Friday, December 25, 2009

Osram LED Business

Siemens AG, Europe’s largest engineering company, predicted LEDs, will outgrow the current global market for illumination.



The market for LEDs will triple to almost 13 billion euros by 2012 as they move from illuminating mobile phones and cars to streets and homes, Siemens said in a press release 24 Dec., citing market researchers. Osram, the Munich-based company’s lighting division, today generates 15 % of its sales with LED technology, making it No. 2 in that market, according to Wellingborough, England-based IMS Research.


Governments are discouraging the use of conventional light bulbs, which turn only 5 % to 10 % of the energy used into light and have 12 times shorter life spans than LEDs. To help reach its target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions 20 % by 2020 from 1990 levels, the European Union in September started to phase out conventional clear incandescent light bulbs of 100 watts or more. By 2012, other models such as frosted bulbs and high-energy halogen lights will also be prohibited.


Osram sales fell 13 %to 4.04 billion Euros in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the second annual decline. Earnings tumbled 78 % to 89 million Euros as Siemens booked charges to reduce capacity and wrote down the value of its inventories. “Osram reached bottom,” CTO Peter Loescher said on Dec. 3.


Osram’s 2.2% operating margin last year missed its profitability target of 10 % to 12 % by the largest margin among Siemens’s six industry divisions. It was the only industry division to lose money in the fourth quarter.


Osram is the world’s second-largest lighting company, trailing only Royal Philips Electronics NV.


General Electric Co. said it July it will close its last U.S. factory making common household incandescent light bulbs as demand rises for more energy-efficient lighting.


Siemens shares rose 1.9 % to 62.87 Euros at 11:48 a.m. in Frankfurt trading for a market value of 57.5 billion Euros.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

10 good signs of Electronics Business 2010

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- 2009 started off bad, but the year is now seeing some positive signs.


Thankfully, the IC industry is seeing a recovery. But what about 2010? Heading into 2010, there are both good and bad signs in the marketplace. Here's what various analysts think:

Good signs
1. Seasonal demand for ICs is better than expected. Craig Berger, an analyst for FBR, said: ''Recent checks with Asian chip distributors suggest their 4Q chip shipments should fall 4-to-8 percent sequentially, better than our month-ago checks of minus 10 percent sequentially, driven by strong industrial, consumer, and smartphone chip orders in November. Specifically, mid-single-digit month-over-month growth in November was better than our forecast of a mid-single-digit month-over-month decline as a robust Golden Week holiday required downstream OEMs to place rush orders for Christmas and provided confidence to begin placing orders for Chinese New Years (mid February).''

2. Companies are raising guidance, such as Altera, Amkor, AuthenTec, Fairchild, IR, Vishay, Xilinx and others. Berger of FBR said: ''For 4Q, we believe Atmel's revenues are tracking at or above the high end of guidance of $327 million to $340 million (3-to-7 percent up sequentially), better than the consensus estimate of $335 million.''

3. Demand to pick up in 2010. Doug Freedman, an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech, said: ''In the near-term we are bullish on electronic equipment unit demand (minus 5-to-10 percent in 2009, plus 15-to-25 percent in 2010); however, this is offset by our bearish view on terminal growth rates. We believe 5- and 10-year CAGRs will be 5 percent versus more bullish consensus estimates of 8-to-10 percent.'' We believe overall long lead times and lean inventory throughout the supply chain continue to help drive above-seasonal results in Q4 and Q1 guidance. We also believe 2Q10 shipment results are likely to be above seasonal with a return to normal or below normal seasonal patterns in 3Q10 and 4Q10.''

4. PCs up in 2010. Freedman of Broadpoint AmTech said: ''MPUs should benefit from notebook and server unit strength. We believe notebook unit growth will be above 20 percent year-over-year expectations and may exceed 25 percent year-over-year. We expect server MPU ASPs and units (13 million units) will drive improved margin mix.''

5. A DRAM rebound? Andrew Norwood, an analyst at Gartner, said: ''Gartner expects January 2010 pricing to be down for DDR2 as demand continues to reduce and supply, especially from Taiwan, increases. DDR3 pricing is harder to predict and will, at best, remain flat or else see small price declines. A return to mild pricing declines in the contract market will be a good thing, as DRAM content in PCs is already above 10 percent of bill of materials (a historic pressure point for PC OEMs) for high-end and midrange machines. Pricing easing during the next few months will allow PC OEMs to slowly increase the gigabyte content of their PC lines and therefore create a healthy demand environment in 2010, which will in turn soak up the increasing capacity in the second half of 2010 that comes from the move to 40 nm technology by the major vendors.''

