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Prime View International Co Ltd (PVI) of Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, Taiwan, which manufactures thin-film transistor liquid-crystal displays (TFT-LCDs), has confirmed that it is extending its presence to upstream LED epiwafer production, according to a report in Digitimes.

As a subsidiary of the Yuen Foong Yu Group, in November PVI announced in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange that, through affiliated company Yuen Foong Yupaper Investment, it is investing US$3m in its China-based subsidiary Darewin Chip Inc in Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province.

PVI originally positioned Darewin as an LED chip packaging house, but production will now extend to blue LED epiwafers, with volume production starting early this year.

PVI’s Stephen Chen confirmed that, in the initial stages, epiwafers will be used to feed in-house demand for small- and medium-size panels, but the firm has not ruled out the possibility of boosting capacity in the future, or to bid for related orders from third parties.

As PVI focuses on the deployment of small- and medium-size panels, which require a brightness specification of just 1200mcd for the corresponding LED-based backlighting unit (BLU) versus the 1800mcd required by notebook BLUs, this implies a relatively low entry barrier to starting production, concludes the report.

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Visit: www.pvi.com.tw

Visit: www.digitimes.com/displays/a20071227PD223.html