Once a rising star, Chi Mei Lighting is now knee deep in debt with no help on the horizon by its two wealthy shareholders Foxconn Electronics and Chi Mei Corp. Founder and chairman of Foxconn Terry Gou wholeheartedly supports his affiliate company Advanced Optoelectronic Technology (AOT) but has washed his hands of Chi Mei’s financial crisis. Chi Mei Corp also refuses to meddle with Chi Mei’s depreciating assists. Before Chi Mei went out of business, the company’s entire executive staff deserted the company leaving it high and dry.

After acquiring LCD maker Chi Mei Opto electronics (CMO), the Hon Hai Group is said to make LED business its next consolidation target in light of rising substitution of LEDs for cold cathode fluorescent lamps as backlights in many LCD applications including laptops.

It’s reported that Samsung Group's LED business unit will begin operation in June with an initial target production of 120,000 LED panels. However, Samsung indicated that this production target is not big enough to challenge leading foreign makers in terms of market share. They expect the production capacity will be tripled by 2010.

The shipments of notebook-PC panels with LED backlights grew by 63% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to 2.1 million in the third quarter from 1.3 million in the previous quarter, according to the related report. Taiwan TFT-LCD panel suppliers AU Optronics Corp. (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. (CMO) ranked the world’s third- and sixth-largest, respectively, LED-BLU notebook PC panel makers during the period.

Now, some manufacturers were becoming more and more serious about energy-saving technologies and other green technologies. At FPD International 2008, there exhibits booths of Korean and Taiwanese panel manufacturers, looking for their green technologies. Standing out the most at every booth were low power LCD TV panels.

The use of LEDs for the backlight's light source has created new business opportunities in the maturing NB panel market. In contrast to CCFLs, white LEDs provide higher color saturation and are mercury-free and less power-consuming--making them more environmentally friendly.