Category Archives: LEDs

Aledia, a developer of LEDs-based on disruptive microwire GaN-on-Silicon technology, announced today that it has made its first LEDs on 8-inch (200mm) silicon wafers. The cost of Aledia’s LED 3D chips based on microwires is expected to be four times less than traditional planar (2D) LEDs. Additionally, Aledia announced its first-round financing totalling €10 million, or approximately $13M, with leading US and European investors, which was closed in 2012.

Aledia solves the important cost issue in the very large and growing LED market. The continued integration of LEDs into new applications, such as general lighting, depends on LEDs becoming available at substantially lower prices than today. Aledia’s microwire technology enables the steep cost reduction that is vital for the further transition to LED. The Aledia LED technology, made on large-size silicon wafers and with very low materials cost, represents a cost-disruptive solution to this problem. Furthermore the new LED technology is compatible with silicon CMOS technology and will be manufactured directly in existing high-volume silicon foundries.

“Since our financing last year, we have scaled up our microwire manufacturing process and transferred it to 8-inch (200mm) silicon wafers. We can now push forward to optimize the performance of these products and bring them to market,” indicated Giorgio Anania, Aledia co-founder, President and CEO.

Investors in Aledia’s first-round financing included Sofinnova Partners, a leading European venture capital fund and an active investor in energy; New-York based Braemar Energy Ventures, a leading US energy technology investor with various investments in the LED and illumination area; Demeter Partners, the largest France-based cleantech investor; and CEA Investissement, the venture capital arm of CEA, France’s Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives.

“This is an innovative technology that can have a disruptive effect on the LED market,” said Jiong Ma, partner at Braemar Energy Ventures. “Braemar is committed to investing in companies like Aledia that have developed a breakthrough approach to LED lighting to accommodate a rapidly changing market. We are excited about the future opportunities this investment will bring and the expansion of Aledia’s market presence and product offerings.”

“We are proud to participate in the new venture of Giorgio Anania, a successful entrepreneur already well known to Sofinnova, and of an outstanding technical team, that could revolutionize the large and growing LED market, both in cost and performance,” added Alessio Beverina of Sofinnova Partners.

“We believe that the development of LED lighting is an important element of energy-efficiency in our economies – lighting representing approximately 20% of all electricity usage. A technology able to make a significant breakthrough in the cost-effectiveness of using LEDs and thereby accelerate their adoption will have a major environmental and financial impact,” concluded Sophie Paturle, partner at cleantech specialist Demeter Partners.

The 3D GaN-on-Silicon microwire technology was developed over a six year period at the LETI-CEA in Grenoble, France. As part of its spin-out from CEA, Aledia received exclusive worldwide rights to all present and future CEA patents on microwire technology as applied to the area of lighting. Several additional patents have already been filed directly by Aledia.

A new undergraduate program approved this week at the University of Central Florida (UCF) will help the U.S. stay competitive in global technology as well as broaden the path for students seeking rewarding careers in the important field of optics and photonics, say leaders of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.

UFC photonics undergrad program
Photo: UCF

The UCF Board of Trustees yesterday announced a new Bachelor of Science degree program in photonics science and engineering, in partnership between the College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL) and the College of Engineering and Computer Science, said CREOL Director Bahaa Saleh. Students will receive their degrees from both colleges. The first classes of the new program will be offered this fall.

The curriculum is designed to prepare students for a wide variety of jobs in optics and photonics and to satisfy the requirements of ABET accreditation based on the criterion established by SPIE and IEEE for degrees in the field recently, Saleh said. ABET is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that accredits college and university programs in the disciplines of applied science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology.

“I am personally excited to see this announcement because it serves as another indicator that optical and photonics engineering is finally coming of age as a discipline, providing a distinct program choice and career path for students to follow,” said Barry Shoop, professor and head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. Shoop leads the SPIE/IEEE team to develop ABET program criteria for optical and photonics engineering.

