Tosok Discontinues their Bonder Equipment Business

Tosok had a message distibution to their end customers on 28 September stated that
they will discontinue their semiconductor bonding equipment business on 30 Sep. Tosok quoted that the discontinuity of the semi-conductor business was Because of the industry slow down, machine unit price was decreasing and they do not see the forecast for more order in coming months. They will focus on their main business (Car industry and measuring equipment manufacturing).

All the staff in the semi-conductor business will transfer to other groups. They will lose 1.6B Yen (Around USD16M). They may maintain some service support a period of time!

So there might be having certain support issues for theose who are using Tosko Equipement. A lesson to our LED players is to select a financial sound company with good and strong back bone for Growth is one of the important factors to be identified as your long term business partners.

For more technical Information, please visit ASM Web site :

http://www.asmpacific.com/asmpt/index.htm

Feverip

Samsung's Field Emission Technology on LCD TV

Samsung’s field emission backlight (FEB) demonstrated LCD TV was able to improve the contrast ratio to 300,000:1.

The FEB has an array of pixels that can be turned on or off depending on the image that is being shown. The FEB implementation in Samsung’s demonstration is divided into 2,800 squares (70 x 40) that are 1cm (~0.39″) on each side and allows for precise control of luminance. This type of backlight control technology is called local dimming and has been enabled first by use of LED backlights. But even the best prototype implementation of LED backlight based local dimming is limited to less than 2,000 areas.

For instance, Dolby’s High Dynamic Range technology was implemented by SIM2 on a prototype LCD TV with 1,838 LEDs with individual control over them. This SIM2 LCD TV prototype was considered one of the best showcases of contrast ratio based on local dimming. The SIM2 LCD TV prototype was able to improve contrast up to a minimum of 25x the LCD’s native contrast ratio. If for example a LCD TV panel has 1,000:1 contrast ratio, by implementing Dolby’s HDR technology to the fullest, you can expect a contrast of 25,000:1. This is still considerably less than Samsung’s FEB-based 300,000:1 contrast ratio.

Field emission technology is a variation on how CRTs and plasmas work by using electrons to excite phosphors on a screen. In Samsung’s example the control is fine tuned by the use of carbon nanotubes and a unique structure. The carbon nanotubes are used as emissive tips. Nanotubes are deposited on a flat surface and is applied with an elastomer. The elastomer allows the exposed nanotubes to stand up, which then can be used as emissive tips. A TFT-like grid is layered above the nanotubes to control the movement of electrons to excite the red, green and blue phosphors. The FEB generates brightness of 6,000 cd/m2. The layers in the LCD, especially the color filter, absorbs about 95% of that brightness and allowing just 300 cd/m2 to be seen by the viewer.

Source: Electronics Weekly

PC LCD Monitor and "LED TV" LED Penetration on Back Lit

PC Notebook 100-percent According to DisplaySearch, 52-percent of notebook PCs in 2009 will use LED backlight. That number will hit 100-percent in 2012.

LCD monitor 1-percent That’s the percent of LCD monitors that sport a LED backlight in 2009. It doesn’t really get better by 2012: just 15-percent. To get passed the 50-percent mark you and I will need to wait until 2015, that’s 6 years from now, according to DisplaySearch. So CCFL backlight companies still have a huge market to serve for quite some time.

LED TV 3-percent Even with Samsung’s confusing “LED TV” marketing despite associated strong sales DisplaySearch is stating that LCD TVs that sport LED backlights will be just 3-percent in 2009. By 2012 that will grow to 32-percent. The 50-percent mark? In 2014. Quite a ways from now.

LED backlight technology is certainly growing and will completely take over the notebook PC market only by 2012. CCFL backlight technology, on the other side isn’t going to die as majority of LCD monitors and LCD TVs will remain using CCFL backlights for many years.
Is that an Happy Ending for both LED and CCFL Manufacturers?

Hisense- China First LED Backlit LCD TV

Hisense is China's first company to manufacture the LED (backlight) LCD TV.

Hisense has been actively expanding its LED backlight module production line extensively. This company has itw own R&D centre and resources to maintain the centre. From the point manufacturability and Technology level Hisense is havingm this may be one of the most powrrful LVD TV Manufacturing house in China.

To pursue for more revenue with the Samsung LG in Korea and Toshiba in Japan. And of course the Visio in Taiwan.

On July 9, Hisense’s leading Chinese flat panel TV producer unveiled the world’s thinnest 42 inch LED (light-emitting diode) TV. The 55mm thick TLM42T08GP, which has been put into mass production, uses auto background light control to improve display quality.

Starting from August 1st in more than 100 major cities and 8,000 home appliance stores, Hisense launched a large-scale promotional campaign called "consumers buying Hisense blue media LED get a 1,000 Yuan return", which aims at further expanding Hisense’s market share.

Konka, Hisense Skyworth, SVA-NEC, XOCECO and Xiong Mao and AUO CMO TFT LCD Panels

At the year’s lowest economic time, China’s Six major TV manufacturers went to Taiwan on June 1 to procure TFT LCD panels. These six companies include Hisense, Konka, Skyworth, SVA-NEC, XOCECO and Xiong Mao. This was likely the first time that such group of six companies made a joint procurement activity in Taiwan.

The two LCD manufacturers that will benefit are AU Optronics (NYSE:AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (TPE:3009), the two largest LCD suppliers in Taiwan. AUO and CMO would certainly been guaranteed that their production plan can be streamlined with such foreign purchase from these China TV Manufacturers!

