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Editorial: When it comes to LEDs, Korea wants it and Taiwan gets it
... After a whirlwind 6 weeks that included Light Fair in New York, and trips to both Korea for their annual LED Expo, and Taiwan for our own Blue 2009, it's fair to say that the solid state lighting revolution is underway, but in different ways in different places. We'll...
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June 24, 2009...Emcore Corporation, a solar power innovator based in Albuquerque, New Mexico USA reports that it has been awarded a $5.7 million cost-plus fixed-fee contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory. Emcore was also awarded a 20-year contract from the PNM, New Mexico's largest electricity provider for PNM's distributed generation solar power program.
The contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, is for the development of high-efficiency photovoltaic solar cells.
Under the two year contract, Emcore will demonstrate high efficiency solar cells for space applications and investigate advanced photovoltaic devices based on inverted metamorphic (IMM) structures. The contract also includes a an additional twelve-month award of $3.4 million for advanced IMM development once the base contract has been completed. Funding for the entire contract has been appropriated.
Emcore News Release.
The 20-year agreement with PNM consists of 114 kilowatts of solar power produced for 2nd and 3rd generation concentrator photovoltaics onsite at Emcore's corporate headquarters in Albuquerque.
The electric power will come from Emcore's 2nd and 3rd generation concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) systems installed next to its Albuquerque facility. The power is fed to Emcore's buildings through a PNM-approved REC meter. This is reportedly the company's first distributed generation application.
"This is a significant milestone in advancing solar power applications for both Emcore and PNM. The DG program allows power to be generated close to the point of use and distributed without requiring a comprehensive transmission infrastructure," Christopher Larocca commented.
Emcore News Release
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Fujitsu Makes GaN HEMT to Improve Power Supply Efficiency
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 24, 2009...Fujitsu announced a new gallium nitride-based high electron mobility transistor that it says minimizes power loss in power supplies.
The company says that this results in reduced power consumption of electronic equipment such as IT hardware and home electronics. According to Fujitsu, the new technology blocks the flow of current from power supplies in stand-by mode and produces high-density current when turned on (on-state current)(3), and has the potential to cut power consumption of electronic equipment by one-third. If applied to data centers, Fujitsu's new GaN HEMT would be able to reduce total power consumption by 12%.
The company says that power lost as heat can account for up to 30% or more of the power lost from an electronic device such as a laptop, and in some cases additional power is required for cooling equipment.
Details of this technology were presented at the Device Research Conference 2009 (DRC 2009) being held at Penn State University in University Park, Pennsylvania, U.S. from June 22 to 24.
Company News Release GigOptix Inc. Announces Extension of DARPA Research Contract
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 22, 2009...GigOptix Inc. of Palo Alto, California USA, announced the extension of its contract with DARPA MTO; SPAWAR Pacific is the contracting agency.
GigOptix was awarded additional work from Space and Naval Warfare Systems (SPAWAR) to fabricate low driving voltage, broadband Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulators using its Electro-Optic (EO) polymer material for operation at very low temperatures for supercomputer applications. According to the GigOptix, the extension of $346,000 brings the total value of the contract to approximately $6.1 million, and opens new areas for use of the modulators. GigOptix notes that its Electro-optic polymer enables the components to meet the size, weight and power, high-bandwidth, and immunity to electromagnetic interference requirements that are crucial for many defense applications.
"Due to their intrinsic properties, the EO materials incorporated in GigOptix’s high speed polymer modulators have the potential to operate not only with low driving voltage but also at very low temperatures. Our technology is capable of effectively addressing all these requirements simultaneously," said Dr. Raluca Dinu, Vice President and General Manager of GigOptix-Bothell business unit. "We are excited that GigOptix's EO polymer technology has once more proven its breadth and applicability for demanding military applications. We are continuing in parallel to commercialize the modulator for telecom applications and prove that EO polymers can offer the reliability requested by the industry."
