Category Archives: LED Manufacturing

The global market for gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor devices is largely consolidated, with the top four companies commanding a share of over 65% of the overall market in 2015, states Transparency Market Research (TMR) in a new report. The dominant company among these four top vendors, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, accounted for a 19.2% share of the global market in the said year. The other three topmost companies of the global market, which collectively enjoyed a considerably large share in the overall global market in the said year, are NXP Semiconductors N.V., GaN Systems Inc., and Cree Inc.

Looking at the on-going research and development activities undertaken in the market, attempts made to eliminate issues related to reliability of GaN semiconductors is expected to be an important area of focus of key vendors in the near future. Transparency Market Research states that the global GaN semiconductor devices market will expand at a high 17.0% CAGR over the period between 2016 and 2024. With such exponential growth, the market, which had a valuation of $870.9 mn in 2015, is projected to rise to $3,438.4 mn by 2024. Of the key end-use industries utilizing GaN semiconductors, the aerospace and defense sector dominates, accounting for a share of over 42% of the global market in 2015.

Rising set of applications and focus on R&D to boost demand in North America and Europe

North America and Europe are presently the dominant regional markets for GaN semiconductor devices and are expected to retain dominance over the next few years as well. The rising focus of the Europe Space Agency (ESA) on the increased usage of GaN semiconductors across space projects and the use of GaN-based transistors in the military and defense sectors in North America will help the GaN semiconductor devices market gain traction.

In the past few years, GaN technology has witnessed rapid advancements and vast improvement in the ability of GaN semiconductors to work under operating environments featuring high frequency, power density, and temperature with improved linearity and efficiency. These advancements has boosted the usage of GaN semiconductor devices across an increased set of applications and have played an important role in the market’s overall growth lately.

Along with this factor, the increased usage of GaN semiconductor devices in the defense sector has also emerged as a key driver of the global GaN semiconductor devices market. The continuous rise in defense budgets of developing and developed countries as well as the demand for inclusion of the technologically most advanced products in the arsenal of national and international armies will propel the global GaN semiconductor devices market in the near future.

Relatively higher costs of GaN semiconductor devices to hinder market growth

GaN semiconductors are relatively expensive as compared to silicon-based semiconductors owing to the high production costs of gallium nitride as compared to silicon carbide. Further addition in the cost of GaN semiconductors is ensued due to the high cost of fabrication, packaging, and support electronics. Silicon-based semiconductors have witnessed a significant decline in their costs over the past few years, making high cost of GaN semiconductors a foremost challenge that could hinder their large-scale adoption.

The issue can be tackled by producing GaN in bulk. However, there is currently no widespread method that can be used for the purpose owing to the requisition of high operating pressure and temperature and limited scalability of the material.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced “H-series Gen 3,” a new line-up of LED linear modules that features high efficacy and enables easy replacement of fluorescent lights with LED lamps.

New Samsung LED H-series linear module for indoor lighting (Graphic: Business Wire)

New Samsung LED H-series linear module for indoor lighting (Graphic: Business Wire)

“With our new H-series, Samsung continues to lead the high-end industry segment for LED components through constant technology innovation,” said Jacob Tarn, executive vice president, LED Business Team, Samsung Electronics. “We are directing our technology expertise to improving the quality of LED lighting by significantly enhancing our LED components’ performance and overall competitiveness.”

Samsung’s H-series Gen 3 provides light efficacy reaching up to 187 lumen per watt (lm/W) at 4000K, which allows LED luminaires using the modules to achieve light efficacy above 140lm/W, delivering an optic efficiency level of about 86 percent and LED driver efficiency of approximately 88 percent.

Currently, Samsung offers several linear LED module line-ups: the V-series for cost-effective applications; the M-, S- and F-series for standard LED lighting segments; and now the H-series for high-performance LED products.

Samsung’s H-series Gen 3 uses the LM561C, the mid-power LED package with the highest efficacy in its LM561-series line-up. As a result, the H-series Gen 3 has obtained 18 to 26 percent higher efficacy than the company’s M-series Gen 2 modules. This feature makes the H-series Gen 3 line-up well-suited to meet DLC Premium standards – technical requirements for LED lighting solutions suggested by DesignLights Consortium™. DLC standards are well recognized in the North American region as a preferred means of evaluating LED lighting products in terms of performance and quality.

