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2005-05-30
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Editorial: Alan Thompson Reports on BLUE 2005
 
... Our Sr. Technology Editor and longtime industry veteran, Dr. Alan Thompson, not only helped organize BLUE 2005, he was there in Taiwan all week gathering the news and filed the following report. I want to publicly thank Alan, Bob Walker and his staff at YEBY Associates, and my partner,...
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For the latest news dedicated to LEDs in general lighting, tune to Solid State Lighting Design. Applications updates, the latest luminaires and wins, subsystems and componentry in support of lighting in and around the built environment, it's all there!


The 2010-2011 Summit Series is ready to succeed... are you?

After the successful 2008 launch and 2009/2010 expansion of Solid State Lighting Design's SSL Summit in New Jersey, the feedback remains consistent: Just what we needed, do it again soon. The Summit brings together lighting decision makers with industry thought leaders, pioneers, and innovators from the across the solid state lighting eco-system. Read the 2009 conference report...

Following our changes in 2009, 2010-2011 will continue to be all about quality, quality, quality. Showcase participants and sponsors are vetted to separate the wheat from the chaff (have your IES LM-79 test reports ready!). The 2010-2011 Summit includes NY/NJ in September and LA/Long Beach next January. Look into the series information at www.SSLsummit.com for the details. Sponsorships are available for the full series.


Fujikura Develops White LED
LIGHTimes Staff

May 30, 2005...A Japanese company other than Nichia has developed a white LED of their own with a new phosphor material. Fujikura Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan, a telecommunication and technology company, has collaborated with the National Institute for Materials Science to develop a new brighter, white LED that uses a special phosphor material, according to an article in Nikkei Business Daily. The new phosphor is a mixture of silicon, aluminum, oxygen, nitrogen. The device uses a blue LED coated with a resin containing the phosphor material. The company claims that the increased brightness is due to the improved efficiency of the phosphor material. Fujikura will begin shipping samples of the new LED before the end of the fiscal year.

Lighting Science Group Appoints CFO

May 30, 2005...In the first news we have heard from Lighting Science Group Corporation of Dallas, Texas in several months, the company announced the appointment of Mike Lavey as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), replacing Michael Poss. The company has promoted Michael Poss to executive vice president of the legal department. LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.


Lighting decision makers deserve quality answers, not hype...
  Join key NY-area lighting and sustainability decision makers at the SSL industry's quality-focused "insiders meet",
September 14-15 in New York City...

They are looking for the keys to quality in LED lighting, and you can not afford to miss it. Just one look at the special guests and NY Summit agenda, and you will know why you need to be there in September!

Building on the continuing success of this first-of-its-kind event, the 2010/2011 Summit series will again deliver the highest quality agenda and attendees in an unsurpassed networking environment. We have expanded the Summit to "take it to the facilities decision makers" in NY, and quality oriented suppliers need to be seen.
See what you need to be part of at www.SSLsummit.com

Cree's Japanese Distributor, Sumitomo Corporation Orders $200 Million of Cree's LED Products
LIGHTimes Staff

May 26, 2005...Cree, Inc. of Durham, North Carolina USA, announced that its Japanese distributor, Sumitomo Corporation's Electronic Materials & Equipment Division, (which is part of Sumitomo Corporation's Media, Electronics and Network Business Unit) has agreed to purchase $200 million of Cree's LED products during Cree's fiscal year ending June 2006. This record purchase agreement is up 25% from the previous year’s order, which at the time stood as Cree's historic high purchase order (Ref: May 18, 2004 coverage). The deal was added to the existing distributorship agreement, which extends through Cree's fiscal year ending June 2007. The agreement is subject to end-customer demand and other terms and conditions. LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.

StockerYale and its CEO Settle SEC Investigation
LIGHTimes Staff

May 25, 2005...StockerYale of Salem, New Hampshire USA, has reached a settlement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC). The settlement resolves the investigation into certain press releases and sales of stock by the StockerYale’s CEO in April of 2004. StockerYale, a designer and manufacturer of LEDs and photonics components, announced that the SEC has given final approval to the settlement which calls for fines to be paid on behalf of company CEO, Mark W. Blodgett. The investigation alleged that Mr. Blodgett failed to take adequate steps to ensure the accuracy of its press release information, and that certain of his stock transactions were questionable. LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.

