Taiwan organizes consortium to foster flexible electronics industry
Jul 05, 2005
Over 50 organizations in Taiwan formed a consortium on July 1 to foster the island's flexible electronics industry, which is projected to be Taiwan's another NT$1 trillion (US$32 billion at US$1:NT$31) industry along with semiconductor and flat-panel industries. Alliance members include Yuen Foong Yu Paper Mfg. Co., Ltd., Eternal Chemical Co., Ltd., Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp., AU Optronics Corp., Unimicron Technology Corp., Wus Printed Circuit Co., Ltd., United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) Inc. D.H. Hu, president of Champion Consulting Group Inc. and leader of the alliance's consulting group, pointed out that Taiwan is not lagging in the development of the technology and it has chance to develop industries that can differentiate themselves from the ones in other countries. The most potential application for flexible electronics is displays. Displays built around the electronics technologies can be used on billboards, car dashboards, arch-shaped screens for personal digital assistants, radio-frequency identification (RFID) films and some light sensors. Some manufacturers are now trying to build the displays into electronics books. Flexible electronics technology allows manufacturers to build microelectronics devices onto flexible substrates. L.C. Chen, director general of Electronics Research Service Organization (ERSO) of the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute, estimated the flexible-electronics industry to rake in revenues of US$5.8 billion in 2009 worldwide and US$23.5 billion in 2012. He said his organization would first develop the technology for RFID and electronic books in order to help boost the Taiwan industry to account for at least 10% of the world industry in 2010. He noted that flexible electronics technology is among the few ones that could help Taiwan's electronics industry stay competitive and boost its profit, which has recessed considerably as a result of undercutting competition. source: CENS
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