China

LED Firms Push towards Lighting Focus

sarafan — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:46:31 +0000

It’s reported that India's US$1.5 billion lighting industry is growing 15% a year and bringing in new technologies. At the Light India International Exhibition and Conference early in 2008, the focus was on saving energy in lighting and the spotlight was on LEDs.

Indian lighting engineers are excited about the LED opportunity, said HS Mamak, president emeritus, Indian Society of Lighting Engineers. Mamak said: "Because of the pricing problem, the share of LED-based lighting is still very small. However, anticipated potential is tremendous: in five years 4-5% of the lighting market could be LED-based, rising to 10% a few years after. Lighting companies like Philips, GE and Osram, which have a presence in India, see up to 50% of their production LED-based in the next 7-10 years."

Philips, which controls 30% of the local market, is setting up a global lighting electronics R&D center near Delhi. Philips' India CEO, Murali Sivaraman noted that engineers will work on globally defined lighting R&D programs. Philips is investing Rs80-100 million in the center which will function by the year-end.

A nanotechnology research center at Anna University, Chennai, has come up, with Rs75 million in government money, to work mainly on crystal growth and characterization of gallium nitride-based semiconductor nanostructures for LED applications. Materials for white LEDs are a main focus area, and a key department, the Crystal Growth Center (CGC), functions as an inter-university facility for relevant research, besides implementing industrial consultancy work.

According to Dr K Baskar, assistant professor at CGC, thay are taking the aluminum gallium nitride route to push wavelengths into the deep ultra violet region suitable for white LEDs, which has acquired a Rs55 million MOCVD system.

While big Japanese names initially dominated India's LED imports, Chinese and Korean companies have appeared recently. Seoul Semiconductor has sales agents in Mumbai and Delhi, and is technology partner to lighting solutions startup d.light. YS Baik, Seoul Semiconductor's general manager, said, "We don't have specific products for the India market, but are willing to consider a design partner." Small Indian design startups are growing fast to tap the design opportunities. Arrow Asia and Cree Inc conducted seminars on LED lighting to create interest among Indian designers. Baik noted, "The Indian market needs Chinese prices with Japanese quality. Seoul Semiconductor is strong in R&D, and is famous for its LEDs with high luminous efficacy of 100lm/W. Our product Acriche is the world's first AC-driven solid state lighting device, which works at high AC voltages (110V~220V) without secondary components like converters and drivers. It's the most promising device for future LED lighting, as the generally used DC LEDs can sometimes be constrained by the 20,000-hour life span of AC-DC converters."

LED lighting has hitherto failed in India's rural areas because of the US$50 to US$100 price tag. Now, said Gabriel Risk, CTO, d.light, "LED efficiency has improved and prices of LEDs superior to CFLs in luminous efficacy have dropped." d.light's Nova lamp, which sells for US$15 to US$30, has a battery with patented circuitry to protect it from deep discharging and over-charging, and fast-charges under a range of voltage conditions. Alternatively, a portable solar panel fully charges the Nova in 10-12 hours of direct sunlight.

d.light's Comet, described as "The world's most affordable solar light," uses an ultra efficient Seoul Semiconductor LED and sells for US$8 to US$15. "We use the highest efficacy LEDs available, rated 90-100L, for the lowest possible price. The products are contract manufactured in Shenzhen, and lamp designs and charging methods are tweaked to regulate brightness according to end-use and to keep costs low," said Risk.

LED Industry Development Trend

sarafan — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:32:52 +0000

It’s reported ResearchInChina releases Global LED Industry Report, 2008. Since 2002, LED has been developed rapidly caused by the wide application in mobile phones. With the improvement of LED luminescence efficiency, LED has got rid off the reliance on mobile phone industry and enters the semiconductor lighting era. LED development has the following four trends:

