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Editorial: Is Consolidation in the Future for Blue Spectrum LED Manufacturers?
 
... There's been considerable talk in recent months about the Asian buildup of blue spectrum epiwafer and LED manufacturing capability. As the Asian devices rapidly improve in quality and quantity, concerns about over-capacity and price erosion appear to grow, which is par for the course when a technology sector starts...
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Mother Nature Shakes Nitride Community

May 26, 2003...The Nitride community is always on the lookout for "earthshaking" news, but who would have believed it literally would come about in the form of an actual earthquake in Japan just as the 5th Intl. Conference on Nitride Semiconductors (ICNS) gets underway this week in Nara. A relatively strong earthquake hit the island Monday evening around 6:30p (Japan time) that registered 7.0 on the Richter scale. The landbase center appeared to be near Sendai in Northeastern Japan, a considerable distance away from Nara. Hopefully all ICNS-goers were already safely ensconced in Nara. The quake injured at least 98 people, but damage was actually relatively minor, due largely to the excellent precautions and preparations Japan has in place to mitigate earthquake damage. Like the entire coastal state of California in the USA, the densely populated island of Japan is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes and building codes reflect extreme precautions. Although reports were that airports and trains experienced minor delays, some late-arrivers at ICNS may have experienced travel difficulties and those of you with colleagues attending ICNS may want individual reassurance that all is fine. To be expected, there were considerable delays in cellphone operations in and out of Japan just after the quake hit. NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s mobile phone service became partly inaccessible and NTT East Corp. implemented an emergency messaging service that led to clogged phone networks in six northeastern prefectures. Also of note to the advanced technology/energy sectors, extreme caution was taken by Japanese authorities in closing down or closely monitoring Japan's many nuclear power plants. Elsewhere in Japan, the quake registered in the range of 5.0 and 4.0, lowering in intensity moving towards Nara. The quake shook in and around Tokyo and was felt in Chiba, Gunma, Kanagawa, Saitama, Tochigi and Niigata prefectures. We encourage our Japanese readers to report in with further relevant news.

Cree's Higher Gain SiC Transistor Hits 10 Watt Class

May 26, 2003...Cree Microwave of Durham, North Carolina USA, a subsidiary of Cree Inc., has announced that its 2nd generation 48 V silicon carbide (SiC) MESFET process has been released to production. The initial product based on this new process is the CRF-24010, a Class A/B 10 W SiC MESFET with a minimum gain of 13 dB at 2 GHz, which is greater than 3 dB higher than previous SiC MESFETs. This device has an IM3 of -31 dBc at a peak envelope power of 10 W, operates from DC to 2.7 GHz, and has multi-octave instantaneous bandwidth, making it desirable for a variety of broadband large signal applications. The device has passed initial internal product reliability tests and is available for customer sampling. "We have received strong interest in the use of SiC RF MESFETs for a variety of very wide bandwidth communications applications, and the much higher gain of this new process should allow for even better performance and wider bandwidths to be obtained," stated John Palmour, Cree's Executive Vice President of Advanced Devices and a co-founder of Cree. More details are included in the company news release.

The LED Supply
Chain Conference
Materials, 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.

Crystal IS Announces Single Crystal Native AlN Substrates in All Primary Low-Index Orientations

May 26, 2003...Crystal IS, Inc. of Watervliet, New York USA has announced that limited quantities of their new ultra-low dislocation density a-plane, m-plane, and c-plane AlN substrates are now available. “Our native AlN substrates are fabricated from our patent-pending boule growth process and are the only commercially available AlN substrates to our knowledge that are not produced using hetero-epitaxial techniques,” said Dr. Keith Evans, Crystal IS's COO and VP Business Development. “As a result, we can offer virtually any customer-specified crystallographic orientation while maintaining industry-leading dislocation densities of less than 1000 cm -2 . Other approaches produce much higher dislocation densities and are extremely limited in terms of available crystallographic orientation.” Keith also noted that recent advances in their manufacturing process bode well for reducing the cost and improving the diameter and quality of AlN substrates. "We currently offer 12 mm diameter substrates and plan to offer 50 mm diameter substrates in limited quantities by the end of 2003.” Company news release.

Highlink Expanding with Strong Patent Portfolio and Alliances

May 26, 2003...Highlink Technology of Hsinchu, Taiwan, one of the leading and ideally typical Taiwan producers of GaN-based HB-LED epiwafers and die, continues to expand. According to Highlink co-founder Chuong Tran, "We have a huge building to host even more reactors and our chip production. So far we are the major supplier of wafers to the Korean market (especially Samsung) and many chip makers in Taiwan." Chuong has especially strong ties to the USA due to his early work at Emcore on early-stage blue spectrum LED technology which was being undertaken in the Emcore Apps Lab as a prelude to the rollout of the GaNzilla tools, and the establishment of GELcore, the joint venture between Emcore and GE. As noted in today's editorial, Chuong will be attending Blue 2003 and participating in the "infrastructure readiness" panel on Wednesday, June 11th. Chuong's early-on R&D teammate at Emcore on blue spectrum work, Bob Karlicek, who is now Director of Microsemi's LED operations, will be kicking off the Wednesday lineup. According to Chuong, "The purpose of my trip is to see the US progress in this field and whether I can establish some collaboration." Chuong also noted that he had to be in attendance to "catch up some" from around his old R&D circles while at Blue 2003. Calling them noted world class scientists (ref: May 9 "Pioneer Awards" editorial), Chuong noted that we're "gathering many celebrities of the field, like an LED Oscar." Noteworthy in its own right, Highlink already has 2 USA patents and 4 Taiwan patents under its belt, and capacity to mass produce 20 million chips per month with a strict quality control. Highlink is also involved in a strong alliance with LED systems integrator, Optotech. A major shareholder of Highlink, Optotech also provides Highlink with device processing knowledge and the two are working in close cooperation on high-power device design, quality control of device processing and device lifetime testing. Since Chuong will have plenty of "online time" while he waits in a hotel room to be sure he's "germ free" before Blue 2003, you can contact him via email at: chuong@highlinktech.com