The H-series comes in three sizes: 1120mm (4 ft.) 560mm (2 ft.) and 280mm/275mm (1 ft.). As the premium version of the company’s M-series and S-series line-ups, the H-series has the same form factors as those modules (see chart below), while providing a performance level that more than satisfies the high demands of the U.S. and EU luminaire markets.

Samsung’s M-series has been certified by UL, a product quality certification standards organization in the U.S., while the S-series has been certified by CE and ENEC, similar standards bodies in the EU. Sharing the form factors and quality certifications of Samsung’s M- and S-series, the H-series allows lighting manufacturers to select their LED modules according to the specific operating conditions of their applications.

In a short term, UV curing will drive the UV LED market, announces Yole Développement (Yole) in its new LED report entitled UV LEDs: Technology, Manufacturing and Applications Trends.

But UVC LED’s recent price reduction will see the UV disinfection/purification market take over the UV curing market by 2019/2020. In this context, Yole’s analysts expect the UVC LED market to strongly grow from US$7 million in 2015 to US$610 million by 2021.

uv led curing

With an increased penetration rate in all applications, the UVA LED market will grow from US$107 million in 2015 to US$357 million by 2021. In addition to a moderated growth due to price pressure, Yole announces a very strong increase in number of devices.

Under this new UV LED report, 2016 edition, Yole details the latest technology and market trends. This comprehensive survey provides a deep understanding of the UV lamp business and its technological transition to UV LEDs. It is a thorough analysis of each UV lamp application (UVA/UVB/UVC) with a specific focus on UV curing, UV disinfection/purification and analytical instruments using UV light. Yole’s report highlights the global UV LED industry trends, from substrate to system and details the main challenges and axis of research.

“The UVC LED industry is still small but strong growth is expected in the next 18 months due to dramatic price reductions”, explains Pierrick Boulay, Market & Technology Analyst, LED & OLED at Yole. And he adds: “In 2016 prices are 1/8-1/10 of what they were in 2015.”
This has been triggered by the industry’s development, its transition to mass production and improved device performance. With most of the industry believing that US$1-US$4/mW is the price that would trigger mass market adoption we are getting close to a UVC LED market boom. Another positive sign is that most UVC LED manufacturers are now focusing on developing cost-effective solutions rather than improving device power output. In parallel, the UVC LED industry continues to work on increasing lifetime and developing lower wavelength devices, below 280nm.

In parallel, UVA LEDs continue to progress in the UV curing space. “Continuous improvement of device performance coupled with price reduction has allowed the technology to be increasingly adopted in UV curing applications”, asserts Pars Mukish, Business Unit Manager, at Yole. “Penetration of UV LEDs is increasing but we observe differences in adoption rates depending on application.” Small size and low speed applications like spot adhesive and digital inkjets have the highest adoption rate, and most new developments use UV LEDs. This is due to the small module size and low irradiance level needed that limits the extra cost of integrating UV LEDs compared to the total price of systems like inkjet printers. On the other hand, applications that need high speed processes and/or high levels of irradiance such as screen printing or coating applications have lower adoption rates. This is because UV LED performance is not yet good enough to fully replace traditional mercury lamps.

“Today UVA still represents the largest UV LED market but this trend could change in the future as UV LED performances increase,” announces Yole’ analysts. UV LEDs also enable new applications inaccessible to UV lamp. If these new applications take off, they could represent and additional revenue of nearly US$143 million in 2021.

Yole’s UV LED report highlights the market structure, UV LED market drivers and associated technical challenges, recent trends and new applications created by UV LEDs. It also includes UV LED market size split by application, and much more.

A powerful new material developed by Northwestern University chemist William Dichtel and his research team could one day speed up the charging process of electric cars and help increase their driving range.

An electric car currently relies on a complex interplay of both batteries and supercapacitors to provide the energy it needs to go places, but that could change.

“Our material combines the best of both worlds — the ability to store large amounts of electrical energy or charge, like a battery, and the ability to charge and discharge rapidly, like a supercapacitor,” said Dichtel, a pioneer in the young research field of covalent organic frameworks (COFs).

Dichtel and his research team have combined a COF — a strong, stiff polymer with an abundance of tiny pores suitable for storing energy — with a very conductive material to create the first modified redox-active COF that closes the gap with other older porous carbon-based electrodes.

