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.
TRADE WAR: Tariffs should also apply to any goods that pass through the new Beijing-funded port in Chancay, Peru, an adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump said A veteran adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump is proposing that the 60 percent tariffs that Trump vowed to impose on Chinese goods also apply to goods from any country that pass through a new port that Beijing has built in Peru. The duties should apply to goods from China or countries in South America that pass through the new deep-water port Chancay, a town 60km north of Lima, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, an adviser to the Trump transition team who served as senior director for the western hemisphere on the White House National Security Council in his first administration. “Any product going
TECH SECURITY: The deal assures that ‘some of the most sought-after technology on the planet’ returns to the US, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said The administration of US President Joe Biden finalized its CHIPS Act incentive awards for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), marking a major milestone for a program meant to bring semiconductor production back to US soil. TSMC would get US$6.6 billion in grants as part of the contract, the US Department of Commerce said in a statement yesterday. Though the amount was disclosed earlier this year as part of a preliminary agreement, the deal is now legally binding — making it the first major CHIPS Act award to reach this stage. The chipmaker, which is also taking up to US$5 billion
High above the sparkling surface of the Athens coastline, the cranes for building the 50-floor luxury tower centerpiece of Greece’s future “smart city” look out over the Saronic Gulf. At their feet, construction machinery stirs up dust. Its backers say the 8 billion euro (US$8.43 billion) project financed by private funds is a symbol of Greece’s renaissance after the years of financial stagnation that saw investors flee the country. However, critics see it more as a future “ghetto for the rich.” It is hard to imagine that 10km from the Acropolis, a new city “three times the size of Monaco”
STRUGGLING BUSINESS: South Korea’s biggest company and semiconductor manufacturer’s buyback fuels concerns that it could be missing out on the AI boom Samsung Electronics Co plans to buy back about 10 trillion won (US$7.2 billion) of its own stock over the next year, putting in motion one of the larger shareholder return programs in its history. South Korea’s biggest company would repurchase the stock in stages over the coming 12 months, it said in a regulatory filing on Friday. As a first step, it would buy back about 3 trillion won of paper starting today up until February next year, all of which it would cancel. The board would deliberate on how best to effect the remaining 7 trillion won of buybacks. The move
RSS