Thousands of thin-film-transistor (TFT) liquid-crystal displays roll out of more than a dozen factories in South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and China every day. LCD panel prices are falling at a rate of up to 10% every quarter. So there has been a wholesale shift in rich world markets from traditional cathode-ray TVs to digital sets lightweight enough to hang on the wall. TFT-LCD is also the only technology today catering to displays of all sizes, ranging from 1-in. panels for mobile handsets to massive 108-in. TV screens. Liquid crystals stimulated by electrical charges can change the property of light—that is, the color—passing through them.
LCD panel manufacturing resembles that of semiconductors. Both require clean rooms for precision fabrication procedures. While tiny lines of electronic circuits are printed on silicon wafers for chips, LCD panels require printing of circuits on thin glass plates. Here, a worker walks past an air tunnel designed to create a dust-free environment.
The latest LCD plants produce bigger sheets of glass, which allow engineers to carve out more and bigger display panels for TVs and computer monitors. A state-of-the-art plant, known as a G-8 fab, can produce sheets of paper-thin, specialized glass 2.5m by 2.2m in size. They in turn can be cut into six 52-in. giant panels each.
