Manufacturers of laptop panels to increase the use of 5th generation fabs, according to DisplaySearch

CPT and Toshiba still make panels in 4G fabs

Because manufacturing of notebook and netbook panels in 5G fabs delivers greater efficiency, top LCD makers will reportedly shift their production to 5G. This will allegedly allow more panels to be built and will eventually lead to bigger profits.

More than 90% of the netbook panels in Q4 of 2009 were produced using 5G fabs, which is an increase of more than 20% on year. CPT (Chunghwa Picture Tubes) and Toshiba are the supposedly still making netbook panels in fourth generation fabs.

"Because top-tier panel manufacturers have multiple generations of LCD fabs, they have the flexibility to modify panel production to produce panels with the highest efficiency”, said Shawn Lee, who is an analyst at DisplaySearch.  

Top netbook and notebook panel manufacturers will allegedly mainly employ 5G fabs for their production, because a new generation of fabrication facilities is now being used for making TV and larger monitor panels. Furthermore, these manufacturers use the manufacturing plants with lower capacity, like 3G and 4G, for producing small- and medium-size panels. Reportedly, companies such as HannStar and Innolux Display, use their 5G fabs to make small/medium –size panels in order to compete with the bigger players in the market.

A relatively strong demand is anticipated in Q1 of the upcoming year and LCD makers are ready to supply the needed quantities by increasing production volumes. The growth of notebook panel output will supposedly amount to 4.5%.