This is a sign of reprise on my earlier point saying that the 2nd Tier of LCD TV with LED back lit was making the biggest step into actions! Let’s watch out and see the game of the LCD TV price war that would happen in Q3 2010!

Bright Light Tomorrow Lighting Prize $10M!

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has its first submission for the Bright Light Tomorrow Lighting Prize (ref L Prize) for an LED-based replacement lamp of the standard 60W A-19 "Edison" light bulb.

Consumer manufacturing giant Royal Philips Electronics has made the submission in an effort to access a share of the $10M worth or prize money that has been authorized, as well as to gain access to lucrative US government procurement opportunities.

A number of energy efficiency organizations and public utilities are involved in the extensive qualification processes, which include the DOE's laboratory-based measurements as well as durability and field testing that will evaluate additional subjective criteria garnered from real-world experience.

You may be able register and to participate with this challenging programme with your LED De sign and manufcaturing with some of the requiremnt met:

1. The LED Solid state lighting lamp has to have a minimum 75% efficency for converting the electroical to optical energy

2. The LED mauts have more than 75% f the process of assembly to be done in USA

3. The manufcaturing of the LED has to be in the territories of USA!

4. In addition, winners will need to provide evidence that "they are fully prepared to being production at a capacity that exceeds 250,000 units per year for the first year of production." (ref L-Prize submission criteria).

5. Submission of 2,000 units

If you are confident to achieve the about terms and requirement, go and start to pursue this price of US$10,000,000.00!

LCD TV makers

Who are the Large LCD TV makers besides Samsung and LG?

TCL,
A Major China LCD TV maker
The Accumulated shipment from Jan-Jul 2009 was 3.6M set. That is approx. more 86% than 2008. The Sales is growing in Sept 2009.

Sony and Sharp
Sony would invest 1B for collaboration with Sharp for manicuring LCD. Sharp has LED factory in Indonesia and that is a way to lower the manufacturing cost. They might seek another place in SE Asia for reduce the regional risk for LED manufacturing.

Vizio
Established in 2002 with 3 employees providing consultant service to Gateway Inc
Vizio is No. 1 HDTV importer to North America
In 2008 Vizio Shipped a total of 3,500,000 HDTVs
Total revenue exceeds 2 Billion Dollars
In 2009 Vizio has 160 staff.
Their Major LED makers are in Taiwan.

98B Pieces of LED is needed for LED backlit LCD TV in 2010

Due to strong demand on LED for LCD Back lit. Taiwan’s (LED) and Korean chipmakers are planning to boost output next year.

Industry analysts estimate that the shipments of LED-lit LCD TVs to top 15-23 million systems worldwide next year, likely straining supplies of high-bright blue chips, which are essential for making white-light backlight modules.

Executives of Epistar estimated Taiwanese chipmakers will need to produce 200 more metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) chambers as to relieve excessive demands in 2010.

Each machine can produce five to six million chips, bringing the total output of the 200 machines to 1-1.2 billion chips a month or 12-14.4 billion chips a year.

We calculate that LED TVs will need an additional number of 10 billion high-bright blue chips throughout next year base on an assumption of an average *600 LED per LCD TV; 600x20,000,000=12 KKK pieces! You may not know how many is this 10B LEDs are!

We estimate that we will have 98B pieces of LED in 2010 and we will produce about 78B LED in 2009, that is an increase of 26%!

Epistar is said to add 70 new machines next year and have booked 30 new machines. Industry analysts estimate the company can afford to buy 100 new machines in consideration of the US$545 million in cash it has now. Formosa plans to add 30 MOCVD chambers next year.
Tekcore Corp. is raising capital to increase the number of machines to 34
Huga Optotech plans to buy 10 new machines this year and increase the number to 58 next year from this year’s 55.
Huga has co-founded a joint venture in Taiwan with Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. to make backlight chips for LCD TVs and notebook computers.
Samsung would likely add another 90-100 MOCVD in 2010 for meeting the Demand.

* Ref. base on a rough estimation of 80% Edge Lit BLU TV Needs approx. 400 pcs per TV and 3000 LED for Direct Lit TV 20% as ratio of all of the LED Backlit TV.


Reference: Display bank, LEDs magazine, LED inside, LED global on line.

Blue is the new Green

Politics, enviornemental groups, Government have made much action on launching Blue Movement programme. Car marker is swiftly adapted with it.
Blue as traditional colour of sky and ocean are being used as a new terminology as environmentally-concerned products than Green.

German Car giants Mercedes-Benz introduced the Blue Movement to car three years ago with model E320 BlueTEC sedan. This E-class series is using Mercedes emission reduction AdBlue process. As this new eco process has since been broadly deployed on other models.

At Detroit car show, Volkswagen introduced to the public its two sweater BlueSport concept roadster, with a low-emission BlueMotion “clean diesel” technology.

A visually and mechanically enhanced seven-seat Audi Q7 range which for the first time incorporates an ultra-low emission, EU6-compliant TDI model opens for UK order this week and due to reach its first customers in July, the new range combines subtle styling revisions and improved equipment for SE and S line models with advanced energy recuperation technology that brings improved fuel economy and reduced emissions for all versions.

The most important advances benefiting the latest Q7 range are arguably to be found beneath the reworked body, where a new 3.0-litre TDI engine incorporating the world’s cleanest diesel technology uses an AdBlue additive to eradicate virtually all harmful nitrous oxides from emissions, and already meets stringent EU6 emissions applicable from 2014. This car has passed the transportation regulation in HK and had been allowed to run on road in HK as the first Diesel sedan car.

