Editorial:
News for the supply chain and questions from an end user
... We're just back from the recent Blue 2008 LED supply chain conference that was held last week in Hsinchu (aka "LED-town") Taiwan, and with the 13-hour time change, we're compensating for creative-thinking gridlock by covering two distinct topics this week. We're often asked why LEDs can't simply just be... Read the editorial...
(if it resists... go here)
Nichia Alleges Seoul Semiconductor's Acriche Products Infringe its Patents in UK LiGHTimes Staff
May 15, 2008...In another twist to Nichia’s already complicated legal moves, Nichia is bringing yet another infringement complaint against Seoul Semiconductor Inc. Ltd. and its distributor Avenet EMG Ltd. This time Nichia is initiating the lawsuit for alleged infringement in the UK. Nichia alleges that Seoul Semiconductor’s premier LED lighting product, Achriche violates its patent rights in the UK.
Nichia is seeking injunctive relief and financial compensation for the alleged damages. Specifically Nichia believes that Seoul Semiconductor infringes their two patents [EP(UK)599224 and EP(UK)622858].
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May 15, 2008...Cree Inc. of Durham, North Carolina USA, approved the extension of the company’s stock repurchase program. The company’s board of directors voted to approve the extension of the stock repurchase program through the fiscal year ending June 28, 2009. Cree reports that as of May 15, 2008, the company is authorized to repurchase up to 5 million shares total. According to the company, it has purchased 1,567,500 shares during the current quarter.
Cree said it expects to use available cash to finance purchases under the program. Cree points out that the program can be implemented through open market or privately negotiated transactions at the discretion of the company's management. The company said it will continue to evaluate market conditions and other factors to determine the time and extent of any repurchases. Company News Release
Second Quarter Revenues for Taiwan LED Industry to Grow 10-15 Percent LiGHTimes Staff
May 15, 2008...
During the first quarter of calendar year 2008, seasonal effects reportedly resulted in lower performance for much of Taiwan’s LED industry, according to an articlein Digitimes. Epistar, Everlight Electronics, and Formosa Epitaxy were reportedly the victims of the same LED demand seasonality during the first quarter of 2008. After taxes, each of the three companies saw their revenues decline compared to the previous quarter. According to the article, revenues for the second quarter at each of the companies are expected to grow an estimated 10 to 15 percent over the previous quarter. Epistar reported record high sales in April totalling about NT$1.06 billion. Epistar notes that its order volume for May, which is only half over, has already surpassed NT$1.1 billion.
Formosa Epitaxy has plans for expansion with two new MOCVD machines purchased, and 17 more to be purchased. This would bring the total number of MOCVD systems at the company to 35. This would raise the company’s capacity of 25,000 epitaxial wafers per month and 330million chips. With the planed expansion, the company says it will have a 48,000 unit monthly epitaxial wafer capacity that will allow the production of some 700 million chips
LEDTech, another Taiwan-based LED supplier reported a 42.3 percent increase in revenues sequentially, and the company increased the percentage of that revenue that comes from its LED business. Pepsi reportedly order LED light bars from the company, the article indicated.
The
LED Supply
Chain Conference Epi,
Chips and Devices...
June 8-9 Hsinchu, Taiwan
When
markets are uncertain, winning companies in growth markets push
forward while the incumbent technologies pull back. Now is the
time to press the advantage, and knowledge and updated connections
are what you need to do it. To help you use your time most efficiently,
this 7th Annual international event has been moved to early June
as a lead-in for the 2009 Taiwan Photonics Festival later that same
week. Senior executives from the key industry players will gather
as we examine the complete vertical market, from leading manufacturers
and developers of advanced materials and processes, to packaging
and packaged devices. Before you meet the
crowds, get focused on the key market and technical developments
you need to know. Visit www.BlueTaiwan.com
for all the details.
DOE Releases Round 5 Grant Applications Guidelines for SSL Core Technology and SSL Product Development LIGHTimes Staff
Topco Technologies and Panasonic Communications to Collaborate on Efficient LED Street Lights with Security Camera Systems LiGHTimes Staff
May 13, 2008...Topco Technologies of Taiwan has reportedly signed a collaboration agreement with Panasonic Communications to develop efficient LED street lights integrated with security camera systems, according to an article in Digitimes. Topco said product shipments are expected to start in the second fiscal quarter of 2008. Unlike previous LED streetlight technology, the new devices combine the efficiency of LEDs with security control technology. Topco noted that operation and brightness of the street lights can be remotely controlled. Also Topco said the lights can double overall efficiency. In the article Topco indicated that there are on-going projects in England, Australia, Germany, and Japan. Beginning in the third quarter, the company expects increasing demand for LED street lighting to drive company growth for the remainder of 2008.
