Young Fast, Ritek Group Tie Up in Capacitive Touch-Panel Biz

Taipei, May 12, 2010 (CENS)--Young Fast Optoelectronics Inc., a global leading supplier of resistive touch panels, and two affiliates of Ritek Group, including RiTdisplay Corp. and AimCore Technology Co., Ltd., recently announced a joint venture to produce glass-subtract capacitive touch panels.

Total investment of the joint venture will total US$15.7 million, in which Young Fast and RiTdisplay each hold a 40% stake while AimCore takes the remaining 20%. Main business of the new company is the manufacturing and sale of glass capacitive type touch panels. In addition to the glass sensor technology and capacity, Ritek Group would also share organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology.

Through the joint venture, Young Fast said that it could secure the glass-sensor production capacity and provides even more competitive glass sensors to the customers.

Industry sources said that Young Fast has won orders from Samsung, LG, High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) and Nokia for mainly resistive touch panels, and the new venture will offset the company's insufficient capacity.

T.J. Lin, CEO of Young Fast, said: "Leveraging existing resources from RiTek group, the new company will provide immediate glass sensor capacity to Young Fast's customers, furthermore, by combining R&D efforts from both groups will accelerate developments of next generation products."

Ritek indicated that the group has already established a full supply chain for glass sensor touch panels. Through this collaboration, which can integrate front-end and back-end in glass based touch panel technologies; would help RiTdisplay, AimCore and Young Fast tap more markets. In addition, as OLED has become a popular option for cellphone display, this join venture would leverage existing Ritek technologies for further integrations of handset applications, the group said.

RiTdisplay, established in 2000, is the first company in Taiwan devoted to OLED R&D and manufacturing, and is currently the only company globally capable of manufacturing both OLED and polymer-organic light-emitting diode (PLED) products. AimCore, the former optoelectronic business unit of Ritek Corp., is a top ITO-glass coating company.