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.
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) share of the global foundry market rose to almost 70 percent last year amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Thursday. The contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in revenue, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market, TrendForce said. Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024, it said. TSMC’s closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market. In the
At a massive shipyard in North Vancouver, Canadian workers grind metal beams for a powerful new icebreaker crucial to cementing the country’s presence in the increasingly contested arctic. Icebreakers are specialized, expensive vessels able to navigate in the frozen far north. And “this is the crown jewel,” said Eddie Schehr, vice president of production at the Seaspan shipyard. For Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who heads to Norway next Friday to observe arctic defense drills involving troops from 14 NATO states, Canada’s extreme north has emerged as a strategic priority. “Canada is and forever will be an Arctic nation,” he said ahead of
Chinese entrepreneur Frank Gao used to spend long hours running his social media accounts but now outsources the chore to artificial intelligence (AI) agent tool OpenClaw, which is taking China by storm despite official warnings over cybersecurity. OpenClaw, created in November by an Austrian coder, differs from bots such as ChatGPT because it can execute real-life tasks such as sending e-mails, organizing files or even booking flight tickets. “Since January, I’ve spent hours on the lobster every day,” Gao said in an interview, referring to OpenClaw’s red crustacean mascot. “We’re family.” After downloading OpenClaw, users connect it to artificial intelligence models of their
RSS