Osram GmbH has announced that it is granting Coretronic Corporation, Taiwan, one of the world's largest TFT-LCD backlighting unit and DLP projector manufacuturer, a licence to manufacture and market mercury-free flat lamps:
An important strategic partner:
Osram already supplies high-tech lamps for video projection equipment to Coretronic. "Close cooperation with Coretronic in mercury-free flat lamps for flat screens will make Coretronic an important strategic partner for us", said Dr. Wolf-Dieter Bopst, President and CEO of Osram. This cooperation is of such particular strategic significance because Coretronic manufactures not only backlight units but also terminals.
"Strategic cooperation with Coretronic from Taiwan and Samsung Corning from Korea will enable us, over the medium term, to participate in the high growth of the Asian market in the mass application sector", added Dr. Bopst. Osram will continue to operate independently at its Herbrechtingen site in specialist markets such as medical engineering, industrial applications and special-purpose luminaires.
More about backlighting LCD flat screens:
There are two product groups that are used for backlighting LCD flat screens for desktop monitors and televisions. The classic model is the mercury-based linear fluorescent lamp. The most innovative model is the mercury-free flat lamp. It has an extremely long life (up to 100,000 hours), is very flat (around eight millimetres thick) and provides homogeneous backlighting with a constant luminance.
The main application for flat lamps is backlighting for flat screens for desktop monitors and televisions. Flat lamps are particularly important for LCD televisions with picture diagonals greater than 30 inches. iSuppli/Stanford Resources, the market research institute, expects demand to increase from around eight million units in 2004 to around 20 million units in 2006.
Osram Ltd.,
Osram House, Waterside Drive, Langley,
Berkshire SL3 6EZ
Tel: 01744 812 221
Fax: 01744 831 900
Web: www.osram.co.uk