Category Archives: LEDs

July 9, 2012 — Soitec (Euronext), semiconductor materials developer and producer for the electronics and energy industries, partnered with Chongqing Silian Optoelectronics Science & Technology Co., Ltd. (Silian), materials, devices and systems supplier for the lighting industry, to jointly develop gallium nitride (GaN) template wafers using hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE). The resulting GaN template wafers will reduce the cost of manufacturing light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

The companies’ joint development agreement aims at validating the manufacturability and enabling the commercialization of GaN template wafers using Silian’s sapphire substrates and Soitec’s HVPE technology.

Soitec and Silian plan to begin sampling GaN template wafers this year.

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

Soitec developed HVPE at its Phoenix Labs, using production-proven silicon epitaxy equipment features and adding its gallium source and delivery system, said Chantal Arena, vice president and general manager of Soitec Phoenix Labs. Soitec developed high growth rate processes that work with its low-cost precursor. According to the company, GaN template wafers fabbed with HVPE are more cost effective than those made via metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE).

Silian will adopt Soitec’s HVPE technology, said David Reid, COO of Silian, offering the GaN templates to its sapphire substrate customers. Silian is undergoing extensive sapphire substrate manufacturing expansion activities in China.

LED makers can free up as much as 60% of their MOVPE capacity by adopting HVPE, enabling them to focus on the more custom layers in the light-emitting design of the LED chip, said André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé, president and CEO of Soitec.

Soitec is also exploring the possibility of expanding its cooperation with Silian into the field of LED lighting, leveraging Soitec’s expertise in epitaxial growth.

Chongqing Silian Optoelectronics Science & Technology Co., Ltd (Silian) was founded by China Silian Instrument Group Co., Ltd for the development of LED industry. After the acquisition of the Honeywell sapphire substrate business, Silian has become China’s first enterprise with high quality large diameter sapphire substrate production and R&D capabilities. Silian’s product range covers a full spectrum of the LED supply chain, from world leading large diameter sapphire substrates, packaged LEDs, LED display screens, LED lighting applications and smart lighting system control technology. Based on the core technologies of sapphire substrates, LED lighting and a flexible manufacturing base, Silian is the most complete and the largest semiconductor energy-efficient industrial base in western China. Silian has a strong sales and distribution network, sub-manufacturing plants and R&D centres located in China and North America. For more information, visit: www.silianopto.com

Soitec is an international manufacturing company, a world leader in generating and manufacturing revolutionary semiconductor materials at the frontier of the most exciting energy and electronic challenges. Soitec’s products include substrates for microelectronics (most notably SOI: Silicon-on-Insulator) and concentrator photovoltaic systems (CPV). The company’s core technologies are Smart Cut™, Smart Stacking™ and Concentrix, as well as expertise in epitaxy. Applications include consumer and mobile electronics, microelectronics-driven IT, telecommunications, automotive electronics, lighting products and large-scale solar power plants. Soitec has manufacturing plants and R&D centers in France, Singapore, Germany, and the United States. For more information, visit: www.soitec.com

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July 8, 2012 — Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays have been deployed in small- and medium-size display applications since 2009, pushed by smartphone integration. While large-size AMOLED panels have been used in TVs since Sony’s 11” AMOLED TV debuted in 2008, they currently hold <0.1% market share, according to the new report, “AMOLED TV Development Trend and Competitiveness Analysis,” from Displaybank.

This may change, now that Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics each exhibited 55" AMOLED TVs at the International CES in January 2012.

AMOLED TVs will target the LCD TV market by offering fast response time, higher color gamut, and better contrast ratio. However, AMOLED TVs do carry slightly higher production costs, at least in the initial period of mass production ramp-up, reports Displaybank.

Panel makers such as Samsung Mobile Display (SMD) and LG Display (LGD) will likely drive productivity and performance improvements to large-area AMOLED manufacturing technology. Areas for improvement include the thin-film transistors (TFT), deposition, encapsulation, and more. Materials costs may also fall when AMOLED ramps to higher volumes.

