Top Ten LED Companies in the World

The Oscar LED award is Shenzhen 2011 Annual LED seminar on 9-10 Dec. after 2 months of score evaluation by Internet voting on the best LED National Companies go to: ASMPT, Philips Lumileds, OSRAM opto semiconductors, CREE, Nichia, Seoul Semiconductor, Epistar, EVERLIGHT, Intematix and OPTILED.

1st Best Company
ASM Pacific Technology was established in 1975, headquarters in Holland, world Largest semiconductor and LED assembly equipment supplier. ASM went public in HK on 1989, with an set-up of the major manufacturing site in Sha Tau Jiao China Which have a leverage of abundant supply of skillful workers, close to HK border. Evaluation Body rates ASMPT as the most monopolized brand with installation covers most of the area in China, Highest market share, though has been replaced by China brand in certain low end product. ASMPT would continue to be most important LED position in the coming years.


2nd Best Company
Philips Lumileds is World leading Hi Power LED manufacturer and leader in Hi Power LED. A pioneer in the interior and exterior illumination LED. Solid state lighting supplier with the launch of patented LUXEON, which has advantage to have life time of 50,000 hours.

Lumileds had the world most brightest and longest life time. Evaluation team rates Lumileds a company that has Quality of the highest standard. 

No wonder your Audi R8, A6 head lamp are built by Lumileds, using ASM Highly sophisticated eutectic bonder custom made for them back in 2007.

3rd Best Company
Osram Opto Semiconductor, is under Siemens Germany for manufacturing LED.; They have 5,000 products, one of the World Largest Supplier company in the World, Osram is having a very critical position in the Illumination market. 

There are 140 counties is having Sales and distribution office. Evaluation body rates Osram a low profile German Company. German is usually responsibility in handling the quality issues, never Say yes to inferior Products.

4th Best Company
Cree covers their Business from LED wafer, or sorted wafer for consistent quality. A World Leader in SiC Carbide  Chip and LED final Assembly, Headquarters is Durham NC USA, factory location in Hui Zhou, and R & D Centre will be in Hui Zhou, Penang, ShenZhen and HK China, near the customers.

LED Factory at Hui Zhou is world Largest of Cree, it takes up 40% or more on the assembly . Cree can make use of it building up other Companies and Sells the Chip locally to China.


5th Best Company
Nichia was located in in Fukushima, Japan, it started selling Florescent material for CRT Tubes OF TV set. It shows announced that they have invented the Blue LED in 1993 then Ultraviolet LED, Yellow Phosphor. Nakamura San who would get a nobel prize.

The Evaluation team rates Nichia the most Killing Brand in White LED, 2011 total number of LED is world No.1. Their LED has the good quality and customer reputation, and their Patent will help to create high revenue for Nichai over these years.

6th Best Company
Seoul semiconductor is world renowned brand for LED, established in Seoul in 1987. HQs is in Seoul, main product line is Acriche, AC LED; HB LED , Side LED, Piranha, They started a China New factory in Tianjian  for China and SEA market.

Evaluation team describes Seoul Semiconductor as fast solution and reaction into their competitive market.

7th Best Company
Epistar, established in 1995 Taiwan, soon became Taiwan NO. 1 largest LED wafer maker. Epistar fully devotes themselves in LED wafer manufacturing, They have their own MOCVDs.

Evaluation team rates Epistar the toughest complaints international big shots on LED Wafer manufacturers., We could find numerous people are using Epistar LED on their lines in their future is bright and could not be underestimated.

8th Best Company
Everlight, established in Taipei Tu Cheng in 1983., I was the engineer came to Tu Cheng to install the the first two LED die bonders in 1988.

Robert Yeh is the Heisman to bring up this once a very small company, gradually over the years working with the most prominent LED suppliers to build their strength in both technology, high scale of manufacturability developed their factory in China Started in PanYu, Fa Shan, Yuen Li (Taiwan), Lian Su Zhou, GuangZou Today like the Taiwan Largest LED assembly company.

Recently Robert Yeh Expanded his business to include the wafer fab. So that they are horizontal integration to gain the control of not just price, but also supply volume on LED Wafer.

Evaluation Team rates Everlight Most Powerful Brand of World No. 1 LED Assembly Company They have their own brand name, own product like Dolphin, BLU.

9th Best Company
Intematix holds more then 250 patents, come with new, innovations on Yellow Phosphor powder, leading the world in technology of Phosphor application. With HQs in California with factory in Shenzhen SO Zhou lighting company, Intematix Taiwan.

Report released by China LED researcher GLII 2011’ Yellow Phosphor Competiveness rated as No. 1.
Evaluation team rates Inetmatix the fastest moving up company for Phosphor Powder manufacturing and occupying No. 1 in China for Yellow Phosphor Market.

10th Best Company
Found in US in 2000, HQs is in Hong Kong, a solution provider for international clients on Lighting solution, Support end user to make smallest investment with Maximum Return.
Evaluation team rates OPTILED the most innovative brand, focus on LED application with the latest technology. Covering all countries in the World.

Feverip

October Worldwide LED TV Shipments Exceeded 10 Million

According to Displaybank “Monthly FPD TV Shipments Data” report, LED TV shipments in October 2011 increased by 3% M-o-M and 98% Y-o-Y, recording 10.1M units. The Worldwide LED TV shipments in October 2011 exceeded 10M units for the first time.
As LED BLU is adopted to premium products such as 3D and Smart TV by default, shipments proportion of LED TV is increasing continuously. Also, LED TV demand is steadily increasing as the price difference between LED and CCFL BLU gets narrowed. LED BLU adoption rate of LCD TV has increased from 32% in the beginning of the year to 48% in October.
Overall LCD TV shipments has stopped at the 15M units per month level since March but increased sharply in September, and recording 20.9M units in October as it continues increased level. This can be due to demand in preparation of Chinese National Day and increasing demand for Black Friday and year-end sales of North America. We estimated 2011 total LCD TV shipments to be 203M units.
If you take a look at October LCD TV shipments share by brand, Samsung is maintaining No. 1 position with 22% and LG Electronics is ranked at the 2nd with 13%, followed by Sony and Toshiba, recording 9% and 8%, respectively.
October worldwide flat TV (LCD, PDP) shipments increased by 11% Y-o-Y, recording the maximum value so far this year with 22.67M units.
These are the top 14 TV makers
China:Chang Hong, Haier, Hisense, Konka, Skyworth, TCL
Korea: LG, g
Europe: Philips
Japan: Panasonic, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba
USA: Vizio
HK Snob

Next LED Manufacturing Equipment Demand

Low demand for consumer electronics LEDs, such as those Backlit units for LCD TVs, will be weak until at least till Q1 2012. It was clear that demand for nonlighting
LED applications continues to be tepid. Veeco indicated the utilization rates
for its MOCVD equipment in Korea and Taiwan was 60%, Rubicon indicated it will probably take until the end of the year to draw down excess levels of sapphire and LED wafers. This weakness for consumer electronics grade LEDs does have an impact on all LED pricing, even for higher performance lighting grade products.
The continued oversupply of LEDs in general will help to accelerate LED lighting adoption due to the suppressed LED pricing outlook.
We think the best place to invest will be as far downstream as possible in the LED-based lighting food chain. This is where we expect to see the highest revenue growth rates and most shelter from weakness in the broader LED sector should the macro outlook remain weak. We also believe a general rise in utility-based subsidies for LED-based lighting will occur over the next 18 months helping to accelerate adoption.
LED-based lighting demand growth remains strong in Spite of the weak macro
environment. The current equipment demand slow down is purely due to over-capacity in the past two years. Let’s wait for another 9-12 months, it will come into a higher level of production utilization and that would be time for next equipment Purchase.
HK Snob

When LED Market Will Grow again?

