According to the latest ‘ 2017 Global Sapphire and LED Chip Market Report by LEDinside, a division of the global market research firm TrendForce, LED chip market value was USD 6,329 million in 2015, while it grew by 3% to USD 6,502 million in 2016. Since the second half of 2016, Chinese LED packaging manufacturers have scaled up rapidly, targeting applications expected to prevail in the market for the next three years, including general lighting, automotive lighting, and display application. That further fosters Tier 1 Chinese LED chip manufacturers to volume up their productivity.

Rubicon Technology announced plans to cease all production activities and shut down its Penang, Malaysia facility. Production activities at the Penang facility are expected to cease by Nov. 30, 2016, with the shutdown of the facility to be completed by the end of the year. The Company’s Malaysia facility has been primarily engaged in producing polished and patterned substrates for the LED market and the decision was made in order for the Company to focus on the optical and industrial sapphire market for the foreseeable future.

Rubicon Technology, a provider of sapphire substrates and products to the LED, optical and semiconductor industries, reported financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2016.

Auckson Opto (the company), recently announced the reason behind its suspended trade on the Chinese bourse since July 20, 2016, according to a report from China Securities Journal.

e2v’s Sapphire family of CMOS image sensors has been expanded to include a new 2-megapixel variant, which is manufactured with a microlens designed to accept a Chief Ray Angle (CRA) as low as zero degrees. This feature significantly improves performance with excellent uniformity of response over the whole array area, ideal for applications such as microscopy.

The sapphire industry has never been the same since Apple dropped sapphire screens in iPhone 6 in 2014, followed with the bankruptcy of GTAT in October the same year. Things have been rough and hard for the sapphire industry over the last three years, as it enters a restructure phase, said Jerry Chen, General Manager, Taiwan, Monocrystal during a press conference held by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) at Taipei World Trade Center Club, Taiwan on Tuesday.

Traditionally, manufacturers have contended for a spot in Apple’s supply chain, despite of its draconian demands. As seen in GTAT and the Cupertino-based company’s ugly fall out in October 2014, Apple might change the spec requirements of its customized products anytime, and expect suppliers to deliver in a short time frame. Additionally, a heavy US $50 million penalty is placed on manufacturers that breach confidential agreements. With strong product sales and a loyal consumer base, Apple might be appealing to work with, but being its supplier can be taxing.

Taiwan International Lighting Show 2015 organized by Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade, Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and Taiwan Lighting Fixture Export Association (TLFEA) successfully concluded on March 28, 2015 in Taipei, Taiwan.

Monocrystal introduces ultra-large high quality sapphire window. Advancements in the development of its proprietary crystal growing technology allow Monocrystal to meet increasing demand from the emerging optical markets for large size sapphire windows and blanks up to 12 inches. Advancements in modified KY method make it possible for Monocrystal to grow 120 kg sapphire crystals on scale. This technological advantage enables Monocrystal to offer a wide range of optical products which were not available on the market before. “We are happy to be the company pushing the...

Thermal Technology, a leading manufacturer of crystal growth equipment and high temperature furnace systems, recently shipped 14 K1 HB LED-grade sapphire crystal growers to a customer in Europe.  The K1’s large 90kg sapphire boule is optimized for 4” and 6” cores used in LED production, with 8” cores possible.   “We continue to strengthen our position in the high brightness LED market,” says Matt Mede, Thermal Technology president and CEO.  “Spending time at customers’ facilities throughout the world, I see our competitors sapphire tools unplugged and pushed aside, while ours are in production. The K1’s quality output speaks for itself.”   As Thermal Technology completes sapphire growth protocol transfer at its customers’ facilities, K1 sapphire production has increased dramatically with customers producing large, high quality boules and reporting yields of 4200mm TIE.   Over recent decades, LED lighting technology has developed and commercialized to the point that LEDs are replacing incandescent light bulbs in common lighting applications. Refined LED technology has led to the development of high brightness LEDs (HB LED) used in electronic display backlighting and other high tech applications.  Producing HB LED requires higher quality, single sapphire substrate.   Thermal Technology’s Model K1 crystal grower is intended for HB LED substrate production. To satisfy the demand of the growing high quality sapphire market, Thermal Technology has successfully tripled their Santa Rosa, California manufacturing facility. Thermal Technology is a global manufacturer of advance thermal processing systems, including crystal growth equipment, high temperature laboratory and production furnaces, hot presses and spark plasma as well as direct current sintering systems. Thermal Technology has 60 years of experience with more than 3000 installations in 40 countries.

