Category Archives: LED Manufacturing

February 8, 2012 — The 2012 Strategies in Light conference kicked off today at the Santa Clara Convention Center with a series of five workshops, two tutorials and one all-day investor forum. The investor forum is where I chose to spend my day, as it provided the opportunity for solid state lighting and related startups to talk about their technologies, products and implicitly the opportunities they provide for investment. The forum was well populated by actual investors looking for opportunities to trade-in their Maseratis for something a bit more upscale.

Vrinda Bhandarkar at Strategies Unlimited presented a global market review for LED lighting. Not surprisingly, the largest available market is China, but the greatest number of individual LED replacement lights sold last year was in Japan, their high price notwithstanding. The market for luminaries is expected to be $20B by 2016 with a CAGR of 19%. Over the same period replacement lights will grow to $3B with a CAGR of 23%. The LED lighting cost index has the potential to drop from 100 today to 20 by 2015, but that will require achievement of efficiencies across the entire component set.

HelioDel is a spin out of CEA-LETI that claims a 5x cost reduction breakthrough by using grown GaN nanowires in place of planar device structures. This enables the generation of a range of controlled colors on a single chip, with the prospect of eventually eliminating the need for phosphors altogether.

Just as CFL technology was met with consumer resistance due to the its color, LED lighting is subject to consumer criticism due to flickering associated with the incoming alternating current. In an environment that is illuminated totally by LEDs, there is a segment of the population that reacts adversely with symptoms ranging from headache and eyestrain to epileptic seizures. Privately-held iWatt Inc. is a four year old company that manufactures digital control LED power supplies that are already implemented worldwide to improve the human factors associated with LED lighting.

Xicato has taken the novel approach of separating the photon generation from the color tuning by using commodity LEDs with something called Corrected Cold Phosphor Technology™. The color temperature of the lighting unit is determined by placing the phosphors in a translucent cover disk that is spatially separated from the LED devices. Furthermore, the disk is integrated into the cooling system, so that its color remains constant over a lifetime of several years and is highly uniform from one device to the next.

CoolEdge Lighting is a stealth startup spun out from the University of Illinois that is commercializing an all-plastic flexible “light engine” that does not require heat sinks or wire bonding. Small commodity LEDs are used from four foundries. General Manager Wade Sheen assured the audience that development of the product is based entirely on good engineering; magic was not invoked.

The conference continues for the next two days with a technical conference and supplier exhibition. Read Fury’s reports from Days 2 and 3:

Michael A. Fury, Ph.D., is director & senior technology analyst, Techcet Group in North Plains, OR.

February 7, 2012 — Plessey has acquired CamGaN Limited, a University of Cambridge spin-out with novel gallium nitride (GaN) technology for high-brightness light-emitting diodes (HB-LEDs) on large-area silicon substrates. Plessey will bring the technology into its 6" wafer processing facility in Plymouth, England to produce GaN-on-Si HB-LEDs.

"To date, the biggest technological challenge preventing the commercialization of HB-LEDs grown on large-area silicon substrates has been the large lattice mismatch between GaN and silicon. Plessey’s new GaN-on-silicon process has overcome this challenge," said Dr. John Ellis, chief engineer at Plessey.

The CamGaN technology enables growth of thin HB-LED structures on standard silicon substrates instead of silicon carbide (SiC) or sapphire substrates, which can cost 80% more than Si. It reduces scrap rates, minimizes batch time, and enables use of automated semiconductor processing equipment.

Also read: GaN-on-Si advances from Translucent and Bridgelux  and GaN-on-Si HB-LED demo from Lattice Power, ShineOn

The LEDs will target 150 lumens per watt output, which Plessey expects to achieve later this year with white LEDs. Plessey’s first samples of a blue LED are characterized by peak emission at 460nm. The technology extends to other emission wavelengths such as cyan and green. Being able to achieve such high brightness at the blue end of the spectrum enables phosphors to be used to produce white light with a balanced spectrum of light emission that is better for the eye. The devices will suit domestic, architectural, medical and automotive lighting.

Plessey also announced its plan to release a range of products for smart lighting concepts that incorporate existing Plessey sensing and control technologies including its EPIC sensor. These smart lighting products will enable intelligent energy management, remote control, controlled dimming and automated response to ambient conditions.

Plessey Semiconductors develops and manufactures semiconductor products used in sensing, measurement and control applications.

