DISPLAY 101
#6 Display Generation
| Display generation: The size of the mother glass that is cut into individual pieces for screens |
To get the meaning of “generation,” it’s important to understand how display panels are manufactured. In the factory, first a large pane of glass is produced, much larger than any single display panel. This is called the “mother glass.” Then it’s cut into individual display panels to produce smaller screens. For example, a few 48-inch TV-sized displays or hundreds of 6-inch smartphone-sized displays can be made out of a single mother glass.
The size of the mother glass is limited only by the size of the factory, production process, and weight. And as the process is refined through successive generations, the mother glass gets larger.
The above diagram shows that the size of LG’s 5th generation mother glass was 1100x1250mm. And each successive generation has created larger mother glass. It should be noted that as there is no universal standard, each company defines their own panel sizes and their own new generations, so the exact size per generation can vary.