LED MOCVD Installation
Korea and Taiwan dominated in number of MOCVD installation in 2009.
China came up as leading installation region and became major site for installation since Q4’10. China is expected to continue to be the dominant MOCVD market until Q3’ 12
But China will shrink from three third down to 60% in Q4’12 when Taiwan and Korea rebounds.
Largest MOCVD Installation Base
Epistar is expected to be #1 MOCVD customer in 2012, followed by San’an, GCL Opto, SemiLEDs and Genesis Photonics onpur.
Such Rapid expansion in 2010-2011lead to an overcapacity that we think it will be fully utilized only by mid 2012.
LED lighting Status
Total LED lighting demand in Q2 & Q3 2011keeps increasing. The Demand
is 3.2 billion units for Q2’11. And the demand is predicted to be 3.4 billion units for Q3’11. The Growth is not seen as significant as we expected beginning of the year.
LED lighting Players
Due to Government encouragement for going greener energy, limited resources of these islands, as well the March 11 Quake issue that rocked the Nuclear Power plant, alerted Japanese Citizen and Government on using more efficient Source of Light. Japan, as biggest market for LED bulbs in 2011, with market share of 63 %, Japan will remain the biggest lighting market until 2014. Price of LED replacement Bulb keeps on dropping.
The downtrend of LED caused the LED light bulb price to drop from USD83 /Klm in 2010 to USD 52 / Klm at this stage. However, the initial cost of the LED light bulbs is still much higher than that of general light bulbs, so it is still too soon to say whether LED light can fully replace the latter. ASP of Japan LED light bulb was Yen 3000 for 5W in Q1 2010, and dropped to Yen 2,000 in Q1 2011, the speed of ASP drops slow down. That indicates that the adoption is slow down in Q2 2011.
LED bulb growth in China, North America and Europe will be higher than other areas from 2011 to 2014
China - biggest market for LED street lights in 2011, but due to China government policies. With market share of 55 %, but China will slightly decline to 50 % in 2013.
Economic Situation
We are now experiencing dual Core Economy (USA and Europe) slow down though the scale and intensity was not as worse of September 2008. We will not having the same good old day as the maket would bounce back as early as 2009 Q2 3 after Leman Brothers melt down 15 Sep 2008. Government Policy will not focus on Green Energy harvest rater than on job creation, economic reform, and stimulus plan for economy. Less incentive programmes for LED lighting penetration will be generated.
LED lighting Type
Highest penetration in spot lights Due to halogen replacements
Government policies are expected to accelerate LED penetration in street lights after 2011.
Package LED market Forecast
In 2010-2011, rapid expansion of MOCVD in China
Initiated in Korea and Taiwan since 2009.
Cause capacity utilization rate of <50% for certain tools by mid 2012.
It will take 12-18 months to absorb this overcapacity, and that causes a short down cycle
The down cycle will extend through mid 2013!
Some consolidations will bring the industry back to more usual utilization rates of at least 80%, before any capex initiation for next new investment including Manufacturing Equipment such as MOCVD, Die Sorter, Die bonder, wire bonder, tester, package sorter and Taping Machines.
Equipment Forecast for LED lighting
If adoption of LED for SSL happens faster than initially envisioned, it would lead to higher equipment investment levels. Excess capacity installed in 2010-2011 is absorbed much more quickly than expected. The Equipment market will bounce back significantly in Q1 2013 to respond to accelerated demand for general lighting applications.
HK Snob

Overused of LED as for Decorative Light

This is a ceiling lighting of a Large Department store in Tsuen Wan District,
They have been using over three thousand cold white K2 LED modules. Its is a new traction for the entrance of the store. It is gorgeous!
However, I am thinking are we going to wrong direction? The main purpose using LED is to cut off extra power consumption and reduce CO2 emission, but this kind of decorative light would easier eat up 3000W of Electricity… and that is a lot of light contamination it may product tons of CO2 to our world.. Well, I think the architect should also think of the right amount of LED lighting, or the intention of Power harvest of LED would become Power Wastage!
Simple way is to apply some Light guides which could then reduce the number of LED modules as much as 60% or more and retaining the same Lighting Effect! Besides, if they use RGB LED , there could be more fun as they can create a lot of gimmick such as mood lighting, light shows...
HK Snob

The LED Man

This Coat consists of LEDs mounted on flex boards joining with control switches, wires and battery cells. Designed by Daves Forbes as he called The LED TV Coat.
There is some gimmicks for this to be used for mobile Advertisement in the street at night.
May be fashion clothing at Disco! I think the power source is an issue.
If 160x120 LED means 19,200 LED, that each consume say each 50 mill watts power. That is a lot of power for lighting up 19K pieces of LEDs, he might need to change battery every 40 minutes. Unless he carry a big storage power, but his idea is niche and eye catching.

HK Snob

Vertigo Bird Balloon

Vertigo Bird is a Slovenian Company designs and manufacture the Lighting Fixture.
LED Balloon is the design that catches my attention, Bold, Simple, beautiful using Efficient LED as a source, LED light shines upwards and enlightens reflector, which re-direct reflecting the light forwards. HK Snob

Replacemetn LED Light bulbs and BLU will drive LED driver IC Market Through 2015

LED driver IC sales will reach nearly $3.5 billion in 2015 from nearly $2 billion in 2010, a compound annual growth rate of 12%. With growth from edge-lit TVs and monitors. LED lighting applications will be the next big event for LED drivers and driver ICs, beginning with replacement bulbs, as a response to improvements in technology and phasing-in bans on incandescent bulbs in many countries.
LED driver IC revenues are threatened by continued integration into fewer ICs, competition from compact fluorescent lamps and OLED. Severe price erosion for driver ICs will limit the revenue growth as volumes increase, but new, higher priced ICs are appearing that reduce the overall BOM and also help maintain the ASP of the ICs. AC-LED products minimize the driver and some eliminate the driver IC, but will not have a significant impact on overall revenues through the period.
The production value of drivers for lighting will see strong 40% compound annual growth through the period. The driver is the entire LED circuit, including the driver IC but excluding the LEDs. Innovations in driver design will help take LED lighting mainstream, but the market will quickly shake out those who cannot meet strict goals for dimming, efficiency, power factor, and price. To meet these goals, large and small companies are bringing innovations to market, such as digital control and novel high-voltage designs. Industry, LED researcher and even energy authority are moving toward more standardized specifications that will reduce manufacturing costs and accelerate adoption.
The top 10 LED driver IC suppliers hold more than 55% of revenues, with about 30 IC suppliers and captive manufacturers sharing the other 44%. With the acquisition of National Semiconductor by Texas Instruments, TI is now the number one supplier of LED driver ICs. Winners will be those who can keep delivering innovative products at competitive prices. Fabrication with leading-edge high-voltage BCD processes and 8”-12” wafers will play a key role. HK Snob

Panasonic LED bulbs will hit RMB 5B sales by 2015

As March 11 Japan Earth Quake aftermath, Japanese had leant to go for greener energy and to be more conscious for Power saving Lighting devices such as LED lighting solution. Panasonic is Japan’s No. 1 LED lighting manufacturing Company, Though the market of Japan is big, but still not enough to feed this LED giant. The Road map for the market development is aiming to ship their LED lighting product to China,
Company target is to have 40% of their revenue coming from LED by 2015. and Overseas market will make up close to 40% of their products.
They would pursue for revenue of RMB 5b by year 2015, which is 5 times as comparing with 2009. They will set up their own 4800 selling points in various cities in China including this 2nd and third tier populated cities. Reversed engineering show that a 6.9 W 570 lm LED light bulb used 96 LEDs on a matrix layout on a ceramic substrates.
That is a standard way for Japanese LED light bulb using a lot of LEDs from 36 to 126 pieces. We will foresee that Panasonic will use up a lot of LED in the coming 4 years. They will use likely good Quality Japan LED for their packaging. Will not know if they will switch to other country supplier of LED by time when the price keeps on dropping for the finished LED light bulb. A 6.9W LED light bulb was selling at Yen 2,000 only latelty. We can see that the price is undergone a serious erosion, that is good for a massive penetration for the replacement of CFLs lighting in Japan and China.
HK Snob

