Sharp Executive Urges LCD Industry to Adopt Standard Panel Sizes

by Andrew MacLellan

EBN, March 31, 2000 - Sharp Corp., Japan's largest manufacturer of flat-panel displays, is calling on its rivals to adopt standard LCD-module and substrate sizes as a way to cut production costs for suppliers and their customers.  Masaya Hijikigawa, executive director and general manager of Sharp's LCD Development Group in Nara, Japan, said the continuing evolution to larger screens and higher resolutions is fueling demand for Internet-based appliances. But Hijikigawa said LCD vendors are driving up costs and hurting potential new-market growth by making too many variously-sized screens in the hope of differentiating their products.

"The number of materials and [components] are increasing day by day in relation to the number of [LCD] devices and models," he said in a keynote address today at the U.S. FPD Conference 2000 sponsored by DisplaySearch Inc. and EBN. "In my opinion, competition of motherglass sizes can no longer bring us any benefit."

Often an indicator of the direction emerging global markets will take, Japanese consumers are infatuated with flat panels -- and in addition to strong notebook-PC consumption, are embracing LCD technology for the desktop. According to DisplaySearch, an Austin-based research group, LCDs accounted for half of all desktop-monitor revenue in Japan in the second half of 1999.

The trend is all the more worth noting, according to observers, because it's combining with a rapid shift by Japanese consumers to Internet-enabled wireless devices. As of late February, more than 4 million cell phone users in Japan subscribed to some form of wireless Internet service, a number Sharp expects will increase to 10 million this year. Hijikigawa said that by the end of 2000, 65 million cell phones will be in use in Japan, for the first time surpassing the number of land-based phones.

"We have just entered into a new type of society -- a mobile digital-network society," he said.

With LCD sales on the rise and Internet capability at the fingertips of millions of phone users, Sharp believes it's just a matter of time before users begin migrating to more sophisticated "digital windows" with larger screens capable of displaying full-color graphics and video images downloaded from the Web.

"The progress of wireless information technology, such as Bluetooth and mobile Internet devices, will make the mobile Internet more convenient from now on," Hijikigawa said.

However, in addition to high-bandwidth wireless networks, higher-resolution displays, and faster imaging components, the LCD industry must develop standards that reduce the dizzying array of component choices that are driving up production costs. When settling on a new LCD design, for example, Hijikigawa said panel makers must now select from among as many as 1,500 different polarizers, and wrestle with up to 300 different glass substrates, 500 color-filter options, and 400 separate driver ICs.

To help control the confusion and cut manufacturing costs, Sharp is proposing that the FPD industry adopt 15-, 18-, and 20-inch panel sizes, eliminating all others in between. The company also called upon its rivals to use 680mm x 880mm glass substrates, which yield the three display sizes most economically. The measure is expected to cut by 90% the number of components jostling for space in the panel market, according to Sharp.

Rather than competing on size, Hijikigawa urged the industry to attract customers with lower-cost, lighter displays that use less power or offer more features.

Ross Young, a DisplaySearch analyst, said such a measure would benefit vendors and OEMs alike. "I think the proposal to standardize substrate sizes will lower costs for everyone, and I hope to see it ratified quickly," he said.

Even with the clout it carries in the LCD market, Sharp may face an uphill climb convincing its competitors to endorse the proposal. Many LCD makers have made substantial investments in alternate displays of different sizes. LG.Philips LCD Inc., for one, is actively promoting its 13.3-inch displays.

Additionally, the ability of a single supplier to influence industry practices is uncertain. Dell Computer Corp. and a number of other OEMs, for instance, have made progress convincing panel vendors to standardize mechanical and electrical interface specifications for certain thin-film-transistor (TFT)-LCDs used in notebook PCs. Hijikigawa acknowledged that systems makers have yet to rally around Sharp's standard-panel proposal, and said that as yet no working group has been established among the supplier base to drive the initiative forward.