Category Archives: LED Packaging and Testing

Cree, Inc. today announced a technology breakthrough for the LED street lighting market. The XSPR LED Residential Street Light delivers better lighting while consuming over 65 percent less energy at an initial cost as low as $99 for common applications. The new Cree XSPR street light is marketed as a replacement for municipalities and cities using outdated high-pressure sodium fixtures up to 100 watts and can deliver payback in less than one year.

“With the low initial price of the XSPR street light and the dramatic energy savings, wholesale replacement of existing street lights becomes a simple choice,” said Al Ruud, Cree vice-chairman, lighting. “Utilities and city managers can now improve the lighting in their neighborhoods, save energy and see payback in less than a year. Why would anyone choose otherwise?”

Extending the technical breakthroughs of the XSP Series LED Street Light portfolio, the 25-watt and 42-watt XSPR street light is designed to replace up to 100-watt high-pressure sodium street lights, reducing energy consumption while improving lighting performance. Cree’s NanoOptic Precision Delivery Grid optic technology achieves better optical control than traditional street lighting fixtures and efficiently delivers white uniform light for safer-feeling communities.

“Street lighting is our city’s largest single energy-related cost, and the XSPR street light appears to dramatically change the economics of LED relative to traditional lighting technologies,” said Dan Howe, assistant city manager, City of Raleigh, N.C. “This breakthrough technology can change the total cost of ownership equation, encouraging municipalities to transition sooner to LED with less risk, and redirect resources to other important community needs.”

Despite a major surplus in the light-emitting diode (LED) market, top suppliers are increasing their capital spending and production because of government incentives and in order to cash in on an expected boom in the lighting business.

Global shipments of metal organic chemical vapor-deposition (MOCVD) equipment—tools that are essential for LED manufacturing—are expected to rise by 17 percent in 2013, according to Alice Tao, senior analyst, LEDs and lighting for IHS. This will be the first annual growth for the MOCVD market since 2011, and will represent a major turnaround from the 70 percent plunge of 2012.

At the same time that growth is being projected, factory utilization rates are increasing for major LED companies in Asia. In South Korea, for instance, utilization rose to about 75 percent in the second quarter, up from 60 percent in 2012. Meanwhile, utilization for some Taiwanese and Chinese companies reached 90 percent in the second quarter.

The spending and boosting of utilization rates alike are occurring despite a glut of supply that has plagued the market since 2010. The surplus started when LED suppliers made major investments in capacity in 2010 and 2011, stemming from the efforts of local governments in China to subsidize MOCVD purchasing. Governments are helping fund the procurement of MOCVD by to 80 percent of the total price of the equipment.

Many of these companies also are increasing production in the belief that they can capitalize on upcoming fast growth in the market for LEDs used in lighting.

“The global market for LED lighting is expected to double during the next three years,” noted Tao. “The prospect of this massive growth is irresistible to LED suppliers, who don’t want to be caught short of supply during this expected boom. But given the rising investments in manufacturing equipment, the acute LED oversupply already in existence is expected to continue through 2016.”

The supply of LEDs, measured in terms of manufactured die, is expected to exceed demand by 69 percent in 2013 and in 2014. The glut will decline slightly to 61 percent in 2015 and then to 40 percent in 2016.

Major LED suppliers include San’an, Elec-tech of China, Samsung and Seoul Semiconductor of South Korea, Epistar of Taiwan, and other companies including Philips Lumileds of the United States and Osram of Germany.

As LED lighting becomes an $80 billion industry, the market for the epitaxial wafers (epi-wafers) LEDs are made from will grow to $4 billion in 2020, according to Lux Research.

The vast majority of these epi-wafers are gallium nitride (GaN)-on-sapphire today. GaN-on-silicon is the leading emerging technology with a strong economic allure – silicon is just one-eighth the cost of a sapphire substrate – but technical challenges will limit it to only a 10% market share in 2020. GaN-on-silicon carbide (SiC), championed by Cree, will grow to 18 percent market share.

epi wafer market

“Silicon is already widely used for electronics, and some LED die manufacturers are hoping to take advantage of silicon substrates,” said Pallavi Madakasira, Lux Research Analyst and lead author of the report titled, “Dimming the Hype: GaN-on-Si Fails to Outshine Sapphire by 2020.”

“But GaN-on-Si is more prone to cracking than GaN-on-sapphire, and mitigating this mismatch is expensive,” she added.

