CompoundSemi Online - The Original Compound Semiconductor Industry Newspaper

April 26, 2006...With people thinking of cellphones as "giveaways" (and therefore "throwaways" when rendered outdated) and with LEDs appearing in everything from footwear to lollipops, what are the brilliant and innovative technologies we've struggled to popularize coming to?

Mobile phone shipments are fast approaching the magic "1 billion units shipped" mark this year, according to Strategy Analytics' latest study). Many of the handsets are being given away free when contracting with a wireless phone service, and now we're seeing super-cheap white and blue LED-based products so common that they're being hawked by street vendors in Hong Kong.

What's happening sy the lower end of the CS and SSL product foodchain is sometimes laughable, because they're becoming consumables To qualify as a consumable means that your end product is used up fast. Like in eating it, or throwing it away. Who'd have figured that, when our technologists were first struggling to make GaAs PAs and HB-LEDs affordable and long lasting that they'd end up "consumables"? End products based on our seemingly sophisticated CS and SSL technologies have not only reached the throwaway stage, some are actually being consumed by kids. And I literally mean, "consumed."

We all know that LEDs are in kids shoes now. If you haven't seen them on a kid yet, you certainly saw them wielded in Cree chief, Chuck Swoboda's hand at Blue 2005 in Taiwan (the predecessor event to our upcoming SSLS 2006) when he put Wal-Mart on report for selling knockoff blue spectrum LED-based products. Well, even further down the value chain, our intrepid news editor, Scott McMahan, recently spotted LED-embedded flip flops on a girl in Austin. (Scott's very good at checking out girls in Austin). And when checking in with OptoLum chief, Joel Dry... who knows of all things LED-based, everywhere in the world (OptoLum specializes in very impressive high end custom apps)... Joel answered his cellphone from a bar in Hong Kong and reported that hawkers are now selling LEDs in the Asian streets these days.

Closer to home, I happened to be surfing the TV and came upon a report on the Food Channel about LEDs being embedded in kids lollipops. The product is called "LitePop" and it's an interesting case study as to just how far people are reaching these days to create new uses for our industry's advanced LEDs. Take a look for yourself at www.LitePop.com. I'm not kidding. This San Diego, California USA company is actually making lollipops for kids that have even blue spectrum LEDs embedded in them so that a kid can play around their neighborhood after dark with a stick of candy that lights up like a flashlight. Cost for all LitePop's products.... which includes lighted CDs on a stick (DiscPop), sell for between $1 and $3. It seems the inventor of LitePops conceived the idea in 1998 when his kids were playing outside in the evening. One of neighborhood kids was sharing candy treats while other kids clamored for more light in the dark. LitePop LLC now has over 80 products covering 5 categories in production and distributes worldwide.

My main concern with the lollipop application is that, when we were kids, our parents constantly warned us about running around with a stick of candy in our mouths. Day or night. Not that we obeyed, but the caution was valid. And here a company is encouraging such a practice. At least LitePop kids will have a light in their mouth to clearly show them what it is they're falling into when the inevitable mishap occurs. I can see the cynical scene at the emergency room hospital: "Hey look, the dang thing stayed lit all the way down the kid's throat!" Maybe we're on to a new, inexpensive light-guided, "interactive" medical procedure. And maybe that's why LitePop LLC is marketing their products as "interactive candy." Whatever... LitePops are selling, and kids appear to like (as well as lick) them. The company's biggest challenge was evidently dealing with saliva getting on the electronics. Obviously the LED has a longer lifetime than the lollipop, so maybe the remaining LED embedded stick could be used as a toy flashlight? Now that would be a good marketing point.

Speaking of medical apps... here's one pictured, for example, from Philips for light therapy. I'm sure it helps the woman's stated Crigler-Najjar-syndrome and applaud its introduction. But imagine what she looks like coming into her kids room at night to check on them? Pure space creature. It would scare the living daylights out of them! I think Philips still has a way to go on this one.

I'm still waiting to hear that someone has figured out how to make fairy lights wireless... maybe designed to be thumb tacks that work on the same principal as RFID tags for livestock. Just press a scanner and the passive components come to life and twinkle all over your yard. Now that would be cool... and the direct opposite from scary.

Unusual applications for the core products the CS and SSL industries create are fun to read about, look at, and talk about. It's what brightens up an otherwise ordinary work day. Personally, I never fail to be amazed at what systems integrators will come up with next from our wonderful world of CS and SSL technologies. And remember, these bread and butter high volume and often unanticipated products keep those MOCVD machines grinding out product. So I guess there's no such thing as a "bad app." Weird, maybe... but never bad.

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