AIXTRON SE announced that China’s Peking University is adding to its AIXTRON equipment base with an order for a further Close Coupled Showerhead (CCS) reactor with capacity for three 2-inch (3x2”) substrates in a single run. The order was made in the second quarter of 2012 with delivery scheduled for the first quarter of 2013.   One of the researchers who will be using the AIXTRON system is Professor Shen Bo. He says: “We already have an AIXTRON CCS system in use, and we are very satisfied with it. We now needed ...

Turkey hopes to save millions of Turkish Liras and kilowatts of energy with an ambitious LED street light conversion project that has whet the appetite of sector players, including its leader, General Electric. The project to replace Turkey’s seven million street lights with LED-illuminated ones emerged last June with the remarks of Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız. The project would be an important attempt to cure Turkey’s distressing current deficit, which is majorly sourced by energy import dependency, by being more sustainable. In order to co...

Rubicon has been granted its "Asymmetrical Wafer Configurations and Method for Creating the Same,” U.S. Patent No. 8,389,099 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The patent covers the creation of visual and tactile indicators to make sapphire wafers asymmetric according to their crystalline orientation. Sapphire wafers have a specific orientation that is invisible to the naked eye. Rubicon has developed a simple and elegant process to make wafers appear asymmetrical via visual or tactile inspection. This is important as LE...

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI) introduces Lithonia Lighting® D-Series Area LED luminaires integrated with Sensor Switch® motion sensors. The D-Series Area Size 1 and Size 2 LED luminaires utilize motion sensors to increase energy savings in outdoor applications, saving approximately 80 percent in energy than comparable fixed output metal halide fixtures.  Ideal for 15-to 30-foot mounting heights, the luminaire-mounted motion sensor provides a 15-to 20-foot coverage radius and a 300-degree coverage pattern. Innovative presets gradually dim the LED luminaire to a pre-set “low” level......

CEA-Leti spin off Aledia, has made its first GaN LEDs on 8 inch (200mm) silicon wafers. The cost of Aledia’s LED 3D chips based on microwires is expected to be four times less than traditional planar (2D) LEDs. What's more, Aledia has announced its first-round financing totalling €10 million (approximately $13 million) with US and European investors, which was closed in 2012. Aledia solves the important cost issue in the very large and growing LED market. The continued integration of LEDs into new applications, such as general lighting...

Cooper Lighting has joined the Green Parking Council (GPC) as a platinum-level partner. Working together with the GPC and members, Cooper Lighting will collaborate to develop, implement and accelerate sustainable programs, technologies and standards. In addition, Cooper will assist to educate parking professionals on energy-efficient LED technologies to help transform their facilities into sustainable and environmentally responsible assets. These conversions and new installations can result in energy and maintenance savings of up to 80 percent over traditional HID s...

Embargoed until 00.01AM on Thursday 28TH March 2013 Greater Manchester-based LED lighting manufacturer MHA Lighting aims to double turnover by the end of the year following a £750,000 investment from The North West Fund for Energy & Environmental, managed by CT Investment Partners, as part of a £1.5million funding round along with venture capital firm Harwell Capital. The company, which is based in Atherton, is an award-winning manufacturer of LED lighting solutions thatprovide unrivalled energy-savings for both internal and external ligh...

For the eighth straight year – a longer run than any other lighting manufacturer – GE Lighting has been recognized with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year - Sustained Excellence Award . This award acknowledges outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through energy efficiency. GE Lighting’s Steve Briggs, global product general manager, accepted the award Tuesday at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. “Energy efficiency is what drives our innovation and development at G...

The Taiwan International Lighting Show 2013 took place at the Taipei World Trade Center on March 26, 2013, gathering most of the Taiwanese LED manufacturers as well as experts and scholars in the LED field. Numerous excited exhibitors implied the importance of this annual event, and a variety of innovative lighting products also suggested a maturing LED industry.  The lighting products displayed at the exposition can be divided into three categories: power drivers, dimmers, and light bulbs. Almost all of the products, however, were highly efficient and innovative. TESS, for example, introduced a series of disposable light bulbs as well as innovative modularized power engines that could be applied to different light sources. They emphasized that with the combination of high efficiency power engines and energy-saving light bulbs,......

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has gotten involved in a patent infringement with Boston University in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.   Boston University alleges that Samsung “regularly and deliberately” infringed upon the BU-owned patents, Patent Nos. 5,686,738 and 6,953,703. The complaint alleges that the infringement occurred when it imported and sold LED devices that were manufactured by preparing highly insulating monocrystalline gallium nitride single crystal films in a molecular beam growth chamber. The complaint also...

