Taiwan-based touch panel maker Young Fast Optoelectronics has announced to set up a joint venture (JV) with the Ritek Group's subsidiaries RiTdisplay and AimCore Technology for glass substrate-based capacitive touch panels.

Total investment of the JV will be NT$500 million (US$15.9 million), and Young Fast and RiTdisplay will have a 40% stake each, while AimCore will take the remaining 20%.

TJ Lin, CEO of Young Fast, said leveraging existing resources from the RiTek Group, the JV will provide immediate glass sensor capacity to Young Fast's customers.

Ritek said it has already established a full supply chain for glass sensor touch panels. Through this integration of frontend and backend in glass based touch panel technologies, RiTdisplay, AimCore and Young Fast will see their markets expand.

As OLED has become a popular option for mobile handset display, this JV will leverage the existing Ritek technologies for further integration of the mobile handset applications, RiTek said. RiTdisplay is a major supplier of OLED panels.

Young Fast is actively increasing its capacitive touch panel capacity, and expects capacitive touch panel to account for 30% of its total revenues in 2010, up from 18% in the first quarter of 2010.