China-based Lijing Microelectronics Technology (Jiangsu) will expand monthly miniLED packaging capacity to 800 million chips by the end of May 2021, seven months ahead of schedule, according to one of its parent companies, Leyard Optoelectronics.

Lijing is a joint venture between China-based Leyard and Taiwan-based Epistar.

Lijing has obtained miniLED packaging orders worth CNY100 million (US$15.4 million), with shipments scheduled until June 2021, Leyard said.

With Epistar being the largest supplier of miniLED chips, Lijing produces displays mainly for Leyard's own-brand sale.

Leyard has won a project for providing curved-surface miniLED displays to Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) and another for mosaic screens with total display area of 227 square meters to a Chinese client.

Epistar has annual miniLED chip production capacity equivalent to one million 4-inch epitaxial wafers, taking up 90% of annual capacity for blue-light LED chips in Taiwan, company president Patrick Fan has noted. To meet increasing demand for miniLED displays, Epistar will invest about NT$1 billion (US$35.2 million) to expand production capacity for red-light miniLED in Taiwan in 2021, Fan indicated.

Epistar has reported consolidated revenues of NT$1.397 billion (US$49.2 million) for March, increasing 34.37% sequentially and 29.17% on year, and those of NT$3.580 billion for January-March grew 24.39% on year.

By DIGITIMES