Semiconductor Development from the First Transistor to 3D-Chip

The first transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories on December 16, 1947 by William Shockley. It replaced Vacuum tubes in the years after gradually, and Radio was marked on the case as Solid State to interpret the durability of Transistor. Shock in a much high order than vacuum tubes, on the other hand it operates in less power and energy than the vacuum tube, and It is pretty SMALL.
In 1959 both TI and Fairchild parties applied for patents of IC. Jack Kilby and Texas Instruments received U.S. patent #3,138,743 for miniaturized electronic circuits. Robert Noyce and the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation received U.S. patent #2,981,877 for a silicon based integrated circuit. The two companies wisely decided to cross license their technologies after several years of legal battles, creating a global market now worth about $1 trillion a year.
In 1961 the first commercially available IC came from the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation. All computers then started to be made using chips instead of the individual transistors and their accompanying parts. Texas Instruments first used the chips in Air Force computers and the Minuteman Missile in 1962. The original IC had only one transistor, three resistors and one capacitor and was the size of an adult's pinkie. They used the chips to produce the first electronic portable calculators later.
The first integrated circuits contained only a few transistors. Called "small-scale integration" (SSI), Early linear ICs such as Plessey SL201 or Philips TAA320 had as few as two transistors. The term Large Scale Integration was first used by IBM scientist Rolf Landauer when describing the theoretical concept, from there came the terms for SSI, MSI, VLSI, and ULSI.
SSI circuits were crucial to early aerospace projects, and vice-versa. Both the Minuteman missile and Apollo program needed lightweight digital computers for their inertial guidance systems. The Minuteman missile program and various other Navy programs accounted for the total $4 million integrated circuit market in 1962, and by 1968, U.S. Government space and defense spending still accounted for 37% of the $312 million total production. The demand by the U.S. Government supported the nascent integrated circuit market until costs fell enough to allow firms to penetrate the industrial and eventually the consumer markets. The average price per integrated circuit dropped from $50.00 in 1962 to $2.33 in 1968. Integrated circuits began to appear in consumer products by the turn of the decade, a typical application being FM inter-carrier sound processing in television receivers.
In the late 1960s, introduced devices which contained hundreds of transistors on each chip, called "medium-scale integration" (MSI).
They were attractive economically because while they cost little more to produce than SSI devices.
Later, driven by the same economic factors, led to "large-scale integration" (LSI) in the mid 1970s, with tens of thousands of transistors per chip.
Integrated circuits such as 1K-bit RAMs, calculator chips, and the first microprocessors, that began to be manufactured in moderate quantities in the early 1970s, had under 4,000 transistors. True LSI circuits, approaching 10,000 transistors, began to be produced around 1974, for computer main memories and second-generation microprocessors.
Remember your Texas Instrument Programmable Calculator when you was in the University in the 70’s.
VLSI Very-large-scale integration IC
Upper interconnect layers on an Intel 80486DX2 microprocessor. The final step in the development process, starting in the 1980s and continuing through the present, was "very large-scale integration" (VLSI). The development started with hundreds of thousands of transistors in the early 1980s, and continues beyond several billion transistors as of 2009.
Multiple developments were required to achieve this increased density. Manufacturers moved to smaller rules and cleaner fabrication, through the use of advance semiconductor equipment. They could make chips with more transistors and maintain adequate yield. The path of process improvements was summarized by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). Design tools improved enough to make it practical to finish these designs in a reasonable time. The more energy efficient CMOS replaced NMOS and PMOS, avoiding a prohibitive increase in power consumption.
In 1986 the first one megabit RAM chips were introduced, which contained more than one million transistors. Microprocessor chips passed the million transistor mark in 1989 and the billion transistor mark in 2005. The trend continues largely unabated, with chips introduced in 2007 containing tens of billions of memory transistors.
ULSI, WSI, SOC and 3D-IC
To reflect further growth of the complexity, the term ULSI that stands for "ultra-large-scale integration" was proposed for chips of complexity of more than 1 million transistors.
Wafer-scale integration (WSI) is a system of building very-large integrated circuits that uses an entire silicon wafer to produce few single "super-chip". Through a combination of large size and reduced packaging, WSI could lead to dramatically reduced costs for some systems, notably massively parallel supercomputers. The name is taken from the term Very-Large-Scale Integration, the current state of the art when WSI was being developed.
A system-on-a-chip (SoC or SOC) is an integrated circuit in which all the components needed for a computer or other systems are included on a single chip. The design of such a device can be complex and costly, and building disparate components on a single piece of silicon may compromise the efficiency of some elements. However, these drawbacks are offset by lower manufacturing and assembly costs and by a greatly reduced power budget: because signals among the components are kept on-die, much less power is required.
POP is package on package that is to stack the package on top of another package. The target is to increase the function and minimize the chip size both x and y.
On Packaging side, memory Chip is the competitive technology that is to stack up many as 10 chips on top the other on both side of the substrates, whereby, tiny gold wire of diameter 0.008 inch are used to interconnect the chips to the lead of the outer package by using the speed of 20 wires per second provided by the world fastest Gold ball bonder supplied by the major equipment supplier ASM and K & S. and the total package is only 1mm thick. This results that we can have an USB memory stick that can have 32G memory.
While more chips are built on a single chip and is operation in Giga operations in a second, technology is how to do Chip cooling down, the material, the thermal management, and the selection of the substrate matching the chip as not to crack the chip due to temperature rising and mechanical expansion. H how to apply the state of the Art o Cooling system by Air, Fins and Fans, water embedded porous copper material for efficient cooling such as Metaform. When we do Google , the Google server and network will operate and generate certain Kilo of CO2 in the world. As the microprocessor operate and that generate heat, so some one has proposed to install the server in the Polar area.
3D chips are expected to solve a number of problems for chipmakers who are aiming for performance increases in ever-smaller chips. As transistor density rises, the wires connecting them have become both thinner and closer together, resulting in increased resistance and overheating. And that leads to the demand of super accurate Gold ball bonder that connect thousand wires inside the chip here to there. These problems cause signal delays, packaging concern for the chip, limiting the clock speed of central processing units.
A three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D-IC) has two or more layers of active electronic components that are integrated both vertically and horizontally into a single circuit. Communication between layers uses on-die signaling, so power consumption is much lower than in equivalent separate circuits. Judicious use of short vertical wires can substantially reduce overall wire length for faster operation.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is vying with Intel to become the first company to sell three-dimensional chips that boost the density of transistors in a single semiconductor by up to 1,000 times.
TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker in the world, could make its first 3D chips commercially available before the end of 2011, according to a person close to the situation who requested anonymity.
The timeframe for TSMC matches the end-2011 schedule that Intel has set for the launch of its 3D Tri-Gate chips, which the company expects to be the world's first commercial 3D chip and the most significant advance in chip technology since the development of the chip transistor in the 1948.
With several layers of silicon stacked together, a 3D chip can achieve performance gains of about a third while consuming 50 percent less power. For this reason, 3D chips are particularly well suited to power new generations of mobile devices such as tablets and mobile phones, and to offer more operative hours from the battery cell. Businesses where Intel has so far failed to establish a significant presence.
3D chips look more attractive because of their greater density, it is more difficult to make them because of the testing issues. If you have five stacked dies and one of the dies is bad, you have to scrap the whole thing. The Yield is a challenge!
TSMC is developing so-called 2D chips that replace an organic polymer substrate with silicon to boost transistor density. Communications chipmaker Xilinx has contracted TSMC to make its Virtex-7 field programmable gate array (FPGA) using TSMC's 2D chip technology that puts three chip dies on one silicon substrate. Xilinx said on March 8 that it expects the first samples of the Virtex-7 485T FPGA to be available by August.
TSMC has been working closely with chip packagers and providers of design automation software to help commercialize 3D chip technology.
In April 2007, IBM and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) researchers announced the first versions of 3D chips with support from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). The 3D chips combined several layers of silicon using a technique called wafer bonding.
IBM's technique used a silicon base with active wafers layered on top. This technology allowed a processor to be placed on the bottom of the stack with memory or other components layered across the top, resulting in a thousand-fold reduction in connector length. The greater transistor density reduced the distance data has to travel, reducing processing time.
IBM used through-silicon vias (TSVs) to connect stacks of multiple chip components. TSVs allow for more efficient heat dissipation through the stack to cooling systems that improve power efficiency.
HK Snob