“COFs are beautiful structures with a lot of promise, but their conductivity is limited,” Dichtel said. “That’s the problem we are addressing here. By modifying them — by adding the attribute they lack — we can start to use COFs in a practical way.”

And modified COFs are commercially attractive: COFs are made of inexpensive, readily available materials, while carbon-based materials are expensive to process and mass-produce.

Dichtel, the Robert L. Letsinger Professor of Chemistry at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, is presenting his team’s findings today (Aug. 24) at the American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting in Philadelphia. Also today, a paper by Dichtel and co-authors from Northwestern and Cornell University was published by the journal ACS Central Science.

To demonstrate the new material’s capabilities, the researchers built a coin-cell battery prototype device capable of powering a light-emitting diode for 30 seconds.

The material has outstanding stability, capable of 10,000 charge/discharge cycles, the researchers report. They also performed extensive additional experiments to understand how the COF and the conducting polymer, called poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) or PEDOT, work together to store electrical energy.

Dichtel and his team made the material on an electrode surface. Two organic molecules self-assembled and condensed into a honeycomb-like grid, one 2-D layer stacked on top of the other. Into the grid’s holes, or pores, the researchers deposited the conducting polymer.

Each pore is only 2.3 nanometers wide, but the COF is full of these useful pores, creating a lot of surface area in a very small space. A small amount of the fluffy COF powder, just enough to fill a shot glass and weighing the same as a dollar bill, has the surface area of an Olympic swimming pool.

The modified COF showed a dramatic improvement in its ability to both store energy and to rapidly charge and discharge the device. The material can store roughly 10 times more electrical energy than the unmodified COF, and it can get the electrical charge in and out of the device 10 to 15 times faster.

“It was pretty amazing to see this performance gain,” Dichtel said. “This research will guide us as we investigate other modified COFs and work to find the best materials for creating new electrical energy storage devices.”

IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO) today released its annual 2015 revenue-share ranking of the top LED suppliers in backlighting, automotive, lighting and other applications.

According to the 2016 edition of the IHS Markit Packaged LED Report, Nichia led in both lighting and mobile applications for 2015, with 12.9 percent share of the total packaged LED market. Nichia was followed by Osram and Lumileds with a combined share of 14.7 percent.

“It’s not a surprise that Nichia led in more than one application,” said Alice Tao, senior analyst, LEDs and lighting for IHS Markit. “In 2015, Nichia overtook Cree, which led the lighting category in 2014. Nichia was also very strong in mobile phone LEDs, since the company is a major supplier for Apple’s iPhone.”

Samsung was the leading supplier in backlighting, which includes LEDs used in TVs, monitors, notebook PCs and tablet PCs. Nichia followed in second position and LG Innotek ranked third.

Osram has been the leading supplier of automotive LEDs for many years. Its market share was 35 percent in 2015 for LEDs used in the total automotive market and 40 percent for those used in the automotive exterior market. It also led in the “other” application, which includes LEDs used for industrial, medical, security, projection, signage and off-specification applications.

Leading packaged LEDs suppliers
(Millions of Dollars)  
   
Category

Leading supplier
Lighting

Nichia
Backlighting

Samsung
Mobile phone

Nichia
Automotive

Osram
Other

Osram

 

The IHS Markit Packaged LED Report provides detailed quantitative market sizes and supplier shares by application, region and product type. For more information about purchasing IHS Markit information, contact the sales department at [email protected].

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC) today announced a new lineup of ultra-efficient, high-speed, high-voltage MOSFETs for switching voltage regulator designs. Available with 800V and 900V ratings, the four N-channel devices (TK4A80E, TK5A80E, TK3A90E, TK5A90E) are targeted to applications including flyback converters in LED lighting, supplementary power supplies and other circuits that require current switching below 5.0A.

The new enhancement mode MOSFETs are based on Toshiba’s π-MOS VIII (Pi-MOS-8), the company’s eighth generation planar semiconductor process, which combines high levels of cell integration with optimized cell design. This technology supports reduced gate charge and capacitance compared to prior generations, without losing the benefits of low RDS(ON).

These MOSFETs represent low-current supplements to Toshiba’s existing DTMOS IV line-up of 800V superjunction DTMOS IV devices. The 2.5A TK3A90E and 4.5A TK5A90E feature VDSS ratings of 900V and have typical RDS(ON)ratings of 3.7Ω and 2.5Ω, respectively. Both the 4.0A TK4A80E and 5.0A TK5A80E devices offer VDSS ratings of 800V with typical RDS(ON) ratings of 2.8Ω and 1.9Ω, respectively.

