The much touted joint venture(JV) between Samsung and Sony to build the latest generation LCD panels for the hot flat TV market took an interesting turn when S-LCD announced the eighth-generation (8G) plant would make glass substrates not only different from partner company Samsung-but in effect, joined the TV display standards side of arch rival LG.Philips (LPL). Yesterday, S-LCD said it plans to begin processing 8G TFT LCD substrates in the fall of 2007 in 2,200×2,500mm sizes-just 40mm larger than the 2,160×2,460mm substrate sizes quoted by Samsung.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor
of Projection Monthly &
Microdisplay Report

Samsung’s LCD business president Sang-Wan Lee said last month that the company plans to adopt the slightly smaller substrate size and encouraged the industry to get behind this "standard" to help increases economies of scale on key component suppliers and reduce costs in tooling infrastructure for the industry. But the message was apparently lost-even on their own partner company, S-LCD who have either knowingly or unwittingly sided with arch-rival LG.Philips (LPL).

Meanwhile the Taiwan Tigers (reduced now to four with the recently announced merge of AUO and Quanta) are throwing their collective weight behind the LPL size - making the ‘00 the de facto standard in 8G substrate manufacturing.

What’s behind the relatively small 40mm difference in the X and Y planes can be a big thing. A 2,200×2,500 substrate can be cut into 32-inch panel size 18-up, 47-inch size 8-up or 55-inch size 6-up, which is a more efficient mix of cuts than the Samsung standard of 2,160×2,460mm, which can only cut panels 15-up, 6-up or 3-up respectivelyputting the company at a severe yield disadvantage if these do indeed become the display size standard consumers demand.

Samsung counters that the more desirable flat TV sizes include 46- and 52-inch and that’s behind the slightly smaller (40mm in X and Y) size substrate designed for panel-cut efficiency in these sizes.

Lee’s "call for standards" message was first given at last year’s SID (May-05) where the company treated the show goers to a nice meal and then-in a keynote speech, drew the line in the sand for both 8G and 9G fab production-calling on the industry to "actively create" rather than "passively predict" the future LCD-TV market. He then submitted his 2160 x 2460mm size for 8G and a 2400 x 2800mm size for 9G in a unilateral announcement of that standard.

While the call (and the meal, by the way) was all well and good, it flew in the face of the Sharp 8G standard put forth a month before at 2160 x 2400mm, a size set to optimize 65-inch LCD-TV panel production.

But the debate pre-dates 8G fabs. Currently, Samsung makes 40- and 46-inch panels on its 7G line, while LPL makes 42- and 47-inch panels on its "7.5" line, as do the Taiwan tigers AUO and CMO.

While the Korean rivals have been energetic in their attempts to "set the standard" for LCD sizes by convincing consumers to purchase panels in their preferred sizes it now seems that LPL will have it’s way doing an "end-run" on the manufacturing side. LPL not only has garnered support from the Taiwan Tigers but won over S-LCD-a key ally that supplies panels for the popular Sony Barvia brand, and to add insult to injury-is half owned by Samsung.

In the near term, look for Samsung to produce 46- and 52-inch panels on its forthcoming 8G line, with the knowledge that any non-Samsung branded set sold in the 46-inch size (Sharp also uses 52-inch in the Aquos line) is using a Samsung. (Heck, you may even win a discount on a bet with the salesman). But downstream, as Samsung continues on the non-standard path, their glass is bound to increase in costs as component suppliers must make special runs to accommodate the now "off-sizes". This almost looks like a classic example of Sun Tsu’s "Art of War" - with this move LPL has won the large LCD-TV display standard battle, before the war ever began. -SS