After aggressively pursuing super-large size panel production since last year, LCD panel makers now are working on "ultra-slim" products for large to small-size LCD applications as was evident from the technologies on display at this year's FPD International show, which was recently held in Yokohama, Japan from October 24-26.
TVs
LG.Philips LCD recently announced that it plans to launch a 42-inch full HD LCD TV panel that has a thickness of 19.8mm in the first quarter of 2008. The panel is 40% thinner and 10% lighter than conventional 42-inch LCD TV panels, according to the company.
Samsung Electronics introduced a 40-inch full HD LCD TV panel that is 10mm thick during the show. The panel's bezel has been reduced from a conventional 30mm to 14.6mm, highlighted Samsung. The panel, using an LED backlight, reproduces 92% of the NTSC standard for color saturation and features power consumption of 90W or less, Samsung said.
Meanwhile, AUO demonstrated a 32-inch LCD module (LCM) during the show. The 32-inch TV LCM has a thickness of 20mm, compare to the average industry thickness of 32.5mm. The company plans to volume produce 32-, 37- and 42-inch super-slim TV panels during the first quarter of 2008, said sources.
Notebooks
Apart from TV applications, panel makers were also featuring thinness to target notebook applications. A 13.3-inch notebook panel from Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) features a thickness of only 2.5mm and a new record weight of only 163g. The panel employs driver IC "Double-sided COG + WOA" technology and a 0.4mm ultra-thin light guide plate (LGP) backlight module.
LG.Philips LCD's 13.3-inch widescreen LCD panel is also 40% thinner and 20% lighter, thanks to the use of white LED backlights instead of conventional cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL), according to the company.
Handsets
In the handset panel market, both AU Optronics (AUO) and Sharp revealed their ambitions during the show. AUO revealed a 1.9-inch mobile-use LCD panel at 0.69mm thin, 13% thinner than the thickness of a credit card. The new LCD screen is designed with a weight of 2.2 grams and 400-nit high brightness.
Sharp said the company has successfully developed a 2.2-inch super-thin LCD panel for mobile devices with the panel featuring a thickness of only 0.68 mm.
Downstream TV market
Not only upstream LCD panel players are developing slim products, downstream LCD TV makers also see slim characteristics as a feature trend in the TV market. In August, Sharp announced a prototype 52-inch LCD TV, which has a thickness of 20mm (main display section; 29mm at the thickest part), a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 and power consumption of 140kWh/y.
Hitachi recently introduced its new line of 1.5-inch (35mm) ultra-thin LCD TVs with the models scheduled to be first available in the Japan market in December 2007, said the company. The new lines, which adopt external electrode fluorescent lamp (EEFL) technology, will be initially offered in three sizes including 32-, 37- and 42-inch models.
Early in October at CEATEC Japan 2007 (Oct 2-6), Victor Company of Japan (JVC) demonstrated a 3.7 cm thick 42-inch LCD TV. This is 9.2cm slimmer than the 12.9cm thickness (thinnest part) of the company's existing same screen size model. JVC will market this TV first in Europe in the spring of 2008 and later in Japan and the United States in series, according to a report from Tech-On.
One of the reasons that LCD TV makers now are viewing slimness as a feature trend in the market is that they expect to improve LCD technology and compete against OLED technology, according to sources. OLED is self-luminous, which means there is no need for backlighting. Sony will begin selling an 11-inch OLED TV on December 1 with the model (XEL-1) weighing 2kg and being about 3mm thin.
Article edited by Eric Mah