Lux Research analysts studied the market for GaN-on-sapphire, GaN-on-SiC, GaN-on-bulk GaN, and GaN-on-Si epi-wafers, evaluating each technology’s economic prospects as the industry moves to larger wafer sizes. Among their findings:

  • Choice and cost of LEDs will determine adoption. Where GaN-on-sapphire is suited to all applications, GaN-on-bulk GaN will be relegated to niche commercial lighting and GaN-on-Si, with unproven performance, will be better suited to cost-sensitive residential applications.
  • Four-inch wafers will rule, though six-inch wafers start to come into vogue. Four-inch wafers will peak at 62 percent market share with $2.1 billion in 2017 sales. Later, the LED industry will move towards 6” epi wafers, which will take a 35% share, equivalent to $1.4 billion, in 2020.
  • Technology will advance sapphire substrates. Sapphire substrate manufacturing technology has advanced significantly with specialists such as Rubicon and Monocrystal demonstrating substrates up to 12 inch in diameter. New methods like hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) will further improve throughput and cut costs, keeping sapphire highly competitive for the rest of the decade.

The report, titled “Dimming the Hype: GaN-on-Si Fails to Outshine Sapphire by 2020,” is part of the Lux Research Energy Electronics Intelligence service.

Smart lighting is an advance technology in lighting that makes use of intelligent lighting control systems to intelligently control light based on various parameters like occupancy, movement, color temperature, amount of natural/daylight etc. Smart lighting market is growing at a phenomenal way and main drivers for this growth are energy efficiency, development in electronics and sensor technology, eradication of incandescent lamps, favorable government policies and evolution of novel wireless technology. Entry barriers are low for this market and many new players are arriving in this market. For example: the smart lighting market in the U.S. is being dominated by start-ups that are just three years old. In the present scenario, many companies are launching new products in the market. It can be observed that LED-based products which are based on wireless technology are being launched at a large scale at present.

At present, Europe has the largest market for smart lighting especially in commercial industrial buildings, outdoor lighting, and automobiles applications. The presence of lighting giants like Philips (The Netherlands), Osram Gmbh (Germany) and Zumtobel AG (Austria) is an important reason behind the implementation of smart lighting system in this region. Smart lighting has the second largest market in North America. Several new players have emerged in this region, especially in the U.S., who has developed breakthrough products related to smart lighting. APAC is the emerging market for smart lighting. It is believed that market will grow at an exponential rate of 37.7 percent between 2013 and 2018.

Commercial and industrial buildings are the most prominent application of smart lighting. In commercial buildings, lighting adds up to 40 percent of total energy cost. Deployment of intelligent lighting control is being supported by building owners, governments, utilities, and many other stakeholders as it helps to drastically reduce energy consumption. Public and government building have the second largest share among all application in the smart lighting market. As smart lighting projects for public and government buildings are government-funded projects, the growth of this application area will be stable as it would be given priority in every economy. Residential buildings application has largest growth potential and will grow at the highest CAGR of 87.5 percent from 2013 to 2108 when compared with other application. Initial investment will pose as a restraint initially, however it is predicted that once the customers become aware of the energy savings benefits of intelligent lighting system in the long run, it will grow exponentially. Outdoor lighting application is another promising application. The greatest opportunity area in this market is the prospect of its integration with other important systems in the city like traffic signals, energy meters, pollution sensors, parking-lot lights, and traffic sensors to form a smart city. Smart lighting systems are mainly employed by high end cars. Companies like Mercedes-Benz and Audi have already incorporated the systems in their luxury cars.

 

Road and street lighting is a key driver for LED technology in general lighting. In less than a decade, LED technology has created more turmoil in the lighting industry than anything occurring over the previous century. Every professional agrees that what used to be a conservative, well-controlled market is undergoing a massive change, referred to as “the LED revolution.” Therefore, it’s high time to take a close look at what’s happening and why, since each General Lighting application, be it indoor or outdoor, has its own way of adopting LEDs. Outdoor lighting is no stranger to revolution. In fact, today it’s one of the two most dynamic General Lighting market segments for LED adoption. Within the segment, architectural lighting was the early adopter, but the main driver these days is definitely road and street lighting. Historically the largest outdoor segment, it now offers the best prospects for LED development in professional exterior lighting. Road and street lighting is a very attractive market, with EBIT levels generally between five and 15 percent and steady growth despite the economic downturn.