6. NAND to grow. Joseph Unsworth, an analyst with Gartner, said: ''The outlook for the remainder of December is that pricing is likely to remain soft, but given optimism during recent channel checks, it appears that prices will remain stable leading into 2010 before sliding again in the second quarter. The year 2010 will be a strong one for NAND vendors (with revenue growth of more than 20 percent), but exactly how strong will be influenced by NAND customer sentiment, gauged at the Consumer Electronics Show in early January.''

7. LEDs are another bright spot. Jagdish Rebello, director and principal analyst at iSuppli, said: "The LED industry is on the threshold of a new expansion phase--a phase that will be characterized by growth rates in the high double digits during the next three years. This growth will be driven by the increased adoption of high brightness (HB) and high flux--also referred to as high power or ultra high brightness (UHB)--LEDs into a new range of next-generation lighting applications. Global LED revenue will expand by 10.9 percent in 2009 to reach $7.4 billion, up from $6.7 billion in 2008. This comes in stark contrast to the overall semiconductor market, which is expected to contract by 12.4 percent in 2009 because of the slowdown in the global economy. By 2013, the global LED market will reach $14.3 billion, nearly double from 2009.''

8. Solar is sunny. Edwin Mok, an analyst with Needham & Co., said: ''Heading into 2010, we are seeing strong demand in several key regions including Germany, Italy and the U.S. Industry participants have confirmed that the near term strength should extend into at least 1H10. In 2010, we continue to believe the U.S. solar market will see substantial growth driven by increased availability of federal stimulus spending and a number of state/local subsidies.''

9. TVs in cars? Richard Robinson, an analyst with iSuppli, said: ''Worldwide shipments of mobile television systems for cars, consisting both of solutions embedded into autos and included in Portable Navigation Devices (PNDs), are expected to more than double from 2009 to 2015. Global automotive mobile television shipments are expected to exceed 17 million units in 2015, up from 8 million in 2009. Car passengers will be able to take advantage of live television services in an increasing number of vehicles with embedded front and rear displays."

10. Connected cars roll. Egil Juliussen, principal analyst and fellow for iSuppli, said: ''An estimated 62.3 million global consumers will have Internet access in their cars by 2016, up from 970,000 at the end of 2009. With smart phones having become more affordable and ubiquitous, consumers are demanding Internet connectivity in cars. Car makers are serving this demand by adding various forms of Internet connectivity to cars."

Source : EE Times.
EE Times an informative source for Semiconductor and Electronics Business
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222002983&pgno=1

10 bad signs for Electronics Business 2010

Bad signs


1. Prices to rise in analog? Berger of FBR said: ''Note that we already raised financial estimates on Fairchild Semiconductor and International Rectifier as these companies preannounced 4Q results positively over the past few weeks. Given channel strength and the potential for distributor inventory replenishment in 1Q10, we think that these discrete and lower margin analog chip vendors can raise prices on some products to some customers in early 2010.''

2. Application processor war is coming. Freedman of Broadpoint AmTech said: ''While application processors see huge growth with smartphones, we do not seek out investment as it may turn into profitless growth. Numerous emerging competitors (Qualcomm, Nvidia, Broadcom, NXP, ST Micro and MediaTek), eager to take share from established vendors (TI, Marvell), could turn price aggressive as they continue to invest tremendous amounts in ecosystems for their particular application processor development environments. We see parallels to baseband, given the high volumes and minimal barriers to entry of this attractive wireless growth market.''

3. Touch screens notebooks not taking off yet. Daniel Amir, an analyst with Lazard Capital Markets, said: ''Demand for touch screen notebooks, which were enabled by the debut of Windows 7, is still fairly lackluster. HP expected to ship 80,000 touch screen notebooks every month, but current demand is only 1,500 notebooks a month. Higher prices for the capacitive touch screen panels are posing a challenge to mass adoption of touch screen enabled notebooks. We believe that we have yet to reach a high adoption rate because of the lack of touch applications that are targeted to the PC market. We believe that the touch PC concept will begin to have higher adoption rates in late 2010.''

4. NOR is a bore. Analysts from Gartner said: ''NOR flash pricing showed mixed results in December. Most densities saw prices gently increase, while 512Mb declined by 3.8 percent. Although NOR flash contract pricing was flat because of a temporary shortage, we continued to see a NOR flash/pseudo SRAM MCP pricing decline. Gartner expects NOR flash pricing in the first quarter of 2010 to remain flat or post a mild decline. However, since the application of NOR flash is limited and most smartphones will use a NAND flash solution, the overall revenue from NOR flash will continue to decline in 2010.''