Shoop said that establishment of the new program also is “further evidence of the growth, influence, and importance of optical and photonics engineering as a discipline. This program joins a growing number of optical engineering programs across the country that are attracting some of the best and brightest students to serve the growing needs of industry, government and academia.”

“The program will help ensure that the U.S. has a chance to participate at all levels in the coming growth in photonics,” said SPIE CEO Eugene Arthurs. “As ABET moves to accredit programs in optics and photonics, UCF, long a leader in technology transfer programs and photonics education, is again showing its innovative drive. This timely new undergraduate program reflects the growing awareness of a vital field that has already changed the world in multiple ways – the Internet, laser surgery, and 3D imaging, to name a few — and that will continue to change the world many times over.”

Students in the new UCF program will study geometrical optics, physical optics, optical materials, and photonics devices and systems, striking a balance between general engineering breadth and basic knowledge and practical skills for solving problems and designing and building working optical systems, Saleh said. Along with core courses, the program will provide hands-on training in laboratories and a capstone senior design project, and participation in a summer internship program with local industry will be encouraged.

As UCF faculty were instrumental in the development of the new ABET program criteria for optical, photonics and similarly named engineering programs, this new program is anticipated to become ABET accredited, which will directly serve the growing need for photonic engineers and further increase the visibility and recognition of optical and photonics engineering as a discipline.

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Volunteers sponsored by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, were in Washington, D.C., last week to thank Congressional representatives for recent support for photonics R&D and to urge future support for in several key areas vital to economic growth and scientific progress. They were among more than 250 scientists, engineers, and business leaders visiting Capitol Hill March 12-13 for a Congressional Visits Day (CVD) sponsored by the Science-Engineering-Technology (SET) Work Group.

  • SPIE volunteers focused primarily on three messages identified by the SPIE Engineering, Science, and Technology Policy (ESTeP):
  • Support for a National Photonics Initiative (NPI) being forwarded by a coalition of professional societies including SPIE, LIA (Laser Institute of America), IEEE Photonics Society, OSA (The Optical Society), and the American Physical Society.
  • Overhaul of export controls.
  • Eliminating restrictions on government-employee travel to scientific conferences.

Members and staff were generally in agreement that now is a critical time for the U.S. to be prioritizing investments in science and innovation and that while control of spending is important, funding for R&D and for STEM education are important ways to grow the economy.

"I appreciate the preparations by SPIE to support those of us working in photonics to succinctly bring our message to our representatives in Congress,” said Jim McNally, director of operations at Applied Technology Associates. “The background materials and coaching tips provided really help us to clearly and concisely articulate the critical priorities to support our nation’s competiveness and innovation edge. We were able to have very productive discussions emphasizing the urgency for a National Photonics Initiative."

Ben Franta, a student at Harvard University, called the event “an eye-opening experience.”

“In the same way that being a scientist or engineer is very different from what most other people imagine it to be, our government operates in a way that’s different from what we might expect by watching or reading the news,” he said.

Franta said the CVD program was “a valuable opportunity to engage with our lawmakers in a way that can lead to real results. To me, the fact that SPIE makes such great use of this opportunity — both to communicate with Congress and to educate students like me — shows a forward-looking approach to promoting technologies in optics and photonics in this country and throughout the world."

An evening reception provided an informal opportunity for CVD participants to talk with Congressional members and staff, and included an exhibition in which company representatives demonstrated products based on discoveries and innovations resulting from federal R&D funding. SPIE co-sponsored a booth highlighting the recent National Academies report, “Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for our Nation,” and raising awareness of efforts to create the NPI.

At the reception, the SET George E. Brown Award was presented to Representatives Mike Honda (D-California) and Richard Hanna (R-New York), to recognize their outstanding efforts to advance and promote science, engineering, and technology on Capitol Hill.

More than 50 percent of all industrial innovation and growth in the United States since World War II can be attributed to advances pioneered through scientific research, with publicly funded R&D the vital foundation for today’s scientific and technological progress.

Technology transfer from academic research adds billions of dollars to the economy each year and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs.

SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. The Society serves nearly 225,000 constituents from approximately 150 countries, offering conferences, continuing education, books, journals, and a digital library in support of interdisciplinary information exchange, professional networking, and patent precedent. SPIE provided over $3.2 million in support of education and outreach programs in 2012.

MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation, a Korea-based designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products, and Sidense Corp., a developer of logic non-volatile memory one-time programmable (OTP) memory IP cores today announced that Sidense’s SLP 1T-OTP macros have been fully qualified for MagnaChip’s 180nm 1.8/3.3/18V high-voltage CMOS and mixed-signal process. Semiconductor devices fabricated in these processes are used in applications such as LED lighting controllers, display controllers and power-management ICs (PMICs) for mobile and other high-volume applications.

"Leading semiconductor device manufacturers are already using Sidense 1T-OTP macros for LED energy management solutions fabricated using MagnaChip’s leading process technology," said Tom Schild, Sidense’s Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing. "By offering our very dense and low-power SLP memory macros in MagnaChip’s HV process, customers have a proven platform in which they can take full advantage of the benefits of 1T-OTP memory and its cost-effectiveness, reliability and security advantages over eFuse, mask ROM and other NVM technologies."

SLP macros are available in a comprehensive range of off-the-shelf configurations ranging from 128 bits for trim and configuration applications up to 256 Kbits per macro for code storage and multiple NVM uses. Benefits of Sidense’s SLP OTP include small footprints to minimize cost, low power consumption, field-programmability, available configurations with word widths up to 128 bits and fast read access to allow executing code from OTP for many applications.

Headquartered in South Korea, MagnaChip Semiconductor is a Korea-based designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products for high volume consumer applications.

Sidense Corp. provides secure, very dense and reliable non-volatile, one-time programmable (OTP) memory IP for use in standard-logic CMOS processes with no additional masks or process steps required. Sidense SiPROM, SLP and ULP memory products, embedded in more than 250 customer designs, are available from 180nm down to 28nm and are scalable to 20nm and below.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.07 billion in orders worldwide in February 2013 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.10, according to the February Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.  A book-to-bill of 1.10 means that $110 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in February 2013 was $975.3 million. The billings figure is 0.8 percent higher than the final January 2013 level of $968.0 million, and is 26.3 percent lower than the February 2012 billings level of $1.32 billion.

book-to-bill ratio semiconductor industry Feb 2013

“Three-month average bookings and billings posted by North American semiconductor equipment providers remain above parity and consistent with prior month levels," said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI. "We expect modest investment by semiconductor makers in the first half of the year with foundry and advanced packaging technology among the near-term spending drivers.”

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.

The data was compiled by David Powell, Inc., an independent financial services firm, without audit, from data submitted directly by the participants. SEMI and David Powell, Inc. assume no responsibility for the accuracy of the underlying data.

The data is contained in a monthly Book-to-Bill Report published by SEMI. The report tracks billings and bookings worldwide of North American-headquartered manufacturers of equipment used to manufacture semiconductor devices, not billings and bookings of the chips themselves. The Book-to-Bill report is one of three reports included with the Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS).

SEMI is the global industry association serving the nano- and micro-electronic manufacturing supply chains. SEMI maintains offices in Bangalore, Beijing, Berlin, Brussels, Grenoble, Hsinchu, Moscow, San Jose, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C.

 

Crystal IS, Inc., a manufacturer of proprietary, high-performance ultraviolet light emitting diodes (UVC LEDs) for monitoring, purification, and disinfection applications, has announced today that they achieved more than 65mW in optical output at 260nm from a single UVC LED operated in a continuous mode. The details of this breakthrough were recently published in Applied Physics Express.

"This achievement is a technological milestone in the continued development of brighter, more efficient and reliable UVC LEDs. By employing die thinning and encapsulation techniques, we were able to increase the photon extraction efficiency to over 15%, “said Leo Schowalter, founder and CTO.  "By fabricating our LEDs on our home grown aluminum nitride substrates, we continue to set the pace of what is possible for the combination of highest efficiencies and longest lifetimes in the 250-280nm wavelength range, far surpassing diodes fabricated on sapphire."

