Category Archives: LEDs

Plessey, a developer of award-winning optoelectronic technology solutions, announces it has placed an order for its next reactor from AIXTRON SE (FSE: AIXA), a global provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry. The AIX G5+ C metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) reactor will boost Plessey’s manufacturing capability of gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) wafers targeting next-generation microLED applications.

With an automatic cassette-to-cassette (C2C) wafer transfer module, the new AIXTRON reactor will be installed and operational during Q1 of 2019 at Plessey’s 270,000 sq ft fabrication facility located in Plymouth, UK. The AIX G5+ C MOCVD system has two separate chamber set-up options, which enables configurations of 8 x 6in or 5 x 8in GaN-on-Si wafers to be automatically loaded and removed from the system in an enclosed cassette environment. The system will be an addition to the company’s existing metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) reactors, also supplied by AIXTRON, which provide configurations of 7 x 6in or 3 x 8in with manual loading.

Productivity is further enhanced by the new reactor’s automated self-cleaning technology, which helps to deliver a very low level of wafer defects by ensuring the reactor is clean on every run, significantly reducing downtime for maintenance. The new equipment also provides faster ramp and cool down along with a high susceptor unload temperature to reduce the recipe time.

The AIX G5+ C reactor will support Plessey’s extensive production roadmap to increase R&D capacity of its monolithic microLEDs based on its proprietary GaN-on-Si technology. Plessey’s microLEDs offer extremely low power, high brightness and very high pixel density to create the potential for disruption in many existing application areas that use conventional display technologies such as LCD and OLED.

Plessey’s mission is to become the world’s leading company developing innovative illuminators for display engines and full-field emissive microLED displays. The complex devices combine very high-density RGB pixel arrays with high-performance CMOS backplanes to produce very high-brightness, low-power, and high-frame-rate image sources for head-mounted displays, and wearable electronics devices for augmented reality and virtual reality systems.

MicroLEDs technologies are improving rapidly and new technology paths emerging at a rapid pace. According to Yole Développement’s analysts, technology solutions should start converging by the end of 2019.

The challenge is now focused on cost reduction. What is the feasibility of each solution? Can microLED TV or smartphone display manufacturing costs be compatible with these applications? Which cost reduction paths are the most realistic?

In its latest microLEDs report “MicroLED Displays 2018,” the market research and strategy consulting company Yole Développement (Yole) proposes a comprehensive technology and market overview including a detailed cost analysis with the contribution of die and assembly costs. Yole’s microLED report also highlights all critical technology blocks with a focus on the most recent advancements, emerging options and remaining challenges.

“Technology advancements pave the way for various cost reduction paths toward volume manufacturing,” commented Dr. Eric Virey, Senior Market & Technology Analyst at Yole. “But none are straightforward.”

In addition an overview of the key players, the supply chain and the competitive landscape analysis are available in Yole’s report (including front end and display assembly players). The consulting company did not see any major changes regarding market evolution. More and more companies are looking into the attractive microLEDs sector, and scrambling to figure out the best way to participate and which technology paths are the most suitable.

Yole’s analysts offer you today an up-to-date status of the microLEDs industry.

Dozens of technologies are being developed for microLED assembly and pixel structures. The cost and complexity range can be staggering. However, there are some fundamentals that anchor all those processes. Alignment dominates assembly cycle times, die size can’t get infinitely small, epitaxy cost has already been through a more than 20 years on the cost reduction curve. Cost analysis therefore allows companies to narrow the process parameters down to economically realistic windows and identify efficient cost reduction strategies.

“MicroLED companies must understand the cost targets for each application and work backward, making process choices and developing each step so it fits the cost envelope,” asserted Dr. Eric Virey from Yole. Processes that can’t deliver the right economics will disappear. If none can deliver the right economics, the opportunity will never materialize. MicroLED is entering the valley of death between technology development and industrialization and commercialization.