With higher production yields, large-size AMOLED display panels will improve cost competitiveness with LCDs. This will allow AMOLED TVs to lead in global TV growth, hitting 72 million units by 2020 and capturing more than 64% market share in the 45"+ global TV market.

“AMOLED TV Development Trend and Competitiveness Analysis” from Displaybank covers development status by major panel makers, analysis of the competitiveness of performance and process, a forecast of 55" AMOLED panel production costs and TV ASPs, a forecast of AMOLED TV and TV-use panel market (~2020), and a forecast of the overall AMOLED panel market by size/application(~2016). Learn more at http://www.displaybank.com/_eng/research/report_view.html?id=869&cate=

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July 6, 2012 — We at Solid State Technology have compiled the best conference reports so far this year, in the lead up to SEMICON West 2012, next week in San Francisco. Be sure to bookmark our SEMICON West 2012 Channel for all the info from that show.

Focus on lithography

@ EUVL workshop: Focus on source power, timing

Dr. Vivek Bakshi, president of EUV Litho Inc., reports on the 2012 EUVL Workshop (June 4-8 in Maui, HI), where attendees shared their latest technology developments and discussed ways to address the challenges of EUVL insertion into HVM.

@ SPIE: The spring of EUVL

Dr. Vivek Bakshi, president of EUV Litho, Inc., reports on the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference. He says that this year even the loudest criticism of EUVL was not about “if” but “when,” and the predicted range of insertion for EUVL in high volume manufacturing (HVM) is now 2013-15.

@ SPIE: Intel’s, TSMC’s tool roadmap takeaways

After attending SPIE Advanced Lithography, Barclays Capital came away with a lower lithography tool shipments forecast, more hope for EUV lithography, and expectations of a litho buying spree at Intel.

@ SPIE: eBeam Initiative roadmap

The eBeam Initiative, a forum for new IC manufacturing approaches based on electron beam (e-beam) lithography, will unveil its latest roadmap at the SPIE Advanced Lithography Symposium.

 

Focus on yields/productivity

@ ISMI Manufacturing Week: Productivity challenges identified

Semiconductor manufacturers identified key factory productivity challenges that need to be addressed and shared effective solutions they will need to stay leading-edge and competitive amid turbulent industry transitions during the recent ISMI Manufacturing Week.

@ The ConFab: Legacy semiconductor fab issues

Bill Ross of ISMI and Joanne Itow of Semico report on the ConFab 2012 Executive Roundtable. Older production facilities face equipment obsolescence; skills obsolescence; scarce availability of parts, software, and support; and equipment capability extension and tool re-use.

@ Lightfair: MOCVD capex disobeys fab utilization rules

Barclays Capital analysts attended Lightfair International and gleaned several trends in LEDs and OLEDs for lighting, including an interesting phenomenon around MOCVD utilization rates and new orders.

@ ISS 2012: Profitability threatened

Industry leaders at the 35th annual SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) described a perfect storm of cost, complexity and uncertainty as the industry struggles with process engineering complexity at sub-28nm nodes, hazy EUV installation schedules, 3D-IC challenges, and planning for a 450mm wafer transition, reports SEMI.

 

Focus on packaging

@ IMAPS Device Packaging: Vias and more vias

IMAPS Device Packaging’s papers were recently released, and blogger Dr. Phil Garrou shares highlights from SSEC, Asahi Glass, Hitachi Chemical, and others. He also takes a look at Fujitsu’s low temp Cu-Cu bonding technology.

@ The ConFab: A 2.5D/3D interconnect supply chain or ecosystem?

With many advanced packaging processes taking place on the semiconductor wafer, the traditional supply chain of front-end fab at the foundry and back-end fab at the packaging and test house is falling apart. Amkor, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, ASE, and Xilinx’s presenters offer ideas.