Firstly, vehicle lighting. Currently, break lights is the main LED application for vehicle. The market penetration rate was 53% in 2007; the figure will increase to 85% by 2011. In addition, the penetration rate of vehicle LED taillight was close to 15%, and the figure is expected to reach 38% by 2011. Moreover, Cadillac Escalade was the first car adopting LED both in high beam and low beam in the world, signifying that LED has entered the headlight era. Taiwan Everlight will also start the mass production of LED headlight as early as Q3 2008; the client is China DongFeng Motor Corporation. Secondly, laptops and other medium and small-size backlights, especially the laptop below 14-inch. However, the IT industry is suffering slowdown, manufacturers have greatly cut down the cost, and the wide application of LED has to wait for the industry recovery. Thirdly, social activities and screen adverting. The application in the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics was a typical achievement. Especially in China, the governments are enthusiasm at huge LED screens; the one in Shanghai Financial Center cost RMB 100 million. Fourthly, general lighting. Street lights and flashlight are more potential. The energy-efficient and environment-friendly is the advantages of LED street lights, considering the overall cost, LED street lights only slight higher than sodium lights.

Neo-Neo to Be Fully-integrated LED Manufacturer to handle LED production

sarafan — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:14:54 +0000

It’s reported that Neo-Neo Group will be the first Taiwan-based LED-lighting maker to be fully integrated-running manufacturing facilities to handle, from top to bottom, the entire production process in the LED industry, with moving to produce epitaxy wafers in September this year.

The world’s No.1 supplier of LED decorative lamps and mini lamps, Neo-Neo turns out half of the mini lamps worldwide. It’s also the largest supplier of stage lighting in Asia, employing nearly 20,000 workers in mainland China and having generated an estimated US$200 million in revenues for 2007.

B.H. Fan, the president of Neo-Neo, stressed that with the epitaxy wafer factory coming online, they will further reduce production cost, boost competitiveness and expand product lines. The group also operates LED packaging and LED-lighting assembly lines. Designed for an initial output of 12,500 wafers carrying some 400 million chips, the factory is constructed on 300 acres in Guangdong Province of mainland China, where the 28-year-old company is headquartered. The company has spent around US$30 million on the first-phase production equipment in the factory. "Still in-house output remains far short of our needs," says Fan, noting the company will buy US$20 million contracted wafers yearly even after in-house production kicks off.

Neo-Neo has bought such chips from Epistar Corp., Formosa Epitaxy Inc. and Huga Optech Inc., all being Taiwan-based chipmakers, as well as Cree Inc. of the United States. And it has built Epistar chips into the 10,000 LED streetlights supplied to Dutch and mainland Chinese buyers.

In light of the technology-intensive investment, Guangdong provincial government has granted the group a 15% deduction on corporate income tax, equaling about 10% less tax burden than average lighting manufacturers in China. "The investment will allow us to cut costs of LED lights faster than projected." says Randy Cheng, general manager of Neo-Neo’s Taipei branch." Chen touts that the group’s LED productions will be much less expensive than its rivals. He explained that they streamline production processes, adding that the chips made will go into both the company’s indoor and outdoor lighting.

However, Jimmy Chen, President and CEO of ColorStars Group, a LED-lighting manufacturer, is perturbed by the trend for manufacturers to become fully integrated-setting up to handle LED production from wafers and chips to packaging and assembly. "You find your partner morphing into competitor overnight. For instance, we’ve stopped buying chips from Cree since it has acquired a lighting manufacturer," he says.

In response, Cheng notes his company has no intention to sell its chips to lighting manufacturers besides its subsidiaries. "But we cannot be sure of their loyalty to us when rivals offer irresistible quotations," Cheng says.

To keep up with brisk demand for LED lamps, Neo-Neo this year will expand its LED factory in Guangdong by 150,000 square meters. Fan points out that rising eco-awareness worldwide will help his group to meet the goal to double sales of LED lamps this year as compared with last year’s volume. Meanwhile, he estimates the group will sell 30% less incandescent products this year, with such decorative lighting to fully vanish from markets in three years.

Although the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the credit crunch stateside are hurting the group’s sales in the U.S., Fan is confident that brisk demands for LED lighting in other markets will help-expecting to see group sales to eventually rise around 30% by the end of this year, as well as projecting LED lighting to account for close to 70% of corporate revenue this year. The chairman believes there remains ample room for growth in the global LED decorative lighting market considering that such lamps have so far replaced only 10% of traditional lamps, adding, "I believe considerable growth will likely happen for our business in the near future as long as we can secure more epitaxy-wafer supply."