Hyundai used “Blue is the new green gadget to launch its Blue Drive hybrid technology in 2008. Its Sonata Line will offer Blue Drive as a petrol-electric full hybrid system. At Seoul Motor show this year, Hyundai unveiled the concept car as the up coming rival to Prius and Insight of Toyota and Honda respectively. This concept car is called “ blue-Will”.

Sony, JVC and Panasonic TV

The manufacturers will be offering LED backlit LCD TVs that run on less power and have Internet connectivity. Sony is hopes to launch its new LED backlit TV this coming spring. Sony claims that the TV will offer the industry's lowest power consumption.

In fact Sony’s HCFL is consuming lesser power than his side lit LED TV. So this new BLU TV might have even lesser power consumption rating. That may be the industry’s lowest power LED LCD TV. The TV reportedly utilizes an efficient backlight and special filter that passes the light through more easily, most of the conventional LCD TV filter passes some what 15-20% of the light only.

Panasonic will offer a new lower power plasma TV that uses half the power of previous models. Even thought the Plasma TVs will not be as efficient as Sony's LED backlit LCD TVs.

JVC (Victor of Japan) also announced plans to release an LED backlit LCD TV in 2009. Victor Co. of Japan, or JVC, aims to release in 2009 an LCD TV with an LED backlight. LEDs are highly energy-efficient with a super light weight LCD screen deign, so this product is expected to use less power than conventional LCD TVs. But we do not have data see how it is lower power than Sony’s or not!?

Rumors suggest TSMC is looking for an LED maker

Speculation last week surrounded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC). The largest silicon semiconductor foundry company may be seeking to buy one of the largest LED manufacturers, according to several articles from internet in the past weeks.

According to several articles we picked up, and some was originating in Taiwan, TSMC's proposed targets are Philips Lumileds or Toyoda Gosei. At present, these rumors amount to little more than unsubstantiated gossip.

An article on the Taiwan Economic News claimed that TSMC had been in discussion with Philips Lumileds for three years, but the sides have not yet reached a consensus. However, said the article, the merger is more likely now because Philips intends to dispose of its unprofitable subsidiary. Furthermore, said the article, TSMC is an ideal owner to help improve Philips Lumileds’ operation efficiency and competitiveness with its production technologies. Toyota, has no intention of expanding the chipmaker's capacity.

As for my point of view, the giant Philips group can help and maintain Lumileds. I do not see any reason why Philips would sell its technology of LED to the Taiwanese unless there is an immediate financial need. Lumileds is losing money and that is not an incurable situation as all it takes is some changes of manufacturing technology only.

World's Largest LED Display

Whether or not you're a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, or even a football fan in general, there's no reason that to admit the big screen as the world's largest HD LED stadium screen that was recently installed at the organization's new stadium.

The four-sided Diamond Vision™ video displays manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric weighs approximately 600 tons and is suspended directly the playing surface. The sideline screens stretch from nearly one 20-yard line to the other. As a result of the installation of this monster, fans on any level of the stadium will be able to easily see the action.

The city celebrities may not like this as the one with a cheap ticket may see the same action on LED screen as the opulent fans.

Center-Hung Sideline Displays (2)
Width: 160 feet
Height: 72 feet
Total LEDs: 10,584,064
Screen Area: 11,393 square feet
Screen Weight: Approx. 1,200,000 pounds
Power Consumption: 635 Kilowatts
Video Source: 1080p HDTV

Pixel-Pitch: 20mm

Resolution: 2,176 x 4,864

Samsung, Sony and Sharp

Sony is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest media conglomerates with revenue exceeding $78.88 billion U.S. (FY2008). Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, video, communications, video game consoles, and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Its name is derived from sonus, the Latin word for sound.

Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through its five operating segments—electronics, games, entertainment (motion pictures and music), financial services and other. These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal business operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Ericsson, and Sony Financial. As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders. The company's slogan is make.believe. Sony’s Employee is about 180,.500 in 2008.

Sharp Corporation is a Japanese electronics manufacturer, founded in September 1912. It takes its name from one of its founder's first inventions, the Ever-Sharp mechanical pencil, which was invented by Tokuji Hayakawa in 1915. Eversharp is one of the top four fountain Pen maker in 1920-1940. Whereas Eversharp had produced one of the most beautiful Fountain pen Doric in 1937. The Top four Fountain pen markers is Watermans, Parker, Shaffer and Eversharp. Except EverSharp the other three pen makers are still exist as a pen maker now. But Watermans was sold to France in the 70's. Only Shaffer and Parker remains an USA Company.

Since then it has developed into one of the leading electronics companies in the world. As a semiconductor maker, Sharp is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders and among the Top 100 R&D Spenders in a list published by IEEE Spectrum magazine. Sharp LCD TV is sill No.1 in sales in Japan.

They took a controlling stake in Pioneer Corporation in 2007. On 25 June 2009, they agreed to form a joint venture with Pioneer on their optical business to be called "Pioneer Digital Design and Manufacturing Corporation". Employees of 56,000.

There is still cautious in buying Samsung product as from what I know from my friends, they still have the idea is that Samsung Quality is not as good as Sony, think in another way how may Samsung Chip you are using in your daily life, You hand phone, not necessary Samsung, your computer, not Samsung and your recent purchased Apple Iphone 3Gs is using Samsung Chips. They have been widely been inserted on your products under the camouflage of Nokia, Motorola and Apple.

Samsung Electronics is the world's largest electronics company headquartered in Samsung Town in Seoul, South Korea. It is the largest South Korean company and the flagship subsidiary of the Samsung Group.

