IHS has said in a research note that oxide backplanes are the most cost-effective TFT-LCD substrate for tablet PC displays.
The firm calculated that the manufacturing cost for a 7″ 1920 x 1080 oxide LCD module is $19.50. Under a consistent fab utilisation of 90%, the cost was found to be 4% lower than an s-Si LCD display and 13% lower than an LTPS LCD display.
This, says IHS, is the first time that oxide’s cost benefit has been shown to match its performance. It believes that the result can be primarily attributed to the low number of masks required in the manufacturing process, and an increase in G8 fab availability.
Fab utilisation rates are important to the cost calculation. If the utilisation drops to 75%, the manufacturing cost for an oxide-substrate display would rise by 5%, making it higher than an a-Si display.
