China-based LED epitaxial wafer and chip maker San'an Optoelectronics, due to subsidies of CNY1.0 billion (US$163 million) offered and orders worth CNY3.0 billion arranged from the government of Xiamen City, southeastern China, will set up a factory to house 100 additional MOCVD sets in the city with a total investment of CNY10.0 billion, according to industry sources in Taiwan.
San'an will procure 50 MOCVD sets from Germany-based Aixtron SE and another 50 sets from US-based Veeco Instruments, with the factory together with the installation of the 100 MOCVD sets to be completed in two years, the sources said.
Epistar, the largest Taiwan-based LED epitaxial wafer and chip maker has acquired Taiwan-based fellow maker Formosa Epitaxy as a wholly owned subsidiary and thereby has expanded its total production capacity to 436 MOCVD sets currently and will further expand capacity to 500 sets by the end of 2014, the sources noted.
In line with expanding production capacity, San'an has offered relatively high salaries to recruit high-level engineers from Epistar, the sources indicated. In addition, San'an has established a joint-venture maker in eastern China with South Korea-based LED maker Seoul Semiconductor, a bid to use the latter's key patented technologies to tap overseas markets, the sources said.