Samsung Electronics is the global market leader in more than 60 products, including semiconductors such as DRAM, SDRAM, flash memory, hard drives, plasma displays and OLED displays, LED back lit LCD TV, home electronics such as DVD players, Blu-ray players, home cinema systems, set-top boxes and projectors, mobile devices such as mobile phones, MP3 players, digital cameras and camcorders, computing products such as monitors, laptops, UMPCs, CD and DVD Drives, laser printers and fax machines and home appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, microwaves, ovens, vacuum cleaners and air conditioners.

In 2005, Samsung surpassed Japanese rival Sony for the first time to be rated as the new leading and most popular consumer electronics brand in the world by Interbrand. In 2007, Samsung Electronics' handset division overtook American rival Motorola, making it the world's second largest mobile phone maker. At the end of 2007, Samsung Electronics exceeded the $100 billion mark in annual sales for the first time in its history. This achievement places the company, along with Siemens of Germany and Hewlett-Packard of the U.S., among the world's top three companies in the electric appliances and electronics industry. Samsung’s Employee is around 138,000 in 2007.

The Revenue of Samsung is almost same as the total revenue of Sony and Sharp. With the seen Samsung aggressive expansion on his product in TV, Headphones, or probably soon Cars! We could not underestimate that in say 5 years time the Samsung group revenue may be exceed as the total Revenues of Sony, Sharp and Panasonic!

I think all it takes is a slogan like Sony’s famous” It’s a Sony” in the 80’s and 90s now the new slogan is make.believe. Panasonic's “Ideas for Life” , Nokia’s Connecting People, Philips’ Sense and Simplicity, HSBC’s “ the world’s local bank” and current Samsung Electronics Slogan is “Imagine”

Probably Samsung is in need a new Slogan with more inspiration!

How many do you recognize about these LEDs?

Lumileds Altilon LED for Automobile lighting

LUXEON Altilon LEDs deliver a white light solution for automotive applications including High beam, low beam, Day light running lights, static bending lamps and position lamps. This is a true solid-stats lighting technology to be used on Automotive.

The LED has advantage faster response, 140 times faster than incandescent lamp which create additional 24 feet braking distance at 65mph. 15% power saving comparing incandescent lamps. A much longer life time. In fact this Altilon LED was developed for Audi R8 and then Q7 High and low beam Lightings.

Viewing from structure of Altilon from the Philips Website, that is a Lumileds Flip Chip Multichip technology bonding on ceramic substrates; apply a phosphor coating on the chip, and then using a Direct Eutectic machine to handle the gold tin Eutectic bonding on the metal snug. Then pass to an heavy Aluminum wire bonder to place the Aluminum ribbon connectors. This is a sophisticated and expensive bonding.

LUXEON Altilon Offers:
Over 850 lumens at 1000 mA and 60 MNits at 1000 mA
Lower forward lighting power load: 7.0W and 13.7W
Optimized to meet global cut-off specifications
Unobstructed access to emitting surface
Fiducials for optical and thermal alignment
130°C maximum case temperature: 1.5°K/W (1x4)
Optional space lug lead configuration
White color space conforms to both ECE and SAE specifications
AEC-Q101 Qualified

Obvious they are able to be sold as discrete products and to the light fixture assembler for making Light modules for various Automobile. I am interesting to know if that is an upgrade kit available for my car and how much!?

LCD TV Thickness Competition is ON

Sony had launched 9.99 mm thick LCD TV.

Then in Jan 2009, Samsung launched the 7 mm thick LCD TV at CES 2009 show.

Now Konka has a new challenge to these World biggest LCD TV manufacturers, it had announced a 6.99 mm thick LCD TV. This is a lab concept protype, it may take some time to be released into the market, Besides, they have 55” LCD TV that is also lit up by LED as the Back lit, with thickness of 19.9 mm.

Konka had invested with RMB 900 Millions LCD Panel factory at Khunshan, It will have a capacity of 400 Millions unit a year. This is the fundamental set-up of a China manufacturer for LED back lit TV. There will be more Chinese LCD TV markers to come such as Skyworth, Hi sense, etc…

Korean Twins LCD TV Makers

Before 2008, LG was not as competitive as Samsung, Sony and Sharp on LCD TV production.

Since after Samsung launched its LED TV (they called) March 2009, LG was aggressively working on a better Picture quality LCD TV using Direct Back lit LED Display than Samsung’s Side lit Back lit unit. However since Mar-June promotional Campaign of Samsung brought success in sales record of 500,000 units. LG was determined to work on direct and as well edge lit back lit LED TV. LG’s next Competitor is Samsung. LG has made a sales target of 500,000 units to benchmark Samsung‘s 2,500,000 unit in 2009.

Both Samsung and LG will be looking at the sales target of 6 millions sets in 2010. From this point of view, LG is building up a more aggressive plan for their LED manufacturing line in Korea, and Samsung remains its Production of LED in China. In view of the cost structure of China and Koreas is different. We believe LG has to work on a more efficient way for LED Manufacturing in order to gain a higher profit margin. Likely the selection of their LED manufacturing equipment supplier will be crucial for highest possible throughput with min. investment. As labour cost comparison of manufacturing LED in Korea and in China has a big difference. In Korea Now an operator is approximately $750 whereas an Operator in Tianjin area is about $180.00 a month.

In case both Samsung and LG could achieve the sales target of 6 Million sets of LED BLU TV in 2010, they will be remaining the World Largest LED BLU TV makers accounting almost 70 Percent of the total number of the LCD TV we make in the whole year.

With this target of LED manufacturing plan in LG, they have to invest 150B Wons in its Kwangju Factory in Korea in fall 2009 till Q4 2010.

