By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
Samsung Electronics said Wednesday that it has developed a liquid-crystal display (LCD) panel that uses generic glass used in windows and mirrors instead of using a more expensive and sophisticated glass substrate.
The adoption of ordinary glass in making LCD panels is expected to give more room to Samsung in choosing glass suppliers and thus help reduce its LCD TV and monitor prices.
So far, only a handful of companies have been capable of making special, high-endurance glass substrate used in LCD panels, and they have made large profits by selling it to electronics makers.
Samsung first showcased the 19-inch panel, called ``Soda-Lime LCD,'' at a display exposition held in Yokohama, Japan, last week. It is not yet scheduled for mass production, the firm said.
``We will be able to save costs in purchasing glass substrate,'' a Samsung spokesman said. ``The quality of the Soda-Lime LCD is almost identical with conventional LCD monitors.''
LCDs are widely used in flat-panel TVs, computer monitors, laptop screens, mobile phone screens and many other electronics appliances. To make the panel, Samsung and other LCD panel makers have been buying large sheets of high-endurance glass substrate from glass companies. Then they attach electronic circuits to it and fill it with liquid-crystal cells of red, blue and green colors between two glass sheets to make it emit light.
The largest LCD glass supplier in Korea is Samsung Corning Precision Glass, a joint venture of United States' Corning and Korea's Samsung Electronics. The company outperforms other firms in the field and dominates the market with about an 80-percent share.
The LCD glass monopoly has made it one of the most profitable firms in South Korea. Last year, its operating profit was a whopping 54 percent _ 1.04 trillion won from 1.96 trillion won in sales.
The high profit of the glass maker has irritated panel and appliance makers whose operating profits rarely exceed 10 percent of their sales. But the adoption of the new panel technology that uses ordinary glass will weaken the tyranny of the LCD glass makers because the glass can be easily made by other firms, they hope.
The challenge for the glass makers is to make LCD panels work with ordinary window glass, which is not as pure as the high-quality LCD glass substrate and is more vulnerable to heat, shock, and chemical components, the company said in a statement.
indizio@koreatimes.co.kr
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