I wonder if they will be incorporating XTOUCH with Diamond Guard in that new facility.

Touch panel maker General Interface Solution (GIS) has undertaken R&D of OLED touch display modules (back-end OLED manufacturing) for nearly one year and is setting up a production line, with trial production to kick off at the end of 2017 and volume production in 2018, according to company chairman Chou Hsien-ying.

Anticipating increasing adoption of OLED panels mainly for smartphones, the Foxconn Group plans to have Innolux or Sharp produce OLED panels (front-end OLED manufacturing) and GIS produce OLED touch display modules. Foxconn Electronics is the flagship of the group and a majority shareholder of Sharp, while GIS and Innolux are members of the group.

Since OLED touch display modules entail much more complicated processing than TFT-LCD ones, investment in a production line for the former with monthly capacity of 600,000 modules is at least NT$1 billion (US$33.1 million) while that for the latter with the same monthly capacity is only NT$100-300 million, Chou said.

In addition to OLED touch display modules, GIS is developing technologies of 3D biometric sensors, automotive touch displays, flexible touch sensors and curved-surface touch display modules, Chou noted. For automotive touch displays, GIS has central information touch displays in process of certification and expects shipments to begin in the first quarter of 2018, Chou indicated.

GIS has set aside a capex budget of NT$6 billion for 2017, mainly for setting up 3D force sensor lamination capacity and expanding MegaSite capacity - a process integrating display panels, cover glass, touch sensors and full lamination (direct bonding), but not including OLED touch display modules, Chou said.

In terms of application of touch panels, tablets account for 40-50% of GIS' consolidated revenues currently, smartphones for about 30%, notebooks and others for 20-30%.