Category Archives: LEDs

May 9, 2012 – Marketwire — SunSun Lighting, a provider of high-performance, energy efficient and low-cost light-emitting diode (LED) lighting technologies, received $30 million in Series B financing from GSR Ventures and Oak Investment Partners and additional commitments from its original angel investors. Oak, a multi-stage venture capital firm, is leading the round. Allan Kwan, a China-based advisor for Oak, is joining the board of SunSun.

SunSun Lighting eliminates the performance and cost trade-offs of current LED lighting technology by offering a complete LED system, including power electronics, housing, packaging, and optics.

"SunSun is committed to shifting the lighting industry to solid state lighting. We offer the world’s first LED lamps that maximize both luminous efficacy and color rendering with the lowest cost. This capital will be used to expand our manufacturing capacity, sales and marketing efforts, and research and development," said SunSun Lighting Founder and CEO Jianning Sun.

The company’s patented PowerXplore technology attains the highest AC/DC conversion rate of 92%, compared to the 85% conversion rate of the nearest competitor. By innovating at the system level, SunSun achieves both high performance and low lifecycle cost, significantly broadening the potential applications for LED lighting technology.

The company will debut its latest product, the MR16 LED bulb, which is universally compatible with AC/DC 12V and all transformers today in Booth 225 at the LIGHTFAIR International architectural and commercial lighting tradeshow and conference.

"There is a huge market for solid state lighting," said Sonny Wu, the co-founder and a managing director of GSR Ventures and Chairman of the Board for SunSun Lighting. "It could be a $300 billion market globally in three years. GSR incubated the company in 2010 when Mr. Sun had an innovative idea of designing the LED lightbulb with a revolutionary new architecture. We were the sole investor in the $10 Million Series A round for SunSun, and continue to support the company given the phenomenal growth opportunities we see," he added.

"SunSun Lighting stands out from the many LED companies we have seen over the years," said Bandel Carano, managing partner for Oak Investment Partners. "We are convinced that SunSun has superior architecture and technology and is well-positioned to scale. Furthermore, we are pleased to partner with GSR on another investment in China, strengthening our strategic relationship with the firm. The combination of GSR’s knowledge of the Chinese market, Oak’s deep domain expertise in clean energy, and SunSun’s technology and leadership team, will help the company realize its tremendous potential."

"We believe strongly in SunSun’s management team, including CEO Sun, and his senior research and development executives," said Allan Kwan, a China-based advisor for Oak. "The team has assembled a compelling value proposition — a superior silicon-based technology approach, a powerful customer base of world-renowned lighting companies, and a world-class manufacturing facility and process," Kwan added.

The global lighting market has shown it is ready for LED technology that meets or exceeds the performance of conventional bulbs while lowering cost. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that switching to LED lighting over the next two decades could save $120 billion in energy costs in the U.S. alone.

SunSun Lighting is a cutting-edge manufacturer of LED lighting products, based in China’s Jiangsu Province. Founded in 2010, SunSun is committed to shifting the lighting industry to solid state lighting. SunSun eliminates the performance and cost trade-offs of current LED lighting technology by offering a complete LED system, including power electronics, housing, packaging, and optics. By innovating at the system level, SunSun achieves both high performance and low lifecycle cost, significantly broadening the potential applications for LED lighting technology. www.sunsunlighting.com.

GSR Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on building world-class technology companies in China. The firm invests primarily in the Internet, wireless, green technology and semiconductors sectors. Founded in 2004, GSR has 50 companies in its portfolio and more than $1 billion under management. SunSun Lighting is the firm’s tenth investment in energy efficient companies. For more information, visit www.gsrventures.com.

Oak Investment Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm and a lead investor in the next generation of enduring growth companies. Since 1978, the firm has invested $9 billion in nearly 500 companies around the world, earning the trust of entrepreneurs with a senior team that delivers steady guidance, deep domain expertise and a consistent investment philosophy. The firm’s five major growth sectors of focus are information technology, internet and consumer, financial services technology, healthcare services and clean energy. For more information, visit www.oakvc.com.

