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Mitsubishi Chemical Orders Aixtron MOCVD Tool For White HB-LEDs
LIGHTimes News Staff
September 10, 2009...Aixtron AG of Aachen, Germany reports that Mitsubishi Chemical ordered one AIX 2800G4 HT Planetary Reactor system in the third Quarter of 2009.
Aixtron says that the MOCVD tool will be delivered in the 42x2 inch wafer configuration, and will be used for the production of InGaN-based white UHB LEDs.
Mitsubishi Chemical says that it has made significant progress in mass producing phosphors for high brightness white LEDs. According to the company, the new system will help it transition from HB LED development to mass production.
Mitsubishi says that it will be manufacturing white HB LEDs for display backlighting and other applications combining the benefits of its new MOCVD tool with its phosphor capabilities.
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation recently merged with Kasei Optonix, Ltd. as part of its plan to strengthen the company's phosphor businesses for white LEDs and flat panel displays.
Aixtron News Release
Huga Optotech, Edison Opto Post Record Revenues for August
September 10, 2009...Huga Optotech, a Taiwan-based LED chip maker, and Edison Opto, an LED packaging company of Taiwan both reported record revenues for the month of August, according to a Digitimes article. Huga Optotech's revenues of NT$244.26 million (US$7.47 million) are up 10.73 percent compared to July 2009 and up 48.21 percent compared to August 2008. Despite the record for August, Huga Optotech reported revenues for January through August of 2009 were down 26.64 percent compared to the same period of 2008.
Huga noted that the combined revenues for July and August were equivalent to 76% of the total revenues for the first half of 2009.
Huga said it is gradually adjusting its product mix to improve its gross margin, and its high-brightness (HB) LED products now account for over 60% of its total revenues. The LED -backlit TV market is reportedly the driving force of the company's demand growth.
Edison Opto faired better for the first half of 2009, increasing revenues for January through August 35.05 percent compared to the first half of 2008. August revenues were up 100.34 percent compared to August of 2008. This was a 7.77 percent increase compared to July.
Edison pointed out that its high-power LED packaging has reached full capacity of four million units per month, one million of which are used to produce high-power LED module.
EU Ban on 100 W and Higher Incandescent Bulbs Goes Into Effect
SSLDesign News Staff
September 8, 2009...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. European Energy Commission News Release,
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Light-Based Technologies Receives National Research Council Funding
September 8, 2009...Light-Based Technologies (LBT) of Vancouver, Canada, reports that it has received a contribution from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP). The contribution is to fund a project
entitled, “Linear control of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in mixed-signal integrated circuit."
The company says its second-generation integrated circuits called LB4CM, will support the area of LED control. LBT says that it plans to bring its new technology, and core intellectual property to the solid state lighting industry in Canada with the help of the company's technical and marketing expertise will help in this.
“We have always wanted to work with NRC-IRAP, as they offer great support to small- and medium-sized businesses in our sector,” says Jeanette Jackson, Chief Executive Officer. “I am sure we will work with NRC-IRAP on many future projects as we continue to push the envelope in order to deliver the very best the world has seen in LED control technology.”
NRC-IRAP works with small- and medium-sized Canadian firms, providing expertise and advice as well as potential funding in developing their innovative ideas. Financial assistance for this project is a direct result of the Government of Canada’s Economic Action Plan outlined in Budget 2009. Light-Based Technology News Release
Plextronics and Novaled to Collaborate on Development of Organic Lighting Technology
LIGHTimes News Staff
September 8, 2009...Novaled AG, of Dresden, Germany, a leading company in OLEDs (organic light emitting diodes), and Plextronics, a company that specializes in organic inks for electronics, have agreed to jointly develop doped and solution processed organic materials for OLED applications. OLED technology is expected to become a major ingredient of flat displays and drive a new era lighting innovation with its flexible design and energy efficiency advantages.
The collaboration agreement specifies that the companies will combine their respective technologies to develop an advanced solution processible Hole Injection Layer (HIL) technology for OLEDs. The solution will reportedly leverage Plextronics' organic conductive ink technology and Novaled's organic dopant technology. Novaled News Release,
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Solid state lighting group launches, SSL Summit picking up speed
Tom Griffiths - Publisher
September 15, 2009...A new opportunity to communicate... Solid State Lighting Design has just launched a Linked-In group (this link, might get you there if you already have a Linked-in account, which is free, othewise search groups for "solid state lighting" and you'll spot our logo). Linked-In seems to be a solid tool of choice among a wide variety of professionals, and we're going to use it to assess the value of comments and interaction, as well as the work load it creates for our organization. We've tied in the RSS feeds that chunk up our current SSL Design news stories, which should be the basis of the comment threads. Having taken a look at a few other groups out there, it's easy to see the value diminshers, including unmoderated discussion topics which turn into advertisements for companies or services, some not even directly involved with the industry. The good news is that no one is anonymous on Linked-In, so offenders only embarrass themselves. The bad news is that no one is anonymous, so some of the more "gritty" thoughts we might otherwise get to see won't find their way into words. It's a start. Be sure to check it out.