Having achieved big-time success with LED decorative lights, Neo-Neo has begun applying LEDs to streetlights. Fan points out that decorative lights and streetlights will remain the major applications for LED lamps: because both typically carry limited-size lampshades that preclude using fluorescent lamps as an energy-efficient upgrade. The group began shipping LED streetlights last year to mainland China and the Netherlands in small volumes, a success that Cheng at the Taiwan branch attributes to the group’s unique thermal-dissipation solution for LED streetlight. Cheng foresees steady growth in demand for LED decorative lights and is optimistic about the LED streetlight market. "We’ve officially begun to tap the streetlight market this year," he says.

Marketing veteran Keith Lam, vice president of sales and marketing for Neo-Neo Holdings Ltd., is upbeat about the future of the LED lighting market: "LED lighting is everywhere now if you just look at Hong Kong at night. The EU plans to ban incandescent lamps in a few years, which gives energy-saving products like LED a big boost." Lam notes luminous efficacy of LEDs has been improved significantly since his company entered into the segment around eight years ago. "At that time, LED could only be decorative lighting due to low lumens. But now, even one watt is a popular LED specification," he says.

Neo-Neo recently introduced many high-efficiency LED lamps for commercial purposes, including a 50-watt, 3,300 lumen model and a fourth-generation road light. The next-generation light reportedly will be equipped with a smart reflector, which is designed to enable a 60-watt light to conserve close to 50% electricity and yet be twice as bright compared with a 70-watt type with the same number of LEDs.

Cost continues to bother Lam, who thinks it is still the major obstacle preventing LEDs from becoming more popular as lighting product. "It will take at least five years before LED prices are pared down to more widely acceptable levels," Lam estimates.

The newly elected administration in Taiwan has warmed Neo-Neo`s confidence in the economic outlook of the island. So much so that the world’s No.1 decorative-lighting maker recently decided to step up building presence in Taiwan’s lighting market. As part of its plan to tap the Taiwan market, the group recently bought an office building for NT$140 million in an upscale district in Taiwan’s capital city of Taipei. The group’s Taiwan branch aims for a sales goal of NT$200 million (US$6.6 million) this year, with the GM stressing that the company feels such target to be well within reach thanks to its cost-competitive production and wide-ranging product lines.

According to Cheng, to achieve such sales goal, the company has started seeking energy-saving and quality performance certifications in Taiwan, noting that the company will tap all segments of the LED-lighting market, including Christmas, commercial, household and public-work lights. Cheng says his company has a strategy for the Taiwan market: tap household and commercial markets initially and outdoor lighting afterwards.

Industry watchers in Taiwan believe the Taipei branch will achieve the goal as expected thanks to the company’s core competence in LED lighting sharpened by its integrated manufacturing capability. "Our other edge is being able to quickly commercialize LED products," Cheng stresses.

Also, the new administration in Taiwan allows the group to see floating its stocks on the local market a reality. Fan believes the Kuomintang-ruled government, which advocates closer economic ties with China, will substantially make it easier for China- and HK-listed Taiwanese manufacturers intending to go public on the island. Listed on the Main Board of Hong Kong, Neo-Neo, however, has been encouraged to float the group’s stocks on Taiwan’s market due to having to spend HK$10 million a year to stay on the board in H.K. and the anemic interest of Hong Kong investors in manufacturing-industry stocks. Despite having made HK$332 million in after-tax profit and gross margin of 38.5% last year, its price/earnings ratio was only about 10 folds, lower than the 20-fold average in Taiwan.

While developing high-value added products, the group is also working on plans for low-end products, which complement high-end ones in the group’s lineup. The group recently acquired 1,200 acres in Vietnam to build a factory to produce incandescent lights and light strings.

Arrow, Cree to Host Guangzhou Lighting Solution Seminar

sarafan — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:43:23 +0000

It’s reported that Arrow Asia Pac Ltd., a business unit of Arrow Electronics, Inc., announced that it will host a lighting solution seminar in Guangzhou, China, on Oct. 10, with Cree, Inc., a market leader in LED solid-state lighting components.

It’s disclosed that the seminar will provide designers and manufacturers of lighting products a comprehensive overview of Cree's LED products and Arrow's total lighting solutions. The presentation will introduce Cree's XLamp(R) MC-E LED, the highest-lumen LED in the award-winning XLamp family. Cree's XLamp MC-E LED is a multi-dice MC-E package solution for applications that require high lumen output in a small footprint. This powerful combination is designed to enable new applications and reductions in overall system cost compared to other LED packages.

