LEDinside indicated in the latest Mini LED and HDR High-End Display Market Report that Mini LED backlight is projected to reach penetration rates of 20%, 15% and 10% in the application markets of ITs, TVs and tablets. The growing market of Mini LED displays and other applications is expected to spur the tepid LED market. Several Taiwanese LED producers are looking forward to revenue increase with the prospering Mini LED trend. (Image: Lextar) Taiwan-based chip maker Epistar, as a Mini LED pioneer, has begun Mini LED shipment last year...

Mini LED has been viewed as the technology to confront OLED in display applications. Industry players from Taiwan possessing expertise in LEDs and LCD see the opportunity and are accelerating their technology development, aiming to boost the LED industry. Chip maker Epistar and vertical integrated LED company Lextar both demonstrated a wide range of Mini LED products including Mini LED backlit displays for gaming notebook, monitors, automotive panels and large sized Mini LED RGB displays for outdoor signage. Automotive applications are the targe...

On August 30, 2019, EPISTAR filed a patent infringement lawsuit against GMY Lighting Technology (GMY), Lightinthebox Holding, Light In The Box, Lightinthebox International Logistic, and LITB, (collectively, LITB) in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The complaint asserts that GMY’s LED filament bulbs sold and offered for sale on GMY and LITB’s website infringe seven EPISTAR patents, and seeks injunctive relief to halt further sale of the infringing products. EPISTAR’s complain...

Touch Taiwan 2019, the major business fair for the display industry, kicked off on August 28 at Nangang Exhibition Center in Taipei, Taiwan. The event attracted around 300 suppliers from the supply chain to show their latest display technologies and products. AUO exhibited varios high-end displays Micro LEDs and Mini LEDs are definitely the spotlight of the show this year. Event organizer particularly arranged a zone for Micro LED and Mini LED products and solutions which attracted companies including Epistar, Lextar, Macroblock, TOPCO, ASM Paci...

As LED technology develops continuously and LED die-size shrinks gradually, the product application has become more and more diversified. Because of the saturated general lighting market, the display market seems to be the next main battlefield for LED makers. The well-known LED technology for display includes Mini LED backlight unit, Mini LED RGB and Micro LED. This year, most of the LED display makers try to show their advanced technologies by making fine pitch display with Mini RGB LED. At InfoComm 2019 in Orlando, US, most of top companies e...

Being an important component in display technology, LEDs have been continuing the improvement in power-saving and display capabilities. Mini LED backlights, Mini LED RGB and Micro LED also appear on the stage to meet various requirements of products targeting different applications. Mini LED backlights, which have been officially introduced into the market in 2H18, will be facing off OLEDs soon and become a new opportunity in the panel industry, according to LEDinside’s 2019 Mini LED and HDR High-Class Display Market Report. EPISTA...

As the industry enters high season, LED chip maker Epistar reported revenue increase with rising demands for consumer products. Epistar registered a revenue of NT$1.396 billion (US$44.32 million) in July, which reached a peak in the past three month with an on-month increase of 14.24%. For 2Q19, the company posted revenues of NT$ 4.027 billion (US$1.279 billion), dropped by 23.95%YoY and 7.3%QoQ. The company has been suffered from operation loss in the past few quarters with market uncertainty caused by the on-going trade dispute between the U.S. and China. D...

Taiwan-based LED chip maker Epistar held its annual shareholder meeting on June 19, 2019. The company expects that Mini LED products will be the major driving momentum in 2019. Epistar continues to work on high margin LED products including UV LED, VCSEL, Mini LED and Micro LED. The company is working intensively with Mini LED projects and its products have been adopted in the end applications including monitors, notebooks and tablets. Epistar foresees an increase of product shipment with rising demands in the market 2020, which will push the produ...

Taiwan-based LED manufacturers Lextar and Epistar announced their financial reports for the first quarter of 2019. Both companies posted an on-year degrease for 1Q19; however, Lextar managed to stay profitable while Epistar had a loss in the past two quarters with impacts from the US-China dispute. Lextar registered revenues of NT$2.167 billion (US$70.13 million) for 1Q19 with an on-year decrease of 18.15% and an on-quarter decrease of 10%. Net profit came to NT$113 million (US$3.66 million). The company also posted a revenue of NT$815 million (US$26.38 millio...