Cree’s XLamp XR-C Now Comes in Colors LiGHTimes Staff
May 13, 2008...Cree Inc., the maker of the XLamp family of LEDs based in Durham, North Carolina USA, has extended its XLamp XR-C high power LEDs to include a range of colors. The new colors include Royal Blue, Blue, Green, Amber, Red-Orange, and Red. Cree notes that like other members of the XR-C family, the new LEDs have the same isolated thermal path, offer low thermal resistance, and provide highly reliable operation. Cree also pointed out that the LEDs can be used to upgrade other XR products because the new color XR-C LEDs have same footprint.
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Marl International Gets Contract to Supply LED Downlights to Amtrak LiGHTimes Staff
May 13, 2008...Marl International of Ulverston, UK, announced a sales agreement with U.S. passenger railway company Amtrack in which Marl will provide LED downlights to be installed in Superliner 1 diner carriages. According to Amtrak, these diner carriages will be converted to diner lounges, and the LED downlight installation will be part of the conversion.
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Future Lighting Solutions and NEC Electronics America Introduce Intelligent Constant High-Current Driver with Microcontroller LIGHTimes Staff
May 8, 2008...Future Lighting Solutions (FLS), a division of Future Electronics and a Philips Lumileds Certified Partner based in Santa Clara, California USA, introduced what it claims is the first intelligent constant High-Current Driver (HCD) with microcontroller (MCU). The company says that its new HCD/LED MCU can be used to drive multiple LEDs. Additionally, the company notes that the device can be utilized in applications such as stepping motors, solenoid drives, and switch-mode power supplies. FLS says that the new device combines an NEC Electronics’ 8-bit All Flash microcontroller with a four-channel, economical and small footprint HCD that helps reduce system costs by allowing a smaller number of external components.
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Intematix Technology Center Introduces LED “Chip on Ceramic” Solutions for General Purpose Lighting LIGHTimes Staff
May 8, 2008...Intematix of Fremont, California USA, a company that has been a pioneer in phosphors and material technology and has started offering LED lighting components such as a line of patented “chip on ceramic” LEDs and LED arrays. The new LEDs and LED arrays are reportedly available through its subsidiary, Intematix Technology Center (ITC) of Yang Mei, Taiwan. The company says that the solid state lighting components leverage the company’s expertise in phosphors and material development. The new line of components offers high-efficiency LED components across a full range of color temperatures. According to Intematix, typical performance from its 8000K cool white production device is 80 lumens/watt. The company indicates that warm white 3300K devices typically deliver 70 lumens/watt from the packaged 1 watt devices.
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Epistar Added to List of LED Makers to Settle with Rothschild LiGHTimes Staff
May 8, 2008...Sidley Austin LLP, the law firm representing Professor Gertrude Neumark Rothschild in her case against numerous companies for patent infringement, announced Rothschild has settled her patent infringement claims against Epistar Corporation of Taiwan. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Professor Neumark had previously settled patent infringement claims against Toyoda Gosei, a Japanese entity, Osram, a German corporation, and against Philips Lumileds this past May for an undisclosed terms.
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Commentary & Perspective...
News for the supply chain and questions from an end user Tom Griffiths - Publisher
May 14, 2008...We're just back from the
recent Blue 2008 LED supply chain conference that was held last week in Hsinchu
(aka "LED-town") Taiwan, and with the 13-hour time change, we're compensating
for creative-thinking gridlock by covering two distinct topics this week. We're
often asked why LEDs can't simply just be made cheaper by taking advantage of
what we know from silicon-based semiconductor manufacturing, and the the supply
chain update will cover some of those concepts. We'll share the update at a bit
of a primer level to help the readers that live more at the application or fixture
level to maybe better relate to some of the challenges going on "down below".
Supply chain is alive, well and attacking costs
We'll likely share
more about what we heard from an incredible line up of "power
speakers" at Blue over the coming weeks, but when it came to the supply
chain, an overriding theme this year were updates on options to continue to drive
the costs out, as well as increase the overall throughput for the LED industry.
Kyma Technologies CEO, Keith Evans, shared some thoughts with regard to ways to
drive cost out of the epitaxial processes (basically analogous to properly matching
and spreading the sauce on a pizza... differing materials in the substrate ("crust")
and epitaxy ("sauce") create defects in the epitaxy that will compromise
the ability to maximize the number of LEDs on a wafer (let's say that the pepperoni
is only edible when it has been cooked on a perfectly smooth area of the sauce").
It's a 5-10 hour epi processing time, in which less incompatible layers are laid
down progressively to lead in small steps to the final gallium-nitride (GaN) layers
that the individual blue LED circuits can etched on (blue being the primary color
underlying most white LED solutions today). In the process of innovating a way
to produce a substrate that is extremely compatible, but currently $5K to $10K
for a 2-inch wafer, they found a cost effective way to do those intermediate layers
and trim roughly 20-40% off the processing time at costs at that stage, as well
as increasing throughput by 30-70% which translates to more LEDs on the same equipment,
and therefore less capital expense loaded up into the price.
Similarly,
the CTO of Australia's BluGlass, Scott Butcher, shared the status of their new
processes that produce that useful and consistent GaN layer on top of glass. It
would appear to be cheaper and immediately scalable to larger diameter wafers.
