LCD vs Plasma...an explanation

[Gregg Lengling]

A combination of factors – cost, technological superiority and consumer fascination will dictate the ultimate victor.

Plasma and TFT-LCD (thin-film transistor liquid crystal display flat panels) were born out of different technology backgrounds, each targeting separate markets.  As both technologies rapidly evolve and expand their market presence to threaten industry-mainstay analog CRT, they will soon be butting heads as rivals to capture the lion's share of the global TV markets.

The rivalry has already begun at the 30" level, as prices of wide-XGA-class LCD TV's approach those of VGA-class plasma TVs, coming out of production lines at a cost of between $2,200 and 2,500.  LCD technology has shown great improvement in brightness and contrast ratio in that size, nearly matching the performance of PDPs in an equivalent size.

From a purely technical standpoint, it is costlier to produce an LCD panel than a PDP, because it requires much more complex manufacturing processes that keeps panel yield – the percentage of marketable items out of total production – low.  As well, it requires more LCD drive ICs to light up numerous cells inside, upping costs.  This being the case, the commercial viability of LCD technology for screen sizes of 20" and above has to date been a questions.

True enough, more than 50% of LCD TV's shipping in 2002 were below 20", with an estimated 1.9 million units shipping in 2002, and an anticipated 3 million this year.

The way LCD technology is progressing into the TV market is completely different from the way it has penetrated the desktop monitor market.  There, it overtook CRTs as a mainstream display technology in less than 3 years.  That market segment is where very price-conscious consumers dominate.  How successful the 30" and over TV market with PDP will depend a great deal on costs.  The consensus in the FPD industry seems to be that not until 2006 will LCD become commercially viable in TV markets between 40 and 50" or larger, compared with PDPs.

LCD technology is also playing catchup with plasma in brightness, contrast ration and response time.  LCD technology does not use self-emitting light; it needs backlighting to illuminate the screen by galvanizing electric currents to pass through liquid crystals between two sheets of polarizing material.  Then, the crystal acts like a camera shutter, either allowing light to pass through or to be blocked.  While LCD consumes less power than plasma, it is not as bright, not does the relatively slow response time perfectly reproduce moving images without artifacts.

Plasma, for its part, also has its own technology issues.  Although it is less expensive than LCD to produce, it is still costlier than CRTs, and like CRTs, it uses phosphors, so that pixels age easily and burn unevenly, not only shortening longevity, but also emitting heat.

Given the current pace of technology breakthroughts being made on the two rival technology fronts, however, all of those technological issues will soon be resolved.  At that point price will be the deciding factor between the two technologies.