5. Fab tool downturn continues. Freedman of Broadpoint AmTech said: ''Maturing 300-mm fab assets will continue to drive unit costs lower (and faster than ASP declines) as process upgrades are less capital intensive. As such, we believe the foundry build-out opportunity in 300-mm will be among the best investments for semiconductor corporations in the past decade. However, this is likely a negative for capital equipment manufacturers on efficiencies from re-use and longevity of equipment.''

6. Backend capacity remains tight at Amkor and others. C.J. Muse, an analyst at Barclays Capital, said: ''Amkor raised its guide for 4Q based on broad-based demand. Focus remains on 1Q10 outlook where we expect better than seasonal guide for 1Q10 led by still tight OSAT capacity.''

7. More backend woes. Amir of Lazard Capital Markets said: ''Our contacts have indicated that we are seeing back-end capacity tightening and that it could be a challenge for semiconductor companies to increase shipment volumes beyond the current run rate. According to our channel checks, tight Amkor capacity may drive the company to break its delivery commitments. Major clients of Amkor include Toshiba, Numonyx, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Conexant, and Marvell.''

8. Solar shakeout hits. Robert Castellano, president of The Information Network, said: ''We forecast that in 2010 as many as 50 percent of the more than 200 solar manufacturers, mired in red ink with current selling prices above $2.00 per watt, may not survive. The freefall has begun.''

9. Chinese firms ride vertical integration to solar cost leadership. Henning Wicht, senior director and principal analyst at iSuppli, said: "Yingli and Trina, along with U.S.-based First Solar Inc. represent the most notable success stories in the PV market today. In the price-driven environment of 2009, vertical integration provides the scale and control needed to contain costs, and to provide a competitive edge."

10. Netbooks to slow? John Jacobs, an analyst at DisplaySearch, said: ''Mini-notes continue to be a significant piece of the notebook PC pie, in terms of both units and revenue. However, our long-term outlook is that the mini-note share of the notebook PC market has stabilized, and will remain at approximately 20 percent through 2011 before starting to erode. While mini-notes offer lower ASPs and are thinner and lighter than notebook PCs, the performance of larger notebook PCs continues to improve while prices continue to steadily decline, increasing the performance gap while narrowing the price gap. In 2010, DisplaySearch expects the notebook PC market to grow by 16 percent, with higher than average growth for mini-notes and ultra-portable notebook PCs. Growth in the latter segment is expected to be fueled by numerous new 11.6-inch and 12.0-inch products built on CULV platforms and with aggressive, sub-$500 ASPs.''

Source: EE times

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

ASM Assembly Automation Ltd.; World No.1 SemiConductor Equipment Supplier


As 2009 draws to a close, some people will argue that it's been a tough year since 15th Sep 2008 when the Lehman Brothers melt down. Most IC business experts agree that things have changed forever. However, as I have said in the past, change is neither intrinsically good nor bad in all cases. It is almost always an opportunity and that is certainly true for the future of our industry!


ASM technologies are perfectly aligned to address the emphasis on 'Green-Technologies' adopted by all governments world-wide. From IC, Discrete components, LED, CMOS Image sensor assembly equipment to photovoltaics inspection machines. ASM offers innovative and effective solutions to the most challenging demand of the Electronics and Semiconductor customers.

From the powerful support of the factories in China, Singapore and Hong Kong, we have successfully captured most of the IC players, gained their trust on the Equipment performance and reliability. Outperform other strong European, Amercian Japanese Competitors in term of Output per dollar and Stability. Therefore, ASM continue to maintain the World No.1 Position as a Semiconductor Equipment supplier since 2002.

The share price of ASM hit a historical high at HKD$80.00 yesterday and that may be an indication of the fund managers who have good speculation on ASM‘s future success, and as an acknowledgement of ASM‘s strong backlog and future business vision in 2010.

Being a Hong Kong Citizen, and we should be proud to see such successful Company that can be stand up with good track record in the past 34 years. Whereby neither Working diligently with the hardworking engineers and flexible problem solving tradition of Typical HK way, without any financial nor support of any kinds from the Government of Hong Kong.

We are are looking forward to see this Company would have another big organic growth in 2010.

HK Snob

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Hong Kong Christmas Lights- LED




Tsuen Wan MTR station goes LED Christmas Decorative lighting

Every year Tsuen Wan MTR terminus has being well make up with lot of lights from end November till Chinese New Year. Since 2008, Tsuen Wan District office had decided to go LED to replace the incandescent lamps for such Christmas lights.

