The Growth of Flat-Panel TVs in the 21st Century

THE FIRST DECADE OF THE 2000s WAS AN EXCITING TIME FOR THE display industry. The period was marked by many milestones, including the extensive growth of flat-panel TVs—both in volume and literal size. An issue was whether thin-film transistor (TFT)-LCD or plasma display panels (PDP) would receive the lion's share of the consumer television business. It was believed that buyers would want large flat screens they could hang on their walls, and sizes of 42 inches or larger were needed to prove this speculation. The general thinking was that whoever could manufacture the most affordable large-size flat TVs with at least a minimum of performance would dominate the market, initiating the quest for large size and high volume.

Before 2000, PDPs mainly controlled the large-area direct-view space, with 50- and 60-inch panels coming into the market from Plasmaco, Pioneer, Fujitsu, and others. But as a new decade began, so did the rapid growth in the size of TFT-LCDs. Some notable milestones came from Samsung, who released 40-, 42-, 46-, and 57-inch panels in 2002 and 2004.¹ LG and Sharp followed suit, and by mid-2005, consumers had many new options.

A long period of investment began in 2004 with the manufacturing of equipment for LCDs, with a growth in mother-glass substrates from <1 meter per side to >2 meters by the end of the decade. In the October 2004 issue of Information Display (ID), Joe Hallet titled his SID 2004 Business Conference review article “Too Big for Roads.” It described how the industry was investing in manufacturing equipment that was literally too large to be transported on normal highways and heading toward an almost unbelievable scale² in size and volume (Fig. 1). Large substrate sizes meant lower individual panel costs and thus mass adoption of larger-sized TVs. In fact, the cost of large-size PDPs were lower in 2004 than equivalent LCDs, so PDP TVs had a head start in terms of cost and size. To gain ground, the LCD industry had to keep innovating.

The seeds for eventual LCD dominance still were being sown.

In 2004, LG Philips LCD received a SID Display of the Year award for the LC550W01-A5 LCD Module, the first commercially available TFT-LCD module for TV sets in the mid-50-inch range.

At Display Week 2005, there were some notable examples of sheer size capabilities, with Samsung showing both a 102-inch PDP and an 82-inch TFT-LCD (Fig. 2). The President and CEO of Samsung Electronics LCD business, Sang Wan Lee, doubled down in the symposium's first keynote address when he announced that Samsung would build a Gen 9 LCD fab within the next few years and forecasted the LCD-TV market to grow to 100 million units by 2010.⁴

By Display Week 2007, many new LCD fabs had opened in the Gen 7 and larger sizes by Samsung, LG, Sharp, AUO, Chi Mei Optoelectronics, and others. Sharp was the winner for the largest panel on display with their 108-inch LCD TV made at their Kameyama Plant, which was the first plant to use Gen 8 glass substrates.⁵ The goal of this demonstration was not so much to sell extremely large TVs as it was to showcase what was possible. Large substrates with good yields meant manufacturers could make many smaller-size panels cut from the substrate at the same time. A significant cost advantage could be gained if the choice of panel sizes provided for high substrate utilization.

Sharp had a head start in the market with their Aquos-branded TVs, along with the Gen 6 and Gen 8 lines. They even shipped Sharp panels to competing brands that did not have their own internal lines up and running yet. Prices of LCD panels dropped significantly in 2007, and LCD TVs were the culprit. Major retailers drove growth through deep discounts and forced manufacturers to absorb the losses. Manufacturers tightened their output to try and turn the crystal cycle in the other direction. Demonstrations were shifting from showing the biggest sizes possible for bragging rights to largest mass-production formats. Samsung showed a 70-inch mass-production TV panel, but many other manufacturers also had panels in the 50–60-inch range in early production.⁶

Mid-decade, another headliner was the introduction of curved LCDs for TVs, monitors, and 3D TVs, which were mainly stereoscopic panels that required active or passive polarizing glasses to see the 3D effect. Manufacturers invested significant effort into this feature and tried for many years to get mainstream adoption.

Two notable milestones in this period were a pair of recipients of the SID Display Industry Awards. The 2005 Gold Award went to Philips 3D Solutions for their 42-inch Autostereoscopic 3D Intelligent Display for professional applications. The 2010 Gold Award went to LG Display for their 47-inch 3D LCD panel as the first commercially available TFT-LCD module for 3D televisions in the mid-40-inch range. The former did not require glasses to view the 3D content but had other observer position limitations. The latter used low-cost polarizer glasses and provided a view that could accommodate observer motion while viewing.

While curved displays have found a niche in gaming and high-end monitor applications, stereoscopic 3D TV never broke out as a must-have feature. Many years ago, I asked a colleague why the industry tried so hard to develop 3D, and the answer can be paraphrased this way: By the end of that decade, LCD manufacturers had won the battle for TV dominance. They had sold every interested consumer a new flat-panel TV. Now they needed those consumers to trade in or up. But when does the one you have become not good enough anymore? Hindsight shows that 3D was not the answer, but many advancements exist today that continue to drive the upgrade cycle. In a future installment of “Looking Back,” we will examine some of those innovations that have expanded the market, including LED backlights, quantum dots, and higher resolution.