As the technology improves, there are credible cost reduction paths for microLED to compete in the high-end segment of various applications such as TV, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) and wearables. With the right approaches, assembly cost could become a minor contributor. For smartphones, however, approaching OLED cost implies pushing microLEDs toward what is likely to be the limits of the technology in term of die size. To succeed, microLEDs will have to count on some level of price elasticity. It must deliver performance and features that no other display technology can offer and that are perceived by the consumer as highly differentiating. Microdisplays for AR and head-up displays (HUD) will be the first commercial applications, followed by smartwatches. TVs and smartphones could follow 3-5 years from now.

Schottky diode is composed of a metal in contact with a semiconductor. Despite its simple construction, Schottky diode is a tremendously useful component and is omnipresent in modern electronics. Schottky diode fabricated using two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted major research spotlight in recent years due to their great promises in practical applications such as transistors, rectifiers, radio frequency generators, logic gates, solar cells, chemical sensors, photodetectors, flexible electronics and so on.

The understanding of 2D material-based Schottky diode is, however, plagued by multiple mysteries. Several theoretical models have co-existed in the literatures and a model is often selected a priori without rigorous justifications. It is not uncommon to see a model, whose underlying physics fundamentally contradicts with the physical properties of 2D materials, being deployed to analyse a 2D material Schottky diode.

Reporting in Physical Review Letters, researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) have made a major step forward in resolving the mysteries surrounding 2D material Schottky diode. By employing a rigorous theoretical analysis, they developed a new theory to describe different variants of 2D-material-based Schottky diodes under a unifying framework. The new theory lays down a foundation that helps to unite prior contrasting models, thus resolving a major confusion in 2D material electronics.

Schematic drawing of a 2D-material-based lateral (left) and vertical (right) Schottky diode. For broad classes of 2D materials, the current-temperature relation can be universally described by a scaling exponent of 3/2 and 1, respectively, for lateral and vertical Schottky diodes. Credit: Singapore University of Technology and Design

“A particularly remarkable finding is that the electrical current flowing across a 2D material Schottky diode follows a one-size-fits-all universal scaling law for many types of 2D materials,” said first-author Dr. Yee Sin Ang from SUTD.

Universal scaling law is highly valuable in physics since it provides a practical “Swiss knife” for uncovering the inner workings of a physical system. Universal scaling law has appeared in many branches of physics, such as semiconductor, superconductor, fluid dynamics, mechanical fractures, and even in complex systems such as animal life span, election results, transportation and city growth.

The universal scaling law discovered by SUTD researchers dictates how electrical current varies with temperature and is widely applicable to broad classes of 2D systems including semiconductor quantum well, graphene, silicene, germanene, stanene, transition metal dichalcogenides and the thin-films of topological solids.

“The simple mathematical form of the scaling law is particularly useful for applied scientists and engineers in developing novel 2D material electronics,” said co-author Prof. Hui Ying Yang from SUTD.

The scaling laws discovered by SUTD researchers provide a simple tool for the extraction of Schottky barrier height – a physical quantity critically important for performance optimisation of 2D material electronics.

“The new theory has far reaching impact in solid state physics,” said co-author and principal investigator of this research, Prof. Lay Kee Ang from SUTD, “It signals the breakdown of classic diode equation widely used for traditional materials over the past 60 years, and shall improve our understanding on how to design better 2D material electronics.”

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) today announced that John Peeler, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, will transition to the role of Executive Chairman, effective October 1, 2018.  William J. Miller, currently President, will become Chief Executive Officer and will join the Company’s board of directors bringing the size of the board to eight.  Additionally, Shubham (Sam) Maheshwari will be named Chief Operating Officer and will continue in his role as Chief Financial Officer.

Peeler joined Veeco in 2007 as Chief Executive Officer and became Chairman of the Board in 2012.  As Executive Chairman, Peeler will work closely with Miller and the Board to ensure an effective transition of management.

“With his impressive background and track record of notable achievements across strategic, product development and operational assignments, there is no one better suited than Bill to take over the helm as Veeco looks forward to its next chapter,” stated Peeler. “Bill and the executive team have the industry experience to execute Veeco’s vision while remaining committed to enabling tomorrow’s technology breakthroughs.”

