Anchaoyongdong LED giant hegemony is becoming increasingly fierce

For the industry that has grown so rapidly in the past few years, the first ranks of newcomers trying to tap into the high brightness HB-LED manufacturers seem to prove to be quite difficult.

Still way ahead in the top six leading chip manufacturers, followed by Epistar (EPISTAR), OSRAM OS (OSRAM Opto Semiconductors), CREE (CREE), Philips Lumileds and Toyoda Gosei (TOYOTA).

And in addition to some stripping and mergers and acquisitions, has always been the case. But in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Mainland China have emerged many companies to challenge this situation, it is clear that the HB-LED industry is very attractive.

As a key component of LED chip manufacturing, Aixtron, a leading MOCVD supplier, may be aware of this trend earlier than others. Investors call the German company in the middle of last year, CEO Paul Hyland said, "some of the traditional silicon industry company expressed the hope that the investment of LED equipment and interest, LCD manufacturers hope to further expand downstream industry chain. "

Including Taiwan Twin Towers giants "(Chi Mei) and Innolux Optronics (AUO) two of the world's leading TV and computer display LCD panel manufacturers are hoping to enter the LED industry, it is an open secret. Huaxinlihua (Walsin Lihwa) is ranked third in Taiwan LCD company, recently it's HannStar (HannStar Display) has purchased the equipment used in the production of MOCVD. Hyland implies that the silicon semiconductor company is generally considered to be the Taiwan wafer foundry TSMC (TSMC).

In addition to more than three companies, and have experience with LED electronic giant Samsung, Matsushita and Toshiba, and the purchase of four sets of Aixtron century Jingyuan extension equipment (Century Epitech), suddenly you will find the leading LED manufacturers list is not the same as before.

Industrial structure has changed?

Although all of these companies are trying to cover their hands tightly, but there is one thing that everyone is clear: if they want, any one of them in the stock market through the acquisition of LED can change the industry outlook.

But that hasn't happened yet. On the contrary, it seems that each of them wants to produce their own LED chip. Focus on the LED industry for many years commentator -Strategies Unlimited analyst Bob SteELe estimates, CMO at least in the past two years began to study LED. There are rumors that flat-panel display experts have begun to sell low-end chips in china.

CMO has just begun to buy rival AUO growth equipment, at least for several years, but it also has the extension from the beginning of vertical integration of desire. All that TSMC will be modeled on, with their own resources, it is not surprising. Steele not long ago in TSMC MOCVD equipment investment it commented: "compared with the construction of a silicon wafer foundries or flat-panel display generation plant needed resources, that's just a drop in the bucket".

Steele told the author, if you look at the current situation in Taiwan, where there has been such a strong LED supply capacity, you will wonder why they have to invest in their own internal supply".

When you consider that do not own AUO and Chi Mei for the production of cold cathode fluorescent lamp LCD screen backlight source, this strategy looks strange. It is possible that the two companies expect to have a profitable commercial LED product line.

Steele added, "once the production capacity, they will naturally put into the LED chip on the commercial market; but considering the existing market capacity, especially for Taiwan this a tiny area, we really need other commercial chip suppliers? "

For flat panel manufacturers, controlling the supply of LED chips is clearly an important strategic decision. But for large foundries such as TSMC, these assumptions are difficult to establish. What is the grand plan of the TSMC?

Strategy Analytics GaAs business director Asif Anwar is a long-term close observation of the development of the LED industry. He commented, "when you start talking like TSMC such enterprises, and will be compared with Taiwan's biggest LED maker EPISTAR, the former is the absolute sense of the giant. Therefore, if they put the plan into action, will change the entire industrial structure. "

Anwar believes that no matter what TSMC wants to enter the market, it must have a huge demand for LED, and LED must have a specific wavelength and emission characteristics. He believes that the market is ultimately a general lighting, lighting in the future, it is necessary to separate the 3-4 chips into an independent solid state light-emitting bulbs. Anwar said, TSMC hopes to build a similar product Empire DRAM. Although the rapid development, but the LED industry has not developed as large as the size of silicon. "

Two main obstacles

It is precisely because there are still a number of years, TSMC has time to develop their own technology. It will take a long time if it's a strategy they want to work on. As Steele pointed out, any new game player trying to leave a vivid impression in the arena of LED on it, he will have to overcome two major problems: process development and intellectual property rights.

Steele said, "the purchase of a set of epitaxial growth equipment is one thing, but the ability to design and