Sanyo releases low-price 53-inch LCOS TV

Sanyo Electric on December 16 unveiled a 53-inch LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) RPTV (rear-projection television) priced at NT$99,800 (about US$2,927) for the Taiwan market.

The TV uses a 1080i-panel (with a resolution of 1,024x768 pixels) and 0.72-inch (second-generation) chip and has a 4:3 aspect ratio.

United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) handled the IC design, Thintek Optronics the optical engine design, Premier Image Technology the optical engine manufacturing, United Microdisplay Optronics (UMO) the LCD manufacturing, and Sanyo Electric the final assembly.

UMC, UMO and Premier Image Technology founded Thintek on November 1. UMC founded UMO in September 2002 and held an 85% stake in the company as of the end of 2002.

The companies were able to lower production costs by improving the optical engine yield rate and having a complete Taiwanese supply chain, commented Charlie Han, vice president of Thintek.

Taiwan-based home appliance manufacturer Kolin released a 50-inch LCOS TV priced at NT$149,000 last June, with support from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in panel production and US-based eLCOS Microdisplay Technology in panel design.

Sanyo and UMC will also cooperate in developing a 55-inch next-generation, 16:9 aspect ratio LCOS TV and expects to launch the product by the second quarter of next year.

UMC also plans to release 1080p LCOS panel samples (with a higher resolution of 1,920×1,080 pixels), mainly for 55- to 62-inch LCOS TVs, in the third or fourth quarter of next year, according to J.J. Lee, chairman and president of UMO.

Besides Sanyo Electric, the main players in Taiwan’s LCOS TV market include LG Electronics (LGE), Samsung Electronics, Sony (has developed 0.78-inch, 1,920×1,080-pixel LCOS panels) and Taiwan-based Optoma. Epson plans to enter the market in 2004.

Sanyo has a price advantage over vendors of TVs manufactured overseas, which are subject to a 12% tariff.

Source: UMC, compiled by DigiTimes, December 2003.

Article translated by Carrie Yu and edited by Richard So