Toshiba’s new high-voltage MOSFETs offer an ultra-low maximum leakage current of only 10μA (VDS = 640V for the 800V device; VDS = 720V for the 900V device) and a gate threshold voltage range of 2.5V to 4.0V. All of the devices are supplied in a standard TO-220SIS form factor.

Pixelligent Technologies, a developer of high-index advanced materials for solid state lighting and display applications and producer of PixClear products, announced today that it closed $10.4 million in new funding. The round was led by The Abell Foundation, The Bunting Family Office, and David Testa, the former Chief Investment Officer of T. Rowe Price. Funds will be used to complete the installation of additional manufacturing capacity, open new offices in Asia, and continue to drive innovation in lighting, display and optical applications.

To date Pixelligent has raised over $36.0M in equity funding and has been awarded more than $12M in U.S. government grant programs to support the development of its proprietary PixClear products and PixClearProcess. The Pixelligent nanotechnology platform includes proprietary nanocrystal synthesis, capping technology, high volume manufacturing and application engineering that supports ink jet, slot die, UV curing, spray coating, and numerous other manufacturing processes.

“We have clearly established Pixelligent as the leading high-index materials manufacturer for demanding solid state lighting and OLED display applications throughout the world. Pixelligent is partnering with leading advanced materials suppliers to deliver breakthrough performance that currently spans applications in 12 discrete markets including: lighting, displays, printed and flexible electronics, AR/VR, optically clear adhesives, MEMS, gradient index lenses, and others with a combined total over $9B in market opportunities. We have numerous commercial applications currently in the market and expect additional product introductions before the end of 2016,” said Craig Bandes, President & CEO of Pixelligent Technologies.

“We started our partnership with Pixelligent in 2011 when the company relocated to Baltimore City and have seen the company achieve all of their critical technology and manufacturing milestones, while establishing a global brand and presence. Our investment objective is to support leading edge companies that deliver breakthrough technology and products and create jobs in our local community. Pixelligent is at the forefront in delivering on the promise of the nanotechnology revolution. We are proud of what the team at Pixelligent has accomplished to date and we look forward to their continued growth and success,” said Eileen O’Rourke, CFO of The Abell Foundation.

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) announced today that Epistar Corporation (TSE: 2448) has ordered multiple TurboDisc EPIK 700 Gallium Nitride (GaN) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) Systems for the production of light emitting diodes (LEDs). The Veeco systems will be used to meet demand for various applications.

“The improved demand of solid state lighting combined with the need to compete in a competitive market dictates we choose the most productive and most cost-efficient MOCVD platform in the industry,” said Dr. MJ Jou, President, Epistar Corporation. “Veeco has been our supplier of choice dating back to their innovative K465i system. After adopting their latest EPIK platform, we have achieved superior yield results and lowered manufacturing costs. The addition of these new EPIK MOCVD systems will help advance our production goals and improve our product competitiveness.”

Based on Veeco’s proven TurboDisc technology and the proprietary Uniform FlowFlange, the award-winning EPIK 700 MOCVD system enables customers to achieve an improved cost per wafer savings compared to previous MOCVD systems through improved wafer uniformity, reduced operating expenses and increased productivity.

“We believe that a leader such as Epistar ramping production to meet demand of LEDs is a positive sign for the industry as a whole,” said James T. Jenson, Senior Vice President, Veeco MOCVD Operations. “Veeco’s superior MOCVD technology is the number one choice of manufacturers looking for a competitive edge in a market that seems to be turning upward again. We look forward to supporting Epistar’s future MOCVD requirements as they continue their growth plans.”

