Decorative super mini LED luminaire no bigger than a ball pen attracted the attention of many passer bys at Lighting Japan 2014 at Tokyo Big Sight. Founder of Kadoya Studio Rumi Fukumoto speaks about her miniature LED lighting design IEJI at Lighting Japan 2014.

High power LED package manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Lighting Corp. (TSLC) has just completed its new factory opening ceremony on Dec. 30, 2013. TSLC has inherited wafer level packaging LED silicon substrate and Aluminum Nitrade (AIN) package technology from high-power LED package manufacturer VisEra Technologies Company. The technology gives LED package components strong characteristics of narrow beam and heat dissipation. 

LED technology has made great leaps in 2013. As LED prices continue to fall, large LED manufacturers are focusing on packaging process and material to develop low cost technologies. “Package free technology” has no doubt become the most important technological breakthrough this year that has surprised the industry. Unistars has been using advanced wafer package technology, Chip Scale Package (CSP). The company has released its new CSP series product Mercury 1515 series, and is the first Taiwanese LED packager to mass produce CSP products.

People automatically associate a yellow-orange halo glowing in the dark to warmth and romance. This is the appearance of incandescent light bulbs. Though beautiful, their harmful effect on the environment leaves countries deeply concerned. The EU in September 2012 even stopped incandescent light bulbs imports into Europe.

Roger Chu, Research Director of LEDinside, a LED research subsidiary of TrendForce, interviewed two Close2Markets LED lighting executives Ulrich Kastner-Jung and Peter Spiel recently. Kastner-Jung and Spiel have pioneered LED Lighting, successfully initiated and managed LED lighting business for more than 10 years. They are well renowned experts for western lighting markets and see a huge opportunity for Asian Solid-State Lighting (SSL) players to expand. 

George Craford, the father of AlInGaP and Solid State Lighting Fellow of Philips Lumileds talks about the technology’s future application and trends in an exclusive interview with LEDinside. Craford outlines future applications for AlInGaP to include architecture, automotive, EVL, and entertainment. Philips Lumileds former CTO also talks about smart lighting trends, and the company's color changing Hue bulbs.

Nytex Composite Products Co. has launched thermoplastics to be used for heat sinks. Compared with traditional aluminum heat sinks, the use of thermoplastics will reduce manufacturing costs by 20-30 percent.

Observations of the 2013 Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition showed the LED lighting industry is maturing; exhibitors have comprehensive product lines, improved creativity, and big companies are becoming even bigger, said Lextar Electronics Chairman David Su in an interview in June. Lextar will continue to organize its product line and operation structure as the lighting market grows and the backlight market eases. According to Su, vertical integration is becoming a trend in the LED industry with more diverse integration methods. The aim of Lextar’s vertical integration is to establish a product pyramid structure with large end-product revenues. 

Qisda, one of the few Taiwanese contemporary designer lighting manufacturers, is known internationally for its industrial design. The company emerged as the top global luminaire designer at the 2010 iF Design Award China, winning four awards with its QisDesign brand LED lamps. QisDesign was also a big winner at the 2010 Red Dot Awards, nabbing the grand prize and clinching the most number of awards in Asia. In the following year, the company’s Coral Reef LED lamp was bestowed with the Best of the Best Award at the 2010 Red Dot Award. Qisda’s senior manager Jiung-Cheng Pan talks to LEDinside on the company’s marketing strategy in the European market.

Energy saving has topped governments’ agendas as global environmental issues escalate. If Taiwan and China replaced traditional lamps with LEDs, the amount of energy Taiwan could save would be equivalent to the annual electricity generated by its three nuclear power plants, while China could save 850 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually (equivalent to Taiwan’s 4-year electricity consumption), said Everlight CEO Mr. Robert Yeh. The LED replacement could solve energy shortage issues and is a smart energy saving investment with “low costs and big benefits,” said the CEO.

A pioneer in LED R&D, chip manufacturer Philips Lumileds is now extending its presence in sectors that have recently entered the LED chip market lime light—the mid-power multi-chip package and mid-power LED chip market. Having achieved success in high-power LEDs, the company hopes entry into these sectors can make their lighting and commercial lighting product lines more comprehensive. LEDinside was honored to interview Lumileds CEO Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre about the company’s technological developments and future market strategy. The company’s experience in LED market and technology can enlighten the LED industry.