“This R&D accomplishment represents a more than six-fold increase in performance from just one year ago,” said Larry Felton, CEO. “Our progress in business operations continues on a like pace, readying us and our LEDs for commercial success.”

UVC refers to ultraviolet light with wavelengths between 200 – 280 nanometers (nm). Light in the UVC wavelength can be used for disinfecting water, sterilizing surfaces, destroying harmful micro-organisms in food products and in air, and for spectroscopy applications. Yole Développement estimates the UVC lamp market to be nearly $200 Million in 2012, with lamps being replaced increasingly by UV LEDs.

"Our products will address some of the most pressing health concerns of our time,” said Therese Jordan, Senior Vice President of Business Development. “We are seeing demand in both water and air for the disinfection and quality monitoring aspects of UVC. Similarly, spectroscopic instruments are also taking advantage of the high light output available in a UVC LED. Unlike UV lamps, UVC LEDs are mercury-free, compact, rugged and robust, lending themselves to an array of designs and hold the promise of long life and environmentally friendly end-of-life disposal.”

Engineering samples of UVC LEDs are available from Crystal IS.

UVC LED from Crystal IS

PPG Industries has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for “significant achievements” in advancing organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting technology. Dennis O’Shaughnessy, Ph.D., PPG associate director for flat glass research and development, accepted the award on behalf of the PPG team during the 2013 Solid-State Lighting (SSL) R&D (Research and Development) Workshop in Long Beach, Calif.

PPG’s advances are the result of a two-year project initiated with the DOE in 2010 to promote the commercialization and mass production of OLED lighting. The PPG team led by Abhinav Bhandari, Ph.D., project engineer, has demonstrated a float glass-based integrated substrate with scalable light-extraction technologies and transparent conductive films for OLED lighting applications.

The results indicate significant cost and performance advantages over conventional indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated display-grade glass substrates. PPG’s light-extraction technologies are compatible with the conventional float glass manufacturing process and result in significant enhancement of device efficiencies, according to O’Shaughnessy.

Dick Beuke, PPG vice president, flat glass, said the new glass substrate is one of several major initiatives PPG is advancing to reduce energy use in the U.S.

“At PPG, we are proud to be developing glass technologies to make OLED lighting more viable for mass use,” he said. “This research enhances and complements the work our scientists are doing in architectural glass and coatings to make homes and buildings more energy efficient, and in solar technology to help that industry achieve grid parity.”

Mehran Arbab, Ph.D., PPG director, glass science and technology, said, “OLED lights have the potential to emit four times as much light per watt as incandescent bulbs. Widespread commercial use of this technology could significantly reduce energy use in homes, buildings and workplaces.”

PPG was the only company honored in the OLED lighting area at the three-day workshop, which brought together nearly 300 researchers, manufacturers and industry insiders who are promoting and monitoring the latest developments in SSL technology. The DOE supports SSL R&D efforts to accelerate market introduction of high-efficiency, high-performance SSL products. Its mission for the SSL R&D portfolio is to “create a new, U.S.-led market for high efficiency, general illumination products through the advancement of semiconductor technologies, to save energy, reduce costs and enhance the quality of the lighted environment.”

Samsung Electronics catapulted to the top of the optoelectronics supplier ranking in 2012 from 12th place in 2011 after it gained full ownership of Samsung LED, a 50-50 joint venture in light-emitting diodes that was created in 2009 between Samsung Electronics and affiliate Samsung Electro-Mechanics.  In April 2012, the venture was absorbed into Samsung Electronics to strengthen and expand the use of high-brightness LEDs in displays, LCD TVs, and new solid-state lighting products. This transfer increased Samsung’s optoelectronics sales by 223% to $2.5 billion in 2012 compared to $780 million in 2011, according to the new 2013 edition of IC Insights’ O-S-D Report—A Market Analysis and Forecast for Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes.

