News

19 April 2010

 

AUO cutting number of LEDs in TV backlights

Taiwan-based liquid-crystal display (LCD) maker AU Optronics Corp (AUO) says that the number of LEDs used in TV backlight unit (BLU) will be reduced by about 30% by the end of this year, according to market research firm Displaybank. This is enabled by one-bar edge-type LEDs, which will start to be applied in BLUs for TV application from 2011 onwards.

AUO reckons that LED BLU-equipped models have a 90% share of the market in notebooks and 20% in TV and monitor applications and that, by the end of 2010, the penetration for TV applications will reach 30~40% (depending on whether the supply of LEDs can meet the growing demand).

Lee Biing-Jye, president of Taiwan-based LED chipmaker Epistar, says that LED-backlit LCD TVs showed just 5% penetration in early 2010, but this is expected to increase to 35% at the end of 2010 and will most likely show 20% overall penetration this year. This should rise to 45% in 2011.

In the TV sector, TV vendors are sharply increasing LED orders, leading to a 30-40% shortage during first-quarter 2010. The LED ordering period has already extended towards two quarters and price are expected to increase, reflecting increases in the bill of materials (BOM).

However, Teng Kuang-Chung, CEO of Lite-On Technology, reckons that the shortage of LEDs should not continue for a long period of time because LCD TV makers are endeavoring to lower costs by reducing the number of LEDs used, while chipmakers are expanding their capacity rapidly.

See related items:

LED-backlit TVs to reach 20% of 180m-unit LCD TV market in 2010

LEDs to surpass CCFL in large-area TFT LCD backlights in 2011

LED-backlit LCD-TV shipments to rise eight-fold in 2010

Search: AU Optronics LED TV backlighting BLUs

Visit: www.displaybank.com