A Simple Low Cost Solution to Improve Life time of your HP LED (High Power Light Emitting Diode)

The Temperature of the LED junction is related to the life and reliability performance of a LED, especially Hi Power LED which runs at Hi current at High Power.
A reduction of LED junction temperature for 1 degree C would increase the life time for more than 1,000 hours. If we can reduce the Junction temperature of the LED from 135 deg C down to 120 Degrees, it could possible increase the life time of 19000 hours.
Refer to Lumileds LUXEON Rebel Automotive Specification Datasheet DS58 (09/12/18) 8
Automotive White Short-Term Maximum Rating Estimated Lifetime
350 mA, Tc ~120°C, Tj ~135°C 50,000 hours
350 mA, Tc ~135°C, Tj ~150°C 31,000 hours
There are a few points that we should design for a long reliable LED life time.
The life time is inversely proportional to the operative temperature. The Die bonding process should not create any hot spot, such as undesired void between the die and the substrates.
The using of highly conductive Hi Silver Content Silver epoxy would help to conduct as much as it could heat from the Chip on to the substrates. The Selection of Substrates, ceramic Substrates or copper base leadframe material could be possible the best conduction for heat transfer from the chip passing through onto the substrate then through the heat sink into the external world. But the CTE must be matched… for best matching CTE with the LED, ceramic Substrates may be a good way for silver epoxy process or Directly Eutectic process for better reliability.
How to conduct the heat from the substrates into the other bigger heat sink!? OR how to conduct the heat energy form the HP LED to an external heat sink.

Yes, we have such solution ,,, Metafoam, a new solution to conduct heat energy form a LED to a heat sink. The solution developed by Metafoam significantly improves the heat management performance of heat pipes by providing a substitute to the currently used wick structures, especially the sintered copper powder.
By providing an open-cell copper foam wick structure instead of a simple copper powder wick, Metafoam allows for much improved material characteristics as much as 76% more , especially higher permeability which results with faster working fluid pumping speed in the heat pipe which result in faster thermal cycle within the heat pipe, thus enhanced heat load capacity.
How does it work!?
There is a micron porous whole material which was made from Copper, a very good heat conductor that fill up the copper pipe, a few drop of water that run and carries the heat from one end into other efficiently.
This can be used as the heat sink for the high beam head lamp for the Audi A8, that is a way to conduct the heat energy from the substrate of the HP LED into the main chassis of the Lamp cover. Cooling the LED bar of Back Light Unit of LCD TV. The heat Sink for those HP LEDs in the Street Lamp.
This kind of heat sink is being intensively tested with heat pipe manufacturers and major computer brands. Proven to be a reliable solution for cooling the CPU.
And that ensures the operation of the CPU would be trouble free! Price is reasonably low.
Visit at Metaform website www.metafoam.com for more.

HK Snob

OPTILED Galaxy 500 LED Bulbs

Good news to see OPTILED LED replacement Light Bulb is available in as many shops as 73 shops of Fotomax.
OPTILED has been promoting the LED light bulbs for over three years and was only available in a few shops at that time. Retail price of Galaxy 500, A 9.5w LED power which is an equivalent of 60W incandescent light, selling at HKD$129 dollars. The Smaller 7W LED power Galaxy 350, equivalent to 40W incandescent light is selling at HKD$89.00. Price is good as they are using Cree LED chips, one of the best LED chip in the world.
Well, the LED bulb has been gaining a lot of popularity. Restaurants, public illumination of the Residential estate on top of MTR station, MTR Train, Bus, CitiStore, Cinema...etc.
Shopping centre is using enormous numbers of LED light bulbs in the commercial market.
A pity that the retarded Government is doing almost noting on LED adoption. Most likely those senior officials are too busy in removing their unauthorized renovation on their house before the next media attack. Next time when you incandescent lamp of CFL lamp is gone, buy LED light bulbs, as it save energy of 80% and at same time money for you.
The OPTILED Galaxy LED light bulb could last 35,000 hours, you may have to replace 35 incandescent light bulbs in 15 years of Galaxy LED operation life.

HK Snob

Samsug Tablet Tab

We have been hearing Apple Iphone and Ipad are migrating into 4g for quite some time. That lento would cause the Korea Competitor to come into the market.
Samsung Electronics is going to launch the Android version Tablet PC with high speed 4G networking technology in July.
This is Samsung Galaxy Tab advance version, one is having 22,6mm screen and one is for 25.6mm. Equipped with 2MP camera, Android Honeycomb OS, dual core Processor, USD$499 to USD$599. Samsung is now the world second largest handphone manufacturer. The Samsung Speaker said: this Galaxy Tab has a bigger memory size, faster download speed... This is a trend for moving into 4G, likely other electronics giants will follow. Koean Snob

World's Largest 3D LED TV

The Samsung 75″ D9500 3D LED TV is definitely is huge TV. It is the world’s largest LED-backlit 3D HDTV. Sharp has produced world’s largest LCD TV 150” in 2009 and 65” TV; but that is not HDTV nor 3D TV.This Samsung is flag ship of All Samsung LCD TV, A direct back light TV using RGB LED units at back of the panel, estimated not less than 3,000 LEDs are embedded at Back light modules. packed with 3D Hyper-real engine which will allow you to see 3D images from any angle. 240Hz LED backlight technology, Black Diamond Panel, bundled QWERTY Smart TV Remote, Smart Hub, 3D Hyperial Engine, Samsung Smart TV, Samsung Apps, Social networking and dazzling vivid 3D visual effect using the bundled 3D glasses. There’s also the Smart Hub which has Samsung Apps, social networking, and other services. Believe it should be available in HK.
HK Snob

Will LED for BLU Market turn hot again in Q3 2011?