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January 7, 2012 – PRNewswire — Semiconductor fab equipment supplier EV Group (EVG) uncrated the EVG620HBL Gen II fully automated lithography mask alignment system for volume manufacturing of high-brightness light-emitting diodes (HB-LEDs). The second generation EVG620HBL addresses ongoing cost-of-ownership reduction in the LED manufacturing industry, with 55% higher wafer output per square meter of cleanroom space occupied, EVG reports.

The EVG620HBL Gen II offers new features for high-volume manufacturing (HVM), enabling a reported 20% reduction in cost-per-processed wafer.

  • An enhanced microscope supports automated mask pattern search to reduce lithography mask set up and change time.
  • Updated robotic handling layout with wafer mapping capability increases wafer traceability.
  • Improved alignment capability (line alignment) leverages the grids that mark LED die orientation instead of requiring separate alignment marks on the wafer.
  • The system footprint is also reduced overall.

The new generation is part of EVG’s EVG620HBL lithography tool series.

  • The tools feature a high-intensity ultraviolet (UV) light source and an optional filter fan unit.
  • Wafer throughput is up to 165 6" wafers per hour (up to 220 WPH in first print mode).
  • Special recipe-controlled microscopes are available with tailored illumination spectra for the best pattern contrast with various wafer and layer materials, such as sapphire, silicon carbide (SiC), aluminum nitride (AlN), metal and ceramic.
  • The EVG620HBL series processes 2" to 6" wafers.

Today, EVG’s bonders and mask aligners are being deployed by four of the top five major HB-LED manufacturers.

The EVG620HBL Gen II will be part of EVG’s offering at Strategies in Light, February 7-9 in Santa Clara, CA. EVG’s Dr. Thomas Uhrmann will present on "High Throughput Lithography and Metal Wafer Bonding: Two Enabling Technologies for Future High-Brightness LEDs" on February 9, 8:30AM.

EV Group (EVG) provides wafer-processing equipment for semiconductor, MEMS and nanotechnology applications, including wafer bonding, lithography/nanoimprint lithography (NIL) and metrology equipment, as well as photoresist coaters, cleaners, and inspection systems. More information is available at www.EVGroup.com.

Visit the new LEDs Manufacturing Channel on ElectroIQ.com!

February 7, 2012 — Veeco Instruments Inc. (Nasdaq:VECO) reported three major wins for its TurboDisc K465i gallium nitride (GaN) metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) tools at light emitting diode (LED) makers and electronics manufacturing materials suppliers. The same tool will be used for high-volume LED fab, GaN-on-Si research, and Si-based LED development.

The K465i achieves up to 90% yield (5nm bin) with high uniformity and run-to-run repeatability from its Uniform FlowFlange technology. It also offers full automation and shortened recovery period after maintenance.

SemiLEDs Corporation (Nasdaq:LEDS) qualified the TurboDisc K465i GaN MOCVD system for high-volume production of high brightness light emitting diodes (HB-LEDs) at its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Taiwan. Chuong A. Tran, Ph.D., president and COO, SemiLEDs, noted that Veeco offers "enhanced local support with their technology center in Hsinchu" for this Taiwan installation. Veeco is a new supplier for SemiLEDs.

SemiLEDs develops and manufactures LED chips and LED components primarily for general lighting applications. Internet: http://www.semileds.com/.

LG Siltron, a South Korean epi wafer manufacturer, selected the TurboDisc K465i tool to make gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) wafers for power electronics and LED devices. GaN is an alternative to traditional silicon-based power transistors. GaN-on-Si may also offer an alternative approach to LED manufacturing. Dr. Hee Bog Kang, GM, LG Siltron R&D, noted that this is their first GaN-on-Si production system, praising the tool’s throughput, uniformity, and low particle count.

LG Siltron is a major electronics materials manufacturer providing epitaxial wafers in 150mm, 200mm and 300mm diameters and solar substrates. For more information, visit http://www.lgsiltron.co.kr.

Epistar Corporation installed the K465i TurboDisc to develop LEDs on silicon substrates. Epistar is moving to larger wafer sizes for higher-yield LED production, with the GaN-on-Si development, noted M. J. Jou, Ph.D., president of Epistar. "Large-diameter silicon wafers offer…a low-cost alternative to sapphire for volume production of lower-cost LEDs," added William J. Miller, Ph.D., Veeco EVP, process equipment.

