Topic: Samsung builds a bigger screen

[Clive]

JoonAng Daily

March 08, 2005 ĪŅ Samsung Electronics presented the world's largest liquid crystal display yesterday, all 82 inches of it.

As it was considered technologically impossible to make liquid crystal displays, or LCD panels, so large, Samsung's development is expected to fire up competition with plasma display panels, or PDPs, in the big-TV market.

"This development smashes generally accepted notions that LCDs could not match the large sizes of PDPs or projection-type screens," Samsung senior vice president Kim Sang-soo said. The high-definition thin film transistor liquid crystal display, or TFT-LCD, replaced a 65-inch display developed by the Japanese firm Sharp in October last year as the world's biggest.

Previously, Samsung's largest LCD panels were 57 inches, and LG Philips LCD has developed 55-inch LCDs. The 82-inch LCD was cut from a single 1,870mm (73.6 inches) x 2,200mm glass sheet, which can produce two panels. According to Mr. Kim, the company will be able to develop a 97-inch model soon using an entire glass sheet.

The 82-inch LCD was developed at Samsung's seventh generation production lines in Tangjeong, South Chungcheong province, where mass production of LCD panels begins later this month. Commercialization of the 82-inch model, however, will take 12 to 18 months.

While competing with LCD makers like LG Philips LCD, Samsung also faces in-house rivalry. Sister firm Samsung SDI developed the world's largest 102-inch PDP in December last year and a 17-inch organic light-emitting diode, or OLED display, last May. Samsung Electronics also manufactures OLEDs.

The monster LCD will make its European debut later this week at CeBIT 2005, a tech exhibition held in Hanover, Germany.