Samsung Electronics has booked up almost all of Sanan Optoelectronics’ mini LED production capacity for backlighting in a range of LCD TVs it plans to release in the third quarter of 2018, for a reported pre-payment of $16.83 million, according to Digitimes. Sanan Optoelectronics is headquartered in Xiamen, China.
Also in China, LED chip manufacturers, HC SemiTek and Xiamen Changelight, are currently researching and developing micro and mini LED technologies. Another Chinese company, Foshan Nationstar Optoelectronics, commenced operations at its micro and mini LED research centre in March 2018 and plans to have 0.5 – 1.0mm mini LEDs ready for supply by 2020.
Taiwan-based companies are getting in on the act too; Epistar is on course to start production of mini LEDs for TVs and monitor backlighting, plus fine pixel-pitch mini LED displays, during the third quarter of 2018. Lextar Electronics is apparently collaborating with AU Optronics to begin supplying small volumes of mini LEDs for notebook and display panel backlighting in the second or third quarter of 2018, while Advanced Optoelectronic Technology has teamed up with Innolux on smartphone, TV and automotive mini LED backlighting.
