AU Optronics 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. 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. 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.

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 line has timely flexibility to meet customers’ demands for 40-inch and above panel sizes and its actual ramp-up is to be determined by future market demands. The monthly full capacity of G8.5 line is 40,000 glass substrates and of the G7.5 line is 60,000 glass substrates.