Taiwan

Philips to Outsource LED Lighting Manufacturing to Taiwan

sarafan — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:58:04 +0000

According to Edward Po, general manager of Philips Taiwan Ltd.-Lighting Division, Philips Lighting will likely subcontract LED lighting manufacturing to Taiwan when it begins volume production of the products.

Philips had planned to make global debut of 4W and 7W LED lamps in synch early next month, aiming at replacing sub-40W incandescent lamps and compact fluorescent lamps with the lamps over the next two or three years. Once Philips begins volume production of the lamps it will likely subcontract Asian LED manufacturers, particularly Taiwanese manufacturers, to make the lamps for it in order to cut production costs. Philips had kept in touch with three to four of Taiwan’s top-tier LED suppliers in case Philips decides to deliver outsourcing orders.

Currently, Taiwan has over 22 million incandescent lamps still in use, consuming around 1.08 billion kilowatts of electricity per hour a year. An estimated 800 million kilowatt per hour could be saved a year if these energy-guzzling lamps are completed eradicated from the island. The government here plans to wipe out incandescent lamps in four years and replace them with energy-saving lamps including LED lamps, to promote reduction of greenhouse-gas emission and electricity consumption.

Po estimated LED lamps to snatch up 5% of global lighting market over next two to three years, given the global trend of governments to push energy-saving lamps, up from current 1%. Taiwan’s lighting market is estimated at NT$15 billion a year, with NT$5 billion generated from light-source sales and NT$10 billion from sales of lighting fixtures. LED currently represents only 5% of the Taiwan market now.

Dongbu HiTek Announces Joint Development of LED Driver IC

sarafan — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:02:55 +0000

Recently, Dongbu HiTek announced the joint development of an LED driver chip for Back Light Unit (BLU) applications in laptop computers. Developed in collaboration with ADDtek, a Taiwanese fabless company specializing in analog and mixed-signal chip solutions, the new LED driver designed by Taiwan-Based ADDtek uses Dongbu HiTek’s specialized BCDMOS (Bipolar CMOS DMOS) process at the 0.35-Micron Node.

Now, the announcement further highlights Dongbu HiTek’s commitment to BCDMOS leadership as it closely follows the Korean company’s launch of the world’s first 0.18 micron-level BCDMOS process in June. In addition to supporting a wide range of high-voltages from 12V to 60V, Dongbu HiTek’s BCDMOS technology enables a diversity of highly compact mixed-signal chip solutions.

Jae Song, EVP of marketing for Dongbu HiTek, asserted they are committed to becoming the preferred source for BCDMOS chip solutions. He disclosed that future support could extend the operating range of 0.35 micron-level chips up to 85V. Dr. Song expects Dongbu HiTek to steadily increase LED chip driver production volume for ADDtek next year to meet customer demand. He noted that his company will begin manufacturing LED light sources that are used not only in BLU applications for laptops, desktops, mobile handsets and flat panel TVs, but in other growth markets as well. According to related analysis, an independent market research firm, the worldwide market for LED driver ICs will grow from approximately $650 million this year to more than $800 million in 2011.

About Dongbu HiTek

Headquartered in Seoul, Korea, Dongbu HiTek Co., Ltd. offers advanced products and services across two major business areas: Agriculture and Semiconductor. The Semiconductor Business provides specialized chip foundry services that add high value to display, mobile and various analog applications. The company’s two world-class fabs currently process 200mm wafers at nodes ranging from 0.35 microns to 110 nanometers. This wafer processing is supported by comprehensive design support (IP and design libraries), prototype development/verification, and packaging/module development.

Chuang Hsiang to Enhance Auto Mirrors With LEDs

sarafan — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:25:06 +0000

It’s reported that Chuang Hsiang Technology Co., Ltd. makes traditional automotive side mirrors more functional and attractive by adding LED signal lights on them.

Chuang Hsiang Technology Co., Ltd. is a very innovative company, after it gained a solid foothold in the LED mirror business, the firm has also innovated the LED door handles to revolutionize the market.