 “We estimate that LED luminaire revenue will reach $435M in 2013 and peak at $516M by 2016, fuelled by the increased need for energy efficiency. Growth will be driven firstly by tunnel lighting, and then relayed into highway, road, residential and amenity lighting applications starting in 2014”, explains Pars Mukish, Market and technology analyst, LED at Yole Développement. “By 2017, market size should decline because of a decreasing replacement market (due to LED-based systems’ higher lifetime) and also because of LED luminaire’s ASP,” he adds.

Yole’s report presents all road and street lighting applications and associated market metrics within the period 2008-2020 for each application and region, detailing drivers & challenges, key players, associated volume/market size (luminaires installed base, LED luminaire and packaged LED sales), and LED penetration rate.

A new approach to luminaire design requiring new manufacturer competencies

Designing with LED implies major changes for conventional luminaire manufacturers – mostly at the optical, electrical and physical levels. With the move to LED technology, traditional luminaire manufacturers face dramatic organizational changes, such as integrating electronic competencies, upgrading optical competencies, taking ownership of the light source (SSL), and revamping production organization. Consequently, internal revolution is required within luminaire companies in order to take full advantage of the LED boom.

This report analyses the LED value proposition in road and street lighting, detailing: major changes between conventional luminaire and LED luminaire, how LED technology can be applied to road and street lighting (drivers, key decision-making criteria, impacts of LED adoption on the overall industry), associated lighting design requirements, etc.

The path to an outdoor lighting market involves several players which have already embraced major changes

“Compared to other lighting applications (residential, commercial, etc.), the outdoor lighting supply chain involves more associated/parallel industries, such as the pole and bracket industry, the control industry and the cable industry,” explains Christophe Richon, CEO of Lux Fit. As is the case for other lighting applications, these industries must also redesign their products in order to make their business sustainable: smaller-size pole and bracket equivalents due to LED miniaturization, new power supply and control capacities due to LEDs’ higher start current, etc.

At the business chain level, outdoor lighting is also quite unique in terms of involving different player types: end-users and specifiers such as municipalities, lighting designers, installers, etc. With LEDs offering longer lifetime, better energy savings and increased aesthetic potential, each player must adapt its activity to make best use of the technology.

This report presents an overview of the road and street lighting industry’s supply chain and business chain (conventional and LED), detailing: each player’s role, main industrial trends, impact of LED integration, etc. Also, company profiles are provided for eight key LED luminaire manufacturers.

Developing new business models to increase LED’s penetration rate

Around the world, LED adoption in road and street lighting has benefitted from financial incentives to hasten the change. While recession in many economies has led some governments to revise their subsidizing policies, others have maintained them, and other support forms are emerging. However, in many countries, public end-users are now faced with a dilemma: invest in public lighting (mainly because of increasing urbanization and the need to implement energy efficient systems) or reduce spending (less public money available, political pressure, etc.).
As a result, public end-users are turning more and more to new business models that provide energy efficient lighting at reduced initial costs, such as Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and performance contracts (ESCOs).
This report presents an overview of LED technology drivers, detailing: technology drivers, application drivers and economic drivers.

 

CEA-Leti announced today that researchers Dominique Vicard and Jean Brun received the Avantex Innovation Prize for the use of the E-Thread technology in textiles.

The award was presented June 10 during the award ceremony at the opening of the Techtextil and Avantex Symposia in Frankfurt, Germany.

According to Avantex, the “innovation awards go to outstanding achievements in research, new materials, products, technologies and applications.”

E-Thread is a microelectronic packaging technology developed by Leti that allows for a direct connection of a chip to a set of two conductors, which can provide the functions of antenna, power and/or data bus. This allows a 10x improvement in size, assembly time and reliability compared to classic microelectronic packaging. The E-Thread assembly can then be incorporated inside a yarn and used by the textile and plastic industries using standard production tools. Electronics such as LEDs, RFIDs or sensors can then be truly integrated in materials and objects.

In choosing this technology for the innovation award, the Avantex jury said “electronics integrated in textiles during the textile processing and not simply by adding the components in a last step will be a significant step forward.” The jury also said the prize was awarded to “this development, as it shows that research and development is also for the textile industry of vital importance and that it can lead to the creation of new companies.”

E-Thread is one of the technologies used within the European FP7 PASTA project (Platform for Advanced Smart Textile Application), and is the key technology asset of the Primo1D startup company, that will be created by Leti during the second half of 2013.

Vicard previously won a 40,000-euro startup award from OSEO, the French organization committed to supporting entrepreneurship, for proposing embedding electronic functions in textile yarns using the E-Thread technology.

Samples of E-Thread will be on display during the symposia, Hall 3.1, stand B11.

