West to Terminate CCFL Production in Taiwan Amid LED Backlight Spree

Taipei, Nov. 30, 2009 (CENS)--West of the Panasonic Group has recently decided to shut down its cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) factory in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, as light emitting diode (LED) is gaining ground as a replacement for the lamp in backlights for various applications including LCD TVs.

Industry executives pointed out that the closure underscores the trend of LED replacing CCFL quickly as backlights in LCD TVs, laptops and monitors.

The factory now has 200 full-timers and 300 temporary workers. West is said to move to mainland China to continue the production after closing the Taiwan factory.

In light of the replacement trend, Taiwan's home-grown CCFL makers including Wellypower Optronics Co., Ltd., GIO Optoelectronics Corp. and Sintronic Technology Co., Ltd. have begun moving into LED package manufacturing.

According to market consulting firm DisplaySearch, LED will emerge as the mainstream backlight in 2011, accounting for 56% of backlight applications. Its penetration rate will rise to 78% in 2015.

By the end of this year, LED is estimated to go into 27.8% of big-size LCD panels. In 2010, LED is estimated to light up 44% of LCD TVs and monitors combined.

Industry watchers pointed out that LED has many advantages over CCFL, including energy conservation, ultra slimness, and picture quality enhancement. However, LED still has some barriers to overcome such as high unit prices and some technological bottlenecks.