brightness and clearness. To those panel makers, who had to buy 3M’s expensive products, our product will become an attractive alternative.” MNTech will spend KRW 10 billion on the construction of two production lines for NPRF manufacturing. Next year, it expects that NPRF will mark KRW 100 billion in revenue.The manufacturing process of LCD requires polarizer film for panel and optical film for back light unit. The polarizer film manufacturing has been dominated by Japanese companies. However, in the optical film market, the competition is fierce. Optical film can be categorized into the diffusion film for BLU, prism film and DBEF which raises the brightness of LCD panel by removing the loss of light. MNTech developed an alternative of DBEF.MNTech is a leading company in the optical film market. It was the first Korean company who began to supply film to Sharp’s LCD panel production line. It marked KRW 27 billion in the first quarter, up 60% from a year earlier.Seo, Han