@ IITC: From TSV to back-end memory work

The 15th IITC took place in San Jose, CA. Recurring themes this year were variations on 3D and TSV, novel systems and packaging, and back-end memory, blogger Michael Fury reports.

@ ECTC: 3D integration and TSVs

A main focus of this year’s Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), held in San Diego, was 3D integration and TSVs, blogs Pete Singer, editor-in-chief.

 

Focus on emerging technologies

@ MEMS Executive Congress Europe: MEMS everywhere

Karen Lightman, the Managing Director of the MEMS Industry Group, blogs from the MEMS Executive Congress Europe in Zurich, Switzerland.

@ MRS Spring: Organic electronics

Fury reports from the MRS Spring 2012 meeting in San Francisco. Highlights: electronic skin, energy storage with nanowires, printable inks, gas sensing, inkjet printing, semiconductor polymers for organic devices, CNTs, OFETs, touch screen fabrics, and the coffee breaks.

@ SensorsCon: MEMS, networks, and camera pills

SensorsCon 2012 was held March 21 at the Santa Clara TechMart Center, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the ISQED. This is the first such meeting focusing on sensor technology, with about 60 attendees. As a design conference, the focus was more on system design and architecture, reports Fury.

@ Lightfair China: Low LED prices, subsidy’s role, and MOCVD update

Guangzhou (China) Lightfair Conference is the biggest lighting fair in Asia. Citi analyst Timothy Arcuri notes trends in LED manufacturing and pricing ahead of China’s subsidy program going into effect.

July 5, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Sapphire grown in ARC Energy’s proprietary CHES yields 5% brighter light emitting diodes (LEDs) than the industry standard, according to the company’s study. The study purposefully included sapphire material exhibiting a wide range of etch pit distortion (EPD) levels to determine whether or not EPD affects LED manufacturing.

The study took sapphire through the complete LED chip manufacturing process and concluded that all material passed LED standards and that no correlation was found between LED performance and EPD level of CHES wafers.

ARC Energy’s CHES furnaces are unique in several ways. One key advantage is dramatically higher material utilization due to sapphire growth on the c-plane. This approach produces large diameter substrates at a significantly lower cost. Greater than 75% material utilization can be achieved using c-plane ARC Energy CHES furnaces while other methods are limited to less than 35%. CHES furnaces are also highly automated—a key feature which brings operator costs down and provides consistent output.

CHES furnaces are designed to produce higher performance sapphire at larger wafer sizes compared to older technologies. A CHES furnace produces high-yield sapphire up to 10" diameter, providing higher efficiency downstream in the LED manufacturing process and upstream as c-plane growth significantly reduces waste.

The study results show CHES-grown sapphire is capable of production-level performance. As the HB-LED market expands, CHES gives sapphire growers significant advantages, including higher yield, a scalable technology, and better LED chip performance. ARC Energy offers CHES furnaces and a variety of support services for crystal growth companies seeking to lead in the HB-LED industry.

The results were released in the white paper “LED Manufacturing Study on CHES Sapphire” available at www.arc-energy.com. The company is performing a series on CHES called “CHES Foundations,” covering CHES technology and CHES furnaces.

The Advanced RenewableEnergy Company, LLC (ARC Energy) provides highly automated and efficient sapphire crystal growth and processing systems to enable rapid scale production and cost reduction of LEDs. For additional information about ARC Energy, visit www.arc-energy.com.

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SUMMARY:

Colin Moorhouse, Coherent Inc., discusses ultrafast (picosecond) industrial lasers for high-precision manufacturing of smartphone displays and other leading-edge devices. These tools can help reduce the size, weight, and material cost of devices; the lasers’ unique operating regime (megawatts of peak power) enables clean cutting and patterning of sensitive materials and thin films used in a number of novel devices as well as micromachining of wide bandgap, "difficult" materials such as glass. In several instances, the picosecond laser is replacing multi-step photolithography with a single-step direct-write laser process; in other cases it supplants traditional cutting/drilling processes. With a choice of near-IR, green, or ultraviolet output, these lasers can micromachine almost any material bringing new technologies to market successfully.

