Ehand Technology unveils advanced back-light board

Taipei, June 6, 2003 (CENS)--Taiwanese optoelectronics startup Ehand Technology Co., Ltd. Recently rolled out an advanced back-light acrylic board made with a non-printing technique.

The company introduced the technology from Sharp Corp. of Japan and has acquired an order for 17-inch boards from a local supplier of thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels.

According to Ehand specialists, most of the board suppliers throughout the world print illuminating materials on the board. The company's technology forms illuminating board in molds, eliminating the costs of additional printing and cutting processes. The technology also adds 3% to 5% to the footlambert of the boards.

Ehand claims to be the world's leading manufacturer of non-printed boards, with technology a half year ahead of other manufacturers. The company plans to increase output to 80,000 17-inch boards a month by yearend, from 20,000 boards in the initial stage.

Ehand was established in 2000 and is now capitalized at NT$360 million (US$10 million at US$1:NT$35). The company reported NT$10 million (US$286,000) of annual revenue last year.

The company is now expanding output capacity of the boards, which is likely to boost the company's revenue to NT$120 million (US$3.4 million) by the end of this year, around tenfold last year's level.

The new boards are also projected to help Ehand post a profit next year on estimated revenue of NT$500 million (US$14 million).

The company estimated that Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd., Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp., AU Optronics Corp., HannStar Display Corp. and Quanta Display Inc. made a total of 20 million 14-inch, 15-inch, 17-inch and 18-inch TFT-LCD panels combined last year for Taiwan's TFT-LCD industry.