Over the last 16 years, Miller has held a variety of roles within Veeco.  Miller became President in 2016, overseeing all of Veeco’s global business units. Previously, he guided the strategic direction and product development for the Company’s MOCVD and Ion Beam product lines and was responsible for the Company’s global operations organization. Prior to joining Veeco, Miller held engineering and operations leadership roles with Advanced Energy and Exxon Corporation. He holds BS, MS and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

“Veeco has built a reputation of helping customers overcome their most difficult technical challenges. This inspires us—along with our commitment to customer satisfaction,” noted Miller. “I want to thank John for his guidance and building such a strong leadership team. I intend to build on this legacy while discovering new opportunities to leverage the Company’s outstanding technology and unmatched talent.  I also appreciate the confidence the Board has placed in me.”

Richard D’Amore, Veeco’s lead independent director, added, “When John joined the Company in 2007, Veeco was considered a data storage and metrology company.  John’s vision and focus on execution transformed Veeco to be on the leading edge of the compound semiconductor and advanced packaging markets.  The Board appreciates all that John has contributed to the success of the Company and we have every confidence that Bill will build upon his progress, taking Veeco to the next level of performance.”

Maheshwari joined Veeco in 2014 with more than 20 years of experience in finance. He previously held senior and executive level positions in the semiconductor industry at KLA-Tencor, Spansion and OnCore. Maheshwari holds BS and MS degrees in chemical engineering and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.  Working side-by-side with Miller, Maheshwari will be charged with advancing Veeco’s operations, customer satisfaction and profitability.

Veeco (NASDAQ: VECO) is a manufacturer of innovative semiconductor process equipment. Our proven MOCVD, lithography, laser annealing, ion beam and single wafer etch & clean technologies play an integral role in producing LEDs for solid-state lighting and displays, and in the fabrication of advanced semiconductor devices.

Most current displays do not always accurately represent the world’s colors as we perceive them by eye, instead only representing roughly 70% of them. To make better displays with true colors commonly available, researchers have focused their efforts on light-emitting nanoparticles. Such nanoparticles can also be used in medical research to light up and keep track of drugs when developing and testing new medicines in the body. However, the metal these light-emitting nanoparticles are based on, namely cadmium, is highly toxic, which limits its applications in medical research and in consumer products–many countries may soon introduce bans on toxic nanoparticles.

These are structures of silver indium sulfide/gallium sulfide core/shell quantum dots and pictures of the core/shell quantum dots under room light. Credit: Osaka University

It is therefore vital to create non-toxic versions of these nanoparticles that have similar properties: they must produce very clean colors and must do so in a very energy-efficient way. So far researchers have succeeded in creating non-toxic nanoparticles that emit light in an efficient manner by creating semiconductors with three types of elements in them, for example, silver, indium, and sulfur (in the form of silver indium disulfide (AgInS2)). However, the colors they emit are not pure enough–and many researchers declared that it would be impossible for such nanoparticles to ever emit pure colors.

Now, researchers from Osaka University have proven that it is possible by fabricating semiconductor nanoparticles containing silver indium disulfide and adding a shell around them consisting of a semiconductor material made of two different elements, gallium and sulfur. The team was able to reproducibly create these shell-covered nanoparticles that are both energy efficient and emit vivid, clean colors. The team have recently published their research in the Nature journal NPG Asia Materials.

“We synthesized non-toxic nanoparticles in the normal way: mix all ingredients together and heat them up. The results were not fantastic, but by tweaking the synthesis conditions and modifying the nanoparticle cores and the shells we enclosed them in, we were able to achieve fantastic efficiencies and very pure colors,” study coauthor Susumu Kuwabata says.

Enclosing nanoparticles in semiconductor shells in nothing new, but the shells that are currently used have rigidly arranged atoms inside them, whereas the new particles are made of a more chaotic material without such a rigid structure.