FIGURE. Schematic of a basic OLED structure.

The article covers patterning organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), thin-film solar cells, and bioabsorbable stents as well as laser drilling of transparent materials. Read it at our sister publication, Industrial Laser Solutions, here: http://www.industrial-lasers.com/articles/2012/05/picosecond-laser-enables-new-high-tech-devices.html

July 3, 2012 — Technology for making electronic circuits with organic materials, non-vacuum processes, and flexible substrates has made striking progress, but it’s been a challenge to find applications where the new technologies — and the whole new ecosystems needed to integrate them into useful products — offer must-have advantages.  Flexible and large-area organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays and lighting offer perhaps the largest tangible opportunity, and hybrid products using solution-processed layers and flexible substrates are starting to come to market.

Flexible active matrix OLED (AMOLED) displays will enter mobile phone applications by the end of 2012, and may show up in tablet applications in 2013, reports Jennifer Colegrove, NPD DisplaySearch VP of Emerging Display Technologies. OLED technology advanced rapidly in 2011, a trend that NPD DisplaySearch forecasts will continue through this decade in its recent OLED Technology Report. Progress has been made in organic materials, color patterning, electronic driving methods, and encapsulation. Enthusiasm has increased recently as Samsung Mobile Displays has started manufacturing AMOLED displays in a Gen 5.5 fab, and both Samsung and LG Display have announced plans to build Gen 8 (2200 x 2500mm) fabs, while several other suppliers entered or re-entered OLED display manufacturing, including AUO, CMI, IRICO, Tianma, and BOE. Also read: Samsung Mobile Display sources OLED materials from Novaled

These technology improvements and investments indicate that AMOLED will compete in larger-size applications, such as in TV and mobile PCs, within 2 years. Samsung released a 7.7” AMOLED tablet PC in December 2011, more tablet and other mobile PCs are expected in 2012. Both Samsung and LG are expected to bring 55” AMOLED TV to market in 2012. Also read: Sony, Panasonic combine OLED manufacturing expertise

However, the ability to scale OLED display manufacturing to fabs larger than the current Gen 5.5 has yet to be demonstrated, and the cost of larger panels remains in question. It is not clear if vacuum deposition of the organics at the larger size will be economical, or if printed layers will be practical to reduce costs. Challenges remain for printed and flexible processes, for example, organic material life time is still shorter with solution processes than with chemical vapor deposition.

“I think OLED technology has made good progress and is ready to enter large-size applications, but low-cost manufacturing for large sizes is still a challenge,” says Colegrove. She’ll discuss OLED technology trends, include printed and flexible OLEDs, as well as provide the most recent market forecast in her presentation at SEMICON West.

Panasonic uses printed hole injection layer, continuous evaporation process

On the OLED lighting side, more efficient mass production process technologies developed in part in the Japan’s NEDO research project are enabling production of OLED lighting with brightness of up to 1000 cd/m2 with efficiency of some 130 lm/W in the lab, reports Takuya Komoda, Research Director at Panasonic Corp’s Core Technologies Development Center. He will discuss this technology enabling the Panasonic-Idemitsu OLED Lighting joint venture to produce commercial 2mm thin, ~8cm2 OLED panels with integrated electronics for easy integration by lighting designers, with warm 3000K light and good color rendering (CRI>90), with 10,000 hour life (70% lumen maintenance.)

The manufacturing process is made economical by coating the initial hole injection layer with a slot die printer, and depositing the emitters with a new hot-wall continuous evaporation tool developed with Choshu Industries that increases the deposition rate to 10nm/second and significantly cuts down waste of the expensive emitter materials.

