Chi Mei El Corp (CMEL, 奇晶光電), the organic light emitting diode (OLED) manufacturing arm of Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), said yesterday it aims to start supplying displays for a top-five mobile phone manufacturer by the end of the year.
CMEL is in talks with several potential customers, including Samsung Electronics Co and Nokia Ojy, said Douglas Park, a vice president of CMEL.
"We hope to land at least one of them by the end of this year," Park said.
To cope with rising demand, Park said CMEL planned to spend NT$800 million (US$24.2 million) to more than double its monthly output to 1.2 million units by the first quarter of 2008, from it current 500,000 units.
In February, CMEL ramped up production of active matrix OLED displays for mobile phones, digital cameras and global positioning systems.
The company also makes less- advanced passive matrix OLED panels, which are now used in the display of the remote control of Apple Computer Inc's digital music player iPod.
With a gradual capacity expansion, CMEL hopes to become profitable next year after eight years of operation, president Peter Chen (陳哲祥) said.
OLED displays compete with liquid-crystal-displays (LCD) in small and medium-sized applications such as displays on mobile phones, digital music players and consoles for the automobile industry. OLED displays consume 50 percent less power and are 50 percent thinner than their LCD equivalents.
Shipments of OLED displays grew 71 percent year-on-year to 19.1 million units on a price drop, according to market researcher DisplaySearch's latest report OLED Displays Break Out of Slump. Revenues also rose 56 percent annually to US$121 million, it said.
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) said it has come up with a new pathway to shorten its gap with industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), potentially achieving a breakthrough in making advanced semiconductors without cutting-edge equipment. Right now there is about a five-year gap between what TSMC is capable of and what Huawei, together with its manufacturing partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯), can produce. Huawei is to start making 1.4-nanometer chips by 2031 with its own “LogicFolding” technology, Huawei semiconductor chief He Tingbo (何庭波) said in a rare public appearance during a chip conference yesterday, while TSMC has
RSS