And LG may use for 60% direct Lit and 40% Edge LIT TV to meet different market segment on LCD TV.

Base on an assumption that the production volume of Vizio, Sony, HP, Toshiba, Sharp and other China Maker will be also ramping up. We will see that there will be a price erosion on the LED TV in 2010. We could estimate the same size of TV selling 2010 will be 15% less than the same one selling in 2009.

With the drop of ASP, the whole Entertainment TV market will becoming hot and there is a trend for more people to go into the TV replacement programme. With the current buying practice of the people in Asia and USA, we forecast that he TV Sales will be one of the major drivers for all electronics OEM and Component supplier, and the IC industry will also be a beneficiate due to the demand for the driver and ICs in 2010.

What about the LED market in 2010?

There is huge demand for netbook together with note book computer from China to Peru. Note book and Net book is purging for more LED BLU in the market. There is no overcast, no cloud, all we can see is blue clear sky of White LED lighting, the only hidden concern is how some of the major Korean, Taiwanese, USA and European LED makers can have the LED chip for the markets.

Believe Samsung, LG, Sharp, Hitachi, Vizio and Philips is either making more LED for their own use or acquiring more from their subcons for the required LED quantity to meet the LED BLU LCD TV and Note book monitors. A forecast expect that there will be 5 times expansion of the LCD TV with LED backlight in 2010 comparing 2009. That is an estimation of 3.29M to 15 M sets. However, from the continuing improving of the LED efficacy there may be some kind re-engineering of the Backlit design. 5 % reduction in number of LED per LCD BLU will happen. Estimated that the market needs 1.4B LEDs for this LED TV and NB BLU in 2010.

US Obama administering has been subsidizing $2B total for replacing old automobile,
The programe” Cash for Clunkers” is encouraging Americans who want a new car and want to turn in their old car to go to their car dealer and the money will be there for either $3,500 or $4,500,” However that amount of 2B may not be big enough to be effective, probably 4B will be sufficient.

The German program was launched in January 2009. The Germans put more money on the table than their French neighbors: In France, a retired car is worth 1000 Euro with a new purchase. In Germany, it is 2500 Euro.

This hit the proverbial sweet spot: According to the same ACEA numbers, January to June sales in Germany rose 26 percent. June sales in Germany were 40.5 percent above June 2008. (ACEA is on vacation. According to official statistics of the German Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, July sales rose 29.5 percent.) ACEA stands for European Automobile manufacturer’s association.

The German program was originally funded with 1.5 billion Euro in Jan 2009. Two months after its launch, it was clear that the so-called "Abwrackprämien" program would run out of money quickly. In March 2009, funding was increased to 5 billion Euro, good for 2 million cars. As this is being typed, more than 1.8 million applications for the subsidy have been submitted, there is enough funding left for 155,000 cars. This is in a market that sells 3 million cars in a good year. Obviously, this program is a huge success.

From the “Abwrackprämien” programme their subsequent effect is to trigger an immediate demand of LED from the major Automotive LED suppliers after the stock has been reaching to replenishing level in May 2009.

Blooming of BLU LED, side by side by the higher adoption rate of LED illumination, LED will be remaining a hot item in 2010.

Street Lighting in Portugal

September 07, 2009 - The implementation of attractive LED street lighting in Portugal has gathered pace over the summer as EnergiaViva has completed installations of the new UrbanLED street light in ten towns and cities.

Installation work in a further 20 Portuguese municipalities on streets in the towns of Alcochete, Moita, Barreiro, Arraiolos, Pombal, Santa Maria de Feira, Vale de Cambra, Estarreja, Coimbra and Torres Vedras is expected to have been completed this fall.

The UrbanLED luminaires were first used in April 2009, when they installed in street in the Portuguese town of Pombal. Rebel LEDs from Philips Lumileds, provide an attractive combination of power efficiency, CRI, uniform light distribution and low maintenance and repair costs.

Sharp tries to ban Samsung LED TV US shipment in Q2

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest maker of LCD televisions, may be barred from selling TVs and computer monitors in the U.S. after losing a patent case filed by Sharp Corp. imposed. The agency said it wanted to consider the effect of such a ban on “competitive conditions in the U.S. economy,” according to a notice posted on the ITC Web site. Detail news refer to Bloomberg News on 9 Sept.

However my point is that this will hamper Samsung’s export and in turn slow down their LED
The U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington today said Samsung violated Sharp’s patent rights and ordered both sides to submit arguments on whether an import ban should be BLU manufacturing facilities in China and LCD TV production lines.

On the other Hand, LG, the world second maker will definite be shipping more to USA. The No. 1 US exporter Vizio would be eating up more market share of Samsung in USA. On the other hand, we may be able to buy a cheaper Samsung LED TV in Asia as they will ship those TV to the neigbouring country in Asia and Europe. I see no reason that Samsung will have to put a brake on their production as to maintain the World No. 1 Shipment on TV for the consecutive 15 Quarters.

Material for LED Manufacturing

Different Material and material combination will determine the colour of the LED.
Refer to this quick reference CIE diagram on wave length, material and CIE value.

What will be the LED package Trend in 2011?

Currently we can see that there is a standardization of Packaging for LED using ceramic Substrate as base material . As probably there is a serious drive of the development of LED chip efficacy, package development and as the same time great break through of the LED manufacturing equipment that is able to provide a more precise bonding equipment of these big players.

Rebel , XP , Oslon , the smallest footprint of LED, with the dimension range of 3-4mm range.