According to Peng-Gun Goh, director of lighting business development for Arrow Asia Pac, Arrow has a dedicated lighting team that helps customers find alternatives to incandescent, halogen, and CCFL lighting. Arrow's lighting team offers long-life lighting solutions that deliver high reliability, lighting efficiency, shock resistance, instant light-up and vivid color effects at a lower total cost of ownership.

In addition to benefits by leveraging Arrow's world-class logistics and supply chain capabilities, the customers can also benefit from knowledge of lighting trends. Arrow lighting solutions are developed around Cree high brightness and high-power light emitting diodes (HB-LEDs). The partnership with Cree underscores Arrow‘commitment to bringing the best products and solutions to our valued customers for their solid-state lighting requirements.

About Arrow Asia Pac
A business unit of Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE: ARW), Arrow Asia Pac is one of Asia-Pacific's leading electronic component distributors. In addition to its regional headquarters in Hong Kong, Arrow Asia Pac operates 53 sales offices, four primary distribution centers and 13 local warehousing facilities in 13 countries/territories across Asia. Providing a full range of semiconductors, passive, electromechanical and connector products from over 200 leading international and local suppliers, Arrow Asia Pac serves more than 10,000 original equipment and contract manufacturers and commercial customers in the Asia-Pacific region.

About Cree, Inc.
Cree is a market-leading innovator and manufacturer of semiconductors and devices that enhance the value of solid-state lighting, power and communications products by significantly increasing their energy performance and efficiency. Key to Cree's market advantage is its world-class materials expertise in SiC and GaN for chips and packaged devices that can handle more power in a smaller space while producing less heat than other available technologies, materials and products.

Neo-Neon to Produce LED Chips

sarafan — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:19:29 +0000

It’s reported that Neo-Neon, a decorative LED lighting company based in China, announced that it will be making some of its LEDs at its LED plant in Quangdong, China.

At the Beijing Olympics 2008, many of the company’s products were prominently displayed. Neo-Neon's color changing pathway lighting illuminated the walkways leading into the "Bird's Nest" stadium, and the company's video tubes reportedly displayed the Olympic 2008 message and entertained visitors at Festival Walk. The company will begin test runs at its China plant next month, according to the industry sources.

Neo-Neon expects to begin volume production soon after the test runs are completed. The production will reportedly allow a degree of vertical integration at the company. The plant will initially have a capacity of 12,500 wafers per month. Despite the new source of LEDs, the company will reportedly still have to get some of its LEDs from outside sources. The company indicated that it hopes that the in-house LED production will save the company 40-50 percent in production costs for its luminaires.

Beijing Olympics Give a Boost to Taiwan LED Sales

sarafan — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:54:07 +0000

It’s reported that the sales of Taiwan's LED makers rose 16.1 percent in the first half of this year from the same period a year earlier. This is helped by the Beijing Olympics and higher energy prices that are encouraging the use of lower-cost lighting. According to information the companies provided to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the companies' first-half 2008 sales rose to NT$24.2 billion from NT$20.8 billion in the same period a year earlier, The LED market is expanding, and demand attributable to the Beijing Olympics is boosting sales.

Ivan Lin, an analyst with market researcher LEDinside in Taipei, said "New applications are increasing, LEDs are increasingly used as backlights for notebook computers, in street lights and for factory lighting." According to LEDinside, Taiwan has the world's second largest LED industry with a 20 percent share of the global market, Japan has the world's largest LED industry with a 37 percent share of the world market. LEDinside forecasts that Taiwan will have a 30 percent share of the market by 2010 as many of Taiwan's flat-panel display makers prepare to enter the business.

People are switching to LEDs to save energy and cut electricity bills with these lights, originally familiar to most people as decorations on Christmas trees. LEDs reduce energy consumption by emitting light from a chip rather than an incandescent filament in a light bulb or charged gases in a fluorescent light tube. LEDs use about a tenth of the energy of an incandescent bulb and can last a decade or longer. They also produce almost no heat, thereby reducing fire potential.