The net sales of Edison, a Taiwanese LED packaging manufacturer, in June has set a record high over the past three years because the net sales of its investee company, Lumenmax, has officially been recognized in June, 2013 and more orders have come from Chinese lighting. In addition, Edison’s capital expenditure in 2013 reached NTD450 million in order to build the capacity for PLCC packaging components, high-efficiency packaging components, and COB components.

In 2013 with the promotion of the LED lighting market, there was a large increase in demand for the LED wafer market. Despite this, the question over domestic overcapacity still remains. Currently, Taiwan production mainly centers on mid-to-low range LED wafers, relying heavily on imports for high performance wafers. So there is still a bit of difficulty in entering into the lighting application field. Facing opportunities and competition in the lighting market, what development strategy will wafer manufacturers use to break into the market? LEDinside was fortunate to get an interview with Taiwan GENESIS Photonics’s general manager Chen Zhengquan to share with us the company’s future strategy. 

Global lighting tycoon OSRAM made a name for itself with outstanding lighting products which have been featured globally at well known locations such as the Shanghai 2010 expo, the Beijing National Stadium, and Guangzhou International Finance Center. The role that OSRAM will play in the development of the LED industry in China is a hot topic. In an interview with LEDinside, OSRAM CEO Ai Xiaoming gave her/his opinion on the matter. Fully Devoted to the Lighting Industry   OSRAM is the world’s only company that is completely focuse...

Leotek Electronics Co. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lite-on Technology Group with over two decades of history in LED Street light and traffic light products development experience in Taiwan. While 2012, Leotek becomes a leading brand in a highly competitive market with world’s famous lighting companies in North America. 

A pioneer of LED lighting, Tons has been investing in LED lighting product and producing high-efficiency lighting products including LED spotlights, track lights, wall lights, cabinet lights, and downlights since 2004. Lighting products based on LED light source are currently one of their fastest growing product lines. By interviewing Tons’ Chairman Mr. Tom Tang, LEDinside had the opportunity to further understand the current development and outlook of the commercial lighting market.

  SemiLEDs is a LED chip maker, possessing UV LED chip and systems, also producing lighting class LED. LEDinside had the opportunity to interview Ilkan Cokgor, Ph.D., Executive VP of Sales and Marketing SemiLEDs, in order to understand SemiLEDs's LED lighting and UV LED development. Development status of SemiLEDs's UV LED system integration Although many UV LED applications are currently available on the market, most--for instance, curing technology--tend to be used in industrial settings. The relatively low UV LED adoption rate is generally attributable to the system integration problems that are encountered by manufacturers within the industry.

Brilliant Light Technology is a high-tech sino-foreign equity joint venture. Their major business include the production of MOCVDs—the core equipment in the present LED industry. During the interview with LEDinside, founder and also the Chief of Brilliant Light Steve Perry talked about the development of MOCVDs and the future prospects of the LED industry.

Sharp is Japan’s LED vertical integrated firm，from LED wafer, package, to luminaires. As for lighting market development, Sharp starts from LED lighting, rather than conventional lighting field. In regard to LED lighting development, what kind of plan and opinion does Sharp have? How will they find the company’s position and quickly realize lighting market development? LEDinside had the opportunity to interview Uemura-san in order to understand Sharp LED lighting history.   Sharp Showcased Zenigata-shaped COB Package, Being Easy Fo...

A famous Japanese lighting manufacturer, Toshiba has continued to put great effort in the development of the lighting industry since they sold their first incandescent light bulb in 1890. In the initial stages of LED lighting development, Toshiba designed a series of LED lighting replacement projects for the Louvre, and also announced that they will no longer produce incandescent lights starting from 2010. Over the years, Toshiba has continued to eliminate inefficient lighting sources and has been dedicated to energy saving and LED lighting. What are their plans for future ...

The impact of the European debt crisis has affected LED market demands and resulted in a short-term oversupply; the rapid production of China’s LED chips has put product price in not only a sharp decline but also a possible further decrease. The LED market shifted tremendously in 2012; many LED chip manufacturers faced cash flow issues and deficit, and industries started to steadily integrate. A minority of Chinese industries have introduced new technologies, new products, or new methods in order to seize the market. Mr. Liang Xudong, the chairman of EpiTop Optoelectronic Co., Ltd.-- one of the upstream manufacturers of semiconductor lighting that gained profit in 2012-- was interviewed by LEDinside on issues regarding the LED market and industrial innovation.