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May 8, 2012 — Light-emitting diode (LED) manufacturing utilization rates are picking up again, with utilization in Taiwan now back up to 70 to 90% of capacity. Companies expect to close in on 100% in a month or two, driven by TV backlight demand, reports Yole Développement senior analyst Eric Virey. Asian producers see demand for general lighting starting to pick up as well, expecting general lighting — mostly replacement bulbs — to account for 10 to 30% of company revenues by the end of the year. “It’s already becoming a commodity product — even before being popular,” says Virey. “It’s now so competitive with so many lightbulb suppliers, though only a few are of good quality, that it’s pushing prices down quickly, so margins are shrinking fast.”

Figure 1. Packaged LED price trends. SOURCE: SEMI.

“In a commodity market — and we think this is a commodity market — the guy with the lowest cost structure wins,” notes Jed Dorsheimer, managing director, equity research, lighting & solar, Canaccord Genuity. “And yield is by far the most important driver of costs.” With best industry net yields still at some 75-80%, and the majority around 50%, there’s plenty of room for improvement, particularly in automating the post epi processing, by using semiconductor industry style automation, steppers, and improving the lift-off, thinning, dicing and sorting processes. Last year’s 50% drop in prices really focused people’s attention on cost structure, and is speeding up the investment in automating these back end of line (BEOL) processes.

Table. Summary of LED package price and performance projections.

Metric

2011

2013

2015

2020

Goal

Cool White Efficacy

(lm/W)

 

 

135

 

164

 

190

 

235

 

266

Cool White Price

($/klm)

 

9

 

4

 

2

 

0.7

 

0.5

Warm White Efficacy

(lm/W)

 

98

 

129

 

162

 

224

 

266

Warm White Price

($/klm)

 

12.5

 

5.1

 

2.3

 

0.7

 

0.5

Notes: Though cost and especially efficiency of LED lighting has improved impressively recently, there are still major improvements necessary to meet the aggressive target price per lumen output needed for wide adoption according to the industry consensus roadmap put together by the US Department of Energy. It figures the cost for warm white packaged LEDs was about $12.50/klm as of last year, and targets a drop to $5.10/klm by next year, to stay on target for $2.00/klm by 2015. Projections for cool white packages assume CCT=4746-7040K and CRI=70-80, while projections for warm white packages assume CCT=2580-3710K and CRI=80-90. All efficacy projections assume that packages are measured at 25°C with a drive current density of 35 A/cm2; Package life is approximately 50,000.(Source: US DOE Solid State Lighting R&D Multiyear Program Plan, April 2012)

The choice of substrate material is naturally the first driver of yield, where it may turn out that high-cost, homogenous gallium nitride (GaN) substrates with very low defect density and potentially high yield could turn out to be a low cost choice, argues Dorsheimer. Silicon substrates seem like a low cost alternative, but even if fully depreciated equipment brings the typical 20% capital cost to zero, and low substrate costs bring the typical 15% substrate cost to zero, lower yields could still make GaN on Si more expensive than sapphire or SiC.

The potential for GaN and Si substrates

LED devices made on silicon now look likely to be able to match the performance of conventional devices on sapphire, reports Virey, as work at a number of labs around the world is closing the performance gap. So the crucial issue is really the cost savings from being able to use highly efficient 8-inch silicon processing equipment. Yole cost simulations show a 50% reduction in die cost is possible, and some companies project as much as 75% savings, at least compared to smaller diameter sapphire, depending of course on yield, on how much the producer has to invest in new facilities, and on how much retrofit is needed to convert a CMOS fab to LED production. With the biggest impact on yields in epi now apparently not from dislocation defects but from bowing during the metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process, fine tuning the thermal properties during epi could potentially bring significant improvement.

But it does open the possibility of an almost fabless model for LED makers who could produce in CMOS foundries. And it could certainly change the industry supply equation. “One CMOS fab probably has enough capacity for the world’s supply of LED die,” notes Virey. GaN-on-GaN should have better yields from less bowing, and has advantages for being able to inject more current to get more light out of a smaller chip area, for high current density applications. But with the leading conventional LEDs on sapphire or SiC now up to 200lm/W efficiencies, closing in on the theoretical limit, the 5 to 10% increase in performance possible with the GaN substrate may not be worth the 10x higher substrate cost. Here again, it’s just a cost game where yield is the critical parameter.

Figure 2. LED chips made on a 2" silicon wafer. SOURCE: Lattice Power.

Lattice Power pushes toward mass production with GaN-on-Si

Lattice Power reports it is now selling commercial LED die from volume production runs of several hundred 2” silicon wafers a day from its Jiangxi, China, fab, and aims to transition to 6” wafers within twelve months. “We’re not in R&D mode anymore, we’re pushing towards mass production,” says CTO Hanmin Zhao. He reports performance, cost and yields in the 2” silicon are similar to 2” sapphire, and reliability and life test have so far shown results similar to sapphire.