The move from the current 2-inch wafers to 4- or 6-inch wafers greatly increases
the number of LEDs you can get from single processing run (the old pi times the
radius squared thing as it relates to the amount of surface area you have to work
with, and therefore less useless edge space, less handling equipment, etc, etc).
Oleg Kachalov of Russia's Monocrystal shared a development path for using their
sapphire starting substrates (by far the coolest, shiniest material amongst the
sponsor showcase displays) in 4- and 8-inch processing systems. Sapphire represents
the starting point for 80% of the high brightness LEDs out there, so the move
from 2 to 4 to 8 inches represents the most apparent version of a future that
ultimately drives the material and processing aspects of the LED costs to a fraction
of what they are today. Key to that is the consistency and crystal uniformity
in that substrate (bumpy crust leads to inconsistent sauce application, which
ruins more of the light-emitting-pepperonis). Monocrystal claims it is able to
get the same level of surface quality in the 4- and 8-inch substrates as it has
been getting from the 2-inch models. Paraphrasing what Cree's Director of SSL
Business Development, Mark McClear, shared with us in February, "2008
is the year we really begin to drive the costs out of the LEDs so they can get
into all the applications they belong in."
End users encounter
more sophisticated technology, more sophisticated terminology.
It was
a fun call from a nice guy who is an electrician in the mid-section of the US.
"I'm working with a contractor who's specifying these $75 LED replacements
for fluorescent tubes and I'm trying to figure out what some of this terminology
means, can you help me?" Hadn't even thought of making it an editorial
discussion at the time, so this was just for fun, and it definitely got us thinking.
Many of our spec sheets and discussions in the solid state lighting industry are
at the more technical lighting level where beam angles and color rendering (CRI)
are commonplace. But not every LED-based lighting installation is going to be conceptualized
and specified by a lighting designer. Builders and electricians are in on this
deal two. I'm confident that the recessed fixtures or kitchen overhead in our
last house weren't reviewed by anyone but the builder. While he may have been
experienced as a builder (although naming the company "Waterloo" was
apparently an experiment and the company lived up to it's name... exiled much
like Napoleon), it's doubtful he carefully researched all the fixture options
to choose one with specific radiation angles or "lux on the target"
values.
The questions seemed kind of basic, since they are so important
to understanding the characteristics of one LED lighting module or luminaire compared
to another. Beam angle? My reply, "Hold your arms up in front of you
in an A-frame shape and touch your middle fingers together. Now move your elbows
in and out. The fluorescent fixture uses the sheet metal to vary how broadly or
narrowly the light is cast. LEDs control it right there in what you would call
the bulb." Lumens seem less than for the standard 40-watt tube; will it
give me as much light? "In general, the LEDs can do more with less since
they should only be generating light in that beam angle. The tubes you are used
to have to bounce the majority of their photons off the reflector and you lose
as many as 2/3 in the process, depending on the fixture." It says it's
a cool white and says 5500, can we get warm white as well? "Manufacturers
usually offer a range of 'color temperatures'. The trade off with LEDs are the
warmer the light, typically moving from 'cool' at 5500K (for Kelvin) to 'warm'
at something near 3300K. I'm noticing fluorescents seem to have the color temp
labeled on them at least some of the time, so if you're not sure of what you want,
try some of those tubes to see what fits the environment. There's also a pesky
thing called CRI for 'color rendering index'. Above 90 is good, and less than
that you need to see if it looks ok for what you're trying to do."
How
do I know these are saving me energy? "Ouch, good one. The simple answer
is comparing lumens per watt. Your big fluorescent tubes typically run up to 80,
so that's sort of the benchmark. The tricky part is 'useful lumens per watt' or
'effective' ones, since LEDs point all the photons where you need them to go,
while fluorescent tubes scatter a good chunk of them. There will be some more
standards, like EnergyStar or SSLITA's planned labeling initiative, that will
start to be helpful for this, but things are kind of wild and woolly out there
right now, and while I can assure you that if you buy it for cheap, you'll get
cheap, I can't assure you that if you pay a lot, you'll get a lot. Check the warranty,
figure out if the manufacturer is going to be around to honor it, and definitely
insist on seeing how they look in a real world setting before committing to purchasing
a ton of them." Are these really ready for what we're planning to do with
them? "My belief is that they at a place I'd call 'barely ready'. As
long as you are making sure you're getting 'lighting-class LEDs', that the LED
manufacturer is backing up your fixture supplier, and understanding that 6 months
from now, you'll be looking at stuff that's substantially better, I'd say go for
it. It takes a while to build a building and the experience you'll have from sorting
out the good stuff from the junk will position you as a leader and you'll only
spill a little blood." Yes, it's risk versus reward once again...
If you have questions about
the solid state lighting and compound semiconductor industries or
have
news or views to share, we want to hear from you! Feel free to contact
us anytime. The main office line is +1
(512) 257-9888
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