LG to Ship 71W and 62W LCoS TVs, Supplier SpatiaLight Says in SEC Filing
LG will ship 71W and 62W LCoS-based rear projection TVs starting in the 2nd quarter in the U.S., Australia and S. Korea, said SpatiaLight in an SEC filing Mon. SpatiaLight, which is supplying the microdisplay technology to LG, had 2 SEC filings: one seeking to resell 2.4 million shares and a separate filing to sell 2 million shares as part of a 1999 stock option plan.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
Proceeds from the stock sale likely will be used to fund completion of SpatiaLight’s factory in Ginsa, S. Korea, that’s expected to start delivery of 3-chip LCoS sets to LG in March. Under an agreement reached in July, LG has agreed to purchase a minimum of 21,000 LCoS chipsets from SpatiaLight over a 6-month period starting in March. LG is to begin “larger scale mass-production” purchases of the LCoS chips by 3rd quarter, SpatiaLight said. LG is using SpatiaLight’s 0.8” microdisplays with 1920x1080p resolution.
SpatiaLight has exclusivity on the 3-panel design with LG for 2005 and “potentially” the following year as well, it said. The agreement carries a 2-year delivery term with monthly shipments of LCoS chipsets. LG is required to provide firm purchase orders 6 months in advance of scheduled delivery for the LCoS sets and “rolling” 12-month forecasts of “anticipated future orders,” SpatiaLight said.
SpatiaLight said it has a 50-year lease on the 8.3- acre site in Ginsa where the factory was built. It said it has received an exemption for land lease payments because the plant is located in a govt.-designated “free economic zone.” SpatiaLight hired Sung Do Engineering to design and build the facility and has paid $1.2 million to the company to date, it said; it’s required to pay $3.8 million by the end of the first quarter. SpatiaLight’s Korean subsidiary expects to hire 5 engineers and 45 production workers by the end of the first quarter, the company said. Another 5 engineers and 150 production workers will added by year-end, it said. The factory will have capacity to produce 28,000 chipsets monthly.
LG is SpatiaLight’s largest customer to date. It has signed deals with a series of Chinese manufacturers in recent years, including Skyworth Displays and China Electronics, but none has generated significant volume. LCoS commercialization efforts themselves have suffered serious setbacks within the last year, as low production yields forced Intel and Philips to abandon initiatives to market the technology to mainstream audiences. Brillian, JVC and Sony have continue to promote the LCoS cause, albeit with very high- end rear projection TVs and front projectors.