With the improving efficacy of LED of 161Lm/W in lab and probably 90lm/watt at mass production model, The chip it self may take up 60% of the cost of the package, without any futher breakthrough for the Chip design there is no way to further lower down the package is of the LED.

We can see that there are two approaches; first we speculate that there will be more smaller chip and more lumen/watt., if say we can reduce the ship size by 40% and increasing the lumen /watt by 30%. That will be an equivalent of improving cost of 64%. On the other hand, if this is no longer a technological barrier by reducing the chip size to say 0.6mmx 0.6mm. The packages can be reduced from 3mmx 3mm down to a size of 1.5x 1.5mm. That is an equivalent saving of 75% ceramic substrate. So as the use of epoxy, of flux, or the length of the gold wire will be able to reduce by more than 20% estimated, in such as case the total cost reduction of the LED will be more than 70%. Bear in mind that if the chip is smaller, the chip may have a higher efficacy of say 35% instead of 25%. Such smaller chip size will enable the fixture designer to pack more LEDs in same space. In other word; the light intensity per square mm is higher. This matches with the market requiement of a lower cost LED package and higher efficacy.

And that is a Must for General lighting using LED SSL.
So I think that people will work on this design approach, however there will put the burden n to the equipment supplier as the die bonder will be required to tackle the following challenge.
Denser LED per panel of ceramic substrates, the LED placement will be required higher accuracy say in the range of +/-15 microns
The Epoxy control has to be more precise as there is more challenge to handle a smaller die without causing any EOD (Epoxy On Die), coverage, void issues and Epoxy bridging.
The Liquid moulding would be more challenging as there will be more than 5,000 LEDs estimated on a single 2" x 4" Panel, but on the other hand as the lens population is higher we enjoy more output per shot per panel at the Moulding stage.

On the other hand, more and more Multi chip design would happen to be seen due to the need to have some precise adjustment on the lighting balance. There is a need to put multi colour LED for use as Architecture lighting. But this would be a smaller production volume as this will be of high manufacturing cost. And this consists more than 1 die, and this is multi pass bonding process, or we have to use Multi-Chip bonder to handle multi chip bonding on the substrates.

Note: "All Figures are of rough estimation for ease of explanation"

Samsung's "LED TV"

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), a self-regulatory group for advertisers in the UK, has condemned Samsung's ads referring to its "LED TV". The ASA received some complaints about the ads. The complaints assert that Samsung's so called "LED TVs" are actually LED edge lit backlit TVs.

The complaints also contend that the technology is not an entirely new class of television, but another form of LCD TVs that use LEDs for backlighting or edge lighting instead of CCFLs. The ASA agreed. Samsung on the other hand argues that the TV's are revolution in their energy efficiency and that they produce "sharper images, deeper blacks and brighter colours,"

The ASA has upheld the complaints of the TV and magazine ads that Samsung put out. The ASA says that in the UK, Samsung should no longer refer to its TV's as "LED TVs", unless they are comprised entirely of LEDs. However, the ASA standards carry no codified legal authority for the industry.

A spokesperson for Samsung in the UK stated that the ruling allows for the company to continue using the term "LED TV" as long as it is accompanied by an explanation that it is an LCD screen that uses LED technology for backlighting.

Samsung's NEW LED TVs have been unexpectedly been extensively promoted free of charge in the news and media through ASA as a result of complaint!

Phase out of incandescent light bulbs in EU

As of September 1, 2009, the phase out of incandescent light bulbs is officially underway in the European Union with a ban on the sale and importation of 100 W and higher bulbs.

The European Energy Commission stated that the banned lamps will not be removed from shop shelves on September 1, and that the retailers are allowed to sell their existing stock of incandescent 100 W bulbs.

The EU plans to gradually phase out conventional incandescent and halogen bulbs from the market by the end of 2012. Compact fluorescent bulbs and LEDs are the two main alternatives.

The legal limitation on import of the bulbs will generate a black market and smuggling operation to bring them in. It will also create a huge surge in sales legally as people stock up on high wattage bulbs of 100W. till the embargo goes into effect. There is already a big sales for the Incandescent light bulbas people started to Collect it for memorial purpose and for reserve usage. They should stick to encouraging development instead of mandating it.

In fact the world two largest LED makers Osram and Philips has the biggest market share for conventional incandescent Light bulbs, every year, they are closing their factories and probably in 5 years time, the LED light bulb will be the major product in lighting comparing with Incandescent light bulb. However the speed of such migration of LED into the lighting industry are depending on these big players : Nichia, Osram, Lumileds, Cree, Seoul Semi, Everlight...Etc.

Who are more or less in controling of the prices and amount of the High Performance HBLED.

Litefast 360 degrees Display

Litefast 360° displays are multi-functional multimedia LED displays for advertising, digital signage, real-time information and entertainment. Not least because of their eye-catching shape Litefast 360° displays are out-of-the-ordinary presentation objects in themselves.

They start up at the click of a mouse and communicate all kinds of multimedia information in an exciting presentation format.. The cylindrical display can be viewed from all sides, attracting three times as many visitors, customers and guests as a conventional flat screen. Poster areas protected by acrylic glass provide room for print advertising or for harmonising the Litefast 360° display to its surroundings. As a result Litefast 360° displays offer considerably more than the usual LCD or plasma flatscreens. Best for Airport, Restaurant, Cinema, bus and MTR Station for commercial display.

Kinoton GmbH was founded in Munich to service local cinemas. Just one year later, Philips entrusted the young company with the German sales rights for their then very popular, state-of-the-art cinema projectors. Hans-Peter Zoller was involved right from the beginning, as an employee at first . Ten years later he and his wife gained full ownership of the company.

