Taiwan’s leading panel maker AU Optronics Corp. (AUO) recently decided to invest NT$30 billion (US$923.08 million) to establish four LED chip factories in Taiwan in the fourth quarter this year, to meet the strong demand for LEDs used in panel backlight modules, Taiwan Economic News reports, and the facilities is planned to begin mass production in late 2010.
The four LED chip factories will be operated by AUO subsidiary Lextar Electronics Corp. AUO just poured NT$2.56 billion (US$78.6 million) to procure several metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) equipment for expanding Lextar’s capacity. AUO is scheduled to use LED backlight for all its panel products by the end of 2010, creating a huge demand for such lighting source.