Sharp begins production of IGZO LCDs for notebooks, tablets, monitors

Sharp began producing the world's first high-performance LCD panels incorporating IGZO oxide semiconductors for a wide variety of consumer electronics like tablets, notebooks and monitors. Sharp is expanding production scale through April to meet market demand. The new LCD panels are being produced in their Kameyama Plant No. 2, which first started operations in August 2006, manufacturing highly advanced LCD panels for TVs. Production systems have subsequently been reorganized to focus on producing small- and medium-sized LCD panels for the world's rapidly growing smartphone and tablet terminal markets.

Production has begun for next-gen products

Employing advanced IGZO oxide semiconductors enables Sharp to produce LCDs with smaller thin-film transistors and increased pixel transparency, thus allowing for lower energy consumption. In addition, proprietary UV2A x 3 photo-alignment technology employed in Sharp's AQUOS LCD TVs enables these displays to achieve high image quality. Sharp will encourage the application of its new high-resolution LCD panels to high-definition notebook PCs and LCD monitors, which are both expected to grow in demand, as well as to mobile devices. The company will also contribute to creating markets for attractive new products. For LCD monitors, Sharp is producing panel sizes up to 32-inches with a maximum supported resolution of 3,840 x 2,160. These panels will go into high-end desktop monitors used by graphics professionals or photo and video editors, who need the high resolution and the extra screen real estate. For notebook PCs, Sharp will produce 10-inch displays but with a maximum supported resolution of 2,560 x 1,600. Finally, for tablets, Sharp will be producing screen sizes of 7-inches with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. You can expect to see this being used in mainstream tablets that will be launching later this year.

The new technology will allow Sharp and device manufacturers to produce products with much better displays that not only require lesser power to run but are also cheaper. Sharp says the power consumption is reduced by 90 per cent but at the same time delivers twice the detail and clarity of standard LCD panels. This is great for mobile devices as it will only help deliver better battery life.