Taiwan LED makers have been among the first to enter the high-brightness (HB) segment. HB LEDs are a new generation of lights bright enough for car lights, interior and architectural lighting, projection, flat-panel display backlighting and signage. The organizers of the Beijing Olympics used LEDs to illuminate the stage at the opening ceremony for the games with 44,000 of the lamps in a 147 meter x 36 meter screen at the venue. At least 36,000 LED lamps illuminated the translucent exterior of the gigantic Water Cube where the swimming competitions took place. The Olympics venue also had a gigantic LED screen measuring 30 meters x 200 meters. Opto Tech Corp. of Taiwan supplied LEDs for the screen, according to LEDinside. The Taiwan supplier also won a contract from the Suzhou city government to supply the lamps for a gigantic screen,

Taiwan's government aims to boost the domestic industry by replacing all the island's incandescent-type traffic lights with LED lamps in three years. Traffic signals that use LEDs consume 80-90 percent less energy and generally last 5-7 years, compared to just a year for a comparable incandescent light signal. In 2001, the city of Portland, Oregon replaced nearly all its red and green incandescent traffic signals with new lights using LEDs. The project resulted in annual energy and maintenance savings totaling $400,000 and net payback in less than three years. The Chinese government aims to exploit various green technologies including LED and solar energy to help it reach the goal of trimming 10% of electricity consumption nationwide by 2010.

LEDinside said "despite the downturn in the global economy, Taiwan LED packaging company Ledtech Electronics continues to explore markets for new products, citing industry sources. The company is planning to work with international partners to develop low-cost LED lamps and reading lights for underdeveloped countries, citing market sources."

AIXTRON AG order power LED capacity form Century Epitech Corp.

sarafan — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 05:37:44 +0000

Recently, AIXTRON AG announced a multiple order from Century Epitech Corp, located in Shenzhen, China, one of China's leading players in the high brightness LED sector.

The latest order is a multiple package comprising three AIX 2600G3 MOCVD tools - one in the 24x2” wafer configuration and two in the 49x2” configuration plus a single AIX 2800G4 HT tool in the 42x2” configuration. The systems were delivered to the company’s state of the art facilities in the new Shenzhen Guangming Technology Zone in the second quarter of 2008. The high capacity MOCVD reactors will be used for Century Epitech’s planned expansion of power LED production.

According to Mr. ZhiMin Liang, board member, they have been consistently impressed with the AIXTRON Group’s MOCVD equipment and process technology. It was therefore a straightforward decision to place the order for our future production capacity expansion plans. Their equipment matches our needs for the manufacturing of power LEDs in high volume, cost competitively and with rapid time to market.

In addition, Dr. Ruquin Chen, COO of Century Epitech notes that the reputation of these MOCVD tools is well known. AIXTRON reactors are constantly proving their capabilities for LEDs and other devices. In terms of uptime, uniformity and efficiency of precursor usage, and so on, they are unequalled.

Light up your life at HKTDC Hong Kong International Lighting Fair 2008

ivan — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 03:02:09 +0000

Find Quality Suppliers at
HKTDC Hong Kong International Lighting Fair 2008
27 - 30 October 2008
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre

Light up your life
What better way to illuminate the future of your business than to see the very latest in the design and technology of lighting? The HKTDC Hong Kong International Lighting Fair, now in its 10th year, brings buyers all that is new and fashionable in lighting products at one of the top three lighting events in the world. At its 2007 edition, a record 1,344 exhibitors showed the best in lighting from 31 countries & regions.

The attraction for the buyers is clear. This vast resource of new lighting products is thematically organised to allow visitors to navigate the show with ease. It is in touch with the market, with product zones which represent the powerfully emerging trends in the consumer market. Themed zones for 2008 are Crystal Indulgence, Galaxy of Stars, Green Lighting, Holiday Favour, Outdoor Lighting, Parts & Accessories and World of Table Lamps.

Adding to the brilliance of the 2008 fair will be the 2nd Hong Kong Lighting Design Competition. With its design theme 'The Power of Light', the competition once again fostering bright new talent for the industry. Buyers will also have many opportunities to network with international peers at social gatherings and to update their knowledge of trends and markets at the information events.

Going green on a global scale
The worldwide emphasis on global warming has put environmentally-friendly lighting products on the shopping list of every buyer. The industry has risen to the challenge, creating a wide range of energy-saving products which can be seen - and sourced - in the Green Lighting Zone.

