Hsinchu, Taiwan,
In view of the anticipated arrival of High Definition TV (HDTV) era, AU Optronics ("AUO" or the "the Company") (TAIEX: 2409; NYSE: AUO) introduced on Monday, its latest breakthrough technologies for LCD TV; 4 ms response time via GFI Technology, NTSC 90% with HiColor Technology, and improved performance premium wide viewing angle with AUO Advanced MVA Technology (AMVA). The AMVA Technology allows panels to reach extreme high contrast ratio of 1,200:1 along with low color washout. The AUO Technology Showcase will be on display during the three-day FPD Taiwan 2005 exhibit, for the public to witness the company's innovation capabilities in breaking boundaries of existing market performers. Mass production is expected throughout the latter half of this year.
The company's GFI Technology is a CRT-like impulse type display that reduces image residue and improves motion picture quality. The technology decreases response time to less than 4 ms (gray to gray) and also dramatically improves the motion picture quality without impact on CCFL lifetime. It is estimated for implementation for product production by 3Q of this year.
Another quality characteristic of LCD TV is its color gamut, which is the desirable scope of color spectrum able to be displayed. The color gamut performance of LCD TVs utilizing CCFL light source is about 72% NTSC. AUO's innovative HiColor Technology creates rich colors with lowered costs. By modifying the conventional CCFL structure it improves high color saturation to over 90% NTSC and is presently believed to be the optimal performer in the industry. AUO’s self-developed backlight module and color filter allows for different spectrum for red, green and blue wavelength of color filter simultaneously and optimizes the transmittance spectrum of color filter. This technology improves color saturation to create more rich natural colors. The implementation of this technology into the mainstream 32” LCD TV panels is expected later this year.
Wide viewing angle has been an on-going topic of discussion in LCD TV application. AU Optronics now introduces the AUO Advanced MVA Technology (AMVA), utilizing low color washout to conquer the problem of color distortion significant with traditional wide viewing angles. This technology creates more domains than conventional multi-domain vertical alignment (MVA) LCDs and reduces the variation of transmittance in oblique angles. It successfully improves color washout and provides better image quality in oblique angles than conventional VA LCDs. In addition, AMVA Technology can influence contrast ratio by improving it to 1,200:1, or even up to 1,500:1. For 32” LCD TV, for example, originally its contrast ratio of 800:1 can be greatly improved by 1.5 times, after applying the AMVA technology, to display optimal quality LCD imaging. The ability of the latest technology improves contrast ratio to reach the highest known in the industry.
AUO's Executive Vice President, Dr. Hui Hsiung, noted AUO's generation six fabrication facility has already successfully mass produced 32” and 37” LCD TV panels, signifying its production capabilities. The new technologies announced are not only to provide quality image displays for our customers and end consumers, but more importantly, it is to affect the coming era of high definition TV. With AU Optronics’ vision to deliver high response time, high color gamut, and wide viewing angle, LCD TV quality is getting closer to or even surpassing motion picture quality of traditional CRT TVs. For the coming 2H 2005, the company will gradually implement these leading technologies into their products, bringing quality picture for LCD TV's to a higher ground in our digital age.