Recently, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has just announced the winners of the fifth annual Next Generation Luminaires™ (NGL) 2012 Outdoor Lighting Competition. The competition includes 120 outdoor lighting entries from 42 manufacturers based on lighting quality, appearance, construction, serviceability, efficacy and value.   The judging sessions was conducted by a group of judging panels last November 5-6, 2012, and the awards event took place during the 2013 Strategies in Light Conference on February 14, 2013 in Santa Clara, CA.  This ...

Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE) extends the XLamp® CXA family of integrated LED arrays with the new higher-light-output CXA2540 and CXA3050 LEDs. Optimized to simplify designs and lower system cost, the new CXA LEDs deliver 5,000 to over 10,000 lumens, enabling new applications such as high-output track lights and downlights, outdoor area lighting and high-bay lighting. The new Cree® CXA3050 LED is now the brightest member of the CXA family and can enable LED replacements for up to 100-watt ceramic metal halide in spot lighting or up to 175 w...

White feel-good light on the move The new generation of the Mini Topled and Topled classics from Osram Opto Semiconductors produce light of a particularly high quality. The successful standard packages have been retained but now contain LEDs in a new brightness class with pleasant white light that is ideal for the interior illumination of buses, trains, aircraft and cars. And then there are properties such as durability, resistance to electrostatic discharge (ESD), improved corrosion stability and certification to automotive industry standard AEC Q101. The new gene...

Innovative Products Feature at Electronics, ICT and Lighting Fairs Over 4,200 Exhibitors Expected at April Events   Three April fairs will showcase the latest products and marketing trends in lighting, electronics, and information and communications technology, beginning next week, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC).   Lighting the Way The fifth edition of the HKTDC Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Spring Edition) opens next Saturday (6 April) and continues through 9 April.   The four-day event ...

Luxury sustainable kitchen and bath mainstay, Native Trails, furthers its commitment to the environment and to supporting talented American artisans by launching a series of expertly crafted, eco-friendly, ‘Made in America’ furnishings, the Americana Collection. Inspired by early American design, the collection of bath vanities, storage and mirrors validates the brand’s ability to create varied, well made sustainable pieces that bring a refined, relaxed look as well as practical storage to the bath – or indeed to any living space – all while reflecting...

Philadelphia-area company takes business overseas with new hire and special patents   Independence LED Lighting, LLC today announced it has hired Benjamin Stammen as Director of International Business Development as part of a new push to reach international markets for its energy-saving LED tubes.   Stammen has more than 17 years of experience in the lighting industry. He worked for five years in Belgium and 12 years as managing director in Hungary for the category-leading European company Massive Lighting, where he developed and led a factory with more...

Effective 27 February 2013, Optronik Berlin GmbH was merged with the parent company Instrument Systems GmbH. Since 2010, Optronik and Instrument Systems have been working closely together on joint product developments and production operations. This cooperation is now going to continue under one roof following the merger of the two companies.  The Optronik location in Berlin will be retained with all the employees working as a team of experts specializing in goniophotometry and for equipping turnkey photometric laboratories. ......

Acuity Brands has launched four new post top LED luminaires from Antique Street Lamps® that combine modern LED light sources with a traditional appearance. The RG LED Series, AL25 LED, LTL30 LED and ATL23 LED post top luminaires provide energy savings and visually appealing outdoor LED lighting. All four LED post tops feature long-life LED technology to minimize maintenance time and costs. They are ideal for applications such as city streets and parking lots, parks, residential areas, campuses, and walkways.

Taiwanese manufacturers that set significant booths at Lighting Japan 2013 including Everlight, OPTOTECH, Genesis Photonics Inc., and Ledlink Optics, as well as exhibitors of the Taiwanese pavilion have all acquired numerous orders at this exposition.  Genesis Photonics Inc. announced that they have acquired an order of 100,000 of their patent candle light bulbs. LED chips produced by the company are applied to these bulbs that share several features of incandescent light bulbs, and mass production is expected to take place in the second half of 2013.......

According to market intelligence organization TrendForce’s LEDinside division’s newest LED bulb retail findings, the retail prices of LED bulbs all over the world have a downward trend this year for February. Worldwide 40W replacement LED bulb average retail price dropped by 8.2%, reaching 17.8 USD. This is due to the relatively low prices in the newly added Chinese and Taiwanese regions. Worldwide 60W replacement LED bulb average price in certain areas had a clear drop of 13%, reaching 25.7 USD. Aside from the slight drop in original statistical region price, the newly added Chinese and Taiwanese regional prices are also comparatively lower.