In Hong Kong, there are a lot of Christmas lighting in Central and Tsim Sha Tsui Commercial Centre. In recent studies 20 out of 24 major buildings in Hong Kong Island are still using incandescent lights, rough estimation there are minimum 100,000 light bulbs that could produce 1,100 tons of CO2 in beginning of December till 20 Feb 2010.
That amount of Energy is an equivalent of 360 Families' total electrical power consumption for 1 year.

I think Hong Kong is an advance City, but in the sense of environment protection, we are still in the Stone Age. Same as this Super Powers gather in Denmark spending two weeks time in meeting.They created 200,000 Tons of Co2 emission by flying Denmakr. After all, there is no committment at all. The cars are still running with low efficient enginrs, People are till using incandescent light bulbs. There is only about 0.1% of the general lighting is using Efficient LED.

Only LED manufacturer and LED manufacturing equipment company could possibly save the world by producing High Power LED that can beat the price of the Incandescent Lamp with same amount of lighting intensity output. I think we have to wait for another 3-5 Years!
feverip

Sunday, December 13, 2009

A new Car to adopt LED Head Lamp



After the exotic Audi R8, Audi Q7 and this Nissan Leaf will adopt the use of a Real LED Power Lamps for his High Beam.

The maker is an Prominent LED technology and LED manufactuer. Let's Watch out in a few months to welcome Nissan Leaf to land onto the Road of Hong Kong!
Feverip

Saturday, December 12, 2009

3M Mpro120 Pocket Projector




Since 3M uhced the First projector last year, this is the more practical one as an improved version launched in Hong Kong Recently.

new MPro 120 includes a built-in speaker, a brighter, stronger projection with 12 Lumens light intensity, and comes packaged with a number of helpful accessories to make it easier to find a purpose which the original model seemed to lack. It is selling at HKD3,380 as a chiristmas hoit item in the electronics shops.

While the first model could project an image 39 inches in diagonal at eleven lumens brightness, this new version can project an image 50 inches in diagonal. The light source is still an LED bulb, perfect for reducing heat, and the image is processed using an LCOS chip, delivering a resolution up to 1200 x 800 While the image is stronger, it’s not a major leap forward and you still have to eliminate any other light source in the room to see the image with any sharp clarity.
3M Recommends a viewing audience of about 1-5 people in a small room and that seems about right.

Key Specification:
2 hour battery life
VGA, Composite video output
20,000 hours Lamp Life!
Mpro110 MicroProjector
With lower budget concern, we can have Mpro110 MicroProjector which is selling at HKD$1,980.00 in Hong Kong.

Wth lower 7 Lumens light intensity, and 10,000 Hours of LED life time,
Feverip

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Preview of Philips's World First 21:9 Cinema Format LCD TV

Philips Cinema 21:9 9000 Series BDP9100 TV , launched in Hong Kong.
An Eisa award best Product 2009-2010,
World First Cinema Screen aspect Ratio 21:9.

Not like the traditional 16:9 that has to chop of the left and right portion of the picture,
This 21:9 matches perfectly with the Blue Ray format, full display to fill up the whole screen
Plus other stunning feature as the Ambilight Spectra 3 technology, an extension of the picture by the illumination from the back side of the LCD TV onto the wall.
This improve he vibrant of the picture display, reduce eye tiredness, enlarged screen effect.

This technology was developed by Light Research Centre Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2005.

World fasters LCD response 1ms, Made in USA, 200Hz frame rate, Perfect Pixel HD Engineer 09 CPU that manipulate 500M pixels in 1 second, 17 bit video processor that can create 2250 Trillion colors.

Size 56” Price is about HKD$50,000. One shortcoming is the LCD Back light built by CCFL, not LED!. I think the next advance model will be LED White direct back Light format!

Feverip

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Seagate Pulsar SSD


The Seagate® Pulsar™ solid state drive (SSD) is the first SSD product in the new Pulsar solid state drive family from Seagate. The Pulsar SSD is designed to meet OEM performance, power, size and reliability requirements for enterprise blade and general server applications.
Key Advantages
Single-level cell (SLC) technology optimizes SSD reliability and endurance
0.44 percent AFR for high reliability and endurance
Up to 200GB capacity in a 2.5-inch form factor and 7mm z-height
Power loss data protection to ensure against data loss upon power failure
5-Year Limited Warranty
SATA 3Gb/s interface to support current blade server chipsets
Leveraging industry-leading, global enterprise support
Industry-leading SSS and SSD standards development through JEDEC and SNIA


Feverip

Toshiba Regza LED TV

Toshiba has been a strong HD DVD major maker, after keeping quiet for two years watching the Korean LED TV makers got the first bite of the TV cake, announced that their Regza LED TV is unveiled in the Market of Hong Kong.