From 1955 on, Kinoton's own sales and service offices were opened throughout Germany. In the early 60's, projection equipment, switchboards and curtain machines were produced in a small workshop in downtown Munich. This was the decade when Kinoton developed the platter system, which revolutionized the cinema industry and won Kinoton their first Academy Scientific and Engineering Award.

Sylvania LED for Car Tail Light

Sylvania Special LED Design

Standard tail light system with red and amber lenses.
The same tail light system redesigned to use the LED bulb.

The assembly is colorless in the unlit state.

When lit, the LED bulb generates the required signal function color.

SYLVANIA has introduced an innovative new standardized automotive light source. The LED bulb is designed for use in reflectors systems designed for it. It cannot be used as a direct replacement for current incandescent signal, brake, or reverse light applications.

The LED can ahve the following design features:

1.Creates new styling opportunities for lit and unlit condition, including high-tech, clear lens, no color, no lamp inside appearance
2. Different optical solutions possible via different reflector designs
3. Dual Intensity operation: Brake / turn functions plus running light

4. Faster rise time - approximately 140 times faster than incandescent sources: creates an additional 24 feet of stopping distance at 65 mph
5. Draws only 15% of the energy required to power an incandescent bulb: 4.3W compared to 27W

OSRAM SYLVANIA focuses on developing the most advanced LED modules and drivers available and supplying them to their OEM customers. They use Osram LED on their fixtures.

Sony to sell his TV plant to Foxconn

Reported on 1 Sep 2009, Sony Corp. has agreed to sell its main television factory in North America to a Foxconn as it struggles to cut costs and stem massive losses. Sony will sell 90 percent of its stake in Sony Baja California, which is located in Tijuana .

Foxconn is World No.1 EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Service) with Revenue of 61.8B in 2008 with CAGR of >50% since 1998. Foxconn is the only company consistently ranked among top ten in the Business Week IT100 since 2002.

Flextronics is the 2nd largest EMS company in the world.

Who knows if one day Foxconn will head up with direct competition with Flextronics for LED TV in the Market. Flextronics had just been appointed by LG for manufacturing their 19", 22" 26", 32" and 37" TV.

One Stop Solution for LED Manufacturing

Only one company in the World can provide us one stop solution for LED manufacturing equipment.

As they supply bare die sorting machine, Die bonder of various process types such as Epoxy, Direct Eutectic, Flip Chip TS process for various LED chip attach,
Gold ball wire bonder for horizontal and vertical LED devices.

The latest iHawkxtreme is of the fastest wire bonder for LED. It was well recognized as the standard wire bonder for high throughput LED manufacturing environment.

Down the process they have solution on phosphor jetting, Testing and sorting solution for LED of different package TopLED, SideView, Ceramic base HBLED, with various process requirement of say Bowl feeder input, LED on wafer form, output with Tape and Reel or to be sorted on Mylar on film frame for sake of traceability required by Automobile and General illumination industry.

There is certain advance if we use one stop solution. There is minimum tools investment as all equipment can utilize the same tooling such as magazines and carrier. Minimum, investment for spare part as all machines are using the similar modules of control and Motion drivers!

An unique operational pattern as the machine are using same human interface for operation.

Simplify is the key for a streamed line process of Today Hi volume LED manufacturing by going through one supplier, consideration on administration, Single supplier training programme, spare part management, process uniqueness, On line Production System management.

This Company was found in 1975. It is ASM!

China International Optoelectronic Exposition

iHawk V ASM Gold Ball Wire bonder for Vertical LED Lamps

ShenZhen Convention and exhibition centre

The China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE) is a worldwide renowned exhibition, which presents the most advanced optoelectronic technologies and innovations.

The CIOE 2009 expects around 2,100 exhibitors to showcase products on 70,000 sqm from September 6-9. During the four days, more than 85,000 professional visitors will attend the exhibition.


It is supported by all relevant Chinese government bodies, scientific academies, trade associations, and by domestic as well as international key players of the industry.

Key LED Exhibitors:
OSRAM, DOMINANT, OASIS, COTCO, LUXPIA, MOKSAN, EDISON, BRIGHTEK, HP LIGHTING, WAITRONY, ELS, CT TECH, SHIN-ETSU, DENKI KAGAKU, ASM, NIHON GARTER, LUMITECH, CHANG-YU, WECON, LIANCHUANJIANHE, LAMP, HUAHAI etc.

ASM, world No. 1 Semiconductor equipment manufacturer makes her debut of the following equipment.

AD860
New Die bonder that can hanle 8” dia substrate as on the Work holder, good for PCB, Ceramic Panel or Si Type Substrate for LED bonding.

iHawk Xtreme is ASM's latest Gold ball Wire bonder which has a higher UPH that can outperform the strongest rivals in the Market by min. 15% for LED application.


Hawk-V- Gold bal wire bonder for Vertical LED lamps , 60 ms wire bonding speed, 10% smaller footprint, 0 down time due to magazine changes.

PhononDS520 – A Jetting phosphor application dispensing Machine, 50K UPH on vertical LED phosphor coating application.



SLS230T- test and sort machine for Top LED device with bowl feeder input, UPH is typically 18K for 3014, 3020, 3528 Device.


SLT400 – A high speed taping machine with Bowl feeder input , UPH 40K for 5252 Top LED device.


The Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center was designed by the German architects GMP with the lastest exhibition facilities. It is located in the downtown area of Shenzhen. It is connected to all major transportation systems and throw stone distance away from all parts of the city. Many four- and four-star-hotels and top restaurants are situated within walking distance.