The TV market revenue has been eroded and the Major as LED BLU unit price keeps dropping. The global BLU market is estimated to record $17B in 2010, reached the peak with $19B in 2012. and then Decline thereafter, from these number, we can see that there is not much of a significant growth in 2011 which is what we are waiting for. The number of unit in BLU demand will carry on but the revenue is predicted to decrease after 2012 due to serious ASP drop.
TV BLU market is expected to record $10.7B and accounts for 64% of the overall market in 2010. The TV BLU market share is projected to increase up to 72% in 2014 along with the LCD TV demand increase. Accordingly, Monitor and Note PC BLU markets show signs of decreases in market share. Though the growth of the LCD TV is largest amongst all the products, still the growth is no outstanding at all.
There are signs of rebounce for TV-use TFT LCD panel price which had continuously declining. Upon aggregating TV sales results during Chinese Labor Day season, TV sales in China rose 6% Y/Y to 2.13M units. Although the growth rate was lower than the previous years, the growth itself has reached the anticipated level and is expected to see re-bounce of TV panel price.
TV sales price discount rate was around 15% during first two week of May which was lower than the previous year, and makers focused on promotion for Premium TVs such as 3D TV and Smart TV in order to increase profit margin. The share of 3D TV sales was over 10% and LED LCD TV sales were over 50%.
6 major Chinese TV brands prepared for the Labor Day demand through launching 3D TV at full scale from 1Q 2011, they increase new FPR 3D TV product from April 2011. 3D TV module procurement jumped from 0.5% at the end of 2010 to 8.7% in the last March. As what s had noticed that Sony’s Internet TV and Samsung’s Smart TV would be gaining market share in welcoming the hit wave of this premium TV. Signs for the next BLU Growth is still far away I do not feel comfortable abut Q3 2011 at all. Wish that the major countries would come up with more incentive offer for end user as to stimulate the use of LED lighting.
HK Snob
Ref. Display search.

Will SmartTV and Internet TV create another hit wave for new TV sales!?

Will World two consumer electronics Giants newly promotion on Samung’s Smart TV and Sony’s Internet TV would trigger another hit for the consumer buying Choice?
Common feature
All are flat thin LED back light screen
Large Screen LCD TV
Internet connected Entertainment
3D
Delivery more apps.
Web Browser
PC embedded

Samsung Apps
Movie apps like Vudu and Netflix take “on demand” content to a whole new level. These apps let you download and or stream content in real-time from movie and TV libraries with thousands of options. Miss your favorite Thursday night TV show? With Hulu Plus™ you can watch recently aired TV shows from networks like ABC, Fox, and NBC—on your own time. And, music lovers can appreciate streaming music on their TVs as well as personalize their own TV radio “station” with the app from Pandora.
Samsung Gaming, Social Networking and News Apps
Let your TV screen double as a virtual playground for social networking or gaming. Samsung’s suite of TV apps also include popular social networking apps like Facebook and Twitter. You can enjoy gaming apps like Texas Hold’em and QuizzMaster. Or download popular entertainment and useful informational apps like AccuWeather, USA Today or Google Maps. With Samsung powerful search all function. Only one key word is required fro doing searching for the desired multi media file.
Samsung
Specification of Samsun UN55D8000YF US$3,599.99
Smart TV featuring Web-Connected Samsung Apps & Web Browser Captivating 2D & 3D in Full HD 1080p Ultra-Slim Bezel creates a Virtually Edgeless Picture Stunningly Vibrant LED Picture Quality with Micro Dimming Plus. One Design TV that measure only 5mm in thickness for D8000 and D7000 TV series.
Stereo eye goggle co-developed with Silhouette
SSG-3700GR which earned the fame from CES 2100 best innovation products.
Using blue tooth and quick charging system to watch your 3D TV with stable picture quality and perfect matching with their ergonomic design with merely 29.5g in weight.
New Specification creation from Samsung
CMR
Clear Motion Rate (CMR) is Samsung's more comprehensive and accurate measure for how well an LCD or LED TV can display fast-moving images. Previously, motion clarity was expressed simply by the refresh rate, measured in Hz. CMR, however, takes into account all three factors that contribute to motion clarity: panel refresh rate, image processor speed and backlight technology. CMR is measured by determining the thinnest line a TV can display in a moving image. The thinner the line, the higher the CMR rating, and the clearer the picture you'll enjoy on the screen.

Micro Dimming Plus
A new terms or sales gadget created by Samsung, this does apply that the TV Back light is mostly direct back light.. A good sign for the LED makers as this easily use up a thousand or two LED on a 55” screen.
Sony
You can use your home cinema set-up to stream online content through your broadband connection. Everything is easily accessed from your remote control and the XrossMediaBar™ on-screen menu. Just sit back and enjoy full-screen online entertainment on your sofa. There is no need for a PC connection.
Endless entertainment with BRAVIA Internet Video
You can access a world of online video entertainment direct from the comfort of your sofa via your BRAVIA TV’s XrossMediaBar™.
Catch up on any TV programmes you’ve missed with BBC iPlayer, enjoy the greatest football matches of all time with the exclusive FIFA World Cup™ Collection, or view Europe's leading sports entertainment platform, Eurosport. Plus, get the best of video sharing sites like YouTube™ and DailyMotion™.
Watch films instantly with LOVEFiLM
Simply join LOVEFiLM as an unlimited subscriber to get LOVEFiLM on your BRAVIA TV and instantly watch the film you want to watch – thrillers, comedy, drama or romance – there’s a film for you whatever takes your mood.  LOVEFiLM unlimited membership costs £9.99 per month and lets you watch as many films as you want through your BRAVIA TV. Plus you get access to over 65,000 Blu-ray and DVD movies by free first class return post. That is even cheaper then my NowTV which limited to watch Max, HBO movie for month rental payment of HKD$140.
Music and movies on-demand with Qriocity™
With Qriocity™. Choose from millions of music tracks to play in surround sound with Music Unlimited. Watch the latest movies with Video on Demand powered by Qriocity™. Stream blockbusters and classic movies straight to your TV screen at the touch of a button (all services subject to local availability).
After all
But for the movie, I think the new era is every TV makers will consider to have the TV connected to the internet for their hi end TV series.
Some of the older product may go away in 3-5 years, such as the hub or your cable box, your Now TV programme, your in house satellite TV.  As we know that all TV network are trying to bond you wiht 18 months contract... we have to wait for the contract to expire.
The new studio home of the new age will have only likely an Apple MacBook Air, a iPhone and a Smart TV…
The new replacement will be a Smart TV or Internet TV …by Samsung, Sony or other up coming electronic giants who will invest their own system to get a license with Samsung and Sony for franchised operation. This will not be the repeated failure of Beta Max versus the VHC C in 1985. People will try to come into a new Business-network that is best for their benefit and sales revenue growth.
When People buy TV they will plan for next 4 years. So they will consider if that is upgradable to be going Internet, no… then why not I buy a Sony Internet TV… is that a smart TV that can replace all smart phones, iphone at home after work…. Yes, then I should buy a Smart TV.
So eventually when one get home, he has to switch on his TV,,, browsing facebook, watching hottest Youtube video of the day, one of his favourite movie in the week… this is the life of the new era generation!
As for LED business, the new trend that may create for demand for LED assembly as this LED will help to create better , brighter, faster picture and so called Micro dimming capability.
If the SmartTV and Internet TV would be having a larger penetration percentage than other TV in this lines.. This will indicate the market growth for the LED for Back light market will be revived! Let’s watch out on this…
Will World two consumer electronics Giants newly promote Samung’s Smart TV and Sony’s Internet TV would trigger another hit for the consumer for their choice!? The Answer is “YES!”
HK Snob

