Screen chip shortage hits laptops, cellphones

A severe shortage of driver ICs for flat-panel displays has led to a major backlog in production of thin-film transistor LCDs used in notebook and desktop monitors.

Leading LCD manufacturer Sharp said nearly every major segment of the market has been affected, including notebook PCs, LCD monitors and game machines like Nintendo's GameBoy.

The parts shortage also threatens to limit supplies of smaller passive screens used for cellular phones, causing "a very serious problem" for the fast-growing cellphone industry, one supplier said.

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