The LED operation added $1.5 billion to Samsung’s total revenues in 2012, based on the O-S-D supplier rankings in the new 350-page report, which becomes available in March 2013.  The rest of Samsung’s optoelectronics sales come from CMOS image sensors, which generated $975 million in 2012—a 25% increase from 2011.  The 2013 O-S-D Report shows Samsung as the second-largest supplier of CMOS image sensors in 2012, positioned between top-ranked OmniVision and third-place Sony.  The 2013 O-S-D Report provides top 10 supplier rankings for the individual optoelectronics, sensors/actuators, and discrete semiconductor markets in addition to an overall top 30 list of companies selling O-S-D products in 2012.

Samsung’s huge increase in optoelectronics sales vaulted it to first place in IC Insights’ top 30 O-S-D ranking for 2012 from 20th in 2011. High-brightness white LED and blue-laser pioneer Nichia in Japan moved up to second place in the O-S-D ranking from fourth place in 2011 with an 11% increase in optoelectronics sales in 2012.  In the 2012 O-S-D ranking, Toshiba and ST fell to third and fourth, respectively, due to steep sales declines in CMOS image sensors and double-digit drops in discretes.  Toshiba and ST had been the No. 1 and No. 2 suppliers in the O-S-D marketplace since the middle of the last decade.

top five O-S-D suppliers 2012

Suppliers of high-brightness LEDs generally moved higher in the overall O-S-D ranking in 2012 due to strong sales growth in lamp devices used for solid-state lighting systems.  In addition to Samsung and Nichia moving up to the No. 1 and 2 positions in O-S-D, six other LED makers climbed higher in the top 30 ranking (Sharp, Osram, Philips, LG Innotek, Seoul Semiconductor, and Toyoda Gosei). U.S.-based Cree, which makes LEDs and radio-frequency/microwave power transistors, was unchanged in the top 30 O-S-D ranking at 17th place in 2012.

Among the significant changes in the O-S-D supplier rankings was ST climbing to first place in the sensors/actuators market in 2012 from fourth in 2011.  ST’s sensor sales grew 19% in 2012 to $791 million.  Hewlett-Packard fell to fourth place in sensors/actuators last year from the top spot in 2011 due to a 10% decline in sales of HP’s inkjet-printer actuators in 2012.  In discrete semiconductors, Toshiba held on to its top position despite a 12% decline in discretes sales in 2012.

Bridgelux, a developer and manufacturer of LED lighting technologies and solutions, today unveiled the Vero LED array, a new lighting platform that simplifies design integration and manufacturing and gives designers a more flexible LED lighting solution.

The Vero next generation packaged array technology offers new advancements in design flexibility, ease of use, and energy efficiency today while also defining a platform for future opportunities to integrate smart sensors and wireless communication technology for smart building control systems and other innovative applications. 

Vero advancements revolve around three primary innovations: a new, higher flux density LED array, an increase in lumens per watt by up to 20% over existing Bridgelux LED arrays and a simplified assembly process that streamlines manufacturing and improves overall system reliability. Taken as a whole, the Vero platform will allow manufacturers to dramatically reduce electronic and optical component inventories while broad input current ranges allow designers to optimize products on efficiency, cost, and light output. 

Vero Platform Technical Details

The Vero platform provides complete application coverage from four form factors, delivering the light output and color temperatures required for retail, hospitality, commercial, industrial, residential and outdoor lighting applications. In their official release, Bridgelux said the arrays will initially be available with performance ranging from 800 lumens in warm white (3000K) up to 20,000 lumens in cool white (5000K) with multiple CCT and CRI options, including the 97 CRI Decor product option.

With significant advancements in luminaire design flexibility, the Vero product offers a light emitting surface (LES) area with higher flux densities than earlier Bridgelux array designs.  The Vero LED array has been engineered to be driven reliably at much higher drive currents than previous offerings to further increase performance and reduce cost. These new features combine to allow luminaire designers to develop smaller, sleeker designs and to deliver narrow beam angles for spot and track applications facilitating high contrast ratio lighting designs.