Epistar Corporation manufactures HB-LEDs for diverse applications. Go to http://www.epistar.com.tw/about-e.htm

Veeco makes equipment to develop and manufacture LEDs, solar cells, hard disk drives (HDDs) and other devices. Watch a video of the TurboDisc K465i at http://www.veeco.com/movies/TurboDisk_01_K465GAN.swf

Visit the new LEDs Manufacturing Channel on ElectroIQ.com!

February 6, 2012 — Eastman Kodak Co. and the Conductive Polymers Division of Heraeus Precious Metals GmbH & Co. KG will demonstrate a 3.5” touchscreen panel for cell phone applications using Kodak HCF-225 Film/ESTAR Base as the transparent conductive component at the FlexTech Alliance 2012 Flexible Electronics & Displays Conference & Exhibition in Phoenix, AZ, February 6-9 at Heraeus booth #31.

A conductive pattern is screen printed onto Kodak HCF-225 Film/ESTAR Base using Heraeus Clevios SET S masking polymer. Clevios Etch is then used to create the non-conductive areas, and the masking polymer that protected the conductive pattern is removed. The etch technology enables invisible conductive traces, demonstrated in projected capacitive display designs and in LED displays on curved substrates.

“Today’s PEDOT films are up to 100 times more conductive than they were 10 years ago,” said John Bayley, European Sales & Marketing Manager for Heraeus Precious Metals GmbH & Co. KG’s Conductive Polymers Division.

The companies demonstrated these transparent conductive films first in 2011 on a 14” display at the IDTechEX Printed Electronics USA 2011 show, November 30-December 1 in Santa Clara, CA. Read Kodak, Heraeus touchscreen conductive film proves completely invisible to understand the benefits over indium tin oxide (ITO).

“The advent of invisible patterning technology enables PEDOT-based films to satisfy the design goals of smart phone and tablet makers in markets that require very high optical clarity and multi-touch response,” said Dr. Stephan Kirchmeyer, Head of the Functional Coatings Business Unit from Heraeus Conductive Polymers Division.

“The cost and performance of this new technology opens the door to the production of a new generation of touch screens built for electronic devices using high volume web coating manufacturing processes,” said Brian Marks, General Manager, Functional Printing, Eastman Kodak Company. “It is positioned to utilize in-line patterning processes creating substantial cost advantages compared to the sputtering and patterning techniques required in the manufacture of ITO films.”

Kodak’s Industrial Materials Group offers a portfolio of functional films support customers in the electronic, optical and related industrial markets. For more information, visit http://www.kodak.com.

Heraeus supplies precious metals, materials and technologies; sensors; biomaterials; and medical products, as well as dental products, quartz glass, and specialty light sources. Visit the Conductive Polymers Division of Heraeus at www.clevios.com.

February 3, 2012 — The global market for power supplies used in LED lighting is forecast to reach $10 billion in 2016, according to a new report from IMS Research.

"Opportunities for Power Components in LED Lighting" from IMS Research reveals that rapid uptake of LED lighting, driven by legislation and rising costs of electricity, will result in a potential market of 4 billion power supply units by 2016, worth an astounding $10 billion. Report co-author and senior market analyst, Ryan Sanderson, commented “Demand for LED lighting solutions is increasing rapidly for all applications from low-power residential retrofit LED lamps and bulbs to high-power commercial and industrial LED luminaires for applications such as street lighting.”

Figure. World market for power supplies in LED lighting by revenue. SOURCE: IMS Research January 2012.

The report also found that the traditional lamp and luminaire market is well established. Manufacturers are faced with new challenges when it comes to powering LED lamps and luminaires and often require significant power electronics expertise, opening up opportunities for power supply manufacturers. The requirements to power new LED lighting products varies widely, depending on design factors including power rating, the number of LEDs or LED strings and the environment in which the solution will be placed. Sanderson added, ”These design requirements, coupled with the lack of clear standards for LED lighting means that LED lamp and luminaire manufacturers need considerable power electronics expertise, either via employing specialists or from a merchant power supply manufacturer.”