The company got best lifetimes of 150,000 hours to half decay at 1000cd/m2 and 55lm/W efficacy with a fluorescent/phosphorescent OLED system on a light outcoupling substrate.  Using all phosphorescent emitters improved efficacy to over 80 lm/W, while maintaining half decay lifetime at a still respectable 30,000 hours.  The 130 lm/W efficacy was achieved with a 1cm2 OLED fabricated on a hemispherical high-refractive lens.

IMEC uses low-temp metal-oxide TFTs for flexible OLED displays, RFID tags

Imec’s approach to making flexible AMOLED displays laminates a flexible PEN substrate to a temporary carrier, then builds a stack that includes a moisture barrier, backplane with metal-oxide TFTs fabricated at 150°C, an interlayer dielectric, a top-emitting OLED, and a thin-film top encapsulation, reports Serge Biesemans, imec VP of wafer technologies and smart systems, who plans to talk about the new materials and process technologies developed for this stack. Imec’s research program with partner TNO in the Holst centre aims at overcoming the challenges towards high-volume manufacturing of flexible active-matrix OLED displays on flexible plastic foils: high resolution, low power consumption, large area, outdoor readability, flexibility and light weight.

Imec is also making thin film transistors on flexible plastic, combining the n-type transistors of the metal oxide AM backplane with organic p-type semiconductors to make RFID circuits and display line drivers. For the RFID tag, a complementary hybrid organic-oxide technology was used, combining a 250°C solution-processed n-type metal-oxide TFT with typical charge carrier mobility of 2cm2/Vs with a pentacene p-type TFT with mobility of up to 1cm2/Vs. A high-k Al2O3 dielectric was used, which increases the transistors’ current drive.

Imec, Holst Centre and their partners in the EU FP7 project ORICLA have fabricated an RFID circuit in this low-temperature thin-film technology that allows reader-talks-first communication, by transmitting identification data when the reader transmits power to the tag. In retail applications, many tags will usually try to contact the reader at the same time when powered by the RFID reader, requiring an effective anti-collision mechanism, which is complicated and slows reading time. Reader-talks first tags could more simply be used to provide buyers with information on price, characteristics, or freshness, or to allow vendors to implement automated billing and inventory management.

Learn more about the progress of these technologies in markets that matter at the SEMICON West program on printed/flexible electronics, July 12, in San Francisco, Practical Plastic Electronics: Bringing Disruptive Flexible and Organic Materials into Volume Electronics Manufacturing.

Read Paula Doe’s other SEMICON West previews:

Guide to LED and OLED programs at SEMICON West

Guide to MEMS at SEMICON West 2012

MEMS manufacturing changes with HV consumer apps

Maturing MEMS sector looks at ways to work together

For more information on attending or exhibiting at SEMICON West 2012, please visit www.semiconwest.org.

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July 3, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Light-emitting diode (LED) makers Cree Inc. (NASDAQ:CREE) and SemiLEDs Corporation (NASDAQ:LEDS) have agreed to end their respective patent infringement litigation against each other.

As part of the settlement, SemiLEDs agreed to make a one-time payment to Cree for past damages and to an injunction, effective October 1, 2012, to stop the importation and sale of SemiLEDs’ accused products in the US.

The parties have agreed to withdraw the remaining claims without prejudice to the right to assert their respective claims in the future.

SemiLEDs develops and manufactures LED chips and LED components primarily for general lighting applications. SemiLEDs sells blue, green and ultraviolet (UV) LED chips under the MvpLED brand. Learn more at http://www.semileds.com/.

Cree makes lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting, and semiconductor products for power and radio frequency (RF) applications. For additional product and company information, please refer to www.cree.com.

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July 2, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — SemiLEDs Corporation (NASDAQ:LEDS) combined its vertical light-emitting diode (LED) chip architecture with a proprietary metal alloy substrate to create the Enhanced Vertical (EV) LED product line.