“The silver indium disulfide particles emitted purer colors after the coating with gallium sulfide. On top of that, the shell parts in microscopic images were totally amorphous. We think the less rigid nature of the shell material played an important part in that–it was more adaptable and therefore able to take on more energetically favorable conformations,” first author Taro Uematsu says.

The team’s results demonstrate that it is possible to create cadmium-free, non-toxic nanoparticles with very good color-emitting properties by using amorphous shells around the nanoparticle cores.

Sanan Integrated Circuit Co., a pure-play compound semiconductor foundry, today announces its entry into the North American, European, and Asia Pacific (APAC) markets with their advanced III-V technology platform. With their broad portfolio of gallium arsenide (GaAs) HBT, pHEMT, BiHEMT, integrated passive device (IPD), filters, gallium nitride (GaN) power HEMT, silicon carbide (SiC), and indium phosphide (InP) DHBT process technologies, they cover a wide range of applications among today’s active microelectronics and photonics markets. Sanan IC is strongly focused on high performance, large scale, and high quality III-V semiconductor manufacturing and on serving the RF, millimeter wave, power electronics, and optical markets.

Founded in 2014, headquartered in Xiamen City, in the Fujian province of south China, Sanan IC is subsidiary of Sanan Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., the leading LED chip manufacturing company, based on GaN and GaAs technologies. Leveraging high volume production and years of investment in numerous epitaxial wafer reactors of its parent company for the LED lighting and solar photovoltaic markets, Sanan IC is expanding their go-to-market strategy beyond the Greater China region as their process technologies and patent portfolio mature, with a vision to fulfill the needs of independent design manufacturers (IDM’s) and fabless design houses for high volume compound semiconductor fabrication.

“We see tremendous opportunity in serving the world-wide demand for large scale production of 6-inch III-V epitaxial wafers, driven by continual growth of the RF, millimeter wave, power electronics, and optical markets,” said Raymond Cai, Chief Executive Officer of Sanan IC. “Our vertically integrated manufacturing services over our broad compound semiconductor technology platform, with in-house epitaxy and substrate capabilities, make us an ideal foundry partner. Given the capital investments made on state-of-the art equipment and facilities, with full support from our parent company, Sanan Optoelectronics, combined with strategic partnerships, and a world-class team of scientists and technologists, Sanan IC is well positioned for success in this active compound semiconductor market”.

As cellular mobility and wireless connectivity proliferates in the Internet-of-Things (IoT), and 5G sub-6GHz evolves into millimeter wave, III-V technologies become even more critical to support the infrastructure and client device deployments by carriers worldwide. According to Yole Développement (Yole), a leading technology market research firm, part of Yole Group of Companies, the GaAs wafer market, comprised of RF, photonics, photovoltaics, and LEDs, is expected to grow to over 4 million units in 2023, with photonics having the highest growth at 37% CAGR1. GaN and SiC for power electronics, such as for data centers, electric vehicles (EVs), battery chargers, power supplies, LiDAR, and audio, are predicted to ramp up, with GaN reaching up to $460M shipments by 2022 with a CAGR of 79%2 while SiC projects to reach $1.4B at 29% CAGR by 20233. Optical components continue to be in high demand for datacom, telecom, consumer, automotive and industrial markets, leading to increased revenues for photodectors, laser diodes, and especially VCSELs with expected shipments of $3.5B in 20234. As these applications emerge, Sanan IC is poised to support the industry’s needs.

Sources:
1GaAs Wafer & Epiwafer Market: RF, Photonics, LED & PV Applications Report, Yole Développement (Yole), 2018
2,3Power SiC 2018: Materials, Devices and Applications Report, Yole Développement (Yole), 2018
4Source: VCSELs – Technology, Industry & Market Trends report, Yole Développement (Yole), 2018

The Trump administration’s consideration of tariffs on Chinese printed circuit assemblies and connected devices would cost the economy $520.8 million and $2.4 billion annually for the 10 percent and 25 percent tariffs, respectively, according to a new study commissioned by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).