Everyone is wondering this traditional old Japanese Maker would do something about the Korea leader in LED TV for so long. Well, w have found that the are not puppy, yet not much information is being found for mid range and lower end LED TV, they have show their Flag ship series as SV650.

Using all White LED direct back lit design to complete with the Korean by a better contrast and even colour of the TV especially at the four edges.

SV650 series has two major model 46SV650CH and 55SV650CH for 46” and 55” respectively.

These are their good feature: Dynamic Contrast Ratio of 2,000,000:1, built in up scaling function can play Full HD output, support Dolby Volume new audio technique, and maintain an average volume when we change channel or being switching between ads of different kind. 4 sets of HDMI supporting HDMI instaport for faster connection, just 2 second after the HDMI connection, would start the movie.

There is Autoview and 200Hz, function like AGC light control with some sort of sensor in the front panel for light adjustment, 200 Hz is nothing new in the market.
There is LAN to support DLNA, can be connected to computer’s movie and music. SD and USB slot for reading JPEG file. These are not too mush a surprise as gadget, but the Picture quality talks, and this would bring some of the lost market in the Blue Ray DVD.

Price of the SV650 series LED TV 46” HKD$29,990, 55” HKD$49,990
There are also ZV650 CCFL back lit unit with 200Hz and XV with CCFL Back lit unit with 100 Hz.

Their spec and prices are:-

ZV650 42”/47’/55” 50,000:1, 500cd/m2, 200Hz. 6.5ms
ZV650 Price is N/A

XV650 32”/40”46”/52”. 50,000:1, 500cd/m2. 100hz, 6.5ms (32”). 4ms (40”), 6ms (46”’52”)

XV650 $7,290 (32”)/ $10,490 (40”)/ $14,490 (46”)/ $25,990 (52”)

Feverip

Monday, December 7, 2009

Kodak is the inventor of OLED

Kodak is the inventor of OLED.

5th Dec, Eastman Kodak Co announced that they would sell one of their business thin film OLED display technology to South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc, at same time to share the patent with LGE, to end the patent dispute for years between these two companies.

OLED has a better advantage over LED for its ultra low power consumption, thinner as comparing with LED, No need to have Back light.

Feverip

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Silicon WLP modules as the Next HBLED packages





HB-LED Thermal dissipation capability roadmap: all lead to Silicon WLP (Courtesy of Visera)



According to a recent article to CENS Taiwan Publications, Dr. Yan-Kuin Su, President of Kun
Shan University in southern Taiwan, believes silicon substrate`s impressive heat-resistance makes the silicon-based wafer-level packaging (WLP) technology, already a mature packaging process in the computer-chip industry, a suitable packaging solution.

Silicon melts at 1,000 C, its CTE or coefficient of thermal expansion is below 4 ppm/C, and its TC or thermal conductivity is in the 150-180 W/m.k. range according to Mr Su, who is also an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) fellow and has been studying semiconductors for over three decades.

"Most of all, leading-edge silicon process technologies enable devices on silicon to be reduced to nano-scales, allowing LED packagers to integrate all devices, including drive IC, into a miniscule silicon lead frame."

Currently, ployphthalamide (PPA) is the major lead-frame material for packaging low-power chips while ceramic and liquid crystal polymer (LCP) are primarily used for high-power packages, according to Su`s studies. "Ceramic has a good melting point, but ceramic-based lead frame, like PPA and LCP lead frames, has to be made with tooling, hence limiting the frame reduction to micron scale," Su notes. A PPA lead frame, for instance, can be miniaturized to 3mm long by 1.4mm wide at best, holding a 9-mil (0.225 square millimeter) LED chip.




Thermal conductivity of different substrate options (Courtesy of VisEra)




Miniaturization Possible"The micro process makes possible integrating driver ICs into the WLP.LED package by etching circuits on the bottom of the silicon lead frame, thereby eliminating the need for a stand-alone current driver IC to significantly shrink the size of LED modules," says Huang, a member of Su`s WLP project team.

Having an ultra high melting point also makes silicon suitable for eutectic bonding, which is noted for a high melting point of minimum 280 C. "The gold-zinc alloy is used to affix LED chip to silicon lead frames.

As epoxy glues used in most LED packages melt at 180 C, eutectic bonding is much better in thermal resistance and does not capture light in the package during high temperatures as epoxy," Huang notes. Eutectic bonding, Huang asserts, will also become a trend in high-power LED packaging, based on Cree`s use of such approach in its high-power LED packages.

"The difference is that Cree, as far as I understand, uses eutectic to bond LED chips on generic lead frames, not silicon frames.