In Taiwan, the company is the most experienced and specialized developer and manufacturer of LED side mirrors, including whole LED mirror sets or mirror covers with LED for customers’ various requirements. Currently, Chuang Hsiang focuses on the development of such products for mainly popular Japanese and Korean car models, but also takes customers orders for making eye-catching mirrors for some European and American cars. In addition to LED mirrors sold in global tuning market, Chuang Hsiang, in fact, is the largest supplier of LED mirrors to many automakers’ pre-delivery inspection (PDI) centers in Taiwan, including Honda, Toyota, Nissan etc.

Lin Jian-fu, the company’s chairman, claims that his firm currently operates three R&D departments each specializing in LED mirror covers, LED door handles, and other auto accessories. The rapid responses and innovative ideas of talented R&D staff at the workshops have strengthening Chuang Hsiang’s competitiveness in the market.

The LED mirror and handle maker’s core competitiveness comes from its strong manufacturing capability. Currently, Chuang Hsiang runs two plants in Taiwan with total employee number of over 100, including one in Taipei and another in Taichung. All of the production works, from development, tooling, plastic injection, coating and finishing, assembly, and packaging are conducted in-house to assure the highest quality level. With its vigorous efforts, the company has developed over 80 sets of LED mirror covers and handles, and the number has been rapidly increasing thanks to the firm’s ambitious R&D projects. Lin forecasts that the LED handles are expected to gradually become a trendy product in the automotive market because such items simultaneously offer high decoration and safety functions, especially in bad weathers and in the night.

Quality is the top priority at Chuang Hsiang, Lin claims, that’s why all of the firm’s mirror covers and handles adopt only the first-class LEDs supplied by famous makers in Taiwan.

LED general lighting market to reach US$1.4 billion by 2010

sarafan — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:55:51 +0000

Taiwan Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK) forecasts that the global LED general lighting market may grow to US$1.4 billion by 2012. IEK mentioned that although the LED general lighting market is not expected to see explosive growth, growth will remain steady over the next few years.

Luxtaltek orders Obducat system for photonic crystal LEDs mass production

sarafan — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:00:22 +0000

Recently, Obducat, the Sweden-based supplier of NanoImprint Lithography (NIL) and Electron Beam Lithography systems, has received an order from Luxtaltek Corporation, a Tawian-based LED maker.

The order is worth 22.5 MSEK ($3.55 million) and concerns one Sindre® 400 system and one Sindre® 60 system, to be used for mass production of photonic crystal LEDs. One Sindre® 60 system will be delivered during September 2008, followed by the Sindre® 400 system by end of Q1, 2009. The fully automated Sindre® 400 will have production capacity of 30 wafers per hour for any wafer size between two and four inches.

Luxtaltek Corporation is a Taiwan-based provider of high brightness LED wafers, photonic crystal LED chips and LED modules. It was founded earlier this year by Taiwanese LED makers Uni-light Touchtek Corp and Taiwan Oasis Technology Corp, and has so far secured more than $10m in funding. Luxtaltek aims to provide photonic-crystal (PhC) LED wafer patterning services and customized PhC LED chips and modules, beginning production of gallium nitride (GaN) based PhC LED wafers in Q4/2008. The firm plans to set up eight production lines with the capacity to process 200,000 PhC LED wafers/month by the end of 2010.

Based on imprint performance and cost efficiency, Obducat has proven to have a superior imprint performance in comparison to other competitors. They select Obducat as our preferred supplier for LED applications. In addition, they are very pleased to get the commitment from Obducat to fully support the Luxtaltek production expansion plan for the next two years.

Epistar Increases LED Output to Meet China Orders

sarafan — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:53:58 +0000

It’s reported that Epistar Corp. will increase production of LED because of orders from China following the Beijing Olympics.

According to the related analysis, Epistar had previously cut its production estimates for Europe and North America to 100 million LEDs from 160 million amid market uncertainty. The orders may help Epistar use up to 90 percent of its production capacity. Genesis Photonics Inc., I-Chiun Precision Industry Co. and Opto Tech Corp. will also benefit from increased orders for LEDs used in outdoor displays.