The EV LED has been designed to have higher thermal endurance for better reliability at higher temperatures. It also offers excellent optical output and high thermal conductivity, according to the company.

The LEDs are sampling in blue, green, and UV and chip sizes of 0.4mm2 through 1.5mm2.

Also read: SemiLEDs, LG Siltron, Epistar install Veeco MOCVD tools

SemiLEDs develops and manufactures LED chips and LED components for general lighting, including street lights and commercial, industrial and residential lighting, along with specialty industrial applications such as UV curing, medical/cosmetic, counterfeit detection, and horticulture. SemiLEDs sells blue, green and ultraviolet (UV) LED chips. For more information, visit www.semileds.com.

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July 2, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Samsung Mobile Display (SMD), a global leader in the display industry, will purchase dopant materials used in the transport layers of its active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display modules from Novaled, OLED technologies provider. Novaled will also provide its proprietary PIN OLED technology to SMD for use in the production of SMD’s AMOLED display modules. The licensing and purchase agreement covers several years.

Since 2005, Samsung has cooperated with Novaled in the field of technologies and materials for advanced OLED products. Novaled’s latest agreement with SMD extends the use of Novaled’s high-performance OLED materials and proprietary PIN OLED technology to SMD’s next generation of mobile AMOLED devices.

Novaled has developed several doping and transport materials that can be used in OLEDs to further enhance the advantages of Novaled’s PIN OLED technology. As a result, these OLEDs have very low driving voltage and high substrate compatibility, while maintaining high power efficiency and long lifetime. The company recently debuted a class of n-doped electron transport layer (ETL) materials for OLED TV and mobile displays that could double lifetimes.

“Novaled materials are designed to deliver customer benefits, especially for mass-produced devices,” said Gildas Sorin, CEO of Novaled, adding that building “successful and long-lasting business relationships with leading OLED display and lighting manufacturers” is part of his company’s strategy. Sorin is to the left in the above photo.

“We are focused on developing innovative and state-of-the-art OLED technology, and so we have maintained a close cooperation with Novaled,” said S.I. Cho, president and CEO of Samsung Mobile Display (to the right in the above photo, shaking hands with Sorin).

Novaled AG performs research, development and commercialization of technologies and materials that enhance the performance of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and other organic electronics. Commercially active since 2003, Novaled was founded in 2001 as a spin-off of the Technical University and the Fraunhofer Institute of Dresden. For more information, please visit www.novaled.com.

Samsung Mobile Display Co., Ltd. (SMD) was established in January 2009 as a core Samsung company that provides cutting-edge display solutions based on technologies like active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) and liquid crystal display (LCD). For more information about Samsung Mobile Display, visit www.samsungsmd.com.

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June 29, 2012 — OLED thin film encapsulation technology is the one of technologies emerging as the core technology of flexible OLED, and technology development and patent securing competition between world’s leading OLED companies such as VITEX, 3M, GE, UDC, Samsung, LG, Philips, and DuPont will increase accordingly, shows Displaybank’s report, “OLED Thin Film Encapsulation Technology Key Patent Analysis.”

Figure. OLED Thin Film Encapsulation Patent Application Trends. SOURCE: Displaybank.

Encapsulation protects organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) from the external environment. Methods include CAN, glass, thin film, and hybrid encapsulation technology. Of these, thin film encapsulation is expected to be the enabling factor for lightweight and thin large-area OLED as well as flexible OLED. These architectures will support next-generation displays and OLED lighting.

OLED thin-film encapsulation patents are growing in line with increasing interest in flexible OLED and OLED lighting technology and the acceleration of technology development competition.

The report examines worldwide patent application trends, particularly from Korea, Japan, the US, and Europe. In addition, in-depth analysis such as key patent status of major companies, technology development, citation relation analysis, key patent point analysis, and key patent example analysis were performed by extracting 135 key patents around U.S. patents. Access the report at http://www.displaybank.com/_eng/research/report_view.html?id=875&cate=1

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