Recently, NGK Insulators Ltd has made a breakthrough on LED Luminous Efficiency with a gallium nitride (GaN) wafer. The company claims that the new GaN wafer can realize twice as high a luminous efficiency as existing LED light sources (200lm/W).

According to the company, it realized a transparent and colorless wafer with a low defect density by using its own liquid phase growth method for a single-crystal growth process.

Generally, existing LED devices have an internal quantum efficiency of 30-40% (with a current of 200mA). However, under the help of a research institute outside the company, NGK Insulators formed LED devices on the newly-developed GaN wafer to reach the internal quantum efficiency of 90% (with a current of 200mA). And it can reduce power consumption by 50%, extend product life by reducing heat generation and reduce the sizes of lighting apparatuses.

Based on the breakthrough, the company intends to launch the "Wafer Project" in fiscal 2012, aiming to commercialize its wafer-related products at an early date. It intends to start to ship samples of its world's first 4-inch diameter GaN wafer made by using a liquid phase growth method within 2012.