Hoping to grab a larger slice of the burgeoning LED market pie, a number of large Taiwanese companies yesterday said they had joined the International Commission on Illumination (CIE), an international organization for the lighting community.
“Taiwan manufacturers can offer us their input, tell us their needs. It is not possible if they are not taking part in the international standardization communities,” said CIE general secretary Martina Paul, who hails from Vienna, Austria, to witness the inception ceremony of the CIE Taiwan branch.
“They could now be a part of the technical committee to do and present research on the standardizations,” Paul said.
The commission — known as the CIE from its French title, the Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage — is devoted to worldwide cooperation and the exchange of information on all matters relating to the science and art of light and lighting, color and vision, photobiology and image technology.
Founded in 1913, it is viewed as the best authority on such subjects and recognized by ISO as an international standardization body.
Taiwanese firms that have signed up for membership include electronics parts and components maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), panel maker AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and LED maker Epistar Corp (晶元光電).
Several industrial consortiums, government agencies and educational institutions have also joined the commission.
“LED is an emerging technology that doesn’t have international standards yet. By joining CIE, Taiwanese firms stand a better chance in determining key standards for LED and subordinate standards for LED applications in areas such as e-readers or flat-panel TVs,” said Monica Chia (賈夢雯), project manager of the Industrial Technology Research Institute’s (工業技術研究院) events and media communications division.
Wu Chao-lin (吳照麟), chairman of Taiwan Lighting Fixture Export Association (台灣照明燈具輸出業公會), said Taiwan has drafted the world’s first standards for LED.
“The guidelines are still in the premature stage, but it is a start nonetheless,” Wu said on the sidelines of the ceremony.
CIE would serve as a platform for Taiwan to share its standards with members from 30-plus countries, paving the way for a possible global adoption on its initiations, he added.
LED is an emerging technology that saves energy and is more environmentally friendly, and it has been applied to LCD TVs, cellular phones and notebooks.
Eyeing the massive LED demand across the Taiwan Strait, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has been helping local vendors since last year to communicate with their Chinese peers in terms of collaborations on LED standardizations, by holding forums and visits for both sides.
Early this month, DRAM maker Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體) announced its plan to open a LED factory in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. The factory would make epitaxial wafers of LEDs and LED chips and cost about US$15 million.
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