GigOptix News Release
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RFMD Introduces Family of Amplifiers for Applications with Frequencies Up to 35 GHz
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 22, 2009...RF Micro Devices (RFMD) of Greensboro, North Carolina USA, has added five new distributed amplifiers for broadband, high-frequency applications. The company boasts that SDA-1000 through 5000 series of distributed amplifiers provide superior gain and output power (from 20 GHz to 35 GHz) for high frequency commercial, military, and space applications.
The distributed amplifiers are reportedly based upon GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) technology. According to the company, two follow-on high-performance amplifiers, to be introduced as an extension to this product family, will deliver similar wideband high-frequency performance and will increase operating frequency up to 50 GHz while having low noise.
"These new products deliver superior performance and provide a solid foundation for our broadband microwave amplifier product family," said Jeff Shealy, general manager of RFMD's Defense and Power business unit.
Kevin Kobayashi, an RFMD Fellow, stated, "We are also developing products with higher sensitivity, linearity and multi-Watt power output exploiting advanced semiconductors like gallium nitride and indium phosphide." Company News Release
Emcore Awarded Solar Panel Contract From NASA
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 17, 2009...Emcore Corporation, a maker of multi-junction solar cells based in
Albuquerque, New Mexico USA, was awarded a contract to manufacture, test, and deliver solar panels for NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement spacecraft. The contract, valued at approximately $5 million, will be managed by MEI Technologies, Inc. for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). MEI Technologies is a prime contractor at GSFC for the Electrical Systems Engineering Services.
The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission is one of NASA's satellite-based science missions studying global precipitation, including rain, snow, and ice. NASA has scheduled the launch of the spacecraft for summer of 2013. The GPM spacecraft solar arrays will be powered by Emcore's latest generation, 30% efficiency class ZTJ multi-junction solar cells, which are third generation triple-junction solar cells using gallium arsenide on a germanium substrate. Emcore will produce the solar cells and panels at its facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Christopher Larocca, Chief Operating Officer of Emcore, stated, "We are very excited to earn this contract award from MEI Technologies and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This award reaffirms Emcore's position as the leading solar panel supplier for space missions. Our proven manufacturing capability, technology leadership, and reliability heritage make Emcore the supplier of choice for demanding spacecraft power systems."
Emcore News Release
Former First Solar Executive to Lead HelioVolt
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 17, 2009...Jim Flanary, the former COO of First Solar, has reportedly joined Austin, Texas-based CIGS company HelioVolt as CEO.
He served as COO of First Solar, during a critical scale-up phase of the Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) module manufacturer, and he implemented the core manufacturing process methods that allowed First Solar to rapidly scale production while addressing early product quality issues. Most recently at HelioSphera, Jim was again responsible for helping a newly established thin film module manufacturer bring up its operations in Tripolis, Greece.
“HelioVolt is one of a small number of CIGS companies positioned for commercial scale-up,” said Scott Sandell, General Partner at New Enterprise Associates and member of HelioVolt’s Board of Directors.
HelioVolt founder and Chief Strategy Officer Dr. BJ Stanbery commented, “Jim brings a unique combination of entrepreneurial drive and operational capabilities with solid business growth, experience that aligns him well with our plan to deliver the most efficient and cost effective products to the market.”
“HelioVolt is one of the most promising thin-film companies in the solar industry today and I feel honored to lead the company through its next growth phase,” Flanary said. HelioVolt News Release Oclaro Introduces New Focus 1064nm High Power Laser for Raman Spectroscopy
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 17, 2009...Oclaro, the company resulting from the merger of Bookham and Avanex, has introduced a 1064 nm variant of its New Focus high power SWL-7500 single wavelength lasers for Raman spectroscopy. According to the company, the new laser is designed for Raman spectroscopy in which longer wavelengths can help reduce the fluorescence background of the spectra. Oclaro says that
the laser provides narrow linewidth and long coherence length, which are required for industrial spectroscopic applications such as quality control, chemical analysis, and security. The high power laser is enabled by the GaAs (gallium arsenide) chips manufactured at the company's facility in Zurich.
