Innolux has teamed up with Taiwan's government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) to develop fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) technology, which will be ready for volume production in three years, according to CK Wei, an associate vice president of technology development center at the LCD panel maker.
Wei said the collaboration comes in line with Innolux's efforts to pursue operation upgrades and transformation and will enable the company to become the world's first panel maker migrating to the establishment and commercialization of the FOPLP technology.
Innolux, now operating 11 older-generation fabs (3.5G, 4G and 6G) and three advanced ones (7G and 8.6G), has since 2016 moved to rejuvenate its less advanced fabs that can hardly conduct cost-effective production of flat panels, Wei noted.
He said that Innolux will use one of its 3.5G lines to develop FOPLP technology in cooperation with ITRI's Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories (EOSRL), for processing chips for smartphones and IoT devices.
Innolux boasts a competitive advantage over general backend service firms in offering fan-out packaging technology, Wei indicated, as the company can leverage its LCD technology and reuse its existing equipment such as mask aligners, which would entail expensive investment for newcomers.
CC Lee, deputy director general of EOSRL, also noted that incorporating the FOPLP technology to 3.5G panel lines will require an investment of only under NT$1 billion (US$32.26 million) for purchasing copper plating process equipment, much lower than the sums backend service firms might have to spend to enable FOPLP services.
As Taiwan now leads in the global semiconductor industry and boasts the world's second-largest panel industry, Lee stressed, successful combination of both industries will usher in a major milestone for upgrades and transformations in Taiwan's high-tech development.
Article translated by Willis Ke