Japanese companies from Tamura Corp and Koha Co Ltd have created a white LED using gallium oxide (β-type Ga2O3) and exhibited it at Lighting Japan 2013 from Jan 16 to 18, 2013. The LED consists of a blue LED chip made on a β-type Ga2O3 substrate by using GaN-based semiconductor and  a fluorescent material. Compared with a case where a common blue LED chip formed on a sapphire substrate is used, the new LED realizes a higher optical output. At the show, Tamura and Koha showcased two kinds of white LEDs that use 0.3 x 0.3mm and 2 x 2mm...

GT Advanced Technologies Inc. announced it has acquired certain capital assets and intellectual property of Twin Creeks Technologies, Inc., a privately owned company that has developed an ion implanter technology that enables the production of lower cost thin substrates with minimal material (kerf) loss. The assets were purchased from Twin Creeks’ lenders in a private sale for approximately $10 million and royalties that will be based on future sales. GT expects that Twin Creeks’ unique Hyperion™ ion implanter technology will have broad application in...

Rubicon Technology has placed an order of multiple units of the Zeta 300 series optical profiler from San Jose based Zeta Instruments for its sapphire substrate and wafer production. The company will use the Zeta-300 series optical profilers for inspection and metrology of sapphire substrates to help improve wafer yield and lower costs for their LED customers. Zeta 300 optical profiler   Zeta's novel high-precision metrology systems have gained strong traction across the LED industry for cost-effective advanced functionality. The latest Zeta-300 series...

According to a white paper entitled “LED Manufacturing Study on CHES™ Sapphire,” ARC Energy has released results of a study showing that sapphire grown from its proprietary CHES technology yield 5% greater LED brightness than the industry standard. The study purposefully included sapphire material exhibiting a wide range of etch pit distortion (EPD) levels to determine whether or not EPD affects LED manufacturing. The study took sapphire through the complete LED chip manufacturing process and concluded that all material passed LED s...

Kyma Technologies Inc of Raleigh, NC, USA, has made a breakthrough on a 10-inch diameter AlN-on-sapphire template using its patented plasma vapor deposition of nanocolumns (PVDNC) technology. The PVDNC AlN templates are chosen by manufacturers of blue, green and white LEDs as a replacement for bare and patterned sapphire substrates. The 250mm (10-inch) sapphire substrate was provided by Monocrystal Inc of Stavropol, Russia, which provides sapphire products and metallization pastes to the semiconductor, optical, and photovoltaic industries. According ...

Zhejiang Shangcheng Science & Technology Co., Ltd (Shangcheng) has continued to place a $12.6 million order from GT Advanced Technologies for additional ASF™ sapphire growth furnaces. GT's ASF(tm) utilizes the production-proven heat exchanger method (HEM) for producing high quality sapphire boules and cores suitable for the LED industry and other industries requiring high quality sapphire material. The ASF furnaces will increase Shangcheng’s production capacity, which the company believes is needed to meet expected demand from the LED...

Over the recent years, the global LED capacity has been expanding rapidly, which is attributed to the booming growth of LED backlight and LED lighting market triggered by the capacity expansions of LED upstream and downstream players. LED sapphire substrate industry is the upstream sector most relevant to the LED chip industry, as sapphire substrate is one of the most important materials of LED chips. The development and directions of related equipment makers are also closely followed by the market. LEDinside conducted an exclusive interview with Cheryl Diuguid,...