Interested in general lighting, architectural applications or LED luminaire product news?

While you're in exactly the right place for the broader LED industry applications and supply chain news, general lighting products and applications have moved over Solid State Lighting Design. See what you've been missing today at www.SolidStateLightingDesign.com.

Holes Placed Periodically in Substrate Boost LED Efficiency
LIGHTimes Staff

May 27, 2005...A research team from Kyoto University and Japan Science and Technology Agency has developed a design that significantly boosts the efficiency of light emitting diodes according to a NikkeiNet Interactive article. The article sites research appearing in the May 27 edition of the journal Science which discusses how tiny holes every 390-480nm in the crystalline structure of a thin film InGaAsP substrate of LEDs can boost light emitting 300 to 400%. The article points out that only about 20% of the light manages to escape a typical LED, but the rest remains trapped within the substrate and dissipates. The periodic holes open up escape routes for the trapped light. The researchers have theorized that such structure might help make LEDs that are close to 100% efficient. Light emitting efficiency boosts with hole filled GaAs substrates were reported by researchers at UCLA in 1993.

Permlight Products Increases Brightness of Its Twiste'R Product; Targets Neon Applications

May 26, 2005...Permlight Products, headquartered in Tustin, California USA, has begun shipping large volumes of it new higher brightness White Twiste’R 752-WHT-B series channel letter illumination product. According to the company, the patented product boasts double the brightness and better lumen maintenance. Also, the company says that the new higher brightness product can rival neon for white reverse halo lit letters with 20-50% lower cost. LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.

ITC Throws Out Osram's Patent Infringement Claims Against Dominant
LIGHTimes Staff

May 24, 2005...The USA, International Trade Commission has thrown out Osram Opto GMBH’s patent infringement claims against the Malaysian manufacturer, Dominant Semiconductors. Osram GMBH of Regensburg, Germany filed the patent infringement suit in June 2004 that covered nine patents about phospher technology and electrical connection designs. LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.

Jed Dorsheimer Speaks of IP Issues in LED Industry at Blue 2005
Scott McMahan

May 24, 2005...Jed Dorsheimer, Sr. Research Analyst of the investment bank, Adams Harkness & Hill, spoke at our recent Blue 2005 event about IP issues in the LED market. According to Mr. Dorsheimer, intellectual property issues in the LED industry occur on a global playing field and therefore involve several international bodies such as USPTO, EPO, JPO, and the Taiwanese patent office. Mr. Dorsheimer said that more than 25% of patents filed in the US were from Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. While China is a major player in terms of manufacturing LEDs, Dorsheimer characterized the country as the ‘wild’ east with patent enforcement that is inconsistent with that of the other major world markets. LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.

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Commentary & Perspective...

Alan Thompson Reports on BLUE 2005

May 22, 2005...Our Sr. Technology Editor and longtime industry veteran, Dr. Alan Thompson, not only helped organize BLUE 2005, he was there in Taiwan all week gathering the news and filed the following report. I want to publicly thank Alan, Bob Walker and his staff at YEBY Associates, and my partner, Tom Griffiths, President and CEO of CompoundSemi Online. They all did a terrific job making this the best BLUE ever. The hard part will be topping themselves next year! We'll be reporting details of the meet over the next few weeks, but this overall report from Alan is a must read. ---Jo Ann McDonald

Just completed, BLUE 2005 was held in Hsinchu, Taiwan, May 16-18, 2005. This year’s theme, "LED Technologies Driving the Solid State Lighting Revolution" lived up to expectations by covering the world markets for HB-LEDs, reviewing various national solid state lighting programs and looking at emerging technologies and applications. Three of the talks addressed IP and financial market issues, a new and newsworthy topic this year.