The upconversion of photons allows for a more efficient use of light: Two photons are converted into a single photon having higher energy. Researchers at KIT now showed for the first time that the inner interfaces between surface-mounted metal-organic frameworks (SURMOFs) are suited perfectly for this purpose – they turned green light blue. The result, which is now being published in the Advanced Materialsjournal, opens up new opportunities for optoelectronic applications such as solar cells or LEDs. (DOI: 10.1002/adma.201601718)

Photon upconversion: energy transfer between the molecules is based on electron exchange (Dexter electron transfer). Credit: Illustration: Michael Oldenburg

Photon upconversion: energy transfer between the molecules is based on electron exchange (Dexter electron transfer). Credit: Illustration: Michael Oldenburg

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are highly ordered molecular systems that consist of metallic clusters and organic ligands. At the Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG) of KIT, researchers developed MOFs that grow epitaxially on the surfaces of substrates. These SURMOFs (surface-mounted metal-organic frameworks) can be produced from various materials and be customized using different pore sizes and chemical functionalities so that they are suited for a broad range of applications, e.g. for sensors, catalysts, diaphragms, in medical device technology or as intelligent storage elements.

Another field of application is optoelectronics, i.e. components that are capable of converting light into electrical energy or vice versa. Many of these components work on the basis of semiconductors. “The SURMOFs combine the advantages of organic and anorganic semiconductors,” Professor Christof Wöll, Director of IFG, explains. “They feature chemical diversity and crystallinity, allowing us to create ordered heterostructures.” In many optoelectronic components, a so-called heterojunction – this is an interfacing layer between two different semiconductor materials – controls the energy transfer between the various excited states. Researches of the KIT Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT) now created a new piggyback SURMOF in which a second SURMOF grew epitaxially, i.e. layer by layer, on a first one. At this heterojunction, it was possible to achieve photon upconversion, transforming two low-energy photons into a single photon with higher energy, by virtually fusing them together. “This process turns green light blue. Blue light has a shorter wavelength and yields more energy. This is very important for photovoltaics applications,” explains Professor Bryce Richards, Director of IMT. The scientists are presenting their work in Advanced Materials, one of the leading journals for materials science.

The photon upconversion process shown by the Karlsruhe researchers is based on the so-called triplet-triplet annihilation. Two molecules are involved: a sensitizer molecule that absorbs photons and creates triplet excited states, and an emitter molecule that takes over the triplet excited states and, by using triplet-triplet annihilation, sends out a photon that yields a higher energy than the photons that were originally absorbed. “The challenge was to create this process as efficiently as possible,” explains Dr. Ian Howard, leader of a junior research group at IMT. “We matched the sensitizer and emitter layers in a way to obtain a low conversion threshold and a higher light efficiency at the same time.”

Since the triplet transfer is based on the exchange of electrons, the photon upconversion process revealed by the researchers includes an electron transfer across the interface between the two SURMOFs. This suggests the assumption that SURMOF-SURMOF heterojunctions are suitable for many optoelectronic applications such as LEDs and solar cells. One of the limitations for the efficiency of today’s solar cells is due to the fact that they can only use photons with a certain minimum energy for electric power generation. By using upconversion, photovoltaic systems could become much more efficient.

ams AG (SIX: AMS), a provider of high performance sensors and analog ICs, has launched the smallest ever optical sensor module that delivers a combination of colour (RGB), ambient light and proximity sensing, providing OEMs with design flexibility and the ability to provide a better display viewing experience.

The TMD3700 footprint, at 4.00 x 1.75mm, is the smallest footprint available in the market, and with height of 1.00mm, its low-profile is ideal for next-generation mobile phones with extremely tight layout and mechanical design constraints. Its wide 45 degree field-of-view, ambient light sensing accuracy of +/-10% and operating range of 200mlux to 60Klux behind dark glass enable smartphones to measure the surrounding light environment and automatically adjust display colour and brightness for optimal viewing.

The TMD3700 colour sensor channels each have UV and IR blocking filters and a dedicated converter allowing simultaneous data capture necessary for accurate measurements. The combination of photopic colour and ambient light sensing enables smartphones to perform real-time adjustment of the display properties, such as white point, colour gamut and colour saturation, to achieve the best visual colour accuracy.

The TMD3700 features allow dynamic elimination of both electrical and optical crosstalk producing reliable proximity detection, a function used by smartphone manufacturers to disable the touchscreen display when it is held close to the user’s face. In addition, the module’s integrated IR LED is calibrated for maximum performance and consistent operation.

“Smartphone OEMs are continually condensing their product profiles while seeking ways to improve display performance for the best visual appeal. The availability of the TM3700 light sensing and proximity detection performance in a compact package enables innovative display management for today’s space-constrained smartphones,” said Darrell Benke, Strategic Program Director for Advanced Optical Solutions at ams.