Oclaro News Release Our news features are reported
by the CompoundSemi News staff writers.
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Commentary & Perspective...
When it comes to LEDs, Korea wants it and Taiwan gets it
Tom Griffiths - PublisherJune 18, 2009...After a whirlwind 6 weeks that included Light Fair in New York, and trips to
both Korea for their annual LED Expo, and Taiwan for our own Blue 2009, it's
fair to say that the solid state lighting revolution is underway, but in different
ways in different places. We'll all grant that the "brass ring" that
everyone on the LED merry-go-round is grabbing for is the general lighting market,
but the volume is being driven by other applications, and in visibly different
ways in the US, Korea and Taiwan.
In Korea, the LED expo is held concurrently with the flat panel display expo,
and that pretty much tells the story of what's driving things there. The big
guys in FPDs, LG and Samsung, have taken the downturn as a market-share buying
opportunity, both to move their product lines rapidly towards LED-based backlighting
as well as to build out LED manufacturing capacity of their own. Backlighting
has been a consistent winner in market performance the last few years, driven
by marked increases in sales of LED-enabled mobile appliances, notebook computers
and displays. According to Bob Steele of Strategies Unlimited, who provided
a mid-year update at Blue 2009 in Taiwan, mobile appliances and signage/displays
accounted for 60% of the US$5.1 billion packaged LED worldwide market numbers.
While standard handsets remained the volume king despite a slight decline, the
"other" category, which included smart phones/PDAs, media players
and notebook displays turned in an astounding 93% growth from 2007 to 2008.
Korea sees that as an opportunity to leverage up their domestic LED production
and has reportedly been heavily investing in the fabrication equipment, including
MOCVD reactors, which they need to make it come true. One speaker, from the
Ministry of Knowledge Economy, stated that it was Korea's goal to place itself
in the top 3 of LED producing countries in the world. "The competition"
in his view, was not a series of companies, but a series of countries, and I
suspect that neither the US, Japanese, or Taiwanese LED manufacturers plan to
step aside and let it happen. (China wouldn't seem to be sitting on the sidelines
either, based on the continuing series of news releases from epi-reactor maker
Aixtron, regarding their China wins, including their largest single order ever
coming out of that country from a company just entering the HB-LED market).
As one element of that "grand plan", in April of this year, Samsung
formed a dedicated LED company, equally capitalized by both Samsung Electronics
and Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO).
The ministry speaker also made it clear that he felt that the recent resolution
of several major pieces of IP litigation involving Seoul Semiconductor effectively
cleared the path for the continuing growth plan, as well as shaped the Korean
government's resolve to involve itself in future litigation that other of the
country's producers may encounter. In one curt exchange, the ministry official
made it clear that he felt that smaller companies should look towards sharing
IP to keep from diffusing the country's efforts, and that anyone who felt differently
was "carrying forward a myopic view of the future". As we heard from
Prof. Moo-Whan Shin of Myong Ji University in his "Korea country report"
at Blue, the government is putting its money where its mouth is in other areas,
including a big push for LED lighting in government facilities. The plan is
to begin by moving Korea's post offices to all LED lighting starting immediately,
and ban any incandescent lights in government offices starting this year (fluorescents
are still allowed... for now). Another 300,000 "projects" are ready
to be undertaken at the state and local level, and the goal is that 30% of the
government's indoor lighting is generated by LEDs by 2012. They are serious,
but LEDs manufacturing isn't new to either LG or Samsung, and as one senior
exec at Blue noted, "They haven't managed to consistently use internal
sources for LEDs in the majority of their products so far, so do we need to
worry?"
Taiwan is providing a contrast of "quiet action" in some respects.
