Samsung shows TFT LCD screens

Electronic News, Oct 17, 1994 by Rob Guth

TOKYO--Long the wild card within the liquid cystal display (LCD) market, Korea's Samsung Electronics unveiled a group of screens recently that close a technology gap with Japanese market leaders. At the inaugural LCD International show, here, Samsung showcased a 260,000-color-capable, 10.4-inch, thin-film transistor, active-matrix screen weighing 500 grams that consumes only 3 watts of power and has a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels. Typically, current 10.4-inch screens use approximately 7 watts of power and weigh more than 800 grams.

Only two other vendors--market leader Sharp and Hitachi--showed screens with equal properties as Samsung's 10.4-inch unit. Most screen vendors, however, are developing lighter, and less power hungry units. Samsung also displayed a prototype 14.2-inch screen as well as two 9.4-inch screens that are on par with the Japanese models.

By next year Samsung will have dropped the power consumption of its 10.4-inch model to 2.6 watts, and the following year will have reduced it to 2 watts, according to Sang Wan Lee, executive director, special division, semiconductor business at Samsung. Also by 1996, they will market a full-color screen capable of displaying 16 million colors, he said. Currently, NEC's new Versa M series is the only full-color screen on the market.

Samsung's advances result from massive investments and its DRAM-building experience, company officials said, suggesting LCD production mirrors that of semiconductors so many process techniques apply to both technologies. Its learning curve is evidenced by the advanced screens as well as production yield of 70 percent, according to officials. Currently Japanese manufacturers' yields hover at about the same level.

Nevertheless, all industry watchers say the Japanese companies will continue to supply most of the world's notebook PC screens for some time. By fiscal 1996, the top three Japanese screen makers may nearly triple their combined production and may be able to lower prices, analysts said.

Samsung only has a pilot line producing 2,000 screens per month and plans mass production by early next year. "By the end of next year we are planning for 40,000 panels per month, depending upon the market," Mr. Lee said. One glass panel can be cut into four 9.4-inch screens.

"When they reach full production, they could jump right into the number two spot almost immediately," said Dataquest analyst Jack Roberts. Samsung won't knock off Sharp, which by then may hold 50 percent of the world's market, he said, but it could be a threat to NEC and Display Technologies Inc. (the joint venture between IBM and Toshiba).

Also soon to be added to the equation are other newcomers from Korea, including, Goldstar, while the US Display Consortium, (USDC) is laying the plans for building an infrastructure to support high-level screen production.