Photonics Festival Taiwan Highlights Smart Optoelectronics Applications

What made this year's Photonics Festival Taiwan unique were smart applications and the debut of LED Lighting Taiwan. The 2005 event, composed of FPD Taiwan 2005, OptoCom Taiwan 2005, OPTO Taiwan 2005 and LED Lighting Taiwan 2005 shows, was held from June 8 through 11 at the Taipei World Trade Center.

According to co-organizer Photonics Industry & Technology Development Association (PIDA), a total of 560 suppliers demonstrated their latest products at 1,200 booths at this year's Photonics Festival Taiwan. These figures were up 15% and 20%, respectively, from last year's event. The event also lured over 25,000 professionals from all over the world. Manufacturers roughly represented a half of these visitors, with retailers making up the balance.

Of all of visitors, 1,500 came from overseas, including from mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany, Canada, Malaysia, South Korea, the United States, and Japan.

Eyes on Optics

OPTO Taiwan 2005 was the stage for suppliers of compound semiconductors, precision optic products like lens and processing equipment, optical storage devices, optical input and output devices, laser products and vacuum coating systems. Suppliers exhibited their latest optical fiber and cable products, optical passive components, optical-fiber component modules and packages as well as optical-fiber component making equipment at the OptoCom Taiwan 2005 show.

OPTO Taiwan has long been the major demonstration ground for suppliers of laser diode (LD) products. This year, green laser pointers and green laser modules remained the major LD products at this show. Prices of green laser modules have been in steady decline as the technology matures and the number of suppliers grows. The lower prices have smoothed the way for new green laser applications, such as pointers, and other gift items. Exhibitors of green laser pointers at the show included Quarton Inc., Jar Jung Co., Ltd., Sean & Stephen Corp., Raise Electro-optics Co., Ltd., and Eins OE-Tech Co., Ltd.

Infrared laser diodes were among the major products at the OptoComm showground. The components are a part of optical communications systems. Major product types were 850-nm vertical cavity surface emission laser (VCSEL) and 650-nm resonant cavity light emitting diode (RCLED). Exhibitors of infrared laser products included Union Optronics Corp., Millennium Communication Co., Ltd., TruLight Corp., Higher Way Electronic Co., Ltd., and Elite Advanced Laser Corp.

Another highlighted area at OptoComm was fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) technology. Many exhibitors demonstrated components for FTTH systems. Among them were Liverage Technology Inc., Coretech Optical Co., Ltd., EMIT Technology Co., Ltd., and Faztec Optronics Corp., which showed such passive and active components as fiber termination boxes, connectors, adaptors, and patch cords for FTTH applications.

Spotlight on Backlights

At the FPD Taiwan 2005 showground, suppliers demonstrated their latest flat panel display panels and modules, components and materials as well as processing equipment. At LED Lighting Taiwan 2005, suppliers exhibited products like LED lighting applications, LED modules, epitaxy wafers and chips, materials and processing equipment.

LED backlight modules for FPDs were demonstrated at the shows for the first time. Opto-Electronics & Systems Laboratories of the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and Epistar Corp. were among the exhibitors.

In addition to the LED backlight module, the ITRI lab demonstrated several new technologies including an in-car head-up display for showing global positioning system (GPS) data, shockproof technology for digital cameras, and a roll-to-roll ink-jet platform.

Although there were no exhibitors of solar cells at these shows this year, some suppliers of materials and equipment for making the cells demonstrated their products there considering the prosperous development of the photovoltaic cell industry in Taiwan.

Solar cells also appeared as integral parts in various LED lighting systems demonstrated by many lamp suppliers, such as China Electric Mfg. Corp. These companies touted a number of energy-saving solar-powered lamps.

At the first-ever LED Lighting show, some 60 suppliers including 10 from overseas demonstrated their latest products at 114 booths. Among the foreign heavyweight exhibitors were Lumileds Lighting-Future Electronics, Stanley Electric, Nichia Chemical, Lamina and Supertex. Local LED players, including Everlight Electronics., Epistar, Lite-On Technology, and Formosa Epitaxy, managed to outshine their foreign rivals at the show.

Stanley of the United States showed off its heat-dissipation tubes for LED headlamps while Lamina exposed dissipation substrates for LED lamps. Lumileds and Nichia caught visitors' eyes with high-power white LEDs. Lite-On displayed overhead projector equipped with LED backlight modules, while Formosa and China Electric demonstrated LED backlight modules and LED lighting fixtures, respectively.

Focus on Lenses

Optical lens are integral parts of almost every optoelectronics system. This year, over 30 suppliers, including H.P.B Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., Apex Optech Corp., Litefilm Tech Co., Ltd., Kinik Co., E-Pin Optical Industrial Co., Ltd., Newport of the United States and Schott of Germany, demonstrated projectors, digital cameras, camera phones, filters, quartz, instruments and other products incorporating optical lenses.

At the opening ceremony, Chi Gou-chung, a Deputy Minister of the National Science Council (NSC), stressed that Taiwan had made optoelectronics one of the pivotal technologies for fast-track development and noted that the technology plays a decisive and active role in emerging industries in the new century.

Kuo Nein-hsiung, a Deputy Director General of Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, pointed out that the production value of Taiwan's optoelectronics industry has already expanded to NT$1 trillion (US$32.2 billion at US$1:NT$31). The local industry is now playing a vital role in global supply chain and division-of-labor system. "Taiwan, South Korea and Japan have become the top three global supply centers in the flat panel display market," he said.

Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI)'s president, Stan Myers, pointed out that Taiwan is already one of the world's most important manufacturing centers for thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels, making the FPD Taiwan show an important event for world suppliers of processing equipment, materials and components incorporating such panels.

Executive director Dr. Peter Shih of the National Science Council's Electro-Optics Science & Technology Committee pointed out that the OPTO Taiwan show has steadily grown over the years, creating a demand for an independent FPD Taiwan show (organized by PIDA with SEMI), OptoComm Taiwan and LED Lighting Taiwan. LED Lighting was held for the first time this year, attracting suppliers from Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States, Japan and Taiwan to demonstrate latest products at over 100 booths. "Semiconductor-based LED lamps are environmentally friendly, durable and power saving. They mark the beginning of an era of green lighting and give a boost to the world in its pursuit to find viable ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," he stressed.

The organizer specially arranged an "LED Avenue" at the show to highlight the advantage of LED lamps as a daily-use lighting source.

According to a PIDA's survey of show visitors, 96% of the respondents said they were satisfied with the 2005 shows. Next year, these shows will be held from June 14 through 17. PIDA expected the 2006 shows to be even bigger than this year's events.

(This story was provided by PIDA and translated by CENS reporter Ken Liu)