Wintek Eyes AMOLED Biz

Taipei, Dec. , 2011 (CENS)--The shipment of OGS (One Glass Solution) touch panels is expected to surge in 2012, and Wintek Corp.'s OGS products have been adopted by some international smartphone vendors in their new models, according to Wintek chairman Hyley Huang.

Wintek is one the globally leading makers of touch panels and small-to-medium liquid crystal displays (LCDs). To cash in on the boom in the AMOLED (double-emission active matrix organic light-emit diode) market, Wintek has tied up with Chinese partner Tianma Micro-electronics Co., whose 5.5th-generation (5.5G) low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) factory is scheduled to kick off volume production in 2013. Wintek's under-construction OLED plant in Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) is scheduled to begin production in 2014.

Industry sources pointed out that two major South Korean panel makers, LG Display and Samsung, have invested in expanding their AMOLED production capacities; while Taiwanese players such as AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), Chimei Innolux Corp., and Wintek have been actively upgrading their yield rates of such product to grab more business opportunities in the rapidly rising market.

Huang said that external touch solutions would still be the mainstream in smartphone application in 2012, while the In-Cell type solutions are still waiting to achieve big breakthroughs in production processes.

In the future, Wintek plans to adopt LTPS panels produced by Tianma, the largest supplier of small- and medium-sized panels in China, and self-produced OLED and OGS panels to venture into the AMOLED market in 2014.

A senior executive of AUO noted that smartphones would continue to drive up demand for small- and medium-sized panels in 2012; while AMOLED is expected to become a technological platform to integrate other applications such as 3D, touch-control functions etc. In 2013, he added, AMOLED is expected to enjoy explosive shipment growth.