 

Enerleds To Warm Up the Flood Lamp Scene with Luxeon Warm Whites

May 26, 2003...The latest integrator of white LEDs to design a new product around Lumileds' Warm White Luxeon line is Enerleds Solutions of Penang, Malaysia. Enerleds's latest high brightness flood lamp will debut in Q-3 '03 and it will be noted for its compact size and extremely low heat and low energy benefits, in addition to being UV-free. Enerleds' current daylight floodlamps range between 30W to 100W to match 70W to 400W metal halide equivalents. The CEO of Enerleds, Jeff Toh, reported that his company aspires to be a major specialist in producing High Brightness Lighting applications such as street lamps and flood lamps as the demand for these products is very strong in the petrochemical, construction, and roadbuilding industries. Jeff also reports that Enerleds is in negotiations with the Light Up the World Foundation which was set up by Professor Dave Irvine-Halliday (Winner of the famed Rolex Award) to collaborate on a new venture to light up rural areas in Malaysia with Solar Powered LED street lamps. Jeff can be reached by telephone in Malaysia at 604 - 890 78 99 and by email: jeff@enerleds.com.

Kopin's Devices Get Smaller as Market Gets Larger

May 26, 2003...Kopin Corporation of Taunton, Massachusetts USA has introduced a new product called the Kopin CyberDisplay Color Filter VGA, which is a 0.44-inch diagonal 640 x 480 color-pixel display. The new VGA display is designed to enable new consumer product applications that benefit from miniature footprint and extremely good image quality. "We are very excited to introduce five new ultra-small display products that are aggressively pushing the envelope of display technologies. The tiny size, yet sharp images of these displays are truly astonishing," said Kopin Founder and Chairman Dr. John C.C. Fan. Company news release.

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Commentary & Perspective...

Is Consolidation in the Future for Blue Spectrum LED Manufacturers?

May 26, 2003...There's been considerable talk in recent months about the Asian buildup of blue spectrum epiwafer and LED manufacturing capability. As the Asian devices rapidly improve in quality and quantity, concerns about over-capacity and price erosion appear to grow, which is par for the course when a technology sector starts to noticeably thrive, and which is obviously happening now within the blue spectrum compound semi community. That's why we're hosting Blue 2003 in Dallas June 11-13. To celebrate that success.

Yet, there's a noticeable absence of Taiwan producers on the agenda. Why? That's twofold. One is the obvious concern over SARS, which has had a real impact on Asia-based travel. It is serious, so we don't mean to make light of the situation, but we also don't believe that it will cause any major complications. The flu takes better than 250,000 lives annually, including nearly 40,000 in the USA. SARS spread easily before people were aware of it and what to do to prevent its spread. At this point, there's excellent awareness, so common sense will rule. As any traveler knows, taking due caution and prescribed precautions is the way to deal with almost every "unusual" situation. If you would like more facts to help with your decisions, we recommend the US Center for Disease Control. There's information for travelers as well as some good basics on SARS.

We're pleased to announce that we've just heard from the co-founder of Highlink Technology, Chuong Tran, who will be at Blue 2003 (taking all due caution and precaution) to provide us with an update from his very "inside Hsinchu" perspective. Highlink is now regarded as one of the hottest blue spectrum epiwafer and device manufacturers in Asia. Chuong reports that "the core of Taiwan High Tech Hsinchu is still SARS free" and he also reports that many manufacturers are indeed keeping a relatively low international profile right now, as the marketing in Taiwan is simple: Sell product of the same quality at a lower price. Chuong will be helping Compound Semi's Alan Thompson and Bob Walker with the "Infrastructure Readiness" panel Wednesday afternoon, June 11th.

The other concern is over the threat of industry consolidation. It too is nothing to fear. In some cases, companies are actually grooming themselves for acquisition. Albeit quietly, that's often the normal course of building a business. One grooms for growth in various ways. You can become an Intel when you grow up... or you can be part of Intel when you grow up. Or... you can be a comfortably manageable independent and live happily ever after. The great thing about a successful sector such as the blue spectrum, is that companies doing especially good work can decide for themselves.

Granted, there are a few HB-LED companies that aren't fairing as well as those headlining Blue 2003. Those companies obviously doing well will be sharing their success stories with attendees to Blue 2003, and the buzz in the halls will circle the rest of the stories. The journalists and analysts in attendance will then judge for themselves who's really capable of producing what, for whom, and why that's newsworthy. What we'd like to see is everyone in the blue spectrum field at Blue 2003 to make sure you're properly counted among the contributors to the big picture.

Visibility is everything these days, no matter what your ambitions. Quiet or not-so-quiet about what your company is contributing to the field, Blue 2003 is a venue where you can let people know that... a) you're still alive, b) you have intentions of being quite big and important in this field, c) that your company may very well be "available" for acquisition or "partnering," or... d) all of the above. So pull out that handy bottle of germ-killer gel, book your flight, put on a happy face, and come have a great time sharing in the Celebration of the Blues. Really... everyone's going to be there. Shouldn't you be too?

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