The LED industry gained a foothold for growth in the parts and materials industry after LED technology was applied to the TV backlight unit (BLU). The industry is now about to advance again with the development of the LED lighting, an end product industry. Accordingly, LED-related companies are in intense competition to cut costs, improve yield rate, and develop core technology to survive.

The ingot and substrate industry, the front-end in the LED supply chain, experienced soaring prices and oligopolistic market from the growth of the LED industry and a supply shortage in 2010. But revenues declined rapidly in 2011 when an LED industry slump caused prices to plunge and inventory to build up. According to this report, the LED ingot market is expected to recover after 2012 and increase to $324 million by 2015. 

“LED Ingot and Substrate Industry Analysis and Forecast,” by Displaybank, recently acquired by IHS Inc. (NYSE:IHS), analyzes overall status and outlook of the sapphire ingot industry through the analyses of manufacturing technology and processing of the sapphire ingot widely used as LED ingots; status of major ingot makers; trend of start-up companies; manufacturers’ capacities; and market price and demand forecasts.

This report will be of great help to the LED ingot and substrate makers; Epi—wafer and chip-related companies; package firms; companies interested in lighting and new businesses applying LED technology; and manufacturers in LED components and materials industry. In particular, this report is expected to provide the related companies with useful information as it contains in-depth analysis and forecasts of the 6-inch ingot market and price.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced today that it is introducing a new 129lm/W high efficiency, chip-on-board (COB) family of LED packages, LC013/26/40B, which features a compact light emitting surface (LES), designed for use in high performance indoor and outdoor lighting, and ideally suited for spotlight applications.

 “Samsung proudly presents its new 13, 26, and 40W, 129 lm/W high performance COB package family, based on our world class chip and phosphor technology,” said Jaap Schlejen, senior vice president, LED lighting sales and marketing, Samsung Electronics. “The new COB family, is designed to meet Zhaga specifications, and has a low thermal resistance and superior heat dissipation for high reliability.”

The series – LC013/26/40B, features a 129lm/W light efficacy at 80 CRI (Color Rendering Index) and 5000K CCT (Correlated Color Temperature) and is available in 2700K, 3000K and 4000K versions. By adopting chip-on-board technology that utilizes metal core PCBs, the new COB family offers outstanding color uniformity and light quality, while achieving a high luminous flux of up to 6000lm in a single LED package.

The Samsung COB family will be available in May. Further additions to Samsung’s COB package lineup will be made later this year, to offer even more options for customers.

The Samsung’s COB family will be displayed at LIGHTFAIR International 2013 (Booth #2645), along with other LED packages, as well as new LED engines, lamps and L-Tubes. LIGHTFAIR International will be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia from April 23rd-25th.

Plessey today announced that samples of its Gallium Nitride (GaN) on silicon LED products are today available. These entry level products are the first LEDs manufactured on 6-inch GaN on silicon substrates to be commercially available anywhere in the world. Plessey is using its proprietary large diameter GaN on silicon process technology to manufacture the LEDs onits 6-inch MAGIC (Manufactured on GaN I/C) line at its Plymouth, England facility. The use of Plessey’s MAGIC GaN line using standard semiconductor manufacturing processing provides yield entitlements of greater than 95% and fast processing times providing a significant cost advantage over sapphire and silicon carbide based solutions for LEDs of similar quality.

The release of the availability of Plessey’s GaN on silicon LEDs was coincident with a visit to the Plessey Plymouth facility by the Rt. Hon. Dr. Vince Cable, MP, Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade. Business Secretary Vince Cable commented, “The government is supporting innovative companies like Plessey who are growing, creating jobs and exporting their products all over the world. That’s why we selected Plessey’s £3.25 million Regional Growth Fund bid for Government support, which will create 100 new, high tech and highly skilled jobs in the region.”

Michael LeGoff, CEO Plessey said, “We are very pleased to welcome Secretary of State Vince Cable today. The department of Business Innovation and Skills has been very supportive of our efforts to date and with the launch of our first range of LEDs today we are now looking towards aggressive growth in the solid state lighting markets.”

“Today is a significant step for us,” said Barry Dennington, Plessey’s COO. “From acquiring our first MOCVD reactor in August 2012 to having our first product in April 2013 is excellent progress. These entry level products will be used in indicating and accent lighting applications. We will continue to make progress in output efficiency and are on plan to release further improvements in light output throughout this year and into next. The operating and unit costs are on plan and we are seeing a number of routes to enhance our cost advantage over competing technologies.”