The Vero arrays are compatible with a wide variety of standard drivers and optical components, providing manufacturers with greater flexibility and more options than normal, shortening product development times, lowering inventory requirements and reducing costs. The new Vero array series will also provide luminaire manufactures enhanced interface and connection options.  The electrical connection may be established via user friendly solder pads or by using a solderless on-board connector provided by Molex.

The Vero platform is currently being evaluated by Bridgelux customers and will be broadly commercially available in the first quarter of 2013.

 

power design challenges and new product

ON Semiconductor will showcase its latest power efficient product advances at APEC 2013, March 17 – 21, 2013, in Long Beach, California. The new devices are designed for boosting performance and simplifying the design of offline power supplies, AC lighting infrastructure and motor control systems.

Targeted for high efficiency, compact, switch-mode power supplies for power adaptors, the NCP1937is a quasi-resonant (QR) flyback controller device with power factor correction (PFC).  This is the first AC-DC device utilizing a hybrid digital core architecture enabling higher efficiency, increased flexibility and easier system design implementation.  The device incorporates all the features necessary for building a robust and compact PFC stage in combination with a QR flyback stage while minimizing the number of external components.  The quasi-resonant current-mode flyback stage features a proprietary valley-lockout circuitry, ensuring stable valley switching. It has wide voltage range spanning 9 volts (V) to 30 V, plus built-in over-voltage protection, and a skip mode operation which enables higher efficiency in light load conditions.   The NCP1937 will be demonstrated in an 85 watt (W) Notebook Adapter showcasing the industry’s leading <10 milliWatt (mW) no load standby power.

The NCP1255/NCP1254 is a fixed frequency PWM controller designed for applications requiring peak power capability. Offered in SOIC-8 and TSOP-6 packages, it operates with a fixed 65 kilohertz (kHz) switching frequency with the ability to scale the frequency up to 130 kHz based on output load requirements. In light load conditions with the power on the secondary side decreasing, the IC automatically folds back its switching frequency to a minimum level (26 kHz). The inclusion of adjustable over-power protection and adjustable brown-out protection functions make this device ideal for products requiring peak-power capabilities such as printers, and ultrabooks.  The NCP1255 will be demonstrated in a 15 W nominal 55 W peak power printer adapter.

For LED power supply applications, the high functional integration of theNCL30081 PWM controller IC minimizes the number of external components required for AC powered LED lighting designs. It operates in a quasi-resonant mode to enhance overall efficiency and provides precision regulation of the LED current from the primary side. Dispensing with the need for secondary side feedback control, as well as the associated optocoupler and biasing circuitry, the device is specifically intended for very compact space efficient designs utilizing either flyback or buck-boost topologies. It supports step dimming by monitoring the AC line and detecting when the line has been toggled on-off-on by the user to reduce the light intensity in five steps down to five percent dimming.  The NCL30081 will be demonstrating the step dimming functionality and compact system solution in a standard GU10 bulb design.

The NSIC2020 is a linear constant current regulator based on Self-Biased Transistor (SBT) technology. Because these devices do not require the specification of any external components, they can serve as either high or low side regulators, thus offering a streamlined solution that makes the development process more straight forward and maximizes design flexibility. This compact SMB packaged device is capable of regulating current over a wide voltage range (from 0 V to 120 V). Its negative temperature coefficient enables protection of LED emitters from thermal runaway at extreme voltages and currents.

Also on display at the ON Semiconductor booth will be the LV8702V a high efficiency stepper motor driver IC housed in a compact SSOP package and targeted at office automation equipment applications (multi-function printers, copiers, scanners, etc.). It is capable of dramatically lowering no-load power consumption and peak motor current, thereby maximizing energy efficiency in system designs. The company’s latest 1200 V IGBTs using trench field stop topologies and 40 ampere (A) current ratings will be also be featured. Offering both low on state voltage and minimal switching loss, the IGBT is well suited for motor drive control and other hard switching applications.