“With the economy thriving under President Trump – we’ve seen remarkably low unemployment and a booming stock market – the administration shouldn’t jeopardize America’s global standing with tariffs,” said Gary Shapiro, CEO and president, CTA. “Foreign governments don’t pay the cost of tariffs, Americans do – and for that reason, U.S. trade policy needs to steer clear of tariffs that act like taxes on American manufacturers and consumers. The danger we face – the unintended consequence – is that tariffs mean Americans will pay more for all the devices they use every day to access the internet.”

The economic impact study shows American shoppers will have to pay between $1.6 billion and $3.2 billion more for connected devices such as gateways, modems, routers, smart speakers, smartwatches and other Bluetooth enabled products. The price of connected devices from China will increase by between 8.5 and 22 percent. And prices for these products from all sources will rise between 3.2 and 6.2 percent.

Similarly, the price of printed circuit assemblies from China –– will increase by between nine and 23 percent, while an alternative supply from U.S. manufacturers will cost two to three percent higher. As a result of higher input costs, totaling an additional $900 million to $1.8 billion, American manufacturers of products that contain printed circuit assemblies will purchase between six and 12 percent less from suppliers overall.

“When our government begins to charge its own companies and people with more taxes in the form of tariffs, we have put in jeopardy not just the American Dream of many small and mid-size businesses, but you put in jeopardy the people that work for them too,” said Win Cramer, CEO, JLab Audio, a California based company and CTA member. “These people support a growing economy, support a growing business and, most importantly, pay taxes. Pre-tariffs, JLab Audio was planning to scale up with new hires and programs to push our company’s growth to another level, but now we’ve put all of that on hold as we need to see how everything shakes out.”

Based on CTA’s most recent U.S. Consumer Technology Sales and Forecasts report, if the administration enacts tariffs of 10 and 25 percent, CTA projects 2019 U.S. unit shipments of connected devices such as fitness trackers, smartwatches, wireless headphones, modems/broadband gateways, wireless earbuds and smart speakers would decline by as much as 12 percent. Also, U.S. shipment revenues for these devices would decrease by as much as 6.5 percent in 2019.

According to a new market research report “Optoelectronics Market for Automotive by Devices (LED, Image Sensor, Infrared, Laser Diode, Optocoupler), Application (Position Sensor, Convenience & Climate, Safety, Lighting), Vehicle (PC, CV), EV Type, Aftermarket, and Region – Global Forecast to 2025”, published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is estimated to be USD 3.88 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach a market size of USD 9.80 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 14.13% during the forecast period. The major factors driving the growth of the global Automotive Optoelectronics Market are the increase in sales of luxury and ultra-luxury vehicles and high demand for LEDs lighting and safety application.

The safety application segment is estimated to be the fastest growing market in the Automotive Optoelectronics Market during the forecast period, by application.

The safety segment is estimated to witness the highest growth because of the rising demand for safety features by consumers to enhance the vehicle safety performance. Also, OEMs are offering vehicles equipped with safety features, which in turn would drive the optoelectronics market.

The LED segment is estimated to be the fastest growing market in the Automotive Optoelectronics Market during the forecast period, by devices.

The LED segment is estimated to be the fastest growing segment, by value, of the Automotive Optoelectronics Market during the forecast period. The high demand for aesthetic lighting to improve the comfort and safety inside the vehicle for the occupants is governing the growth of LED segment devices.

Asia Pacific is estimated to be the fastest growing regional market for Automotive Optoelectronics Market.

The Asia Pacific region is projected to be the fastest growing market for automotive optoelectronics during the forecast period. The market growth in the region can be attributed to the rapid growth of the automotive sector in countries such as China, Japan, India, and South Korea. Moreover, the improved lifestyle of consumers and rapid urbanization have boosted the demand for passenger cars and commercial vehicles, thus, driving growth of the Automotive Optoelectronics Market in the region.

The key players in the Automotive Optoelectronics Market are Osram (Germany), Texas (US), Vishay (US), Broadcom (US), Hella (Germany), and Magneti Marelli (Italy).

Seoul Viosys, a global provider of UV LED Solution, announced that its product named UV WICOP which combines Seoul Semiconductor’s WICOP LEDs with compact and high efficiency technology have been launched.

