Taichung, Taiwan
AUO Corporation ("AUO" or the "Company") (TAIEX: 2409; NYSE: AUO), the world's third largest and Taiwan's leading TFT-LCD manufacturer*, announced today it has successfully turned on Taiwan's first 37" LCD TV panel produced by the Company's 6th generation ("G6") TFT and color filter production facility at its Taichung Science Park site. Following its scheduled 32" LCD TV panel mass production in March, AUO's subsequent accomplishment verifies its G6 facility's execution capabilities and the company's determination for developing breakthrough technologies in the flat panel industry.
Dr. Hui Hsiung, Executive Vice President for large-sized panels stated, "The successful turning on of AU Optronics' first 37" LCD TV panel (equipped with high resolution at 1920x1080, Full HDTV [High Definition TV]) manufactured out of its G6 fab has great significance. It not only verifies that the company's G6 has matured and is ready to target the Japanese, American, and European HDTV markets, but also shows that the demand for this market is about to ignite in the latter half of 2005 into 2006. AUO has always maintained upfront and in-touch with our customers' needs. The 37" is scheduled for mass production in June, timely to meet the next wave of demand of HDTV which may be going into swing. Equipped with 1080i high resolution, as compared to the traditional 480i, this latest model is ideal for the end-user to experience on-hand the uniqueness of High Definition LCD TV."
General Manager for LCD TV Business Group, Dr. David Su stated, " AUO's G6 substrates at 1500mm x 1850mm, can be cut up to 8 pieces of 32" and optimizes up to 6 pieces of 37" LCD TV panels. Utilizing G5 technology processing, on the other hand, can only cut 2 pieces of 37" panels, while G5.5 technology produces 3 at best. Our G6 capabilities can greatly contribute to cost-efficient LCD TV panel productions. 32" LCD TV has already been recognized as the mainstream and with the successful yield improvements in the company's G6 production process, May's shipment can augment substantially on a month-to-month basis. We envisage that 37" will likely be the next major marketed size, as it provides proportionately larger screen area and high resolution. If we convert the popular 4:3 aspect ratio of conventional 27" to 29" CRT television to 16:9 ratio of LCD television, our 37" display will be the most suitable size dimension for meeting the need of the mass market. Under the G6 economic of scale capabilities, we believe that 32" and 37" will likely be the most popular sizes in demand for LCD TV applications."
Striving for new technological breakthroughs for flat panel displays have been behind the company's success story. Apart from high color saturation and high contrast ratio capabilities, its latest self-developed GFI Technology displays picture quality equivalent to CRT underwhich the fast response time has been pushed further to under 4ms (Gray to Gray). Its lifetime, motion picture quality, brightness, efficiency and cost are all comparatively better than the traditional Impulse Type Display Technology or Black Line Insertion Technology. This ultra-high response time technology can decrease picture shadowing improving picture quality greatly, which is scheduled to commercialize by 3Q05.
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32" and 37" LCD TV Panels Optimal Cut by Generatio |
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