During the past few years, there was an expectation in the industry for LED to replace all traditional lighting; therefore the projection of the market size was huge. For example, there are 800,000 units of mercury vapor street lamps in Taiwan that needed to be replaced. Taking into account the high pressure sodium lamps, more than 1.5million lamps have yet to be replaced, in Taiwan alone.

Compared with 2009, the LED lighting market has become more and more heated. Like the gleam of the morning's first beam, the global LED lighting promotion began in 2010, especially in developed countries like Japan and Europe where demand of LED lighting products surged rapidly. LEDinside has conducted an exclusive interview with Ben Fan, President of Neo-Neon Holdings Ltd.

To gain more in-depth understanding on the development of MOCVD equipment in the global LED market, as well as changes that the LED industry will face in the future, LEDinside recently interviewed Jim Jenson, Veeco's Vice President, in Shanghai, China. According to Jenson, lowering LED prices to stimulate market demand is the sure path to explosive growth in the LED market. One direct way to lower production costs is through upgrading the MOCVD equipment and technology.

To learn more about Cree’s plan in the China market, LEDinside has recently visited Guoqing Tang, Cree’s General Manager of Business Development in China. During our interview, Tang emphasized that Cree pays great attention to the local China market and that “Cree chips for China” will be an important localization goal in 2010.

As the market penetration rate of LED-backlit LCD TVs gradually picks up, LED makers from Japan, Korea, Europe, Taiwan, and China are implementing their strategies in LED chips and LED package modules for LCD TV backlights. As for TV vendors, Korea’s Samsung and LG are very optimistic about the outlook for the LED market. Their projections of LED penetration in TV backlighting reflect high LED consumption. Furthermore, these two companies have their own LED chip and package capacities, and they outsource the unmet portion to Taiwan manufacturers.

China Solid State Lighting Alliance has played an important part in the development of China’s LED industry. Yet, many are unfamiliar with the organization’s primary responsibilities and its role in the development of China's LED industry. LEDinside has conducted a special interview with Dr Jun Ruan, Deputy Secretary General of China Solid State Lighting Alliance to learn about the positioning of the organization and its actions in China’s LED industry, as well as the progress of the establishment of LED standards in China.

As the competition in the LED backlit TV market intensifies, Korean TV giant LG Electronics has introduced two LED backlight products with different types of backlight modules, namely, direct type and edge type; both ran out of stock soon after the launch. LEDinside has recently paid a special visit to Alex Chen, Product Assistant Manager of LG Electronics Taiwan, to discuss the features of LG’s LED-backlit LCD TVs and the development of the market.

Backlighting and general illumination are two major application fields of LEDs, with the former already adopted by the global leading providers of relevant products, while the latter holds significant business potential, though its development has not reached maturity. LEDinside recently interviewed James Liang, CEO of the lighting specialist, Aeon Lighting Tech (ALT), and invited him to analyze the possible development of the LED lighting market in 2010, based on his expertise in High Power LEDs.

The launch of 8” wafer level silicon-based LED package technology by VisEra Technologies Company is regarded industry wide as the latest breakthrough of high power LED package. Apart from innovative technologies, VisEra also stands at the center of attention due to TSMC’s sub-investment therein.

Widespread application of LED backlight in LCDs has led to a short supply of upstream chips in 2009. As a result, chipmakers are actively expanding production capacity and making large-scale equipment purchases, witnessing industry-wide prosperity.

Apart from lighting, LED backlight unit (BLU) applications are another driving force for the growth of LED market. The adoption of LED backlighting in medium and large-sized LCD panels has become more promising since Samsung first introduced the term “LED TV.”

Samsung LED TVs have taken the world by storm. To keep up with their sales, Samsung is now aggressively increasing its procurement of LED backlit panels. According to survey, Samsung’s LED panels currently account for around 60% of the global output of such panels. Its efforts in LED TV field has significantly attributed to the promotion of LED back-lit TVs to be tomorrow’s market mainstream and also pushing the LED industry forward.

Interview with Dr. Christian Geng, Vice President Greater China, General Manager AIXTRON Taiwan and Mr Bernd Wachtendorf, Director of Operations: Encouraged by lower sapphire substrate price, the 4 inch MOCVD equipment is expected to become mainstream next year.

 

Interview with Bernd Kammerer — EVERLIGHT’s General Manager of Sales and Marketing Business Group：LED Lighting and LED Backlight Will Be the Strongest Driving Force of EVERLIGHT’s Development in 2009

LEDinside has recently visited Dr. Li-Chang Yang, Chairman of Taiwan’s LED  IC manufacturer Macroblock Tech, to get some knowledge about the current situation on the global LED display (LED advertising screen) market, and the future developing direction of the company.  

LEDinside has recently interviewed Tung Guoqing, Cree Inc.’s general manager of Business Development in China, also authorized representative of Shanghai photoelectricity industry association and director of Chinese semiconductor lighting committee. Either on behalf of the lighting committee, or as Cree’s representative in China, manager Tang has shared with us the most valuable insights in the illumination industry and LED market in China.  

LEDinside has recently visited Huang Kouhsin, former president of United Epitaxy Company and current president of Excellence Opto and High Power Opto, and Huang Fang-Yue, wife of president Huang and also the general manager of Excellence Opto, to get some knowledge about the current situation and future development of Excellence Opto group.

Recently, LEDinside paid a visit to Ecomaa (Taiwan), a new company whose brand wasn’t heard ever. We’re interested in their technology integration and their cooler LED bulbs.  

Recently, LEDinside paid a visit to UPEC, a Taiwanese LED packaging manufacturer. Our analysts interviewed Mr. David Lee (LEE Shao Tang), the general manager of UPEC, to get a view of UPEC's current state of operation and it's outlook for 2009. Mr. Lee is very experienced, as he previously worked for IBM, Oracle Taiwan, Dopod China, and HTC. He was once the president of Dopod China and the vice president of HTC for the Asia-pacific region. We were very curious about the reason why Mr.

ENE TECHNOLOGY, the NB Keyboard Controller (KBC) provider, starts to focus on LED Driver IC. Recently, ENE is promoting its latest LED product claimed to be the fastest amongst its middle-end competitors. In order to gain more insights of the company, its strategies and products, LEDinside interviewed Jeff Cheng, the product manager of ENE TECHNOLOGY. The leading firm of KBC

The global LED market is taking off in 2008 and is expected to become a full-blown one by the year 2010, according HP Lighting, a major LED manufacturer in Taiwan. HP Lighting’s insight is shared by LEDinside, which has predicted that as LED makers in Taiwan and Japan keep raising production, LED prices are bound to fall further before 2009. Lower prices will eventually lead to higher LED penetration among households, said the LED industry research group.

Neo-Neon is a traditional lighting and decorative lighting company with a three-decade long history in the lighting industry. It houses an approximate of 4,700 customers worldwide with presence extended to LED sector for 6-7 years. Neo-Neon currently produces about 600-700mn light bulbs per month with one-fifth of them as LED-powered. It also performs OEM production for leading brands.

LEDinside recently conducted an in-depth interview with Liquidleds Lighting Corp (Liquidleds) CEO, Mr. Kun-Yuan Chiang (Chiang), in relation to the industry of LED.