To prevent the high melting temperature from destroying the lead frame construction during the bonding process, Cree first bonds the chip on a heat-resistant board and then adheres the board to the lead frame," he says. Excellent thermal resistance also makes silicon superior to other lead-frame materials: enabling reflective layers to be grown on silicon lead frames in the burning-hot chemical vapor deposition chamber. "The layer can reflect at least 5% more light from the chip relative to generic lead frames, thereby boosting efficacy of a lamp," Huang notes.

AdvantageousCost efficiency and high reliability, the president stresses, make WLP advantageous. His study shows the cost of ceramic packaging is the highest whereas WLP is the cheapest, with PPA and LCP in the middle. "If a ceramic package costs US$0.25, a PPA would be around US$0.06, an LCP would be around US$0.08 and WLP would be around US$0.03," Su estimates, ascribing the lowest cost mostly to the maturity of the WLP in the chip-making industry.


Miniaturization Possible"The micro process makes possible integrating driver ICs into the WLP LED package by etching circuits on the bottom of the silicon lead frame, thereby eliminating the need for a stand-alone current driver IC to significantly shrink the size of LED modules," says Huang, a member of Su`s WLP project team.

Having an ultra high melting point also makes silicon suitable for eutectic bonding, which is noted for a high melting point of minimum 280 C. "The gold-zinc alloy is used to affix LED chip to silicon lead frames. As epoxy glues used in most LED packages melt at 180 C, eutectic bonding is much better in thermal resistance and does not capture light in the package during high temperatures as epoxy," Huang notes. Eutectic bonding, Huang asserts, will also become a trend in high-power LED packaging, based on Cree`s use of such approach in its high-power LED packages.


"The difference is that Cree, as far as I understand, uses eutectic to bond LED chips on generic lead frames, not silicon frames. To prevent the high melting temperature from destroying the lead frame construction during the bonding process, Cree first bonds the chip on a heat-resistant board and then adheres the board to the lead frame," he says. Excellent thermal resistance also makes silicon superior to other lead-frame materials: enabling reflective layers to be grown on silicon lead frames in the burning-hot chemical vapor deposition chamber.


"The layer can reflect at least 5% more light from the chip relative to generic lead frames, thereby boosting efficacy of a lamp," Huang notes. AdvantageousCost efficiency and high reliability, the president stresses, make WLP advantageous. His study shows the cost of ceramic packaging is the highest whereas WLP is the cheapest, with PPA and LCP in the middle. "If a ceramic package costs US$0.25, a PPA would be around US$0.06, an LCP would be around US$0.08 and WLP would be around US$0.03," Su estimates, ascribing the lowest cost mostly to the maturity of the WLP in the chip-making industry.

TSMC 8-inch wafer silicon based high-power LED packaging technology (Courtesy of VisEra)


Focusing on LightingGenius Electronic Optical Co., Ltd. (GSEO) is Taiwan`s second biggest optical-lens maker. Founded in 1990, the company has provided lenses for use on consumer electronics, such as mobile-phone cameras and notebook computers. More recently it expanded into the LED lighting field. Company chairman T.C. Chen stresses that LED lights provide focal illumination and therefore require lenses to evenly diffuse the illumination.

"GSEO`s LED lights absolutely have the industry`s top quality given the company`s some 50 R&D engineers and its leading-edge lens technology," he boasts. The company`s LED-lighting operation has mostly focused on streetlights, which are rapidly converted to LED lamps with the aid of government energy-saving programs. "Government contracts under stimulus programs are boosting demand for LED streetlights in the recession.

have delivered 3,000 lights under government contracts," says an unnamed sales executive at the company. He adds that mainland China is currently the fastest-growing market for LED streetlights. The company is closely watching the mainland`s ambitious plan to install millions of LED streetlights as part of public-work projects in 21 major cities in the second half of this year. The company is promoting its second-generation lights, which are sleeker than its more boxy first-generation products. The G901 family of lights is composed of 90W, 130W, 180W and 260W lights, with 90W and 130W each delivering 5,000 and 7,500 lumens of luminous flux and the other two delivering 10,000 and 15,000 lumens, respectively.

The company`s G003 line is made up of 155W and 60W streetlights, giving off 9,300 lumens and 5,700 lumens, respectively. According to the sales executive, GSEO`s streetlights meet Taiwan`s CNS15233 standard for LED streetlights. "Tests have shown that our lights can withstand a wind force scale 17 and are qualified for the IP65," he says. The company makes its lights with chips from Cree. The lights have achieved efficacy of 100 lumens per watt this year, up from 80 lumens per watt in 2008. Its eight-meter lights rated at 100 watts give off same amount of illumination as 250-watt mercury lights. Recently, the company added washer lights and tunnel lights to its outdoor lighting line.

