The Taipei Times reports that Innolux has said through EVP, Ting Ching-lung has decided to develop ‘mini LED’ displays rather than microLEDs because of the time that it will take to make microLEDs at competitive prices. The company also said that the mini-LED displays were suitable for flexible displays, but that there were 10,000 rather than the millions needed for MicroLEDs.
Separately, the company’s President and COO, Robert Shiao, said that it would make as many as a million TVs at its fab in Foshan, Guangdong, and plans to boost that to six million next year and ten million in 2019.
The company also has announced that it will work with Next Biometrics of Norway to develop mass production of Next’s flexible fingerprint sensors that use thermal technology. The sensors are likely to be used in smart cards.
Next CEO Ritu Favre said.
“We are not aware of any other fingerprint supplier able to mass produce flexible sensors. This is not a trivial achievement. We have converted a truly innovative idea from the prototype level to the volume mass production level, and achieved this in a field where others have yet to succeed”.
Next claims to have made two million sensors in its own production facilities.
Analyst Comment
Innolux didn’t spell out what it means by mini-LED, but we assume, given the small number of LEDs (compared to the need for pixels) that it means some kind of higher resolution LCD backlight based on mini-LEDs. Innolux said that it expects the technology to be available in around a year’s time.
The company also set out what is already apparent, that Taiwan is likely to miss out on OLED, but given the strength in LED and LCD, should be able to get back into the leading edge by concentrating on microLED. (BR)