Mini LED, with better performance in brightness, contrast and saturation for display applications, is expected to grow radically in 2019 and 2020. To meet the booming demands of Mini LED, Taiwan-based companies are preparing to expand production of related Mini LED products. The adoption of Mini LED might not be popular in consumer products, yet the industry chain has been equipped to speed up Mini LED shipment for potential applications as Apple was said to release Mini LED backlight equipped iMac by 2H19 and iPad by 4Q20. Also, Huawei and Xiaomi were m...

Since Mini LED began its commercialized applications in the second half of 2018, the market of Mini LED backlight continues to expand. It is said that Apple will also start to adopt Mini LED backlight for iMac and iPad. Apple was said to release a 31.6-inch iMac with Mini LED back light in 2H19, a 10- to 12- inch iPad in 4Q20 or 1Q21 and a 15- to 17- inch Macbook in 1H21. With features of wide color gamut, high contrast ratio, high dynamic range, local dimming and long lifespan, Mini LED backlight would be a better option for devices such as monitors, tab...

LED chip maker Epistar announced the expansion of its investment in ProLight Opto, a Taiwan-based high power LED manufacturer, to intensify the cooperation between the two companies in Mini LED production and development. Facing the challenge of blue LED price drop due to global economy uncertainties, Epistar has continued its development in VCSEL and Mini LED. The company began Mini LED products shipment since last year. With increased investment in ProLight, Epistar aims to secure its Mini LED supply with ProLight’s capacity expansion....

LED industry players have accelerated their development in niche products including Mini LED and sensing components IR LED and VCSEL. Taiwan-based LED company Lexter began mass producing Mini LED products since the third quarter of 2018. Apart from the initial applications in gaming monitor and notebook, Mini LED backlight has also been adopted in automotive display. The company estimates that Mini LED products will account for five percent or more of its 2019 revenue. Lextar also strengthened red LED business and pushes development in IR LE...

Taiwanese LED companies announced their revenue of January 2019. Epistar and Lextar posted on-month revenue increase while Lite-On reported growth in LED products. Epistar registered a revenue of NT$ 1.27 billion (US$ 41.16 million) for January which increased by 6.56% MoM but dropped by 32.4% YoY. Impacted by the trade dispute and political uncertainty, business growth in the global LED market is not expected by the industry players. To cope with the sluggish market, Epistar has focused on Mini LED backlight products targeting high-end display applicatio...

For the LED and panel industry, the year of 2018 had a dramatic start with Samsung’s revealing of its Micro LED TV “The Wall” at the CES show. Since then, players in the industry have been releasing their achievements related to the next generation display technology. Several innovative solutions and applications have been disclosed in the past year including large size displays and wearable devices. As LEDinside has continued to track the progress of Micro LED development, we would like to list the significant breakthroughs and industry updates...

Selectronic, a UK-based specialist, has partnered with Chinese LED packager Hongli Zhuihui with a US$ 75 million collaboration agreement. The two companies will work with Taiwanese company Epistar to boost LED automotive product development. Selectronic is a distributor of LEDs in Europe for Hongli. Through the partnership with Epistar, Hongli will buy Epistar’s patented automotive LED chips for the production of automotive LED lighting and the development of automotive LED products. The strategic agreement between the companies will run until O...

Epistar announced that it has achieved a victory in the petitions filed by Lowe’s Home Center with the United States Patent and Trademark Office which challenged the validity of five Epistar patents related to Epistar’s innovative LED filament bulb technology. The five patents are U.S. Patent No. 6,346,771, 7,560,738, 8,492,780, 8,587,020, and 8,791,467. These five patents are the subject of a pending patent infringement lawsuit brought by Epistar against Lowe’s, filed on April 28, 2017 in the United States District Court. Lowe’s petit...

