LG 50PZ950 3D Plasma Television Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The LG 50PZ950 under analysis here is a 3D-capable plasma television within LG's high range INFINIA line of large format (50) screens. The 50PZ950 features a 600Hz refresh rate display that is capable of producing full HD resolution 3D images in conjunction with active 3D shutter glasses. Further, the LG television integrates a ""TruBlack" filter over the plasma display to create deeper black levels and helps the television in reaching a overall 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio. As a television set with LG's SmartTV functionality, the 50PZ950 allows for access to additional content like Netflix and Vudu as well as web assets like Picasa.

LG 50PZ950 3D Plasma Television Main Image

General Consumers

Released

Per press release, first announced in January 2011 at CES and release soon afterwards

Pricing and Availability

Pricing - The 50PZ950 has a manufacturer suggested retail of $1899. However, the LG television set can be found for purchase for as low as $1600 in major online stores.

Availability - North America

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have applied a lifetime production volume of approximately 8M units.

As a reminder, teardown volume production assumptions are primarily used for our cost analysis in terms of amortized NRE and tooling costs, especially for custom components specific to the model being analyzed (mechanical components especially). Unless assumed volumes are different by an order of magnitude, minor changes in volume (say 1 million vs. 2) rarely have a large net effect on our final analysis because of this.

LG 50PZ950 3D Plasma Television Cost Analysis

Main Cost Drivers ~70% of Total Materials Cost

LG Display - PDP50R30000 - Plasma Display Panel - 50' Diagonal, Full HD, 1920 x 1080 Pixels, 5,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio, 1,500 cd/m^2 Brightness, 600Hz

TruBlack Filter Glass Assembly - w/ Mounting Brackets

Enclosure, Main, Front - Injection Molded MABS (Terlux), w/ Clear Coat

Enclosure, Main, Rear - Stamped / Formed Electro-Galvanized Steel, Painted

Renesas - R2A20296FT - Display Driver (Qty:12)

Broadcom - BCM35230 - Video Processor - Full HD 1080P Connected DTV SOC, MIPS Dual Core CPU & GPU, 120Hz Functionality, Freespace MotionEngine

Sharp Microelectronics - Plasma Panel Controller

Enclosure, Stand, Base, Outer - Injection Molded Clear Polycarbonate, Painted

Accuris Co., Ltd. - 4-Layer - FR4, Lead-Free

Sharp Microelectronics - ASIC - 3D Controller

LG Electronics - AN-WF100 - Wi-Fi USB Adaptor - IEEE802.11abgn

Enclosure, Stand, Base, Bottom - Stamped / Formed Electro-Galvanized Steel, Plated

Sanyo - UDA55AL - Tuner Module Value Line Item - Full NIM

Direct Materials + Manufacturing $939.96

What Is Not Included in our Cost Analysis

The total materials and manufacturing costs reported in this analysis reflect ONLY the direct materials cost (from component vendors and assorted EMS providers), AND manufacturing with basic test. Not included in this analysis are costs above and beyond the material manufacture of the core device itself - cost of intellectual property, royalties and licensing fees (those not already included into the per component price), software, software loading and test, shipping, logistics marketing and other channel costs including not only EMS provider and the OEM's margin, but that of other resellers. Our cost analysis is meant to focus on those costs incurred in the manufacture of the core device and exceptionally in some circumstances the packaging and literature as well.

Manufacturing Notes

Country of Origin / Volume Assumptions

Based on device markings, we've based our analysis with the final assembly in Mexico. Furthermore, we have assumed that custom mechanicals (plastics, metals, etc.) were also sourced in Mexico.

Country of origin assumptions relate directly to the associated cost of manufacturing, where calculated by iSuppli. In the cases of 'finished' sub-assemblies (such as Ethernet connectors), we do not calculate internal manufacturing costs, but rather assess the market price of the finished product in which case country of origin assumptions may or may not have a direct effect on pricing.

Remember also that labor rates are applied directly only to hand inserted components and systems in our bill of materials, and although regional assumptions do, these new rates do not have a direct effect on our modeled calculations of placement costs for automated SMD assembly lines. ""Auto" inserted components (such as SMT components) placement costs are calculated by an iSuppli algorithm which allocates a cost per component based on the size and pincount of the device. This calculation is affected by country or region of origin as well.

Design for Manufacturing / Device Complexity

The LG 50PZ950 television has an overall component count of 4365 (excluding box contents), of which 1475 components reside on the Main PCB.

Component counts have a direct bearing on the overall manufacturing cycle times and costs, and also can increase or decrease overall yields and re-work. Our calculations of manufacturing costs factor counts and more qualitative complexities in the design. The cost of manufacturing is also, to some extent, decreased in this case because of assumed labor rate applied for Mexico.

Note that manual labor has a much smaller effect on auto-insertion assembly lines (for the Main PCB, for example), where manufacturing costs are much more capital equipment intensive and driven by these investment costs.

Design Notes

Beyond the LG PDP50R30000 plasma display panel, the LG 50PZ950 TV design features a Broadcom BCM35230 Full HD Connected DTV solution. This Broadcom SoC provides HD picture processing as well as dynamic internet connected services such as LG's proprietary SmartTV solution. Supporting memory is supplied by Samsung (2x2Gb SDRAM) and Toshiba (8Gb of NAND flash storage).

Here is a summary of the major components used in the LG 50PZ950 design:

Display

• Plasma Display Panel - LG Display - PDP50R30000, 50' Diagonal, Full HD, 1920 x 1080 Pixels, 5,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio, 1,500 cd/m^2 Brightness, 600Hz

Main PCB

Audio Video Processing

• / Video Processor - Broadcom - BCM35230, Full HD 1080P Connected DTV SOC, MIPS Dual Core CPU & GPU, 120Hz Functionality, Freespace? MotionEngine
• ASIC - Sharp Microelectronics - 3D Controller
• Interface IC - ST Microelectronics - STA368BWG

Memory

• Flash - Toshiba Semiconductor - TC58DVG3S0ETA00, SLC NAND, 8Gb
• SDRAM - Samsung Semiconductor - K4B2G1646C-HCH9, DDR3, 2Gb (128Mx16), 1333MHz, 1.5V

User Interface

• HDMI Port Processor - Silicon Image - Sil9287BCNU, 4 Ports, HDMI 1.3, w/ HDCP 1.1

MCU / Glue Logic

• Microcontroller - Renesas - UPD78F0514AGA-GAM, 8-Bit, 48kB Flash, 1kB RAM, 1kB Expansion RAM, 8-Channel 10-Bit ADC, 41 I/O Pins

Front End

• Bus Transceiver - Texas Instruments - 74AVCB164245GRG4
• Analog Demodulator / Digital IF Processor -Fresco Microchip - FM1162

LG 50PZ950 3D Plasma Television - Box Contents