GSEO recently won a large contract from Philips for lens used on LED indoor lamps, a market that the company has initially tapped with a 25W light tube. The tube, specifically designed for office lighting, projects 205 lux of illumination to a distance of 1.5 meters and has a guaranteed lifespan of 30,000 hours. The tube is reportedly now available in Japan. GSEO also sells an LED zoom-lens flashlight. The light is fitted into an aluminum-alloy wafer-proof body and projects a 1.5-lux beam up to 100 meters away. The flashlight has a guaranteed lifespan warranty of 10,000 hours.

Wafer level lens molding technology : high productivity & good lens shape control (Courtesy of VisEra)

Impact on Taiwanese industryTaiwan is currently the world`s second largest supplier of LED lighting products by quantity, providing everything from epitaxy wafers and chips to packages and lighting modules. In each segment, manufacturers are tapping unique expertise to turn out niche products. One promising development in the industry is the use of silicon-based materials by LED lighting packagers, whose products are used in lighting modules. Silicon has an excellent heat resistance, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and transparency, making it well suited for lighting applications. Some packagers underscore the excellent color rendering achieved by their products by using a full chromatic spectrum of phosphor powders.

Others have expanded into the lighting-module design sector and are diversifying their product lines for different applications. Collaboration in new product promotion is also gaining traction among Taiwanese LED manufacturers, who realize they can get more bang for their buck by integrating resources rather than going it alone. MEMS PackagingHELIO Optoelectronics Corp. is an LED packaging startup founded in 2006 by a team of optoelectronics specialists who formerly worked at the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).

The company is working to integrate packaging with micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology, representing the fourth stage on the company`s technology-development roadmap. Company general manager Cater Chen notes that MEMS technology enables the packaging of single silicon-carrying control integrated circuits and a high-power LED chips, reducing packaging costs. Current LED packaging generally consists of a light emitter coupled with various external controllers, complicating the manufacturing process and increasing the size and cost of the emitting system. Chen was a former ITRI manger in charge of a wafer-level-packaging project.

The technology enables IC packagers to encase system-on-chip (SoC) components directly on silicon wafers. "Our R&D team is mostly composed of MEMS specialists," he says. Chen`s company is testing MEMS integration in cooperation with a big-name silicon-chip assembler on the island. "We`re planning to do the packaging on 200mm and 300mm silicon wafers and project to put out 2,000 3.4mm by 3.4mm packages on a wafer in our factory," he says. He estimates the company will begin volume production using the new packaging technology in one year.

So far, the company has tried lead-frame packaging, ceramic packaging and silicon packaging approaches, which mount LED chips on polymer-based substrate, ceramic substrate and silicon substrate, respectively. The first two approaches are used widely in the industry now, while silicon is gaining ground thanks to its advantages over other materials. For example, silicon melts at 1,000 centigrade, has a CTE below 4 ppm/C, and has a thermal conductivity (TC) in the range of 150-180 W/m.k. HELIO also uses silicone rubber to encapsulate LED chip as a lens, and it is one of the few LED packagers good at silicone molding injection.

According to Chen, the injection technology has considerably reduced the chance of lens bubbling and fissuring--a frequent problem when using conventional adhesive methods--enabling light to pass smoothly to the surface of the emitter. As to the future market for silicon-based packaging materials, Chen notes that, "Silicon will win out over other materials because of its excellent performance and low cost." The company has been focusing on high-power LED packages for lighting purposes since it was founded. Its product line includes 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-watt emitters for general lighting, auxiliary lighting and auto lighting.

Its 1W white emitters have an efficiency rating of 110 lumens per watt, and its 3W white emitters give off 180 lumens. The company sources chips from big-name suppliers, including BridgeLux of the United States, in which silicon foundry giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) holds stakes. Since its establishment, the company has won at least 42 patents, including a patent for AC LED packaging.

The company`s 40-person R&D team is formed by engineers with degrees in materials, mechanics, physics, optics, and biotech sciences. The company also has cooperated with elite schools in Taiwan, including National Sun Yat-sen University, National Central University, National University of Tainan and National Chiayi University on medical lighting and bio lighting. The company has also entered into alliance with end-product makers Coretronic Corp., and Foxsemicon Integrated Technology Inc., as well as LED chipmaker Optotech Corp. HELIO has sold its packages to over 300 lighting-module suppliers, making it one of the top three suppliers of high-power LED packages in Taiwan. The company now puts out 1.2 million emitters and 200,000 modules a month, delivering an equal half of its outputs each to indoor lighting suppliers and outdoor lighting suppliers.

