Unity Opto Joins Samsung's Supply Chain

Taipei, Feb. 10, 2009 (CENS)--Unity Opto Technology Co., Ltd. of Taiwan has been recently contracted by South Korean LED packager Lumens to supply it LED emitters, which Lumens will build into backlight modules for Samsung's LCD TVs.

Unity holds a 25% stake in Lumens, making it the primary institutional shareholder of the South Korean packager. Unity will use chips made by Formosa Epitaxy Inc. of Taiwan, which has its chips verified at Samsung. Shipments of the emitters will begin in March.

Samsung recently announced its 2009 goal of shipping three million LCD TVs, with 10% of which to be equipped with LED backlight. The firm has contracted Lumens and Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. to supply it the backlight.

Industry watchers expect the contract to give a big boost to Unity's sales based on the estimates that an LCD TV uses thousands of emitters as backlights, around 20 to 50 times the volume used in a notebook computer.

Unity's executives pointed out that in addition to contracts for TV backlights, the company has also landed huge contracts for notebook backlights from international players. LEDs for lighting have accounted for over 20% of the company's sales so far this quarter, raising the possibility for the company to make profits this quarter.

Industry watchers pointed out Samsung has played a major role in the history of LED industry, with its pioneering use of blue LED as backlight in its mobile phones.