Epistar Ready to Begin Trial Production of Mini LED Chips

Epistar, an LED chip and epitaxial wafer maker expects VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) diodes and mini LED chips to help drive the company’s growth over the next two years. A DigiTimes article cited Company president Jou Ming-jiunn who said that Epistar is ready to commence trial or small volume production for mini LED chips and VCSL diodes in the second quarter of 2018.

VCSEL diodes can be used in 3D face-recognition sensors of consumer electronics as well as optical communication at data centers, Epistar said.

Company in Talks with Smartphone Vendors About Supplying Mini LEDs

The company said it has been in talks with smartphone vendors, mostly China-based one, about product designs using Mini LED backlighting, which can also be utilized in gaming notebooks and monitors as well as high-end LCD TVs.

According to the article, Epistar expects that its mini LEDs in chip-scale packaging will provide the company competitive advantages for backlighting, especially compared to China-based suppliers. The company forecasts that its shipments of CSP LED chips for backlighting in 2017 will approximately double that of 2016 due to the large demand from LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics.

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