Wafer level lens molding technology : high productivity & good lens shape control (Courtesy of VisEra)


LED AllianceEverlight and 18 other Taiwanese manufacturers across the LED industry have formed a camp aimed at prompting AC LED lighting products. Among the other 18 members are chipmaker Epistar Inc. and consumer-electronics manufacturer Forward Electronics Co., Ltd., packager Lustrous International Technology Ltd. and thermal-solution provider Liquidleds Lighting Corp. The alliance, which is backed by ITRI, has introduced at least 30 product applications, including desk lamps, floor lamps, bulbs, light tubes, lighting modules, and nightlights.

An alliance representative says: "AC LED is an ideal solution for stationary LED lighting products ranging from desk lamps to streetlights." According to James Chu, director of the Opto-Electronics Device and System Application Division (ODSAD) and leader of a project to develop AC LED technology, semiconductor devices have been designed to run on direct current electricity since day one, making them dependent on DC adapters plugged into household AC outlets.

"However, adaptor circuitry, as any other, has resistance and impedes around 30% of the current flow, compromising electrical efficiency. So the ideal design is to raise the current tolerance of LEDs so they can be directly powered by AC electricity," Chu says. Chu points out that the alliance is working on industrial standards as well as developing applications. "As soon as we set an industrial format for AC LED, we can be free of the restraints posed by DC LED patents," he says.

LED grouping is also supported by the Small and Medium Enterprises Administration (SMEA) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). One of the teams aims at promoting the intelligent LED thematic lighting system and LED dental lighting system developed by ITRI. Under contact by the SMEA, J.H. Chang, manager of ITRI`s Technology Center for Service Industries, has brought together around 13 Taiwan-based manufacturers from all segments of the LED-lighting industry to form an alliance for the development of intelligent thematic lighting systems, which change light intensity and colors with the aid of computer programs.

Chang hopes within four years to develop the technology to enable color and intensity changes via wireless remote. "After surveying this sector for two years, I saw an excellent niche market that calls for a team effort," says Chang. He notes that the small-volume, high diversity production model in Taiwan is an asset in this market, one that few other countries can match. The lack of industry standards is another plus as Taiwan producers position to succeed in the emerging market. "World-class players also don`t mind the rivalry for small-volume, big variety orders, which are simply too troublesome to fill," he adds.

LED lighting is also well suited for medical lighting systems, which require good color rendering, low shadowing, low temperatures and high luminosity. "Our medical lighting lessens shadows to only 45% to 60% at one meter compared to traditional lights, allowing doctors to see wounds more clearly. Also, such light emits no infrared light, minimizing heat-related problems during surgery. Good or natural color rendering allows doctors to better identify and examine pathogens," Chu says. The medical lighting system gives off 9,000 lumens and is 20% more power efficient than traditional types, Chu adds. Another major proponent of LED grouping is the government-backed China Productivity Center (CPC).


The organization has recently organized six local manufacturers scattering in printed-circuit board (PCB), drive IC, LED-lighting system and metal-product sectors, including Yuan Lung Co., Ltd., Davitek Corp. and Galaxy PCB Co., Ltd. According to Yuan Lung`s general manager, Goosen Su, the camp began forming a year ago and aims to promote indoor lights for the domestic market in the initial stage. "Indoor LED lighting techniques are already mature, posing a lower entry threshold to new entrants," he says. Su points out that industry grouping allows companies to integrate resources to achieve a shared aim. "Each member has its own profession, but without integration none can go any further in the LED lighting sector," Su stresses. The alliance will first develop lights for uses in offices and classrooms. "LED lamps are ideal for indoor applications due to their slim profile, good color rendering and energy saving merits," Su notes.

Source :Micron News , CENS

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

More PID Display will be launched in 2010

In 2010, new Public Information Display (PID) panels are expected to be launched. According to recent update made in Quarterly Panel Roadmap Report by Displaybank, each LCD panel makers are planning various PID-use only panels in next year.

PID market, followed from the existing TV/Monitor/NotePC market, is expected to undergo rapid growth and become new application area which gathers many makers attention that market is expanding by adding various additional functions as well as enlarging in size.

For most PID-use only panels from LCD panel makers had been added increased brightness, reliability and Portrait function onto normal TV panels but in 2010, each makers are planning to add various products with 3D, Triple Display, Mirror Display and LED-BLU.

So I can say that the Back lit unit business for LED is still growing supported by this PID Display.
Source :Displaybank
Feverip