The market report found that LED lighting would become a unique opportunity, despite the fact that general lighting has always been a relatively small and low-growth market for the power supply industry. Competition in lighting, however, is already fierce and some of the largest manufacturers of LED lamps and luminaires are positioning themselves to cope with these challenges internally. Report co-author and market analyst, Jonathon Eykyn, commented “Some of the largest manufacturers of LED lamps and luminaires already have the capability to design and manufacture power circuitry in-house, either via subsidiaries or through the acquisition of power supply manufacturers. Philips Advance is a prime example”. This means that a portion of the total power supply opportunity is absorbed by these vertically integrated companies and becomes “captive”. Eykyn added, “Designing and manufacturing the power solution in-house, however, only really makes sense in high-volume, low-cost markets and where the design is simple; for example, LED retrofit lamps. In medium and high-power applications, design becomes more complex and it often makes more financial sense to outsource the power supply design to a merchant vendor.” As a result, the report from IMS Research forecasts that more than 50% of the market in 2016 will be controlled merchant power supply manufacturers.

IMS Research is a leading independent provider of market research and consultancy to the global electronics industry.

Visit the new LEDs Manufacturing Channel on ElectroIQ.com!

February 2, 2012 — Rice University studied the fluorescence of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) in new research, finding that the lengths and imperfections of individual nanotubes affect their fluorescence. This research focused on the light SWCNTs emit at near-infrared wavelengths.

The brightest nanotubes of a given length show consistent fluorescence intensity. The longer the nanotube, the brighter it fluoresces. "Maximum brightness is proportional to length," noted Bruce Weisman, who led the research. Weisman found a "well-defined limit" to the SWCNTs brightness. Brightness among nanotubes of the same length varied widely, likely due to damaged or defective structures or chemical reactions that allowed atoms to latch onto the surface.

Figure. Carbon nanotubes of varying fluorescence in a solution at Rice University.

Also read: Nano wire/CNT stack forms better photocatalytically active filter

Former graduate student Tonya Leeuw Cherukuri analyzed 400 individual nanotubes of a specific physical structure known as (10,2). The researchers applied spectral filtering to selectively view the specific type of nanotube. "We used spectroscopy to take this very polydisperse sample containing many different structures and study just one of them, the (10,2) nanotubes," Weisman said. "But even within that one type, there’s a wide range of lengths."

Weisman, Cherukuri, and postdoctoral fellow Dmitri Tsyboulski isolated 1 or 2 nanotubes at a time in a dilute sample, finding their lengths by analyzing videos of the moving tubes captured with a special fluorescence microscope. The movies also allowed Cherukuri to catalog their maximum brightness.

The researchers called these CNTs "fluorescence underachievers," because only a few bright ones fluoresce to their full potential. Most are only 50-20% of their potential brightness.

By studying the nanotubes, Rice University hopes to discover how their fluorescence is affected by growth methods and processing. This way, the researchers could minimize damage during nanotube manufacturing, potentially lessening or eliminating the dimming.

"These are insights you really can’t get from measurements on bulk samples," Weisman said.

Weisman said brightness properties may be important to medical imaging and industrial applications.

Graduate student Jason Streit is extending Cherukuri’s research, developing a way to automate the experiments to image and analyze dozens of nanotubes at once.

The research was supported by the Welch Foundation, the National Science Foundation and Applied NanoFluorescence.

Bruce Weisman’s Rice U. lab published the results in the current issue of the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano. Access the ACS Nano article "How Nanotubes Get Their Glow": http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nn2043516

See a video of fluorescent carbon nanotubes moving in a solution at http://youtu.be/4ceWLcOMxz0. SOURCE: Jason Streit/Rice University.

Rice University is ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities. Go to http://www.rice.edu to learn more.

Visit the new LEDs Manufacturing Channel on ElectroIQ.com!

February 1, 2012 — Semiconductor materials company Soitec (Euronext Paris) completed its acquisition of all of the outstanding shares of Altatech Semiconductor S.A. The final purchase price was EUR15 million.

Altatech Semiconductor gives Soitec access to specific equipment needed in its light emitting diode (LED) strategy. The buy will also support Soitec’s Plug&Sun stand-alone mini solar tracker system manufacturing ramp up. Altatech develops high-efficiency equipment for emerging semiconductor markets. It is based on high-tech semiconductor production technologies.

Also read: Soitec, Sumitomo Electric scale GaN engineered wafers to 6"

The acquisition was financed partly in cash and partly using Soitec stock, purchased by BNP Paribas Exane on the market under the share buy-back program approved by the shareholders during the combined ordinary and extraordinary meetings held on June 24, 2011. Selling shareholders are bound by certain holding requirements for the portion of the purchase price to be paid in Soitec stock.

Altatech Semiconductor is located in Montbonnot-Saint-Martin near Grenoble, France.

Soitec manufactures revolutionary semiconductor materials for energy and electronic applications. For more information, visit www.soitec.com.

