LG.Philips Unveils 100-Inch Liquid Crystal Display
LG.Philips LCD Co. unveiled a 100-inch liquid crystal display, the latest move in a high-tech game of leapfrog among the makers of flat-panel screens for televisions and computers.
The mammoth new panel, which could become the key component in a television set the size of a garage door, gives LG.Philips bragging rights -- for the moment -- in a technology race that began several years ago. The innovation beats the previous 82-inch record for an LCD screen, which Samsung Electronics Co. revealed last March.
No TVs have yet been made from that panel, and none are likely to be made at the 100-inch size for several years. The largest LCD TV on sale is a 65-inch model from Sharp Corp. of Japan, priced at about $15,000.
But the latest jumbo screen is another sign that LCD developers have closed the size gap with the other major flat-panel technology, plasma displays. Just six years ago, few manufacturers believed LCD screens would cross the 25-inch threshold, let alone compete with plasma screens to display giant pictures that only projectors could show previously.
LG.Philips LCD is a joint venture of LG Electronics Co. of South Korea and Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands. The two companies operate a separate venture, called LG.Philips Displays, that produces tubes for ordinary TVs.
Lee Hyeon Woo, an engineer at LG.Philips, said the company pushed for the 100-inch size because it felt the three-digit figure would have a symbolic impact. In addition, he said, "this was a size everybody said was going to be hard to make." LG.Philips and Samsung, both based in South Korea, are the leading makers of LCD panels and are virtually neck-and-neck in unit volume and revenue. LG.Philips finished 2005 with slightly more revenue, though Samsung's fourth-quarter LCD revenue was greater than LG.Philips's.
Since 2000, the two companies and Sharp have been racing to increase the size of LCDs. During a three-month period in 2002, LG.Philips and Samsung traded the lead four times. LG.Philips last led in October 2003, when it unveiled a 55-inch LCD screen. Samsung passed it two months later with a 57-inch panel. Screens are measured diagonally.
Many size breakthroughs are associated with the opening of new factories for processing larger glass substrates. The glass used to make the 100-inch LCD is almost as large as a king-size bed and will yield panels for eight 42-inch TVs. In January, LG.Philips began mass production at a new factory that handles glass of that size.
For years, LCD size was limited by a tedious method of applying liquid crystal between the ultrathin sheets of glass that form a panel. A new method, similar to spreading butter on bread, sped up production and made it more economical to work on bigger sizes. Panel makers then poured billions of dollars into new factories to make LCDs for TVs.
Samsung SDI Co., LG Electronics and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. in recent years have played leapfrog in the development of plasma screens. Matsushita, maker of Panasonic products, in January demonstrated a 103-inch plasma display, moving past 102-inch versions by the other two companies.
The biggest plasma screen TV on sale is a 71-inch model from LG. The product costs about $60,000 in the U.S. with a basic black frame. LG sells a gold-plated one in the Middle East for about $80,000.
百寸液晶面板问世 显示技术大战升温
LG.Philips LCD Co.推出了一款100英寸的液晶显示器，电视及电脑平板显示器生产商你追我赶的激烈技术竞争就此又掀开了新的篇章。
这款可成为大小于车库门相仿的巨型电视机关键组件的超大面板使得近几年来一直投身液晶显示器行业激烈技术竞争的LG.Philips暂时又有了炫耀的资本。这项创新刷新了由三星电子(Samsung Electronics Co.)去年三月创下的82英寸液晶显示器尺寸纪录。
不过，目前尚无使用82英寸液晶显示屏的电视面市，几年内出现100英寸液晶电视的可能性更是不大。当前市场上出售的最大尺寸的液晶电视是日本夏普公司(Sharp Corp.)生产的65英寸机型，售价约为15,000美元。
新的100英寸巨无霸的亮相标志著业内技术研发又有了新的突破，液晶显示器与等离子显示器(plasma, 另一种重要平板显示技术)在尺寸上的差距由此变小了。六年前，25英寸还被视为一个液晶显示器无法逾越的界线，像等离子屏幕一样显示之前只有投影仪才能做得到的巨型图像画面更是连想都不敢想的事情。
LG.Philips是韩国LG电子(LG Electronics Co.)与荷兰飞利浦电子(Philips Electronics NV)共同创办的合资企业。这两家公司还合资经营另一家叫做LG.Philips Displays的公司，专门生产用于普通电视机的显像管。
LG飞利浦的工程师Lee Hyeon Woo说，公司一直努力推进100英寸显示器的研发和生产是因为公司认为液晶显示器尺寸达到三位数具有里程碑的意义。以前所有人都认为生产这么大的液晶显示器很难做到。LG.Philips和三星都是液晶显示器领域的顶级生产商，无论是销售量还是销售额，他们都是势均力敌。LG.Philips去年全年的销售额略高于三星，但单从四季度看，则是三星的液晶显示器收入略高一筹。
早从2000年起，这两家韩国公司以及日本的夏普就展开了液晶显示器尺寸大战。2002年，在短短三个月时间里，这场竞争战的领先位置就在LG.Philips和三星之间四次易手。LG.Philips前一次领先是在2003年10月，当时它推出了一款55英寸的液晶显示器。但是仅仅两个月之后，三星就以57英寸的新纪录再次超过了它。
很多次尺寸上的突破都伴随著新的大型玻璃基片加工厂的兴建。用于生产100英寸液晶显示器的玻璃基片尺寸上和一张特号大床不相上下，能够做成八个42英寸电视显示屏。今年1月，LG.Philips在一个能够加工如此巨大玻璃的新工厂开始了100英寸玻璃基片的批量生产。
多年来，液晶显示器一直是通过在两片超薄玻璃基片之间加入液晶制成。这种低效率的制造工艺使得液晶显示器的尺寸受到了限制。新开发出的技术与在面包上抹黄油有异曲同工之妙，它不但加快了生产速度，而且还节省了成本。显示器生产商于是开始投入大量资金兴建新工厂来生产用于电视机的液晶显示器。
近几年来，三星SDI(Samsung SDI Co.)、LG电子和松下电器产业公司(Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.)在等离子显示器的研发中交替领先。今年1月，松下推出了一款103英寸的等离子显示器，使另外两家公司的102英寸产品失去了领先位置。
目前市场上销售的最大等离子电视是LG电子生产的71英寸机型。该产品的普通黑框机型在美国市场的售价约为60,000美元。中东市场上销售的同样尺寸的镀金框机型价格在80,000美元左右。
