Matsushita claims PDP fab achieves 90 percent yield

TOKYO — Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. said its third plasma display fab in Japan today has achieved 90 percent production yields after two months of operation.

Matsushita invested $784.3 million in the new fab, located in Amagasaki Plant in Hyogo Prefecture. The fab started the first phase of operation in September, ahead of schedule, with a capacity of 125,000 units a month.

Production capacity will double to 250,000 units a month in the second phase which begins next July, four months ahead of schedule to accommodate growing demand. Matsushita expects the global PDP demand to reach 10 million units in 2006 and 25 million units in 2010.

Matsushita expects to expand capacity to 425,000 units a month by the end of next year.

The new fab handles several sizes of glass substrates. It will produce six 42-in. panels from a 1664 x 1961 mm sheet of motherglass, and four 50-in. panels from a 1329 x2332 mm substrate.

With the start of Amagasaki's first line, Matsushita's PDP production capacity presently totals 300,000 units a month. This combines the output from all four of its PDP plants including the First Ibaraki Plant (30,000 units), Second Ibaraki Plant (120,000 units) and Shanghai Plant (25,000 units).