It is reported that LED epitaxial wafer and chip maker Jingyuan Optoelectronics has said that it has divested its epitaxial wafer foundry business unit and plans to transform the Mini LED R&D business into an independent company next year.
Epistar said that its epitaxial wafer foundry business has become a wholly-owned subsidiary Epistar Semiconductor since October 1 this year, and the Mini LED R&D department will become Yen-Rich Technology in January 2019. ownership.
Epistar Semiconductor specializes in the production of VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser) epitaxial wafers and chips and GaN-on-Si chips. As the demand for wireless data communications in the smartphone and headset industries grows rapidly, the demand for VCSEL chips will grow strongly in 2019.
Epistar Semiconductor currently has a monthly capacity of 2,000 4-inch VCSEL epitaxial wafers and plans to expand capacity to 3,000 to 4,000 in the third quarter of 2019. The company also set a monthly capacity of 2,000 6-inch VCSEL epitaxial wafers, which will begin production in the first quarter of 2019, and plans to further expand its monthly capacity to 5,000-6,000 wafers.
Epistar said it initially offered Mini LED chips to its customers, but found that many system vendors actually needed Mini LED modules with integrated PCB chips. In this context, Jingyuan Optoelectronics established Yen-Rich, which is responsible for the development and establishment of the Mini LED module supply chain. Yen-Rich will launch a small-scale trial production of the Mini LED module, which will be outsourced to LED packaging service provider ProLight Opto Technology, which is its largest shareholder.
At the same time, Epistar has begun small-scale production of Mini LED chips for 27-inch gaming LCD displays and 100-inch LCD display backlights. The company's newly developed 400 micron Mini LED products for RGB fine pitch displays are being tested by customers. Efforts are currently being made to increase yields and mass production is planned for the first quarter of 2019.
Epistar said that the company is still developing 250 micron Mini LED products, and it is likely to start production in a year. Industry demand for Mini LEDs is expected to soar in 2019, especially for Mini products for backlight applications. In 2019, Mini LED will account for 5-10% of the company's blue LED production capacity, which will increase to 30% by 2020.
