MOCVD

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.

IMEC, Taiyo Nippon Senso joint to develop green LED

sarafan — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 03:26:51 +0000

It’s reported that European research institute IMEC and Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp. have agreed to develop manufacturing technology for high efficiency LED devices.

There is an increasing demand to develop brighter green LEDs for future applications such as back light for high-definition LCD television. Under the agreement, Taiyo Nippon Sanso and IMEC will develop high-efficiency green LED device manufacturing technology based on IMEC's compound semiconductors device technology. Research is mainly carried out at the IMEC facilities in Leuven, Belgium and builds on IMEC's expertise in strain engineering on large wafer diameter, supported by in-situ growth monitoring.

According to Professor Gilbert Declerk, president and CEO of IMEC, the collaboration with Taiyo Nippon Sanso, a total solution provider in the compound semiconductor field including metal organic materials, gas supply system, purification, abatement system and MOCVD tool, enables us to accelerate the development of high efficiency green LED manufacturing technology.

In addition, Mike Hara, senior managing director of Taiyo Nippon Sanso, indicated that this relationship with IMEC will enable Taiyo Nippon Sanso to position itself as a leading MOCVD tool maker in the LED compound semiconductor market.

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.

Walsin Lihwa said to be entering LED market

sarafan — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 07:10:25 +0000

Taiwan based electric wire and cable maker Walsin Lihwa is going to join the LED market and placed an order for Aixtron AG MOCVD systems in the second quarter this year, with the systems being delivered this quarter.

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.

LED market predicted to grow above 20% pear year, says Rubicon

sarafan — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:05:19 +0000

Recently, at Rubicon Technology’s 2Q08 earnings conference call with industry analysts, the company's president and CEO discussed the future of the LED market.

At Rubicon Technology’s recent 2Q08 earnings conference call, Raja Parvez, Rubicon CEO, as part of an overall introduction, predicted that the LED market is expected to continue to grow 20+% per year over the next several years. Bill Weissman, Rubicon's CFO, and Parvez added that the company’s LED revenue grew 14% year-over-year and 8% sequentially in the second quarter as applications for LEDs continue to expand.

Rubicon, which raised about $80 million from its IPO in November 2007, is a manufacturer of monocrystalline sapphire substrates used in the growth of LEDs. Since sixty percent of the company's revenue comes from the LED market, Parvez presented insight into the state of the current market. In a transcript of the conference call, Parvez related High-performance LED applications, such as large area backlight units and solid state lighting, are growing rapidly. LED backlight units are penetrating into the notebook computer and LCD TV market faster than expected, these applications are being supported by major LED chip manufacturers in Japan, Europe, and the US, and as a result, our sales continue to increase in these regions. Parvez said they are also receiving orders for 6-inch sapphire products for the LED market to support next generation LED wafer development efforts by MOCVD equipment and LED chip manufacturers, and expect this large diameter development to ramp going forward as LED manufacturers continue to increase device performance and drive LED costs down to further penetrate lighting applications.

The market in Taiwan and Korea is expected to pick up in 2009. Taiwan and Korea are in early stage development for large-diameter LED chip production and therefore remain largely focused on small diameter wafers. The LED markets in Taiwan and Korea have been affected by worldwide macroeconomic conditions, as the demand for displays and general illumination increases and also as the largest display manufacturers such as AUO and Chi Mei enter the LED market and plan to install high volume production.

Consequently, the rate of growth for lower and LED applications that utilize 2-inch diameter substrates has slowed in the past quarter. Slower than expected growth in Taiwan has increased pressure on pricing for smaller diameter products as customers strive to increase their market share.

Ferdinand Braun Institute adds AIXTRON multiwafer MOCVD for GaN LEDs

ivan — Tue, 13 May 2008 05:37:23 +0000

AIXTRON AG is pleased to announce an order from the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik (FBH) for an AIX 2600G3HT Planetary Reactor system with 8x4 inch capacity.

FBH, located in Berlin, Germany, will use the system to strengthen its research and development activities in GaN based UV- LEDs, laser diodes and GaN HFETs.

Dr. Markus Weyers, Head of the Materials Technology Department, comments: “The FBH has accumulated considerable experience with a wide range of AIXTRON MOCVD systems. We already have an AIX 2600G3HT Planetary Reactor system with 8x3 inch and 11x2 inch capacity in operation. I am therefore very confident that we can build on this to quickly and efficiently grow UV-LEDs.”

He also mentioned: “The new tool will especially allow us to prepare high temperature AlN thin films with high crystalline quality uniformly and reproducibly. We know that the AIX 2600G3 system is especially suited for the uniform and reliable growth of such challenging semiconductor materials and will make a great contribution to this exciting R&D project.”