Thanks to the joint efforts among fellow vendors over cost structure improvement, technology advancement and quality enhancement, the global LED industry has indeed undergone a structural change that marks a big leap as compare with the industry couple years ago. While technology innovations bring prosperity, irrational price competition amid intensifying competition among vendors also drags margins further down. Customers’ content over a pricing sweet spot is indeed built on the stiff margin pressure among fellow LED vendors. Some have already found no profit by taking ch...

Any electrical appliances are required to obtain a mandatory conformity mark that prove that they are certified by national- or industry-accredited bodies. LED luminaries and LED backlight application are no exemption from this industry norm. The US-based Light Laboratory, Inc (LLI) – a photometric testing laboratory that specializes in testing luminaries thus outstands itself. LEDinside has the opportunity to meet up with LLI company CEO Jason Gee during the recent Lighting Korea about his views over company competitive grounds plus LLI’s profes...

CREE is a LED integral manufacturer for LED chip, packaging, and LED lighting solution. Initiated itself from global strategic perspective, CREE has, in sequence, established chip and packaging plant in China. As a global and well-noted LED manufacturer, CREE has always adhered to the facilitation of LED light revolution, the promotion of green energy-conservation and environmental-friendly LED lighting, and elimination of low-efficiency lighting source. In such a way, what are the planning and viewpoint of CREE in light of future technology and product ...

LEDinside conducted an interview with Mr. Louis Lam, President & CEO of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors Asia Ltd, who shed light on the role OSRAM plays in the global LED, solid-state lighting and LED lighting industries and OSRAM’s strategy regarding the Asian and Chinese markets. Quality and R&D is the Key to Making Inroads into Global SSL Market In regard to OSRAM-OS’s new Wuxi plant, a lot of people in the industry are curious about the Wuxi plant’s role (packaging, assembly, and applications) and the c...

Germany’s AZZURO Pushing GaN-on-Si LED Wafer to Cut Manufacturing Time and Cost Germany’s AZZURRO, founded in 2003, focuses on supplying power semiconductor device and LED manufacturers with wafers. AZZURRO owns patents in GaN-on-Si technology. The company’s way is to grow a buffer layer based on GaN material on Si substrate, and then grow a GaN film on the wafer according to different needs of LED and power semiconductor device application. The company noted that currently it can make GaN-on-Si wafer on a 6-inch (150mm) Si substrate, aiming to push it to 8-inch (200mm). LEDinside believes this new manufacturing process will help the migration from the existing LED manufacturing process to silicon substrate manufacturing process. This is LEDinside’s pleasure to have a chance to interview Mr. Erwin Ysewijn, VP Sales & Marketing of AZZURRO to share AZZURRO’s technology and experience. 

Despite the stagnant outlook for the global LED market, CiviLight’s oversea orders see a sharp surge in 2012 – the company’s oversea LED light bulbs orders exceeded 1 million units for July alone. Recently, LEDinside conducted an interview with Mr. Irving Pan, Director of Corporate Strategy and Global Markets Development of CiviLight, in which he shed light on the company’s experiences in the LED indoor lighting market and shared his opinions on the current LED market development. Mr. Irving Pun, Director of Corporate Strategy...

Excellence Optoelectronics Inc (EOI) is one of the major manufacturers of LED traffic signals and LED street lights. EOI has a vertically integrated LED supply chain, consisting of upstream epitaxy company High Power Opto and midtream packaging, module and downstream lighting fixtures maker EOI. Aside from traffic signals and street lights, the company also holds the key technologies and clients in the automotive lighting market. LEDinside conducted an interview with Mrs. Fanny Huang, President of EOI, who shed light on LED automotive lighting, traffic s...

SemiLEDS is a world’s leading LED chip maker, possessing many LED-related patents and technologies. Recently, LEDinside conducted an interview with Dr. Chuong Anh Tran, President, Chief Operating Officer & Director at SemiLEDs Corp, who shed light on SemiLEDS’ recent LED technological breakthroughs and the company’s latest endeavor on UV LED chips.   LED Lighting to See Upswing in 2H12 and 2013 Chuong stated, SemiLEDS has expanded the capacities of its Taiwan and China production lines, whic...

Over recent years, due to the promising future of green lighting, an increasing number of enterprises have entered the emerging industry of LED lighting and joined its fierce competition. In the LED jungle, how to give full play to the advantage and achieve success in the tough competition is a challenge posed to all players. For this reason, LEDinside interviewed Mr. Meng Guo, the Operation Director of Good Creative Technology (GCT)to invite him to talk about the development of the company and share its experiences.         Mr.M...