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Wintek and Tianma Tie Up in Touch OLED Biz

2011/06/23 | By Quincy Liang

Taipei, June 23, 2011 (CENS)--Wintek Corp. of Taiwan, a major maker of small/medium-sized LCD panels, recently tied up with Tianma Micro-electronics Co., the largest supplier of small/medium-sized LCDs in China, to focus on touch-control organic light-emit diode (OLED) panels.

Tianma has acquired a small/medium-sized panel-making subsidiary of NEC of Japan, who will soon transfer over 2,000 patented products and technologies; while Wintek has been developing business in the active matrix OLED AMOLED market.

Hyley Huang, chairman of Wintek, said currently the mainstream technology for touch panels is a finished panel assembled from two substrates, but Wintek has pulled ahead to successfully develop the Advanced Technology Touch (ATT) technology for uni-substrate touch panels. The ATT-technology touch panel is expected to become the market mainstay in 2012, Huang said, due to adoption by many international brands in Europe, the U.S., Korea and Japan.

Tianma recently broke ground for a new plant in Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, investing 7 billion renminbi (RMB) initially to set up a 5.5th-generation (5.5G) factory to make low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) and OLED panels, with the plant to be equipment installed and start mass production in September 2012 with initial monthly capacity of about 30,000 substrates.

Industry sources said that the partnership between Wintek and Tianma will generate synergy for mutual benefit, due to the former's sizable international customer base and the latter's production capacity of LTPS and OLED panels.

Huang also disclosed that Wintek plans to set up a 5.5G AMOLED production line in northern Taiwan to welcome the "OLED+ATT" era in 2013.