TSMC Said to License LED Patents From Philips

Taipei, Oct. 14, 2010 (CENS)--Institutional investors have recently reported that silicon foundry giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) will license light emitting diode (LED) patents from Philips when its LED factory starts pilot production at the end of this year.

TSMC began the construction in March this year, with first-phase project scheduled to be completed and tooled by the end of this year at a cost of around NT$5.5 billion (US$177 million). Volume production will not kick off until the first quarter of 2011, according to the company.

Although some institutional investors said the No.1 pure silicon foundry would license LED patents from Philips, which once held stakes in TSMC, TSMC executives stressed that the company will develop patented technologies on its own and Philips is simply a perspective customer. Once the reports are proven true, TSMC will become another Taiwanese LED maker to license technologies from Philips after Epistar Inc., currently Taiwan's No.1 LED chipmaker.

TSMC's LED operation will be furnished with an integrated manufacturing capability to do epitaxial-layer growing, packaging to module manufacturing. It has imported 20 metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) chambers to grow expitaxial layers on wafers.

The company will put brand names on its modules, otherwise known as light engine or light source for lighting fixtures.

TSMC will set aside US$100 million from its 2010 capital expenditure of US$5.9 billion to finance its LED and solar-energy business.

Industry executives estimated TSMC would contract pure manufacturers to build chips on its epitaxy wafers and make part of its packages. Its packaging subsidiary, VisEra Technologies Co., Ltd., has begun chips from Epistar.

As LED lighting technologies are growingly mature, many of Taiwan's business groups have tried to tap the market by teaming up with upstream and downstream manufacturers in the industry. Delta Electronic Inc., for instance, has introduced LED lamps by working with Epistar to develop high-voltage chips and bought into packagers Lustrous Technologies Ltd. and Edison Opto Corp.