LEDs and the associated solid state lighting solutions are due to become the dominant form of lighting in all forms in within the next five years. Solid state lighting is an energy efficient eco-friendly technology that will save billions of tons of carbon emissions when fully implemented. There are also no recycling issues that fluorescent lighting poses with mercury content.

Gallium nitride has been described as “the most important semiconductor since silicon” and is used in energy-saving LED lighting. A new £1million (or US$1,530,700) growth facility will allow University of Cambridge researchers to further reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of LEDs, with potentially huge cost-saving implications.

A new facility for growing Gallium Nitride – the key material needed to make energy-saving light-emitting diodes (LEDs) – has opened in Cambridge, enabling researchers to expand and accelerate their pioneering work in the field.

Gallium Nitride LEDs are already used in traffic lights, bicycle lights, televisions, computer screens, car headlamps and other devices, but they are too expensive to be used widely in homes and offices. The main reason for this is that they are normally grown on expensive substrates, which pushes up the price of LED lightbulbs. The new Gallium Nitride growth reactor at Cambridge will allow researchers to further improve a method of growing low-cost LEDs on silicon substrates, reducing their cost by more than 50 percent and opening them up for more general use.

In addition, researchers are developing color-tunable LED lighting, which would have the quality of natural sunlight, bringing considerable health benefits to users.

University scientists are also starting to investigate the potential of Gallium Nitride in electronics, which it is thought could have similarly significant energy-saving consequences – perhaps cutting nationwide electricity consumption by a further 9 percent.

The reactor, which is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), was opened March 28, 2013 by David Willetts MP, the Minister for Universities and Science. It marks the latest chapter in a decade-long research project to make LEDs the go-to technology for lighting, led by Professor Sir Colin Humphreys in the University’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy.

In 2003, Humphreys and his team began experimenting with the possibility of growing Gallium Nitride (GaN) on silicon instead of costly sapphire and silicon carbide. After years of painstaking research, they finally developed a successful process, and in 2012 this was picked up by the British manufacturer, Plessey, which has already started to manufacture LEDs at its factory in Plymouth, based on the Cambridge technology. Plessey also hired three of Humphreys’ post-doctoral scientists to help transfer the process. It is the first time that LEDs have been manufactured in the UK.

Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts said: "LEDs are highly energy efficient but expensive to produce, meaning their domestic use is limited. This excellent new facility will enable researchers to look at more cost-efficient ways to produce LEDs, saving money and benefitting the environment. It will also help keep the UK research base at the very forefront of advanced materials, which is one of the eight great technologies."

Making Gallium Nitride LEDs more cost-effective could unlock benefits far beyond energy saving alone. Humphreys is investigating the possibility of “smart lighting” – a system in which LED lights coupled to a sensor would be able to switch themselves on and off, or alter their brightness, relative to a user’s presence or levels of natural daylight in a room.

As their use increases, the beams from LEDs could be used to transmit information, for example from traffic lights to cars.

“It’s conceivable that the two could be developed to talk to one another,” Humphreys said. “Traffic reports, such as information about a road accident, could be sent to traffic light systems. They could then relay the details to drivers by transmitting it through the headlamps.”

Researchers also believe that LEDs could be used to purify water supplies in the developing world. Deep ultraviolet (UV) radiation kills bacteria and viruses. By putting a ring of ultraviolet LEDs around a water pipe at the point where it enters a home, it might be possible to kill off bacteria in the water as well as other undesirable organisms, such as mosquito larvae.

Further energy-saving with LEDs may also be possible. Humphreys and his team are currently investigating the so-called “green gap” problem which could improve the way in which they make white light. The LEDs currently used to make white light are in fact blue – the color is changed using a phosphor coating. This phosphor is, however, not completely energy efficient, and a better way of making white light could be by mixing blue, red and green LEDs together instead.

This, however, depends on resolving lower efficiency in green light compared with the other two colors. If this can be addressed, and LEDs made the standard for lighting nationwide, then it is estimated that there would be an additional electricity saving of 5 percent – on top of the 10 percent likely to be engendered by switching to LED technology in the first place.

 “If we can replicate devices with Gallium Nitride electronics, we believe that we could make them 40 percent more efficient,” he said. “That in itself would translate into a 9 percent electricity saving in the UK, if applied across the board.”

GaN LEDs

Gallium Nitride (GaN), grown on a silicon substrate, to manufacture light-emitting diodes. The material is critical to making LED lighting, which researchers and the Government agree could cut UK electricity consumption by 10-15 percent.

 Credit: University of Cambridge Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy