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LEDs:

The Era of Illumination

The growing trend toward the use of LEDs in lighting applications has the top companies in a number of industries staking out presences in this most "sizzling" of industries.

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The Era of Illumination

By Jimmy Hsiung
From CommonWealth Magazine (vol. 398 )

In an era when most people are accustomed to the convenience of lighting a room with the flick of a switch, the aboriginal village of Smangus in Hsinchu County's Jiashih Township often remained in the dark, the result of its remote location and problems connecting to the power grid that led to unstable voltage.

But all that has changed. This tribal village, one of the last places in Taiwan to get electrified, has become the hamlet with the world's most advanced lighting technology. On April 8, with funding from the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Bureau of Energy and technical guidance from the Industrial Technology Research Institute, Smangus removed four unstable, energy-wasting mercury lamps and all of the incandescent bulbs lining major walkways, replacing them with LED (light emitting diode) lights.

Mu-Tao Chu, one of the members of the ITRI's Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Laboratories team that worked on the Smangus model lighting project, estimates that changing to LED lamps will enable the village to consume 60 percent less electricity.

"Taiwan's last outpost of darkness has been lit up by LEDs," says Chu excitedly, describing the project that is leading the country into the next generation of lighting.

The Next Lighting Revolution

There is a strong sense that boundless opportunities in this new lighting frontier are just around the corner, illustrated by the increasing number of entrepreneurs who see a future for the application of LEDs in regular lighting. In the past year, leading enterprises in many sectors have unreservedly declared their ambition to get involved in the LED game.

Electronics contracting giant Hon Hai Precision Industry, through subsidiary Foxsemicon Integrated Technology Inc., has already extended feelers to the downstream LED packaging sector. AU Optronics, the world's third-largest LCD maker, has invested in Wellypower Optronics Corp. and approved a plan to invest US$50 million in a new company called "Long Da" to make LED backlights, both signs of the company's intent to gain a foothold in LED upstream and downstream businesses.

In the semiconductor industry, the world's largest contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is said to have bought a stake in U.S. LED manufacturer BridgeLux through a venture capital subsidiary, formally taking a leap into the upstream LED epitaxial wafer market.

These and other aggressive moves by Taiwan's leading enterprises to gain a presence in the LED sector have turned this longstanding industry with over 30 years of history in Taiwan into one of the island's hottest businesses overnight.

The development of LEDs in Taiwan's industrial history can be traced back to 1976. At the time, Texas Instruments decided to downsize its LED packaging business in Taiwan, which led current LiteOn Technology Corporation chairman Raymond Soong and some of his laid-off colleagues to join him in founding LiteOn. The business first established itself as an LED packager.

Speaking at a seminar on LED patents and standards, LiteOn Technology CEO K.C. Terng said the company has not only been Taiwan's LED "seed army" in the past, but will also play a crucial role in driving the LED lighting sector in the future. Terng's words were a clear indication that the LED industry is about to turn a brand new page, and enter its era of illumination.

Taiwan's Technological Edge

Schiu Sche, a former president of Taiwan's first LED semiconductor company Fine Products Microelectronics Corporation and currently an adviser to the Taiwan Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers' Association, says that LED technology is advancing at a faster pace than expected. According to the worldwide LED technology development blueprint and the current state of the industry, LED technology was not expected to produce a level of illumination needed for general lighting applications until 2010, Sche says, but the industry actually achieved the goal earlier this year.

Taiwan's LED crystal grain technology is already capable of generating 110 lumens/watt in luminous efficiency, similar to that of fluorescent bulbs, while the two countries with the most advanced LED technology, the U.S. and Japan, have attained 120 lumens/watt.

"Taiwan has achieved a technological standard that is less than a year behind that of advanced countries," Sche says.

Dr. Yi-Jen Chan, vice president and general director of ITRI's Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Laboratories, contends that the technology for LED lighting applications is no longer an obstacle, but LED use in the field remains constrained by cost issues and the lack of clear standards.

Chan says that because the prices of LED products are prohibitively high, they only command a 1 percent share in the global lighting market. But if one looks at the market share that LEDs command in all markets where they are applied, it is expected to grow to 16 percent by 2010, and to rise to 25 percent a year later, according to a U.S. LED-research institute.

LED Applications Set to Take Off

The industry's annual growth rate of close to 10 percent indicates that LED applications are now in their takeoff phase. Chan explains that LED applications are divided into two broad categories: displays and lighting. LED display applications are now extremely widespread and commonly found in cell phones and monitor backlighting, traffic signals, and advertising billboards. In terms of lighting, LEDs are starting to be used in indoor and outdoor lighting and automobile lighting.

"The market is just getting off the ground, which is why it is now attracting investor interest," Chan says.

Bily Wang, the president of surface mount chip LED manufacturer Harvatek Corp, discloses that in terms of LEDs used in displays, the "hot" application is monitor backlighting. By the end of the year, 13 percent of all TFT panels assembled in notebook monitors will use LEDs for backlighting, Wang estimates, and he predicts that within two years, LEDs will have a 15-percent share of the notebook computer and television market.

This explains why Taiwan's two largest flat panel makers -AU Optronics and Chi Mei Optoelectronics -have exerted considerable effort in the past year to get footholds in the LED sector. Compared to one cell phone, which uses about 30 LEDs, a 42-inch TV panel requires about 400-500 LEDs.

"And the future trend toward using LEDs to replace cold cathode fluorescent lamps has already become clear," Wang says, laying out why investors are so eager to get in the game.

As the world's largest LED producer by volume and the second largest by production value, Taiwan has already attained a strong competitive position in the industry. With such an advantage, Taiwan appears fully prepared to capitalize on trends favoring the growing use of energy-saving and mercury-free LEDs.

Transalted from the Chinese by Luke Sabatie

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