CompoundSemi Online - The Original Compound Semiconductor Industry Newspaper

February 1, 2004...Score a big one for all inventive technologists the world over, who know precisely what needs to be accomplished and are willing to put in the years of hard work and dedication required to achieve their goals. Shuji Nakamura's court win of 20 billion yen (USA $188.7 million at that day's exchange rate) on Friday, January 30th in Japan, awarded to him by Judge Ryoichi Mimura, represents only a fraction of what the judge said was his rightful due. Nichia was judged to have earned royalties of approximately 120.8 billion yen and noted in this precedent-setting case, that Shuji contributed 50% to the production of that original blue spectrum device, and should therefore receive 60.4 billion yen. 20 billion yen was all he asked for. But like so many technology champions, he's never been in it for the money.

Judge Ryoichi Mimura's most notable quote, explaining his ruling, was that ''the invention was a totally rare example of a world-class invention achieved by the inventor's individual ability and unique ideas in a poor research environment at a small company.'' The blue spectrum work that altered the course of compound semi technology, and subsequently the lighting and solid state laser industries, was undertaken in what amounted to a technology void, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, in the remote Japanese city of Anan, in the Tokushima Prefecture. Nichia, which was established in classic style immediately following WW II to help bring jobs to the Prefecture, had been firmly rooted in old world technology before Shuji came to work for them in 1975. His vision and hard work, which involved creating his own MOCVD tool to get the results he wanted out of GaN-based material, has since totally changed the face of Nichia and allowed it to become the world leader in blue spectrum LEDs and laser diodes that it is today.

First off Shuji's homebrew tool came the Blue LED, which he made brighter and brighter and made it last longer and longer. Then came all the other hues in the blue spectrum... green, violet, ultraviolet, and ultimately, the white LED. Then came the industry's premier solid state blue laser. The technology world was first stunned by the accomplishment, then they all jumped on the Group III Nitride bandwagon, which has been rolling toward prominence ever since. Then the blue spectrum IP disputes began, and in 1999, Shuji left Nichia, under trying circumstances, and moved to the USA to become a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he is now employed and continues his brilliant Nitride-based research.

News of Shuji's unprecedented court win, the largest in Japanese history and probably one of the largest in the world, even though a fraction of what was deemed to be his due, is being regarded as a huge moral victory for all technology innovators everywhere. Past, present, and future. When the news reached the USA early Friday, USA time, the emails and calls started coming in. This was one of those times when news made in Asia literally and figuratively woke up Americans. By close of business Friday, coast to coast USA time, the compound semi community who tuned in set out to spend the weekend toasting Shuji. So Superbowl Weekend had a double meaning for Americans this year, especially those in the Nakamura Lab at UCSB, and especially for those of us throughout the world who have become his longtime friends and colleagues. The feeling was an especially good cap to his friends in Asia, where almost everyone was completing the long Lunar New Year holidays. What a way to kick off a new year!

At the annual Strategies In Light (SIL) conference this week in California, Tuesday and Wednesday, Shuji's victory will likely be quantified and qualified and woven in and out of conversations, and the importance and ramifications of his contributions revealed in more detail. The bottomline always comes out the same. With Shuji guiding blue light breakthroughs by literally setting initial standards of growth of such brighter, longer life blue spectrum LEDs and LDs, the HB-LED business wouldn't be where it is today.

Where is the business today and where is it headed? Strategies Unlimited's Bob Steele and consultant Bob Walker will report details and numbers you can count on. They've just come off detailed interviews and assessments and hard calculations and it looks like HB-LEDs (all colors) will reach well above $5 billion in the 2008 timeframe. We'll be reporting exact numbers Thursday, after they're reported in person to the +300 attendees at SIL... the industry's truly premier gathering of the HB-LED industry. These two market prognosticators will share with everyone an update again at our Blue 2004 gathering in Taiwan in May. Bob Walker is serving as co-chair of the event and Bob Steele is our keynote speaker. While the Nitride blue spectrum devices are the stars of the show, we'll be covering all the HB-LED field and all the leading edge laser diodes, especially the blue lasers going into next gen HD-DVDs and hard drives.

Who are the leaders? Shuji put Nichia in the lead and Nichia, which remains a critically important company in the field, continues to lead the pack in blue spectrum LEDs and LDs. Cree is about the only other company to specialize specifically in blue, covering both as well. In the USA, along with Cree is Lumileds, which provides the best of the best in all colors of HB-LEDs, with Toyoda Gosei in Japan and Osram Opto in Germany in the same overall league. Although not all are doing LDs, they have all become masters of the blue spectrum. But the most impressive, overall buildup in HB-LEDs of all colors, including the blues, is in Taiwan. There are now over 250 MOCVD tools in place in Taiwan. Steve Cummins of Veeco will shed more light at SIL in his talk which closes the proceedings, detailing the huge contribution these reactors have made, and will continue to make, on the world market.

