Epistar Corp (晶電), the nation’s leading LED chip manufacturer, yesterday announced it is taking aim at the growing micro-LED display industry, saying that over the next one to two years the next-generation chips would start to be used in virtual and augmented reality devices and wearables.
“We are confident, as Epistar and Osram Licht AG are the only two companies in the world that are capable of simultaneously producing red, green, and blue LED, an essential capability in the development of self-luminous micro-LED displays,” Epistar chairman Lee Biing-jye (李秉傑) told reporters before the company’s annual general meeting in the Hsinchu Science Park.
Over the next two years, micro-LED technology will start to be used in devices such as wearables and smartphones, while in three to five years it would be employed in larger devices such as TVs, Lee said.
The technology is expected to start generating significant revenue for Epistar in five years because penetration rates and shipments would take time to grow, Lee said.
Epistar is reportedly co-developing the technology with Apple Inc at a plant in Taoyuan’s Longtan District (龍潭).
Epistar does not give specific information about its clients, Epistar president M.J. Chou (周銘俊) said, but added that it is collaborating with more than one client to develop micro-LED technology.
The development of micro-LED displays involves epitaxial wafers and chips, mass transfer technology and bonding technology, Chou said, adding that the company’s main focus is on producing the epitaxial products.
Epistar is focusing research and development on the development of mass transfer technology, which is important in the fast and accurate mounting onto a display of large numbers of micro-LED chips, Chou said.
“We think that there is potential for micro-LED technology to become the future of the LED industry if it becomes used in smartphones, because every year around the world tens of millions smartphones are shipped,” Chou said.
He declined to disclose the scale of Epistar’s investment in the technology.
Epistar is positive about the company’s business outlook next quarter on increasing orders for the blue/white LED chips used in lighting products and four-element LED products, Chou said.
Citing clients’ order forecasts, Chou said that overall demand for blue/white LED chips has outstripped supply, but added that the situation might change after Chinese peers expand production capacity in the fourth quarter.
Epistar continues to increase the added-value of its products and improve its product portfolio and operational efficiency in an effort to swing its operations back into the black this year, he said.
Epistar last year reported a net loss of NT$3.54 billion (US$116.18 million at the current exchange rate), or NT$3.33 per share.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
RSS