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South Korea's Samsung Electronics has unveiled what it says is the largest thin-film transistor LCD television, a 46-inch prototype.

The largest currently available on the market is a 40-inch LCD television, also by Samsung, that was unveiled in 2001. The new LCD television features 1280-by-720-pixel resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio that suits the key requirements for high-definition televisions, Samsung said in a statement.

Samsung has also used its proprietary Patterned Vertical Alignment technology to achieve a 170-degree viewing angle in all directions, it said.

Ready for TV

The prototype was demonstrated at the ground-breaking ceremony for a Samsung TFT LCD module assembly plant in Suzhou, China.

The new plant, to be built at the Suzhou Industrial Park in Jiangsu Province, is due to begin operation in the third quarter next year, manufacturing 14.1-inch and 15-inch TFT LCDs for notebook PCs, and 15-, 17-, and 19-inch models for desktop PCs, Samsung said in a statement.

Initial monthly output is expected to be around 200,000 units, which will be sold domestically, it said.

LCD developers and manufacturers are aiming bigger these days, pushing monitors to larger sizes in anticipation of the HDTV market. LCD vendors expect to sell millions of HDTV flat-panel televisions when the technology and the market come together, said Rhoda Alexander, director of monitor research at Isuppli/Stanford Resources.

A side benefit expected to come with the larger monitors is smaller price tags, analysts said.

China Market Eyed

Samsung, like other electronic device makers worldwide, sees China as a potential growth market and is planning further business expansion there, it said.

The company has also expanded its existing System LSI assembly operation in Suzhou to produce memory chips such as DRAM and SRAM for mobile phones, Samsung said.