Visit the new LEDs Manufacturing Channel on ElectroIQ.com!

Last year has been an outstanding one for LED-related equipment sales. However, this former bright sky overclouds for capital expenditures in 2012, and many market analysts project around 18% decay for this years’ equipment sales. But to keep things straight, this number is mainly related to MOCVD sales, making up for about 50% of the LED equipment pie in one fab. In fact, downstream processes — including lithography, bonding, testing or packaging — are expected to further increase in capex for 2012.

Changing requirements

Traditionally, the most important factor for LED manufacturers has been tool cost. This was especially true for any downstream process after MOCVD growth. Today, these requirements are changing. More complex chip layouts for higher lumen output and increased LED efficiencies demand more sophisticated processes and equipments. Having said that, the focus of LED makers is shifted to more traditional values of equipment requirements, such as higher automation, enhanced yield and increased throughput.

It’s all about efficiency

Based on the Department of Energy LED manufacturing roadmap, costs are still a factor of 5-8 too high to trigger mass adoption of solid state lighting technology and efficiently compete with alternative technologies. This cost target directly rolls back to LED manufacturers and hence the equipment supplier, demanding for more efficient manufacturing technologies. Therefore, three general decision factors have been established, namely capital efficiency, footprint efficiency and cost of ownership. Capital efficiency basically tells the number of processed wafers per unit time for any capital dollar spent. Footprint efficiency gives the wafer output per unit time for any square-metre of fab space. Efficient use of precious fab space is very closely linked to how profitable a LED fab can be operated. Combining these factors lead to cost of ownership, being traditionally used in semiconductor industry rather than the LED industry.

Applying the above metrics to any process step illustrates their importance. As an example, optical lithography is the general applied patterning technique for LED manufacturing. With three to seven lithography layers – depending on application and LED complexity – any advantage in these metrics is multiplied several times. Thus, mask aligners can considerably leverage manufacturing cost. The newly developed EVG620HBL has been optimized according to these metrics. The system delivers industry-leading throughput and more than 20% increased capital efficiency as well as footprint efficiency.

Upcoming technical challenges

Another hot topic is patterned sapphire substrates (PSS), which enable higher light extraction and a reduced defect density. Looking into the future, feature sizes of PSS will be further minimized into the sub-micrometer range, leading to so-called nanometer PSS (NPSS). These NPSS substrates show considerable advantages, including further reduced defect density and increased extraction efficiency compared to micron-sized PSS. In this way, the overall LED efficiency is improved. Even a comparatively small increase in overall LED efficiency can considerably reduce the required chip area for a certain lumen output. Hence, LED efficiency is an important lever for cost reduction. Furthermore, when using NPSS, cost reduction is enabled by shortened sapphire etching and shortened growth time in the MOCVD, due to reduced feature size of NPSS substrates. On the other hand, manufacturing cost of NPSS is the same as standard PSS. With nano imprint lithography (NIL) and PHABLE, EVG has two different, cost-efficient technologies implemented in its portfolio.

In conclusion, with MOCVD market saturation, the focus of the LED industry is shifted to downstream processes. Increasing process yield and cost efficiency will be a central aspect for future equipment decisions of LED manufacturers. Advanced manufacturing technologies, to increase overall LED efficiency, are generating added value to current process flows.

Thomas Uhrmann (left) is Business Development Manager, EV Group, and Thorsten Matthias (right), is Business Development Director, EV Group.

 

January 26, 2012 — Umicore will consolidate production of its germanium-based optics products in the US, citing a majority market in the country. Umicore will phase out optics production in Olen, Belgium, consolidating all germanium optics production in its Quapaw, OK facility over the course of 18 months.

The market for these optics devices, used in thermal imaging systems, is predominantly US-based, said Umicore representatives. With demand for Ge optics declining in recent years, Umicore decided to bring operations closer to the client base and reduce production capacity.

Also read: Silicon Germanium: SiGe for mainstream semiconductor manufacturing

Umicore has undertaken actions, including a re-employment plan for the 89 fixed-contract workers affected, to minimize the impact on its employees at the Olen site. All temporary workers will be offered alternative employment possibilities elsewhere in Umicore’s Belgian operations. In total, 1,033 people are employed by Umicore at the Olen site.

Umicore is a global materials technology group with four business areas: Catalysis, Energy Materials, Performance Materials and Recycling. Learn more at www.umicore.com.

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