Sharp Debuts HD LCD TVs Made in 8G Fab

Staff Reporter -- Electronic News, 9/1/2006

Sharp Electronics Corp. has rolled out 46-inch and 52-inch widescreen, full-HD, 1080 pixel televisions, touting them as the first models ever produced in the company's eighth-generation (8G) LCD factory in Kameyama, Japan.

The fab opened last month to use 8G glass substrates with dimensions of 2,160 x 2,460 mm in the production of LCD TVs in the company's Aquos line.

Meanwhile he Samsung/Sony joint venture S-LCD has an 8G fab in the works, which is not set to be operational until fall 2007. LG Philips LCD has also enumerated plans for an 8G fab, but has since put those plans on hold.

The Sharp 8G glass substrates are about 1.3 times the size of those from a 7G factory. A single 8G substrate from the Kameyama fab will yield eight 46-inch panels or six 52-inch panels, with production capacity expected to increase six-fold by the end of 2008.

"When Kameyema No. 2 is running at full capacity by the end of 2008, the combined production capacity of both Kameyama plants will increase to 20 million LCD TVs a year, based on 32-inch panels." Toshihiko Fujimoto, Sharp's chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

The new Aquos HDTV models feature built-in ATSC, QAM and NTSC tuners for access to DTV and analog TV channels. TheD62 series also features full-spec 1080 pixel (1920 x 1080) HDTV resolution. The series includes dual HDMI inputs that are compatible with 1080 pixel signals from Blu-ray and advanced gaming devices and two HD component video inputs.

The new TVs have a 2000 to 1 contrast ratio, 4 ms response time, and 176 degrees viewing angles, Sharp said.