Shining a light on outdoor living
Both the urban and the suburban landscapes have changed. Homeowners are now spending more time outdoors in leisure pursuits and especially home entertaining. The demand for outdoor lighting, including street lighting, has escalated with lifestyle changes and the Outdoor Lighting Zone meets the need.

Buyers' quotes

「We are surprised by the good concentration of a large quantity of good quality products here. We are optimistic about business prospects as we've already found some interesting products such as LED outdoor lamps, office lighting and products of good design for commercial projects. I expect to make orders after further discussion with the suppliers.」
Dariusz Stępień, Director, Daste, Poland
「The show is very big, interesting and concentrated. You will find suppliers from Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and all over the world. I've already made two full containers of orders for ceiling lamps and energy-saving items with two new suppliers. The organiser has made continuous improvements with a larger number of exhibitors and the opening of new halls. It's good for meeting and doing business as well as learning the new market trends.」
Federico Ariel Palacio, General Manager, Palacio Ilumina, Argentina
「We've been coming to the fair since 2003; it's large, has a broad range of products and we can meet all our suppliers and visit their factories across the border in the Chinese mainland. We like the convenience of the fair, everything's in one spot.」
Giuseppe (Joe) Portelli, Executive Manager, DPA Lighting, Australia

More sourcing opportunities
Visitors to the Hong Kong International Lighting Fair will also be able to source related products from two other concurrent trade events. The Hong Kong International Furniture Fair and the Hong Kong International Building and Decoration Materials & Hardware Fair are being staged alongside the lighting show from 28 to 31 October at the AsiaWorld-Expo.

It is easy for buyers to visit all three fairs. A complimentary shuttle bus service will run between AsiaWorld-Expo, which is located adjacent to Hong Kong International Airport, and Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and Tung Chung on Lantau Island, at regular intervals throughout each day of the shows.
Don't miss this fabulous opportunity to source a huge variety of products in one trip!

At your service
With a Wireless LAN-enabled (IEEE 802.11b compliant) laptop computer or PDA you can check emails and surf the Web at the fairground. Alternatively, visit our hktdc.com Email Lounge.

Hong Kong is known for its efficiency and dedication to promoting business. At the fair you can find ample evidence of this in a host of services and facilities, large and small, to help you. The Dragon Lounge, for example, offers relaxation and convenience to VIP buyers as well as holders of Cathay Pacific First and Business Class boarding passes. You can enjoy complimentary snacks and beverages, free Internet access and other features.

hktdc.com Customised Sourcing Service
Now you can locate the right products you need by getting a list of relevant exhibitors with booth numbers and product photos at the fair. Look for this friendly sign.

Free Admission Badge
Pre-register before 5 October for buyers from outside Hong Kong and 22 October for local buyers – to receive a free admission badge by mail.

LG, Cree to Build LED Joint Venture in China

sarafan — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:38:46 +0000

It’s reported that LG Display, the world's No. 2 supplier of LCD panels, will build a joint venture with Nasdaq-listed Cree in LED packaging in Nanjing, China.

LG Display is able to cut costs in LED lighting business amid growing demand for the component in notebooks and television sets, adding the company could avoid possible patent infringement troubles if the plan is realized. It's a win-win strategy.

Cree is a leader in China's LED sector. In 2007, it bought a Chinese lightning company for business expansion. But Cree now faces a challenge to transform the exposure into new business, as contracts with companies installing lights on new buildings are rising in China. On a question over the reason of not working with its sister company LG Innotek, the alliance with the local maker won’t create a synergetic effect in LG Display's LED business. But the scenario was finally scrapped due to the pressure of investment and profitability. Also, the module supply by LG Innotek is not steady enough for the time being.

Not only do LED backlights provide increased battery life for notebooks, LG could enable much thinner displays and innovative new thinking about product design. By riding on such merits, product planners are weighing on possibilities of LED backlight business. Analysts say LED technologies may indeed be the way companies can differentiate their products and offer users additional benefits.

Market research firm Insight Media forecasts large area LED backlights to reach 150 million units in 2012 as the technology shift toward backlights is under way, capitalizing on small- and medium-sized electronics gadgets from the traditional cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL).

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.