05/29/2012 

Barclays Capital’s analysts say that the LED industry remains in oversupply, and 90%+ utilization rates being reported in Taiwan’s LED fabs are a short-lived event.

05/28/2012 

05/26/2012 

Intel will invest more than $40 million over the next 5 years in a worldwide network of university research centers called "Intel Collaborative Research Institutes." Academia -- in hub and spoke universities -- will collaborate with industry on technology R&D.

05/24/2012 

Intel's Jackie Sturm will bring to light some of the emerging, growth markets for semiconductors, and what they mean for chipmakers and the fab suppliers in the first session of The ConFab, “The Economic Outlook for the Semiconductor Industry.”

05/24/2012 

“LED is now the dominant force in lighting for the foreseeable future,” reports Ted Konnerth of Egret Consulting Group, after LightFair 2012. What does that mean for traditional lighting products, applications, distribution channels, and talent?

05/23/2012 

EpiGaN NV opened its GaN epitaxial material production site, on the Research Campus Hasselt in Belgium. EpiGaN’s GaN-on-Si material is used in next-generation power electronics.

05/22/2012 

Quantum dots will grow to a $7480.25 million market by 2022, at a ten-year CAGR of 55.2%, according to Electronics.ca Publications.

05/21/2012 

LED manufacturers must choose the appropriate materials and processes to fight low yields, writes Thomas Uhrmann of EV Group (EVG).

05/18/2012 

China has designated LEDs as one of the 7th emerging industries to be fostered in the Twelfth Five-year Plan. China is accelerating standardization plans, encouraging local production, and subsidizing purchases of LED lighting, Displaybank reports.

05/18/2012 

SEMICON West is less than 2 months away, July 10-12 in San Francisco, CA. Plan your attendee schedule now with highlights from the Extreme Electronics “show within a show;” 4 strong keynotes; sessions on device architecture and node shrink, lithography, 450mm wafers and more.

05/17/2012 

Barclays Capital’s Asia IT analyst Jones Ku shares details of China's State Council’s subsidy program for household electrical appliances. The program sets aside RMB2.2 billion to promote consumption of LEDs and “other energy-saving light bulbs.”

05/16/2012 

After a surge in 2010 and oversupply in 2011 that suppressed 2012 fab, LED makers will see a leveling out of supply and demand into better equilibrium, according to NPD DisplaySearch. Demand will shift from LCD-backlit LEDs to LEDs for lighting.

05/14/2012 

LEDs are typically manufactured on sapphire substrates, about 90% of the blue LEDs currently in production. SiC substrates are used for virtually all the remaining 10% of blue LEDs. To improve efficiency and brightness, as well as cost, LED makers are looking to other substrates, such as Si and ZnO.

05/14/2012 

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.

05/11/2012 

Bridgelux and Toshiba reported a 1.1mm² LED chip fabricated on an 8" GaN-on-Si wafer, emitting 614mW, <3.1V @ 350mA. The companies will collaborate on commercializing GaN-on-Si LEDs, and Toshiba has invested in Bridgelux.

05/11/2012 

In light of “challenging industry conditions” in the LED and PV manufacturing sectors, Applied Materials (AMAT) decided to restructure its Energy and Environmental Solutions (EES) segment.

05/09/2012 

SEMI presented US Congressman Dave Camp (R-MI) with its 2012 North American Government Leadership Award for his leadership and support of the US microelectronics and photovoltaic manufacturing value chain.

05/09/2012 

SunSun Lighting, a provider of high-performance, energy-efficient and low-cost 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. Allan Kwan, a China-based advisor for Oak, is joining the board of SunSun.

05/08/2012 

SEMI’s Paula Doe covers the “commodity market” of LEDs, including capacity utilization at LED fabs, automation in manufacturing that could improve yields, LEDs fabbed on silicon and GaN instead of sapphire wafers, and more.

05/08/2012 

University of Warsaw, Poland, researchers will grow GaN materials on a new AIXTRON SE Close Coupled Showerhead MOCVD reactor in a 3 x 2” wafer configuration.