AUO's 8.5 G Fab Produces its First 46-Inch LCD TV Panel (December 31)

TAICHUNG, Taiwan - AU Optronics Corp. (AUO) announced December 16 that it has successfully turned on Taiwan's very first 46-inch LCD TV panel, produced by the company's 8.5th generation ("G8.5") facility at its Taichung Science Park site.

"For AUO itself, the significance of Taiwan's very first 46-inchpanel produced by G8.5 technology is its profound breakthrough in manufacturing technology by overcoming the obstacles of a super-size G8.5 mother glass substrate. This success also symbolizes a technology advancement solely accomplished by our nationals, making Taiwan's TFT-LCD industry more competitive as a whole." said Dr. LJ Chen, President and COO of AUO. "Every panel produced by a new generation fab represents a technology breakthrough. What really makes this 46-inch panel special are: firstly, this is a panel produced by a genuine green fab, and secondly, it is produced by the world's first TFT-LCD hybrid fab."

The size of AUO's G8.5 mother glass substrate is 2200mm x 2500mm and can optimally cut up to six 52-inch or 55-inch panels and eight 46-inch panels. The G8.5 line in Taichung is targeted to enter mass production in Q3 of 2009.

The G8.5 plant features many green innovations. These include:

- Incorporating heat recycle design to the heat processors, which enables the reuse of heat emitted during production and results in up to 40% energy-savings per piece of equipment

- Wind turbines on top of some air outlets that are capable of generating more than 100KWh of electrical power per day, resulting in a carbon emission reduction of 25 tons annually, which is equivalent to the carbon emissions produced by 50,000 standard-size vehicles.

- In addition to the fab's central water recycle system, some of the manufacturing processes points are interconnected by a Water Inter-use System (WIS), which enable points to share water resources without having the need to go through the entire fab's water recycle system. This design can effectively save 335,000 tons of water, an amount equivalent to 160 standard swimming pools. Furthermore, about the size of 7 standard international football stadiums, the enormous 50,000 square meters rooftop of the G8.5 fab utilizes a rainwater harvest system with an estimated capacity of over 25,000 tons of rainwater per year, an amount equivalent to 11 standard swimming pools.

AUO's hybrid fab consists of both G8.5 (mother glass substrate 2200mm x 2500mm) and G7.5 (mother glass substrate 1950mm x 2250mm) lines. The monthly full capacity of G8.5 line is 40,000 glass substrates and of the G7.5 line is 60,000 glass substrates. This TFT-LCD hybrid fab can improve production flexibility by 100%, providing customers a more satisfactory tailor-made service.