The meeting was opened by co-chairs Dr Y.S.Liu of ITRI, Dr Robert Walker of YEBY Associates, and Dr Y.M Yu of KOPTI (standing in for Dr Tae-Il Kim who was unable to attend at the last minute). The lead speaker, one of four keynoters, was Dr Robert Steele of Strategies Unlimited, who gave his usual detailed and well documented account of the worldwide HB-LED marketplace. Key points were a slowing growth rate in revenues as the cell phone market matures, falling ASPs generally, and new markets opening but not quickly enough to keep CAGRs in the 30 to 40% range. The outlook remains upbeat however with solid state lighting promising some huge markets a few years out. Asif Anwar of Strategy Analytics focused his talk on short wavelength laser diodes. While the overall market is currently quite small and split among a variety of applications, he predicts rapid growth (CAGR of 97%) dominated by next generation DVD using violet (405 nm) GaN based devices.

The analyst talks were followed by detailed country reviews for Taiwan, Korea, Japan and China. Taiwan continues to grow its dominant market share, while Korea and China both show strong improvement. All have national programs with similar broad goals of enabling general solid state lighting over the next decade. Especially exciting was the appearance of China's Wu Ling, General Secretary of the China SSL Alliance, because it was her first trip to Taiwan from Beijing.

George Mueller, Founding Chairman and CEO of Color Kinetics, gave the second keynote with an inspiring look at both his company and his view of the future of lighting. They have concentrated on the upper part of the lighting pyramid (high value, niche volume), starting with color. He reported that LED based systems have now become accepted as the best performers in this segment, and gave numerous examples. They are now addressing the similar markets for white. The achievement of 100 lm/W efficiencies, already shown in R&D, will make white LED systems very attractive to designers and result in much broader adoption. He sees this happening in the 2007-9 time frame. He gave the audience his list of 7 "must have" properties if they are to successfully address this market.

Dr Volker Haerle (Osram Opto Semiconductors) addressed the newer markets opening up for HB-LEDs, most of which need high power, from a producer’s perspective. The largest are automobile exterior lighting, including headlamps, LCD backlighting and projection systems. Brent York (TIR Systems) concentrated on the architectural and lighting applications from a system manufacturer’s viewpoint, and also detailed the new Lexel technology, which was recently disclosed in these pages. The latter takes a big step toward a self contained "standard" subsystem that can be used by luminaire manufacturers who then don’t need detailed knowledge of LEDs but can still design and build products that will perform predictably and reliably. Dr H.S.Chung of Dongbu Anam Semiconductor gave a comprehensive survey of applications being addressed by Korean companies in particular, with LCD backlighting showing strong growth.

The audience was particularly excited to hear from another keynoter, Ms Patricia Martone, of the Fish and Neave IP group of the law firm Ropes and Gray. It is difficult to get a lawyer to discuss the topic of IP openly, so Patricia’s presentation was unusual and informative. She talked about litigation in the semiconductor industry in general and then zeroed in on the LED arena, talking about the pros and cons of patents, cross-licensing and litigation. Everyone in the room had an interest in these issues and we appreciated her openness. Talks by Hans Mosesmann of Moors and Cabot and Jed Dorsheimer of Adams Harkness and Hill, addressed industry and IP issues from the investment and financial analysts’ perspectives. They brought up many issues and enlightened the attendees, most of whom were from LED producing and consuming companies. Our news and editorial people will be reviewing these IP-related talks in more detail in the coming weeks in these pages.

The conference closed with several talks covering the technology and applications of high power and white LEDs, including epi materials, phosphors, and packaging. These reinforced earlier speakers’ predictions of a growing number of applications for higher power devices, particularly white, and the huge promise of solid state lighting coming closer each year, fueled by advances in performance and cost. Two companies, Intematix and Phosphor Tech, introduced new phosphors, offering a path for newer device manufacturers to avoid cross-licensing or litigation problems with more established players. Developments such as these can only help expand the field and help grow markets

For those who attended BLUE 2005, it was a wonderful opportunity to hear industry leaders talk about markets and technology and to network with the movers and shakers. All the speakers, sponsors and exhibitors deserve our thanks for helping make this year's event be even more successful than BLUE 2004. If you couldn’t make it this year, be sure to start making plans to be in Hsinchu next May for BLUE 2006!

Alan Thompson, Senior Technology Editor

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