Talk at SIL, and at Blue 2004 will likely include the question "is this a precedent-setting decision for all technologists and inventors? In Japan, and possibly in other countries outside the USA, definitely! But would such a court award be reached in the USA for a technologist who was employed at the time? According to the first wave of legal friends who have checked in, like Steve Smith of Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione in Chicago, Illinois who not only specializes in IP issues, but himself was a noted compound semi industry technologist before becoming a lawyer, "the way the laws are structured here versus the structure there, an inventor would not win. Once, in the USA, when the inventor assigns the invention to the company and/or depending upon the employee agreement, there is not much of a chance for the inventor to ever win. They would have to prove a very heavy burden that they were taken advantage of. At the very least there has to be some sort of inequitable behavior on the part of the company. And that is very hard for an 'employee' to prove." So don't go getting your hopes up. That's probably why so many USA inventors tend to now form their own companies. That route is getting especially popular with university professors.

Did anyone really believe, back in the early 1990s, that the business would grow this large, so quickly? We had our hunches. I had the absolute privilege and honor to be the technology journalist that broke Shuji's blue spectrum story in the USA, which, as a freelancer at the time, I wrote for EE Times. I first met Shuji at an IEDM meet just after he'd gotten his initial blue LED working. It was his first formal presentation in the USA and I was the only journalist who attended his session. When he flashed the sample blue LED, thanks to all the briefing I'd had in the years proceeding from my USA, Russian, and European wide bandgap research friends, I truly understood what Shuji had accomplished... almost single-handedly, and against incredible hurdles. That's why what he has contributed to science and technology is considered by many, myself included, to be Nobel Prize-worthy. And that's why Shuji was our selection for our initial CompoundSemi Pioneer Award at the original Blue event in 2003.

In that IEDM audience, during Q&A, when most questions focused on the intricacies of growing GaN LEDs to make them bright enough in green, blue, violet, ultraviolet, and thus paving the way to white, I helped put the capper on the session by publicly asking Shuji if, since he'd reached such impressive brightness levels and lifetimes, could the elusive blue laser be far behind? He smiled, gave a short, but optimistic answer, and we began a trusting friendship. Ever since, he's taken part in every live blue spectrum-related event I've organized and I've tried to report any news relating to his IP and personal litigation struggles, his departure from Nichia, and his subsequent affiliation with UCSB, with clarity and accuracy.

Like Shuji, I am enamored with the blue laser. While I fully appreciate the blue spectrum LED sector, the blue laser is a story of the scientists' classic "Holy Grail." That story... call it the uncovering of the very Soul of a New Technology... is one that now has an incredible hook. How could any new technology be so important that it yields the lone inventive technologist a whopping $188 million? And do it the hard way... through the courts, and after 25 years of literally slaving away, to make that technology live up to expectations.

I'm not a technologist, but I sincerely appreciate their work. Enough to make their missions my missions. I've been prodded to write the blue spectrum story from my personal, eyewitness viewpoint. And I will. My "Life in the Laser Lane" has been memorable and exciting, but only because I've been able to know the technologists, like Shuji, themselves. They bring passion to their fields, so it's easy for me to be equally passionate. They've been patient and stayed focused, because all technologies take years, usually one's entire lifetime, to come to fruition. So it's easy for me to be patient and focused in rolling out "their story."

And in case you weren't personally part of the story, trust me. You're going to love this one. And if Shuji continues to triumph through the appeals process which Nichia has begun, which may well take this case to the Japanese Supreme Court, it's an even more compelling story because it has such a happy ending for the Master of the Blue Spectrum, Shuji Nakamura.

Shuji Nakamura Wins $188.7 Million Settlement from Former Employer Nichia for Blue Spectrum Breakthrough Technology

Emcore and Corona to Cross License Parallel Optical Transmitters and Receivers

Lockheed Teams with Northrop for Space Based System

Nortel Reports Continued Move Away from USA Market

SiValley Recovering?

Chuck Mattera Joins II-VI

Cree Adds Two New SiC Schottkys

nLight Raises Another $12 Million in Third Round Financing

Osram Opto Showcases Cutting Edge LDs at Photonics West

Spectrolab Goes To Mars

Sanyo Helps Lead the DVD/HDD Market Charge From Red to Blue

Shuji Wins