Zhao says the company’s solution for designing and then growing the multi-layer buffer layers to counter the lattice and thermal mismatch seems to transition fairly well to 6” wafers, where the advantage of silicon would of course be much more significant. It’s looking at 6-inch because the tools would be affordable, while it needs a partner with an idle 8-inch IC fab to make production on 8-inch silicon economical with the more expensive tool cost, and there are not many idle 8-inch fabs in China. Zhao figures that except of course for the MOCVD equipment, some 70-80% of the CMOS tools could be used with only minor modification.

These speakers will join other industry leaders from Cree, Everlight Electronics, Soraa, Seoul Semiconductor, GT Advanced Technologies, EVGroup, Laytec and more to discuss the potential of disruptive technologies and best options for improving manufacturing yields in LED manufacturing at Extreme Electronics (South Hall) at SEMICON West 2012, July 11, in San Francisco.

And don’t miss the US DOE SSL Manufacturing R&D Workshop 2012, June 13-14 in San Jose, CA, www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ssl/sanjose2012.html

SEMI is online at www.semi.org.

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May 8, 2012 — University of Warsaw, Poland, researchers will grow gallium nitride (GaN) materials on a new AIXTRON SE Close Coupled Showerhead (CCS) metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactor in a 3 x 2” wafer configuration. It will be installed at a dedicated cleanroom facility within the Institute of Experimental Physics of the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Physics.

Gallium nitride is a compound semiconductor material used increasingly for light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and power electronics, among other applications in defense and commercial applications. New work is integrating GaN and silicon and GaN and diamond.

The University of Warsaw is Poland’s largest university and a leading European academic center. The experimental and theoretical research conducted at the Faculty of Physics is directed at physical systems of all kinds.

The system will be delivered in H2 2012 as part of the project “Physics as the basis for new technologies – development of modern research infrastructure at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw,” co-financed by the European Union.

The CCS reactor possesses a “good all-round combination of characteristics:” a very stable platform; optimized for the growth of nitride thin films for a range of requirements; with excellent reliability, ease of use and reproducibility, said Professor Roman Stepniewski, University of Warsaw.

“Professor Stepniewski’s team has a worldwide reputation for the quality of their work in advanced semiconductor materials, in particular in growth technology and basic studies of nitrides,” Dr. Frank Schulte, VP, AIXTRON Europe.

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May 7, 2012 — Low-cost direct light-emitting diode (LED)-backlit liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs were introduced in March 2011, targeting share in the entry/mainstream LCD TV market currently dominated by cold-cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL)-backlit TVs.

Samsung Electronics has launched its first direct LED-backlit TVs, the EH series, in the US, and LG Electronics will follow soon with its LS3400 series.

Also read: Cheaper LED backlights require LED, plate materials changes

LED-backlight penetration in the LCD TV market has been lower than expected, especially in the entry/mainstream segment: 9 points lower than DisplaySearch’s 2011 forecast overall. LED technology for backlights was more expensive than anticipated, limiting consumer purchases. Edge backlight designs were not able to meaningfully reduce the cost premium over CCFL backlighting, though the concept has helped TV makers maintain revenues against a severe market overall.

Figure 1. Trends for LED-Backlit TV Price Premium and Penetration. SOURCE: Q1’12 Quarterly LED Backlight Report.

Now, TV makers are focusing on new types of direct LED backlighting to capture a broader swath of consumers, adding value to the entry/mainstream segment just as edge LED backlighting added value to the premium segment TVs. At the same time, the CCFL industry is experiencing shortages in rare earth metals, stressing already-tight cost structures. There are fewer new CCFL-backlit models this year. DisplaySearch expects the price premium for direct LED-backlit TVs over CCFL-backlit TVs to decrease quickly.

In the Q1’12 Quarterly LED Backlight Report, DisplaySearch forecast that LED backlighting, with help of low-cost direct designs, will achieve 100% penetration of the LCD TV application by the end of 2014, killing CCFL designs. Low-cost direct LED backlighting (~20% share in 2014) will take share away from CCFL backlighting, not from edge LED backlighting. At the same time, edge LED backlighting will continue to incrementally replace CCFL backlighting. Low-cost direct LED backlighting will saturate after CCFL-backlit TVs leave the market and maintain its market position in the entry/mainstream segment.