A LED Market Forecast for 2H 2011

MOCVD Delivery as seen from Axitron equipment delivery in the past two years.
2009 Sales Revenue was Euro 301m
2010 Sales revenue was Euro 784m
AIXTRON expecting further growth in 2011
2011 Sales Revenue is estimated to be Euro 800-900m
Over 90% for Axitron MOCVD is made for LED application.
Paul Hyland, President & Chief Executive Officer at AIXTRON, comments: “I think we can afford to very briefly enjoy this moment and have good reason to be proud of this remarkable result with revenues, in USD-terms, of more than one billion.
What we saw in 2010, was not only a continuation of the market driven demand for LEDs for TV backlighting, but also an increased effect of government sponsored demand and some early encouraging investments by customers beginning to position themselves for the emerging LED lighting market.
LED TV ASP drops
As I can see in the Shenzhen market, an Hisense 55” LED TV is selling at RMB9,900!
This kind of TV was selling at least RMB15,000 6 months ago. We can see that the ASP of the LED TV is kept on dropping. Who know this kind of TV will be selling at RMB5,000 in another 6-9 months time?
However, Samsung TV is still a bit more expensive than the China made TV by 20-30%
LED Price
5050 LED is now selling at RMB0.40 to RMB1.8 is that is using Cree Chip.
5630 is selling at RMB1.20
Cree LED with 120 Lumens is selling less than RMB10.00
Samsung LED B grade 5630 is selling at RMB0.90 which is even lower than the China made 5630 by 30%. This is the way Samsung is trying to erode the market by dumping the price. And Who will be having market enough to get them survived against such low ASP!?
What is the next move?… from what you can see…
This is the scenario
LED TV is using Disruptive technology for lowering the cost.
LED TV ASP is dropping more than 30% a year.
LED price is dominated by the big player like Samsung, LG, Cree, Epistar, Liteon,
Whereas the Western Maker is doing the best to swim against the price war in Asia。Like Osram is typically the one who is driving themselves towards more cost effective product. They have to go for more competitive LED Manufacturing equipment, lower the cost of the material by adoption of newer process with more advance technology.
Those major China player who has no solid end user support will be struggling for getting order.. unless they are back up by largest End user such as lighting or TV manufacturer or they will have to suffer till 3Q, unless they can switch the production line towards lighting assembly or lighting products.
However if you are not supported by local China Government, there will be a lot of obstacle for opening new market. Current, their production line are not fully loaded 80% is classified very good already.
Forecast 2H 2011
The market tail, the MOCVD is being installed but not in running condition, the market will slowly gain there’re momentum with the government support for lighting, and bigger consumer demand for LED TV net book and Tablet.
New technology reduces dramatically the number of LED 25% as in 2009.
LED TV as a Sales Gadget effect is not as prominent as end 2009. Now almost every brand has launched LED TV.
The higher end LED TV which used more LED has a small ratio comparing with the mid range and lower ended LED TV.
The Lighting is coming but not as fast as we expected in 2010,.
The over capacity of bonding equipment persists. The China government has diminished the scale in subsidizing the purchase of MOCVD in 2011.
I guess some of the Aixtron order was old one and new one will be softened...
The equipment by will normally lagging behind 6 months than MOCVD...
Current LED Equipment utilization rate is 50-60% for Korea andTaiwan, 85% for China, 75-85% for Japan and 80% for German and 85% for USA Major LED makers. Not until the utilization rate reaches above 85% for a period of say 2 months, there is no one intend to mark a plan to purchase new equipment. There is no new major consumers product that can stimulate the buying desire of most of the major consumers. There is internet TV, Smart TV and 3D TV being cooked as the new sales gadget from Sony and Samsung, but limited to few players that does not create a real critical mass for market stimulaiton!
I think the LED equipment order will not becoming materilization by November 2011.
HK Snob

Semicon Singapore Show 2011

Held in Suntec City of Singapore 11-13 May, Singapore semicon show could be classified the 2nd largest show after Shanghai, Third my be Semicon West, If you throw a bowling ball along the concourse, bet that no one would be hit, especially the last day.
As usual, most of the major equipment suppliers are participating as to tell that they are still active, No surprise, no new product, as expected as Semicon equipment has been a bloodshed Warfield for the last decades; through A & M, 10 companies became three companies.., lesser players would invest going into this competitive business. Leaving the Biggest who can barely make a living by struggling for survival. The end users are the ultimate beneficiates as what they pay for would be having tons of technology and billions of mini transistors or Flip Flops embedded. Who knows that there have been waling through a very long semiconductor manufacturing process. And thousands of Process Control points!
From the major exhibitors, from what we see ASM has launched the Heavy Aluminum wire bonder, and the new generation AD838L which is designed for Ceramic substrates base LED die bonding, with Accuracy of +/-20 micron at CpK 1.67, carrier-less design, global 3 or 4 points substrate PRS backlight alignment to match with your ASM or other Silicone liquid lens molding systems at the down stream process. Besides, it has full protection for any damages in the 100mm (4 Inch) Wide Ceramic Substrate, a super tool for your precision die bonding. Twin Eagle twin head gold ball wire bonder with foot print of 1.3X, UPH of 1.8K with competitive price comparing with a Single headed wire bonder... Both Copper and gold ready.
I am expecting the semicon show will be down sizing in scale as most of the focus of the new Semicon manufacturing expansion will be in China. So people will put more investment on Shanghai Semicon Show.
Glad to meet friends from Russia and Philippines... in the shows, at least this is a annual gathering for those people woking in this inductry to share their experinence.  Seeing each other face to face is an environment somewhat the fb can not privide...
HK Snob

World Largest 3D LED TV

I have been waiting for such great TV as another wave of hit stirring up on the slashed TV market since LED TV was created as the latest success gadget at end 2008. LED TV has been a bore terms for TV as almost every TV manufacturer has offered LED TV, no matter they have 3,000 over LED or 200 pieces, still they are classified as LED TV. Well, of courser the Dynamic Contrast ratio, brightness, and local dimming are totally different one than the other.
Samsung Electronics released the world's largest 75 inches premium Smart TV D9500 series as the highest-end Flag ship product in Samsung Smart TV line-up, D9500 is the biggest , clearest, highest in performance. A dazzling 3D visual with its 75 inch 240Hz LED backlight screen, the biggest 3D screen size in the world. It is also super-optimized with ‘Secret Design’ for perfect larger than life 3D experiences, movies, games, web browsing, SNS, and everything you can imagine in the stunning 75’ 3D screen.
Features :
- 75’ Active 3D Screen
- Black Diamond Panel
- Qwerty Smart TV Remote
- Secret Design
- Smart Hub
- 3D Hyperial Engine


Jong-Suk Chu, marketing director of Samsung Visual Display unit, said, "75 inches Samsung Smart TV D9500 series is created by Samsung's world-leading technology, and it is the best premium TV that has all the technical and artistic sense of modern TV, and offers the best engagement and maximized viewing value." He adds, "D9500 series is the best Smart TV that meets the needs of our increasing customers who prefer 60-inch or larger TV." Price wise has yet to be released. Let’s see if this new Smart TV would create another fashion for other major TV makers. HK Snob

YTL's YES LED Cube in Bukit Bintang

Even the most cynical person was distracted by the live screening of the royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton last Friday. Many were seen glued to the YTL's Yes LED cube in Lot 10, Bukit Bintang trying to catch the pomp and splendour. HK Snob

Interior LED Lighting Panel

This is a colour porogammable Lighting Panel for interior uses. They are embedded with Thousand of RGB LED and a Light Control Computer.

Pebrfectly for uses in Hotel, home, Shops and or bars...

Available in Lane Crawford. Price!