And for a quick chuckle in about "groups", we came across one in the SSL industry that reminded us how exciting the industry is, in the sense that lots of people might be jumping in without yet having all the tools that it takes to really be "a lighting company". The description of the group sort of speaks for itself (direct cut and paste, misspellings and extra words as they appeared): The [name removed] group wants to hear from business professionals who offer some unique talent to the our firm. The market stienks and securing an opportunity that is geared towards helping the environment that is lucrative is rough. We are mover and shakers and are on a global mission to help rid the planet of mercury infested inneficient lighting. If you are connected and want to contribute, while earning some nice cake, then we look forward to hearing from you! I expect the author isn't the same one putting together their press releases, and we'll claim our share of occasional typos, but when the rubber meets the road there in the sales channel, are lighting decision makers seeing the consistent professionalism that they need to for LED lighting to be a credible industry?
SSL Design Summit is picking up momentum... You would be hard pressed to miss the banners we fly about, so be sure to give a click and check out the current topic agendas to see what's coming up in New York/New Jersey Nov 3-4 and then in Los Angeles Dec 1-2. The fact that there are both East and West coast versions should be a hint that we're regionalizing the conferences to better meet the lighting decision maker audiences where they live. We'd also like to recognize the now-full compliment of co-chairs for the 2009 series, which include Jeff Miller of Pivotal Lighting Design, Kathy Abernathy of Abernathy Lighting Design, Randy Sabedra of RS Lighting Design and now, Andy Powell of Lighting Design Alliance. (Anyone notice a pattern there? Hint: "lighting design"). Jeff and Kathy are, respectively, the President and President-Elect of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), while Randy and Andy are both past presidents of their respective sections of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES). All will be speaking, along with a number of their lighting design/engineer/architect colleagues, and one is currently even an LED skeptic, having been burned by some poor quality and service in a somewhat recent attempt to incorporate LED-based lighting in a project.
The Summit series is all about quality... Remember that when theory and reality collide, reality always wins. LED lighting offers the promise of incredible efficiency, capability and performance, but there can still be a bit of a gap here in the real world. Focus #1 will be to educate, inform and connect lighting decision makers with quality LED lighting companies and their thought processes, in order to equip them to make the best business decisions concerning the inclusion of solid state lighting in their projects. To that end, as we've always done for our speakers/topics, we'll also be vetting the reception evening showcase companies, and even our sponsors, to assure that products anyone sees live, hears about in a talk, or companies that are promoted, are pretty highly assured to perform as advertised. (We contend that if the big lighting trade show took this approach, only 20 or so booths there would be showing SSL products... wouldn't that make the lighting decision maker's job easier). Focus #2 will be on educating and informing luminaire manufacturers (great, good and other) with the real needs of lighting decision makers, as well as connecting them to quality enabling technology providers so they can better access the tools they need to implement quality products that serve the customer's needs. Simple enough. For direct conference links, you can visit the NY/NJ, LA or Taiwan sites.
Conferences - Good ones are still incredibly valuable, others aren't... Strictly as an illustration, an announcement for a non-LED or SSL industry conference crossed my desk recently, pronouncing how good things were going, and that if you hurry here at the last minute, you can "register one, bring one free". Seems to us you should get the same deal if you already registered, especially since you showed the commitment to register early, providing the organizer with oft-needed cashflow that is used to better promote an event. Makes you wonder if the commitment of the conference is at all to the industry, or merely to themselves. We always challenge those evaluating their yearly/quarterly conference plan to ask themselves a two-part question: "Does the conference deliver well thought out and organized content, and do they have 'skin in the game' in which their success is linked to helping the industry to succeed , or can they just bail out and do a conference in some other industry?" Two-for-one or other last minute discounts are a hint that the underlying value may not be there, and past attendees are not choosing to be attendees this time around. Exceptions exist of course, as can be the case if an industry consolidation occurs (simply fewer companies around) or if it turned out that something else created a calendar or attention conflict (been there, done that). If those exceptions aren't applicable, challenge your assumption of the value.
An often missed value component - the web... Shhhh, it's a secret: Advertising and sponsorships are about branding and messaging, not about "click throughs". Are TV and radio advertisers so ignorant that they've tossed away hundreds of billions in 30-second ads without a single click-through... or is it maybe really about branding, recognition and messaging? "Calls to action" happen separately, based on PR and news reports in an industry such as ours, especially news concerning a new product introduction or a substantial application/account win. Broadly speaking, what should you get from a Summit conference sponsorship?
1) Association with an event that demands quality from its high-visibility participants. It's a visible testimony to the industry that you are also a company that values substance and quality of performance over hype. (Brand-building by association, and proof that you "made the cut").
2) Branding exposure. While 150-250 people may attend the events, we typically see 50K-100K page views on the conference websites. Premium sponsors logo's and links appear on all of those pages, while smaller sponsors appear on many of them (at the bottom, but where there is still important content). Between all of the events, attendees will likely account for 3000 or less of the page views. The other 47,000-97,000 are still saturated with the branding, and each one helps solidify that quality-association connection. Not everyone gets that concept, but we find the most successful companies in the industry sure do.
And what if you are a luminaire manufacturer and don't (yet) qualify for a high visibility position? No sweat. There's a limited number of such positions, so it's not a ding against you in anyone's eyes, and we're not publicizing who didn't qualify. We just can't offer the implicit endorsement and exposure that comes with a high profile sponsorship. Your mission is to be there to hear from, and network with, the decision makers to really understand their needs, and to grasp the latest from the quality LED and other component suppliers, so you know the latest about the resources and expertise that you need to in order to position your product to qualify in the future.
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