Figure 2. Forecast for TV Panel Shipments by Backlight Type. SOURCE: Q1’12 Quarterly LED Backlight Report

These changes to the TV market will affect the market for CCFL in other displays, such as monitors. In Q1’12, revenue from CCFL for TVs is estimated to be 81% of total CCFL revenue, as reported in the Q1’12 Quarterly LED Backlight Report. It is not an exaggeration to say that the current CCFL supply chain depends solely on the shipments of TVs. If demand for CCFL in TVs disappears, then it will be hard for the CCFL industry to maintain its supply chain, because the other applications account for only 19% of total demand. Therefore, we forecast that after CCFL-backlit TVs leave the market, most CCFL-backlit monitors will face EOL as well.

Learn more at www.displaysearch.com.

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May 7, 2012 — AIXTRON SE’s long-time customer Formosa Epitaxy Inc. (FOREPI) ordered several MOCVD systems: 4 CRIUS II-XL systems in a 19 x 4” wafer configuration and 2 G5 HT reactors in a 14 x 4” wafer configuration. FOREPI is increasing capacity for ultra-high brightness (UHB) gallium nitride (GaN) blue and white light-emitting diode (LED) manufacture.

FOREPI will install the tools between Q3 and Q4 2012 in its new, state-of-the-art facility in the Pin-Jen industrial zone, Taiwan. The LED maker began using AIXTRON’s CRIUS II-XL system a few months ago, and decided to use it for 4” LED wafer capacity increases at the new Pin-Jen fab. FOREPI cited short time-to-production and high performance, throughput and yield for the purchase decision. The epitaxy tools FOREPI chose also offer “seamless process scale-up, excellent uniformity and highest throughput per footprint,” said AIXTRON COO Dr. Bernd Schulte.

The Close Coupled Showerhead (CCS) technology is used in AIXTRON’s current range of reactors. Reagents are introduced into the reactor through a water-cooled showerhead surface over the entire area of deposition. The showerhead is close to the substrates and is designed to enable precursors to be separated right up to the point where they are injected onto the substrates through a multiplicity of small tubes. The reagents are injected into the reactor chamber through separate orifices in a water-cooled showerhead injector, to create a very uniform distribution of reagent gases. Substrates are placed on top of a rotating susceptor, which is resistively heated. The three-zone heater enables adjustment of the temperature profile to provide temperature uniformity over the susceptor diameter.

AIXTRON provides MOCVD production technologies for semiconductor devices, such as LEDs, lasers, transistors and solar cells. For further information on AIXTRON (FSE: AIXA, ISIN DE000A0WMPJ6, DE000A1MMEF7; NASDAQ: AIXG, ISIN US0096061041), see www.aixtron.com.

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May 4, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Sapphire wafers grown using ARC Energy’s Controlled Heat Extraction System (CHES) furnaces for Trinity Material was certified for high-quality light-emitting diode (LED) chip production at two leading LED chip companies.

Trinity Material is ramping up for high-volume sapphire growth to produce large-diameter LED wafers, using ARC Energy furnaces. Trinity Material uses CHES furnaces to produce sapphire for 4” to 8” sapphire wafers.

ARC Energy’s CHES sapphire boule growth method uses the c-axis, instead of growing the boule on the a-axis and extracting wafers on the c-axis. CHES-produced sapphire wafers tested equal to or better than a-axis wafers in LED chip qualification. The company reports no color problems at the boule or wafer levels. CHES c-axis growth increases the light output of LED chips, said Champion Yi, chief operating officer for Trinity Material.

ARC Energy’s proprietary and fully automated CHES technology produces c-axis boules that are reportedly the optimum orientation for LED applications and enable higher materials utilization and lower costs compared with conventional a-axis technologies.

Trinity Material Co., Ltd. is a high-tech company specializing in research, production and sales of LED-grade sapphire substrate material. For additional information about Trinity Material, please visit www.trinity-material.com

The Advanced RenewableEnergy Company, LLC (ARC Energy) provides highly automated and efficient sapphire crystal growth and processing systems to supply LED wafers. For additional information about ARC Energy, please visit www.arc-energy.com.

