Walsin Lihwa, KAAI Team Up To Co-Develop Integrated Laser Light Source

Taipei, March 26, 2010 (CENS)-Walsin Lihwa Corp.'s micro optical mechanical electronic group recently announced it had signed an agreement to co-develop integrated light source packaging solutions with KAAI of the United States.

The two companies will work together to develop the solutions that are eco-friendly in three years. The packaging solutions aim at portable applications including mobile phones and netbooks.

Walsin Lihwa was founded in 1966 to make copper cables and wires, power cables and wires and specialty steel products. In 2000, it branched out into micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) sector to focus on integrated-light sources and has won approximately 200 patents.

Co-founded in 2008 by semiconductor laser gurus Professors Shuji Nakamura, Steven Denbaars and James Speck of University of California, Santa Barbara, Kaai specialize in high-efficient gallium nitride chip-based lasers for consumer, biomedical, defense, and industrial applications.

According to Ching Hu, president of Walsin Lihwa's micro optical mechanical electronic group, KAAI's advanced blue and green laser technologies are critical to his group's integrated light source development. He added that his company had worked with UOC, Santa Barbara, for over three years on some unique packaging technologies for laser light sources and made some technological breakthrough.

Hu pointed out that average price of a laser light source is now above US$150, far higher than the US$30-40 range acceptable for mobile-phone makers, claiming his company can cut the price to only US$20-30 upon volume production of gallium-nitride laser light sources.

Industry executives pointed out Walsin Lihwa would become the world's first packager of integrated laser light sources once it successfully combines red, green and blue (RGB) light devices into one.

Some institutional investors estimate the deal to cost Walsin Lihwa billions of NT dollars, which the company has declined to verify.