Map Sorting of Package LEDs onto frames

ASM MS899DLA is a high speed map sorter machine especially designed for handling ceramic based LED with dome lens. Input is a cassette of film frame carrying the package LED on the film frame.

The reason is that the LED has to have tracebility up to die level, if that is not placed on mylar in a mapped format, there is no way to trace the LED to the die batch form the Wafer.

The up stream process is either a Panel tester using Integration sphere or a Package LED tester AS899 (ASM’s).

MS899DLA is a fully automatic map sorter machine with Auto cassette handler and max.
120 Bin grade of film frame each represent one specified Bin grade of binned LEDs.

There is a wafer bar code reader to read the lot bar codes or using 2D matrix code camera to read, identify and pull pout the right wafer map from the network for the film frame in process.
The UPH is typically 4,200 for 3mm x3 mm package LED with dome lens.

The Collet is designed not to have any contact on the surface of the dome to minimize scratches.
Typical Cycle time is 430ms for 3 mm x 3mm x 1.6 mm LEDs.

This machine is commonly used for many LED Big players for sorting out their package LED onto 100 bin grades.

Downwards process is to pass the binned wafer on Taping machine LPT08 for putting the package LED onto tape and reel.

Yike Bike

The Yike Bike has today been wooing Europeans on German streets as its developers try to sell their new mini-farthing cycle to the European market.

Inventor Grant Ryan said he hoped its European debut would spark interest ahead of a major trade fair later this week.

The New Zealand carbon fibre Yike Bike can run for 10km after a 30 minute charge, 10Kg in weight , install in 15 Sec, easy to control, LED lighting design. A green toy for us? We have to reserve for one. Price? May be in the range of USD$5,000.

My Friend Leo is the No. 1 HK people on the order reserve List.

I am sure that there will be newer design from China selling at about USD$900 in April 2010.

Let’s see

Small and Big Chip Design and efficacy

Blue represents the optical power and Purple indicates the Electrical power

LED efficacy is 25%, 75% of the electrical energy will be converted to heat energy, however when the smaller LED is having smaller power with say 20mA of current passing through, they efficacy could be as higher 55%.



There will be 55% of optical power Lumens output and 45% of energy will be dissipated as heat energy. however when the current increased say to 350mA, the efficacy can be about 25%. 75% of the electrical energy will be dissipated as heat energy which is a waste!

So we can see that there is a big different in LED design on the East and the West.
As most of the LED in Japanese Maker are using comparative small chip 0.2mm x 0.2 mm to 0.29mm X 0.29mm current such as 20-50mA range by using a number of small Chip to create more optical Lumens. Such design in fact as much a higher energy conversion than driving the LED at much a high current say 350mA or more, as when chip is bigger current .


But most of the US and or European design will be using 350mA as standard current reference for driving their LED. Such as K2, Rebel, XRE, XP, Oslon...

As for Japanese design such as Citizen, Sharp, we can see that they ar using a lot of LED from 10-20 pcs each of them are driving at smaller current, there will be a lot of manufacturing process as there will be multiple bonding on Die bonding and Multiple wires.


But the advantage is better energy saving, an some of them are connected in parallel, if there is one strand of LED chain is failure, there are still having some of the LED strands continue to light up. So as a reliability sense that is better. Whereas the other European Design will be black out of the LED is failed! So there thermal management of the current UHBLED will be an important engineering challenge for most of the LED players using big chip say 1mm x 1mm or bigger.

As we know if we have the best chip on hand, the final product reliability will be much depending on how low we can maintain the Junction Temperature. In any case we should design such a way to have a lowest Junction temperature of the Chip. Say if you can have a room temperature junction temperature, that is a dream case. And if you can maintain the Junction temperature at 85% m that is very good already, in worse case the junction temperature such not be higher than 125 Deg C.

As what highlight before if the temperature of the Chip is lower the life tine of the LED will be increased. Say form Rebel specification sheet if we can reduce 5 degrees from Junction temperate of 135 Degree C to 130 Degrees C, the life time of the Reel will be increased by 18,000 hours!!

If one day we can have a say Copper bas material and a very good of bonding connection material such as Solder (lead free is preferred) the Bond Line thickness is properly optimized for best CTE between the chip say EZ1000 and the Copper material. I think that is a very good design for low Junction temperature, as Copper is very good at heat energy conduction, and it is of low cost as comparing with AIN or Al2O3 ceramic substrates.



That can be a powerful LED… and if we can have very high efficacy Phosphor material and a good design of Lens, we may be able to create s very efficient LED with High Efficacy, good thermal conductivity, low cost as Solder is cheaper than Epoxy, or gold tin Eutectic process. However, the only concern is how good that it could sustain the reflow temperature say 260 deg C for two times. Will the Solder cause any delamination of the LED and the Substrates?

Why there is such a trend for Standard UHBLED footprint 3mmx3mm?

Due to the market need for smaller package LED with more power emission, there is a trend of smaller packages that comes with 3mm x3 mm ceramic base UHBLED of more than 1 W in the market.

Rebel, XRE, XP and Oslon and more to come in months from these big player Lumileds, Cree and Osram.

The key advantages are that they can put more LEDs in a smaller area to emit more light.

They can have a comparatively smaller optic or smaller light guide for these light rays to emit.

They can have tape and reel format on these product for SMT mounting.

Final fixture can have more power with Multi-LED configuration especially for Illumination.

They can use automatic Surface mount machine for board level insertion.

The smaller Footprint will use less material and good for cost down on the LEDs Price!

The Huge K2 Type of LED will soon be phased out.