27 SEP 2022
Flat panel display (FPD) photolithography equipment is critical to display manufacturing and formation of submicron pixel circuits on glass substrates. FPD manufacturing requires advanced optical technologies and high-precision, high-speed alignment capabilities and FPD lithography equipment plays an important role that is directly tied to substrate quality, yield and production efficiency.
China Star lit up its first 14-inch FHD notebook PC panel in its new T9 Gen 8.6 TFT LCD fab. The aim is to produce 14-inch FHD panels with multiple 96 cuts from its Gen 8.6 glass substrate.
- Key finding
China Star lit up its first 14-inch full high definition (FHD) notebook PC panel in its new T9 Gen 8.6 TFT LCD fab. The aim is to produce 14-inch FHD panels with multiple 96 cuts from its Gen 8.6 glass substrate.
With Nikon’s new Gen 8.6 photolithography equipment with 1.5µm line and space (L/S) and a slim scribe alignment margin, China Star plans to produce 14-inch FHD (1920×1080 resolution with 16:9 aspect ratio) panels with 96 cuts in its newly ramped up T9 Gen 8.6 (glass substrate of 2250x2600mm) fab. The plan indicates the glass substrate’s incredible panelization efficiency in reducing amortization and depreciation costs, especially since this T9 Gen 8.6 fab must compete with Taiwanese notebook PC display manufacturers such as AUO and Innolux, which have the cost advantage of having finished depreciation.
By producing the same 14-inch FHD notebook PC panels, China Star’s T9 fab aims to achieve better efficiency than HKC Display’s H4 fab, which has the same Gen 8.6 fab with 2250x2600mm substrate size but is supported by Canon’s photolithography machine. Accordingly, HKC Display’s H4 fab produces 14-inch FHD notebook PC panels with 90 cuts per glass substrate.
China Star wants to produce LCDs for multiple applications in its new T9 fab, including LCD TV open cell panels, 27-inch FHD in-plane switching (IPS) LCD monitors, and 14-inch FHD IPS notebook PC panels, and will also reserve some capacity to produce a-Si TFT LCD smartphone displays from 2023 onward.
Other than planning to produce 14-inch FHD notebook PC panels with 96 cuts, China Star is also developing 14-inch FHD+ (1920×1200 resolution with 16:10 aspect ratio) panels with 91 cuts per substrate in its Gen 8.6 fab to start its long-term transition from 16:9 aspect ratio to 16:10 for its notebook PC displays.
https://global.canon/en/technology/fpd2021s.html