Having typically been limited to Taipei and the LED heartland of Hsinchu, we
decided to undertake a bit of a broader "eyeball survey" of where
LEDs are showing up in Taiwan. To that end, after completing Blue in Taiwan,
we rented a car to tour around the eastern side of the island, with a return
trip through the mountains, and up one or two major expressways that connect
the north and central parts of the country. And yes, for those familiar with
the driving style in Taiwan, we really did drive it ourselves, making use of
every bit of "shoot for the hole" snap that our rental VW Passat Turbo
had to offer. Decoding street signs was a small challenge (Jhung, Chung and
Joung are just some of the different English spellings for just one Chinese
character), not clipping the scooters in Hualien and Hsinchu were a bigger challenge,
and shooting through a few hundred kilometers of winding, wet, tunnel-laden,
landsliding 1 or 2-lane roads in a path from sea level to 3300m (11,000 feet)
pretty much defined insanity. The car didn't get returned clean, but it was
undamaged and passed more cars and trucks than passed it (although we were memorably
humbled by one amazing truck driver who navigated his rig down a mountainside
with the skill of a Formula One driver, leaving the Passat in the dust... well,
actually in the mud spray, since the road was wet and I will stick with that
as my excuse).
Of note in the trip from the LED standpoint? Well, Taiwan "gets it".
There was not a city strip that wasn't featuring a substantial number of LEDs
beckoning you to stop in to buy something. The department stores almost exclusively
used LEDs in the jewelry display cases, and notably for a portion of the overhead
lighting in the more difficult to maintain or high liability areas, including
the escalators. Outdoor LED signs and displays were prevalent (I think we have
something like 10 here in Austin), and interestingly, LEDs were used for direct
illumination of a number of advisory, caution and exit-type signs on the main
expressways. What a good idea. Why use fairly expensive lighting-quality LEDs
to shine at a road sign, when you can use multiple colors of lower lumen devices
to make up the outline and information on the road sign? And the LED presence
wasn't limited to the expressways and big towns. Once we came down off the mountain,
we were greeted by LEDs in front of shops and in road signs in the surrounding
smaller resort towns. LED heaven itself appeared when we needed to grab some
fuel at one of the freeway service centers. It seems you don't need to just
expect gas and some fast food, but 24-hour mechanic services, and a shopping
megaplex, including entertainment and restaurants. All without ever touching
a side street.
We haven't been to Japan yet, but clearly Taiwan and Korea (as well as mainland
China) are ready and willing to adopt LED technology everywhere it can fit,
whether that is in a fancy jewelry display case, or to replace the oversized
CFLs that filled the portable generator-powered "night markets". With
a manufacturing ramp-up benefiting from the big backlight producers, both in
Korea and Taiwan, who will likely produce LEDs for both internal use and external
sale, the pricing curve will continue its move in the right direction to support
that adoption. If there is a missing link in those markets, we expect that it
will be in understanding how to address the quality issues in general lighting,
both in terms of design reliabilty as well as in the quality of the light produced.
There is no lack of ability to produce quality when its the need is understood,
such as in backlighting (how many loyal customers do you develop if you are
Samsung and customers start to report the need to replace their 60-inch TV because
the LEDs start dying in a year?). Understanding what quality is, and then designing
it in to a general lighting product, is a substantial challenge those regions
will face, which is one reason we're making that a principal goal for the 2009
SSLdesign
Summit Taiwan this November. (For the September NY
Summit, as well as October's LA
Summit, the spotlight will only be shining on the manufacturers and enabling
technology providers that are demonstrating quality in their products,
but that is more to indicate where and how quality can be found, and
less on what defines quality in the worldwide lighting market). From
what we see, things remain bright and will continue to get brighter. If you have news or
views to share about the compound semiconductor, LED or solid
state lighting industries
contact our Publisher, Tom Griffiths
His direct tel in Austin is +1-512-257-9888
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