The patented WICOP of Seoul Semiconductor is the world’s first product that does not require the packaging process. It has been designed using a single chip and phosphor only without any components such as lead frame and gold wire. Seoul Viosys has applied the technology to its UV LEDs and has been granted the patent for the combined technology.

Conventional UV LEDs have high manufacturing costs due to the additional components and its performance is also degraded by the overload of heat emitted from each component. However, UV WICOP has achieved low cost by delivering only a single chip without additional components and it is effective for heat dissipation. The design can be changed easily depending on the applications or customer needs.

Seoul Viosys has tested its performance by applying UV WICOP technology to various applications for water and air purification, surface disinfection. As a result, the new UV WICOP has improved performance by more than 600% with a lighting duration time of 45,000h compared to conventional high-powered LED packages that have its 2,000h to 7,000h. The price of the product has been 80% lower than those of the competitors that offer equivalent performance.

“Conventional UV LEDs have difficulty in expanding applications with low light power, short duration time and high price. The new UV WICOP of Seoul Viosys is expected to be a leading product that meets the needs of customers and contributes to market expansion for UV LED,” said Jong Man Kim, UV development executive vice president of Seoul Viosys.

“Seoul Viosys had the patent for vertical high-powered package (Patent no. USP 8,242,484) based on UV WICOP technology,” added Kim. “We will initiate the mass production for new UV WICOP with cost competitiveness in the near future.”

Working to address “hotspots” in computer chips that degrade their performance, UCLA engineers have developed a new semiconductor material, defect-free boron arsenide, that is more effective at drawing and dissipating waste heat than any other known semiconductor or metal materials.

This could potentially revolutionize thermal management designs for computer processors and other electronics, or for light-based devices like LEDs.

Illustration showing a schematic of a computer chip with a hotspot (bottom); an electron microscope image of defect-free boron arsenide (middle); and an image showing electron diffraction patterns in boron arsenide. Credit: Hu Research Lab / UCLA Samueli

The study was recently published in Science and was led by Yongjie Hu, UCLA assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Computer processors have continued to shrink down to nanometer sizes where today there can be billions of transistors on a single chip. This phenomenon is described under Moore’s Law, which predicts that the number of transistors on a chip will double about every two years. Each smaller generation of chips helps make computers faster, more powerful and able to do more work. But doing more work also means they’re generating more heat.

Managing heat in electronics has increasingly become one of the biggest challenges in optimizing performance. High heat is an issue for two reasons. First, as transistors shrink in size, more heat is generated within the same footprint. This high heat slows down processor speeds, in particular at “hotspots” on chips where heat concentrates and temperatures soar. Second, a lot of energy is used to keep those processors cool. If CPUs did not get as hot in the first place, then they could work faster and much less energy would be needed to keep them cool.

The UCLA study was the culmination of several years of research by Hu and his students that included designing and making the materials, predictive modeling, and precision measurements of temperatures.

The defect-free boron arsenide, which was made for the first time by the UCLA team, has a record-high thermal conductivity, more than three-times faster at conducting heat than currently used materials, such as silicon carbide and copper, so that heat that would otherwise concentrate in hotspots is quickly flushed away.

“This material could help greatly improve performance and reduce energy demand in all kinds of electronics, from small devices to the most advanced computer data center equipment,” Hu said. “It has excellent potential to be integrated into current manufacturing processes because of its semiconductor properties and the demonstrated capability to scale-up this technology. It could replace current state-of-the-art semiconductor materials for computers and revolutionize the electronics industry.”

The study’s other authors are UCLA graduate students in Hu’s research group: Joonsang Kang, Man Li, Huan Wu, and Huuduy Nguyen.

In addition to the impact for electronic and photonics devices, the study also revealed new fundamental insights into the physics of how heat flows through a material.

“This success exemplifies the power of combining experiments and theory in new materials discovery, and I believe this approach will continue to push the scientific frontiers in many areas, including energy, electronics, and photonics applications,” Hu said.