Epistar started its shipment of Mini LED products since the third quarter of 2018 and plans to increase the production by the first quarter of 2019. Its spin-off subsidiary of VCSEL manufacturing is also expanding its 4-inch and 6-inch products. The applications of Epistar’s Mini LED products include backlight for gaming monitors and notebooks and fine-pitch displays. The company expects the market momentum of displays will push the growth of its Mini LED and hope to boost the business by 2020. Epistar Semiconductor, the spin-off subsidiary of Epistar, ...

The fourth quarter is usually the low season in the LED industry. As business growth slows down, LED producer Epistar has announced plans to restructure the company to efficiently manage resources for reducing operation cost. Meanwhile, Lextar has speeded up the process of product development for new applications. Epistar has announced the merger of four of its subsidiaries including Epistar JV Holding (BVI), UEC Investment, HUGA Holding (BVI) and Bee Rich Corporation. The goal of the merge is to productively distribute the resources of the company and r...

Many LED manufacturers have been pushing their development in Mini LED, hoping to target niche markets with high-margin products as the oversupply and price competition in the industry have continued. Taiwan-based LED chip producer Epistar is an active player in developing Mini LED technology and has restructured its organization to strengthen its Mini LED business.

With the orders of backlight products and fine pitch displays, Epistar has reached the highest monthly revenue of NT$ 1.93 billion (US$ 62.38 million) of the year in September with an increase of 1.36% MoM and a decrease of 22% YoY. 

Taiwanese LED manufacturers have been affected by the tepid LED market resulting from LED price declines due to oversupply. The escalating trade war has also impacted the demand of the end market. 

Micro LED has been considered as the next generation display technology and many leading brands have continued to report their progress of Micro LED development. Taiwanese LED makers and panel producers have also introduced their latest development of Micro LED display technologies at Touch Taiwan 2018. According to sources from the supply chain, Apple has visited AUO and Epistar to learn their progress of Micro LED technology and discuss the possible cooperation regarding Micro LED display development. 

Epistar Corporation (“Epistar”) announced today that it agreed to settle its patent litigation against V-TAC USA Corp. (“V-TAC”) pending in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, for the infringement of Epistar’s light-emitting diode (“LED”) filament patents.

The U.S. Federal Circuit has reversed a court’s ruling in a patent infringement dispute between Boston University and Epistar, Everlight and Lite-On.

The price competition of blue LED continues and has impacted the revenue of the Taiwanese LED chip maker, Epistar. Facing the challenges, the company plans to expand the production of four-element LED and to increase the proportion of Mini LED products in blue LED.

Epistar Corporation (“Epistar”) announced today that it agreed to settle its patent litigation against All Star Lighting Supplies, Inc., d/b/a Luxrite (“All Star Lighting”) pending in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, for selling LED filament bulbs manufactured by Foshan Electrical and Lighting Co., Ltd. (“Foshan”) that were unlicensed and infringe Epistar’s light-emitting diode (“LED”) filament patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 7,355,208, 7,489,068, 7,560,738, 8,791,467, 9,065,022) and sold to All Star Lighting. 

LED chip maker Epistar reported the company’s decision to establish a spin-off to focus on VCSEL (vertical cavity surface emitting laser) and GaN on Si components production. This spin-off will be named Epistar Semiconductor. M.J. Chou, the current president of Epistar, will become the president of the new subsidiary.

Mini LED as an enhanced version of conventional LED backlight has been considered as a transitional technology between conventional LED and Micro LED. According to the estimation of LEDinside, the revenue of Mini LED products is expected to reach US$689 million by 2022. Before the second half of 2018 started, many LED companies have reported their progress and shipping schedule of Mini LED products including applications of automotive lighting and mobile devices.

In March, LEDinside witnessed a Chinese lighting company being caught red-handed for showcasing patent-infringing LED filament bulbs at Light + Building 2018. Slightly later than that, we also learnt Epistar has approached and initiated talks with a few companies for IP collaborations at that fair. At TILS 2018 in April, LEDinside interviewed Epistar and got more details about the matter.