HK Snob

Projection LED lighting at Pacific Place

The LED can changes colour it self to create a special colour scheme. The projector lighting is equipped with RGB LED. Well, Pacific Place is the major shopping centre at Central. The LED light is definite a tool for creating moody and cozy atmosphere..And a FOCUSED stage effect for oncoming visitors. A way to promote images and hi tech gadget for the products in Promotion. We will have more and more LED application will be appearing in Hong Kong.
HK Snob

Citistore goes Green LED lighting

A new face to see customer, the recent renovated Citistore is enriched with touch of green on using of LED lighting.
The whole roof, lighting, side lights beam lights are all made of LED… in Luxeons K2 types. And roof lighting effect is much better than it was using CFLs. It changes colours continuously. Perfectly match the name of the Department store (Thousand Colours) in Chinese.
I do think most of the customers do not aware they have changing use of LED… only LED sensitive guy Like I…
But one things is that they have a few draw backs
Since the roof height is not that high, some of the sport light is appearing right on top of you head and the light is so much focused, you will be feelling disturbed and feeling uneasy. That is the interior design issue.. A proper LED application has to go with some reflector such as to dilute the light intensity…
Another aspect is that the main space is using cold white LED and some of the clothes boutique is using warm white and it seems obvious in the two areas. There is no transition between cold white to warm white., so you feel the lighting is not unique in the whole floor space.
Besides, I think their approach is right as they will save up a lot of electricity in the coming 5 years…that can be a payback for those Expensive LED lamps they used.
I speculate more and more new established building and ne renovated department store and restaurant will go for LED…in Hong Kong.

HK Snob

LED Globe of Grand Lisboa Casino Macao

This is my 2nd time to visit Macao in the past 5 years, I fond that the Grand Lisboa hotel is so beautiful and Sure that billions of dollars was spent on this building.,
The new Grand Lisboa Hotel was connected with a foot bridge to the old Lisboa Hotel
Which Stanley Ho opened in 1971. The New Grand Lisboa was a design of International architects and interior designers leaded by Khuan Chew who also was the designer for Buri Al Arabs and Four Seasons hotel of Hong Kong.
The property is shaped like a giant lotus flower and opened in 2007 just before Chinese New Year; with 240 gaming tables, 480 slots, and six restaurants.
We could see this new Landmark of Macao with a breathtaking light show from the world’s largest integrated LED screen installed on the Grand Lisboa’s exterior, Ho has clearly upped the ante on his competitors. The LED globe consists of 1.2 millions LED. And 580,000 Swarovski Crystals, and 5,400 pieces of 24-Kt gold plated glasses.
The RGB LED flashed and becoming the local most favourite and glorious Light show from 1800 to next morning, The Lotus shaped like leaves acts as a Knife on top of the entrances would capture everyone including the gamblers entering into the Entrance…
There you can enter and can not come out with the money from the gambler table.. A traditional Fung Shui… On each of the major concourse, you can see water spring that would like to Wash you clean, no one should be able to come out with the money form the Casino. this is only my personal Observations…
As I do no gambles, that mean I am the only Winner in Lisboa casino…
HK Snob

History of the LED

Since 1907, the phenomenon of electroluminescence was discovered by the British experimenter H. J. Round of Marconi Labs. During 1927, the first infrared LED has been reported and distributed in Russian, German and British scientific journals by a Russian Oleg Vladimirovich Losev. In 1962, the first practical visible-spectrum Red LED was developed by Nick Holonyak Jr., at General Electric Company. Holonyak becomes the "father of the LED". During 1972, his student, M. George Craford, invented the first yellow LED and improved the brightness of red and red-orange LEDs. Thanks for Monsanto Company, the first organization to mass-produce visible LEDs by using gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) in 1968; Hewlett Packard (HP) introduced the first LEDs alphanumeric display into their HP’s early handheld calculation in 1970s. Blue LED New Era of Blue LED with Shuji Nakamura, a Tokushima University graduated on Chemistry, worked in the Nichia Company which was a very small in supply fluorescent material to the TV manufacturing in 1960s. Nakamura San has invented the first high brightness GaN-based blue LED, together with the phosphor coating for white LED lighting, and which went into production in 1993. Nakamura managed to develop a new method for mass production of GaN based blue LED. With Nakamura contribution, now everyone can buy a MOCVD system which works like you baking oven in your kitchen for blue LED wafer. But, of course, there are only a few chefs for Make Right recipe for good Blue LED in the world. Shuji Nakamura is now recognized as “guru of the Blue LED”. His researches have been international awards: the Harvey Prize from Israel’s Technion (2010); Spain’s Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research (2008); Finland’s Millennium Technology Prize (2006); and the Benjamin Franklin Medal in the engineering segment (2004), previously conferred upon Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein. Nakamura has also received Japan’s Takeda Award, as well as an Innovation Award from UK magazine The Economist. Now you can see LED everywhere…Thanks to these gentlemen who has been contributed their researches on LED… One of the top 10 Inventions in 20 Century. Article was written by Ringo Tse and Edited by HK Snob

Siemens plans Osram IPO

Siemens AG, the German industrial conglomerate, plans to publicly list its subsidiary Osram GmbH in the fall of 2011. Osram will become a publicly-listed lighting company with Siemens as a long-term anchor shareholder, with Wolfgang Dehen as its new CEO. As Osram GmbH prepares for its planned Initial Public Offering (IPO), Wolfgang Dehen will take over as the new president and CEO, with effect from April 1, 2011. Dehen succeeds Martin Goetzeler, who will assume the position of Chief Operating Officer. Osram, part of Siemens’ Industry sector, is the world’s second largest lighting manufacturer and had a turnover of EUR4.7 billion in the 2010 financial year after the largest Philips. The company has around 40,000 employees worldwide, supplying customers in 150 countries worldwide from its 46 production sites in 17 countries. “Osram has an outstanding position worldwide as Siemens’ lighting brand, and we intend to maintain our close ties to the future Osram AG as a long-term anchor shareholder,” said Siemens President and CEO Peter Löscher, adding that Siemens also wants to participate in future growth in the market for new lighting technologies. Osram GmbH has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens AG since 1978. Siemens described its Osram subsidiary as “a leader in all relevant stages of the lighting value chain, for conventional as well as new technologies,” adding that Osram generates 20 percent of its total revenue with LED-based products. Siemens puts the total market for components, luminaires and lighting solutions at roughly EUR45 billion, with luminaires and lighting systems account for over two-thirds of this market. Driven by LED- and OLED-based lighting, the total market is expected to grow to around EUR65 billion by 2016. Only last month Osram announced its plans to further expand by acquiring Siteco, which is active in the market for luminaires and lighting solutions. Osram has been one of the technology leaders in LED designs and Manufactures, many of their products are lighting up the street, roads, Tunnels, bridges and Cities all over the world. They have factory running in Penang from Wafer fab, sawing, whole end of line assembly down the process to moulding, sawing, test sort and packaging in Penang, using the state of art LED Manufacturing from Major LED Equipment Suppliers. Osram Penang has been running for LED since the time Siemens Litronics in 1987. Osram has their major R & D centres in both Regensburg Germany and Penang. HK Snob

LED Light Bulb Sales rises after 11 March Japan Quake incident

After Japan Quake on 11 March, there is some kind of basic conceptual changes in the use of higher efficient lighting solution. Thus will reduce the power consumption significantly, from consumer lighting products market response, since 11 March, the sales of LED light bulb increased tremendously. From LED industrialists, the LED Light bulbs Penetration rate would be increasing significantly in the years to come. HK Snob

Texas Instruments to Acquire National Semiconductor

Combination to strengthen analog portfolio and customer support, Texas Instruments has signed a definitive agreement to purchase National Semiconductor in an all-cash transaction of about $6.5 billion. This merger will unite two industry leaders who have a common commitment to solving your analog needs. Both companies will operate independently pending close of the acquisition which is expected to take six to nine months. National's 12,000 products plus TI's 30,000 means more performance, power and packaging options when selecting the right ICs for your application. HK Snob

Japan Quake Aftermath

March 11, 2011 14:49: Eastern Pacific coast earthquakes occurred

Epicenter : 373km (NE) of Tokyo, underground 24.4Km point.

