AU to start OLED output in 2011

TAIPEI, TAIWAN: AU Optronics (AUO), based in Taiwan, has said it expects its OLED line to complete installation of equipment by the end of 2010 and begin production in 2011.

L J Chen, president and CEO of AU Optronics, stressed in a statement that the company’s OLED products and OLED panels will certainly be released in 2011, especially for small-size and medium-size applications. AU Optronics will use its 3.5G LTPS line to manufacture OLED.

The company, according to L J Chen, is embarking on other technologies and areas like, for example, solar energy and OLED, as capacity expansion and migration to higher-generation production for LCD panels are not its most important objectives any more.

AU Optronics recently bought FED (field emission displays) technology from Field Emission Technologies (FET), an affiliate of Sony, and also from and FET Japan (FETJ). The company says it expects to start making FED products in 2011-2012.

One of the companies that started manufacturing OLED in Taiwan, AU Optronics later suspended the production since materials and equipment were not mature at that time, L J Chen said.