Company debuts MOCVD Platform for low-cost high-volume manufacture of HB-LEDS, with extendibility to GaN-on-Silicon applications At SEMICON China next week, Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. (AMEC) will make its Solid-State Lighting (SSL) market debut with a new multi-reactor Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) cluster tool. The Prismo D-Blue™ MOCVD platform enables high-volume manufacturing of sophisticated GaN, InGaN and AlGaN ultrathin layered structures required for high-brightness LEDs. W...

The University of Georgia has been in the forefront of evaluating alternative lighting systems.  In their study, comparisons were made among conventional incandescent bulbs, compact fluorescent lamps, cold cathode and LED bulbs in poultry houses.  It was demonstrated that dimming compact fluorescent bulbs below 5 lux resulted in a higher rate of lamp failure than operation at non-dimmed levels of light output. This loss in life span could however be reduced by limiting the extent of dimming.  All bulbs exhibited a loss of light output ranging from 25% to 50% over ...

Acuity Brands Inc. has launched four new post top LED luminaires from Antique Street Lamps® that combine modern LED light sources with a traditional appearance. The RG LED Series, AL25 LED, LTL30 LED and ATL23 LED post top luminaires provide energy savings and visually appealing outdoor LED lighting. All four LED post tops feature long-life LED technology to minimize maintenance time and costs. They are ideal for applications such as city streets and parking lots, parks, residential areas, campuses, and walkways. •    ...

Soraa has received a Product Innovation Award (PIA) from Architectural SSL Magazine for its SORAA OUTDOOR LED MR16 lamp. Suitable for use in outdoor fixtures, or indoors in enclosed recessed or small non-ventilated track fixtures, Soraa’s lamp is the ideal LED choice for replacing 35-Watt halogen MR16 lamps in diverse applications. “The SORAA OUTDOOR LED MR16 lamp has a stunning visual impact on my projects and the lamp itself sheds heat elegantly, a rare quality in outdoor LED lighting,” said Janet Lennox Moye...

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...

Seoul Semiconductor, has announced the new MJT 4040 package which uses Multi Junction Technology to bring performance and size advantages to the LED outdoor and streetlight markets. The company also announced it recently won a retrofit project for streetlights using this new product in China. The MJT 4040 uses multi-junction technology that allows multiple LED junctions to be combined in a single chip thereby increasing the operating voltage and concentrating more light output within a given area. Operating at a nominal 64 Volts and 20 mA, the device can reach o...

AIXTRON SE announced that its Training and Demonstration Center in Suzhou, China, has reached its next planning stage. In March 2013 Qingshan Li overtook the responsibility as Director of Process Support at AIXTRON China Ltd. from Dr. Nicolas Muesgens, who has built up and led the center since its opening one year ago. “I am proud of what we have achieved,” Dr. Nicolas Muesgens comments. “Customers benefit immensely from seeing and evaluating real process runs inSuzhou without having to interrupt their own production line. This ena...

Global market intelligence organization TrendForce’s green energy research division LEDinside and EnergyTrend analysis points out that every country, one by one is progressing towards replacement energy plans. Why then consider energy efficient and clean energy electric power?  The energy saving benefits from replacing traditional lighting with LED lights is obvious: Overall replacement with LED lighting can substitute part of nuclear plants or traditional thermal power plants.

Author: Steven Chen, Process Control Solutions Technologist, KLA-Tencor Corporation Introduction LED manufacturing is undergoing a tremendous transformation.  The evolution to high brightness LED, larger wafer size and new complex architectures make LED manufacturing more challenging than ever before.  Even though these trends greatly benefit the advancement of the LED industry in terms of LED efficiency and performance, they can also potentially negatively impact yield.  In order for LED manufacturers to stay competitive in this dynamic environment, they need to have a comprehensive in-line process control strategy to improve the yield to make the solution cost effective. Currently, most LED manufacturers rely on inspection tools to inspect and provide defects of interest (DOI).  Defect density is typically utilized as the gauge for statistical process control (SPC) control.  However, the drawback of this approach is the fact that there can potentially be a lot of nuisance defect that does not cause yield loss.  In looking at a defective wafer through an inspection tool, how do you determine which defects are killer defects that impact the yield or electrical performance, and which defects are nuisance?  How can killer defects be detected at the earliest possible time to prevent costly excursions?  These are the questions that must be addressed properly.