Magnitude : Earthquake close to 9 in the Richter scale occurred (The largest earthquake ever in Japan, the fifth earthquake on Earth.

Summary of Damage Regions

East coast of Tohoku regions-Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima prefecture- and east coast of Kanto region -Ibaraki and Chiba prefecture were damaged directly (by earthquake and tsunami).
So far over 7,000 lives were lost, over 12000 person unfound, and 300,000 homeless.
The loss of communication infrastructure (NTT Docomo, etc.), nuclear power plants, etc. in the regions and all industrial manufacturing plants shutdown (temporary or provisional), disruptions occurred.

It appears that some infrastructures of the east coast of Tohoku region -Yamagata and Niigata Prefecture- were affected.

Miyagi Prefecture

- Sendai Airport flooding

- Costal towns damage by 10m tsunami

- Large-scale loss of life

- Onagawa nuclear plant , partly fire, partly driving ban

- Sony's 6 factories shutdown (4 factories in Miyagi, 2 factories in Fukushima, Tagajo chemical components (Sony Chemicals) 1st floor flooded

- Murata Manufacturing shutdown (Miyagi and Tochigi Prefecture)

- JX Nippon Oil Factory damage

- Toyota Motor, factory shutdown
Fukushima Prefecture

- Fukushima 1,2,3,4 nuclear plants shutdown and unstable (radioactive spill concern continued)

- Nissan Motor, 6 factories shutdown

- Panasonic factory disruption (Fukuyama Prefecture factory, Sendai factory in Miyagi Prefecture included)

Aomori Prefecture

- Power supply to 4.4 million households stopped

- Pioneer, factory damage (Aomori, Yamagata Prefecture)

- Renesas, factory shutdown

Chiba Prefecture

- JFE Holdings, steel factory fire
- Cosmo Oil, factory fire
Ibaraki Prefecture
- JSR, factory production stop
- Tokyo Gas, gas supply stop
- Sumitomo Metal Industries, smelting furnace temporary stop

- Daikin Industries, production stop

- Murata factory was destroyed and his component short ship after the Ipad Production in Foxconn China

Sharp LCD Panel factory shout down and affecting 20% world LCD panel output.

Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Inc. (MGC), Monday that two of its facilities, one in Fukushima prefecture and one in Ibaraki prefecture, shut down due to partial damage to equipment and buildings, Its major product bismaleimide triazine resin, an epoxy resin used in chip making is almost entirely produced by MGC
This shortage of BT would most impact programmable logic vendors Xilinx Inc. and Altera Corp., as well as Qualcomm Inc.
Sanyo, Sharp and Panasonic have already suspended operations at several of their plants. The brand new multibillion dollar Sharp LED display plant in Sakai, which has been designed to handle earthquakes automatically shut down when the first earthquake, tremor was detected.

Sanyo, Sharp and Panasonic have already suspended operations at several of their plants. The brand new multibillion dollar Sharp LED display plant in Sakai, which has been designed to handle earthquakes automatically shut down when the first earthquake, tremor was detected.

The consequence is many sectors of the Japanese factories would be affected and it may take a few month 3-9 months to resume normal operation.
we foresee that this will force them to think a head seriously for overseas factory volume implementation. They will keep some of their high technology products manufacturing offshore whereas Japan used to keep them locally.
There will be more open opportunity for other offshore countries to gain more exposure for working with Japan to build more products.

HK Snob

Electronics Market After Japan Quake

In spite of the 9.0-magnitiute Japan earthquake and the ensuing devastating tsunami striking Japan on March 11, The Component supply chain has been serious disturbed in Japan. This include the NAND Rams that price has been surged up more than 7% since last Friday. Many of the components of the certain electronics devices are still made in Japan. There is a immediately need for Japan to re-construct and well plan their suppliers for souring the right component for their products, beside, the rise of Japanese Yen exchange would force to speed up their oversea production scale up plan. Counties like Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and China will be the ones to be beneficiated by these move.
However on the other side, Japanese and most of the major Asian Cities would have less demand on Electronics products, computer, iPad2, Note book in coming 2-3 quarters.
Some good news is Chairman Morris Chang of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) yesterday said his firm’s goal of achieving a 20% sales growth, denominated in the U.S. dollar, will remain unchanged. Overall, people tends to spend less on luxury goods, electronics hand held product as such handphone, GPS systems, and RAM, LED, LED, IC CPU, Capacitors, RAMs and Panel will be rising their price in the coming 6-9 months.
HK Snob

Japan After Quake

Japan has the world No. 1 largest LED manufacturing Plant Nichia account for 18% of World LED production as the 2010 revenue data told us.

Japan accounts world’s 20% global Semiconductor Production.

Company Headquarters in Japan generated 63.3B in microchips revenues; representing 20.8% of the world wide market.

Japan Produced 10% of world’s DRAM in 2010.

Toshiba accounts 35% of global NAND flash products in terms of Revenues 2010.

Japan Headquarters companies are world No. 3 in Semiconductor production.

Japan is 14% of world total LCD TV panel Production.

More impact to Japan is that the component on the TV LCD Panel such as the Glass, Colour filter , polarizer , CCFL and LED are mostly made in Japan.

Sharp partly shut down their panel manufacturing for LCD TV... and Murata had shut down some of the component manufacturing which would affect the manufacturing at Foxconn for Ipad2!
There are a lot of electronics modules for Automobile is made in Japan and a lot are for export.
Many of the Automobile like Nissan, Toyota, Mazda and Honda has stopped some of their manufacturing due to shortage of Module supplied by their OEMs which were more or less damaged in the Tsunami.

Nissan Stopped Production and loss shipment of 2,300 cars, a loss of $24.5M a day,whereas Toyota for 40,000 cars with daliy loss of $72M, Honda for 16,600 cars a day, that is $14M loss a day just for Honda.

Japanese will not spend money on Luxury goods anymore, or at least less significantly comparing with last week and before.

For those Luxury Goods such as watches Rolex, Patek Philippe, IWC , Japan is one of the biggest market after Hong Kong. I think Japan is the world 2nd largest Export Country after Hong Kong.

Well, I find that these are Japan’s Market share on these big European luxury Brands.
Hermes 21%, Bvlgari 19%, Luis Vitton 8.8%, Coach 36%, Tiffany 19%, Gallaway 18%....

So we can see that these luxury good market will drop significantly for at least I year, they may switch to export more to other Countries like China and Hong Kong in Asia.

Gold may be the item that we can speculate that it can reach $1,700 an ounce soon.

This will trigger world threat in the stock market, especially the Libya situation is still tense and had no way to see when Col. Kaddafi would step down, Hong Kong Index Will drop in the coming weeks… down to 21,000 points…
More important point is more nuclear threat happens in Japan and Most of the people would flee to distant prefecture in Japan or to overseas countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Philippines.

I am thinking that it would be a great impact to Japan and World’s Economy and it may take at least 12 months to recover… Provided there is no more serious Earth Quake happens anymore

Further more, it triggers more safety measurement for plan of Nuclear Plant building.

It forces Japan Company to diversify their manufacturing facilities in overseas countries such as the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia.
In Short the Stock In Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong will keep on falling. But this is only over-sensitiveness of the investors, in mid term starting August, the stock like iron ore, cement and steel in China will have tremendous momentum to gain as to support Japan on re-construction.
The foreign companies would not consider to put all egg in one bucket and to consider in future the headquarters not in Japan... may be better in Hong Kong or Singapore.
HK Snob