Category Archives: LED Packaging and Testing

Nov. 13, 2006 — UTEK Corp., a specialty finance company focused on technology transfer, and Cyberlux Corp., a provider of LED lighting solutions, announced that Cyberlux has acquired SPE Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of UTEK Corp., in a restricted stock transaction.

Prior to the Cyberlux acquisition, SPE Technologies Inc. held the worldwide exclusive license to a number of pending patents for the Scattered Photon Extraction (SPE) methodology, developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. These packages are designed to enable higher luminous efficacy with down-converted white light illuminators constructed with LEDs.

In contrast to traditional white LED packages, the SPE packages place the phosphor and/or down-conversion materials, such as quantum dots, at locations remote from the LEDs. The optic surrounding the LED’s die is shaped to extract a significant portion of the down-converted white light that is otherwise absorbed and lost as waste heat within the traditional LED packages.

“The SPE technology increases light output and efficacy of white LEDs, and could play a important role in the evolution of white LEDs for lighting in homes and offices,” said Nadarajah Narendran, director of research at Rensselaer’s Lighting Research Center, in a prepared statement.

November 4, 2005 – Officials from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have agreed to eliminate duties on multichip packages (MCP) beginning in January 2006, praised by industry associations as a gesture of support for fast-growing technology areas.

Semiconductors have been duty-free through much of the world for many years under the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), but the technological advance of incorporating more than one chip inside a package led US, Korean, and European Union customs authorities to reclassify MCPs into a new category that was no longer duty-free. Tariffs on MCPs were levied by the US (2.6%), Korea (2.6%), and the EU (nearly 4%).

“This is a major step forward in our effort to eliminate tariffs on multichip packages and lower costs of semiconductor technology for consumers around the world,” stated SIA president George Scalise.

SEMI pegs MCP revenues at $4.2 billion in 2004 (from zero at the beginning of the decade), and growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25% to $7.9 billion by 2008, well ahead of the 10% CAGR projected for the overall semiconductor industry.