The Hsinchu, Taiwan-based company is the island's largest maker of LEDs, which are chips that glow when an electrical current is applied.

LED packaging players expect increasing sales for 3Q

sarafan — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:41:14 +0000

While LED players' revenues in July rebounded sequerntially, they were still far from the peak levels seen early this year and the end of last year, though Taiwan LED packaging companies such as Bright LED and Everlight Electronics are also seeing improvement in thier August orders as well.

Delta to Enter LED Market

sarafan — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:01:53 +0000

It’s reported that Delta Electronics Inc. plans to invest in the LED industry by the end of the year.

LEDs are semiconductors used to illuminate liquid- crystal televisions, street lights and music players. Delta, based in Taipei, is the world's largest maker of power systems for computers and games machines.

Delta will start manufacturing the LEDs to secure supply of the components.

ARC SSL announces 3-channel MINI Controller CA3001

ivan — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:49:57 +0000

ARC Solid-State Lighting, provider of LED driver and controller, announces a new LED lighting controller-MINI Controller CA3001, the control capacity of 3-channels RGB full color is extremely favorable for Lighting Embellishing of Shop Widows and Products Showcases to create amazing lighting effects and romantic atmospheres easily. Having both control and driving capacities but it is truly simple to install. With built-in 12 different lighting effects, users may choose any one as their wish and the lighting effect speeds are also adjustable.

CA3001 Features
RGB Full color LED controller
Various lighting effects：12 built-in lighting effects and 1 user-defined lighting effect; 16 adjustable lighting speeds or brightness through dip switches.
Smooth color transitions：256 levels of gray scale
Powerful driving capacity：2A driving capacity each channel, and total can drive up to 6A

The speed of 12 various built-in lighting effects can be adjusted as users' wish. 16 levels speed may fit different events, and then let LED lighting shows your brand image. If the built-in lighting effects do not match your CIS, you can make your own one as well. Taking a clothing shop as an example, it can display brand indentified color normally to make your customers impressed；When holding new products launch events, you can change the usual lighting effect to a wonderful one regarding to the event topic. Since your showcase is greatly eye-catching, it's just a piece of cake for attracting your customers.

「I would like to use LED lighting for decorate my shop, but I do not have any LED professional knowledge or experience of installation. Is the setting procedure of lighting effects very complicated? Is it difficult to install the whole system?」 If you do have any concern as above, CA3001 is definitely your best choice. Compared with the power benefits that CA3001 offers, the installation and lighting effects setting are really simple；there are only 6 output/input connectors, as picture 1 shows, two on the left side are for power input, and the rest four connectors on the right side are connected with your LED lighting fixture. All you need is only a screw driver to get the all connection done, and then select the lighting effect you need and adjust the light effect speed through two dip switches"Mode/Speed".

Picture 1：CA3001 MINI Controller installation guide

CA3001 Applications

Lighting embellishing in Shop windows
Lighting design in product showcases

About ARC SSL
ARC Solid-State Lighting was founded in Jan, 2007 in Taipei, Taiwan. We focus on the LED lighting controller and opto-electronic design and development to provide appropriate solutions for LED Lighting applications. Among the wide range of opto-electronic devices, ARC SSL chooses LED lighting applications as the axis for technology development and explores the advanced software and control system technology to outperform the advantages of LED lighting devices.

Forepi orders further six MOCVD systems for LED production

sarafan — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:32:13 +0000

Recently, Aixtron announced an order from Formosa Epitaxy Inc. for further six CRIUS Close Coupled Showerhead MOCVD systems received in the first quarter of 2008. This order for our CRIUS CCS tools confirms the exceptional capabilities in the design and operation of these systems.

Formosa Epitaxy Inc., one of Taiwan’s leading manufacturers of ultra high brightness LEDs, will use the systems for volume production of GaN-based UHB LEDs.

Dr. Fen Ren Chien, President of Forepi, said that is the second repeat order for CRIUS systems and this technology has become one of the main platforms for our large scale high end LED production. That they have been able to make such good progress in the marketplace so quickly is largely due to the excellent performance of the AIXTRON MOCVD equipment backed up by top grade local support.