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May 4, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — eMagin Corporation (NYSE Amex:EMAN), organic light emitting diode (OLED) microdisplay and virtual imaging technology developer, received a $3.1 million follow-on order for OLED microdisplays under an existing US Army Remote Viewer Program.

Deliveries under this contract have already begun, with all the microdisplays to be delivered by the end of 2012. The eMagin SVGA+ OLED-XL microdisplay was originally chosen for this program in 2008, with original shipments starting in 2009 and expected to continue into 2013.

eMagin was awarded a $1.12 million SBIR contract from the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) to optimize its WUXGA OLED micro display for mass production in February 2012.

The program specifies high-performance microdisplays with low power consumption, noted Andrew G. Sculley, president and CEO of eMagin, who added that eMagin sees OLED microdisplays increasingly adopted as a critical component for military applications that require high resolution, low power and “instant-on” under a wide range of temperatures.”

eMagin integrates high-resolution OLED microdisplays with magnifying optics to deliver virtual images comparable to large-screen computer and television displays in portable, low-power, lightweight personal displays. eMagin microdisplays provide near-eye imagery in a variety of products from military, industrial, medical and consumer OEMs. More information about eMagin is available at www.emagin.com.

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May 4, 2012 — Semiconductor packaging and test services provider Carsem will assemble and further develop light-emitting diode (LED) packaging technologies, partnering with a key customer.

Carsem has begun assembling and qualifying high-brightness silicon-substrate LED arrays and will ramp high-volume, full turn-key manufacturing services, including electrical testing, laser mark, and tape-and-reel, in early 2012.

To enable standard mass production, Carsem deployed matrix substrate design; auto die attach, wire bond, and high reflection coating dispense; compression molding through an automold system; substrate-mapping; and bin sort per test mapping on the LED packages.

Carsem

May 3, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Intematix Corporation, phosphor and phosphor component developer for light-emitting diodes (LEDs), debuted ChromaLit Contour remote phosphor architecture. ChromaLit Contour is shaped to enable internal and external convection airflow, cooling LEDs in 60, 75 and 100W-equivalent omni-directional lights.

Intematix also offers A Lamp reference designs for these systems.

Intematix’s ChromaLit remote phosphors separate the phosphor substrate from the blue LED instead of coating the LEDs with phosphor directly. This reportedly reduces LED costs by 25% and improves color matching and light quality.

ChromaLit Contour exceeds Energy Star and China Quality Certification lighting requirements with uniform, glare-free and diffuse light; 330° lighting distribution; standard color rendering options up to CRI 90; choice of color temperature from 2700K to 5000K; and color matching. Any blue LED can be used with the remote phosphor architecture.

ChromaLit Contour in 60W, 75W and 100W incandescent equivalent configurations can be seen at LIGHTFAIR in Las Vegas, May 9 -11, booth 2949.

Intematix Corporation is a materials developer making customizable, patented phosphors and remote phosphor components for high-quality, energy-efficient LED lighting. To learn more about the company, please visit www.intematix.com.

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May 1, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Cree Inc. (Nasdaq:CREE), light emitting diode (LED) maker and product developer, added TEMPO 24 (Thermal Electrical Mechanical Photometric Optical) tests to its Cree Services for LED luminaires. TEMPO 24 combines the Illuminating Engineering Society’s (IES) LM-79-08 photometric test with nearly a dozen other LED performance tests that exceed industry testing parameters, Cree states.

LM-79 has become a requirement for solid state lighting products, said Mark McClear, director of global applications engineering, Cree. In addition to LM-79, TEMPO 24 testing includes binning and color point evaluation, chemical compatibility, and TM-21 lifetime projection tests to ensure reliability in LED luminaires.

Also see: Luminus Devices accredited to LM-80 test standard and UL authorized for LED testing to Zhaga standards

Cree currently provides TEMPO Services out of its Durham, NC and Santa Barbara, CA centers. The Cree Durham Technology Center has been accredited by The National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP), which ensures that TEMPO measurements are performed according to IES-approved methods for the electrical and photometric measurements of LED lighting. NVLAP accreditation signifies that a laboratory operates in accordance with NVLAP management and technical requirements pertaining to quality systems, personnel, accommodation and environment, test and calibration methods, equipment, measurement tractability, sampling, handling of tests and calibration items, and test and calibration reports.

Cree laboratories also work to American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) requirements.

Cree develops and produces lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting, and semiconductor products for power and radio frequency (RF) applications. Learn more at www.cree.com.

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