China's LED chip companies compete for the upper (lower)

LED lighting chip core equipment industrialization"

Designed to break the monopoly of foreign technology in China's first, the world's fourth mass production of LED lighting core equipment manufacturing projects, in January 19, 2009 settled in Guangdong, Nanhai District, Foshan. This means that China's LED lighting industry bottlenecks restricting the core equipment is expected to achieve localization. But whether it can be time to consider industrialization. But the reality is that in the early stage of the chip core equipment in China to explore the failure of the end.

However, the development of China's foreign chip industry has grown rapidly, from several in 2000, the development of today's nearly more than and 60. The demand for equipment and materials. Only a year in 2008, the domestic imports of MOCVD on the 35 -40 units, and mainly production equipment. 2009, more optimistic estimates, the number of imported MOCVD may reach 50 units -60.

Upstream involves a lot of equipment, is also very important. Including MOVCVD, X-ray, with the extension of AFM, CV/Hall, PL/EL and leak detection, baking equipment, chip manufacturing using photolithography, to ICP/RIE, PECVD, E-beam glue, evaporation, sputtering, cleaning, drying, microscope, talystep, ellipsometry, polishing, dicing, chip testing and sorting. Raw and auxiliary materials include MO source, ammonia, silane, phosphorus, arsenic, hydrogen, nitrogen, hydrogen chloride gas, etc.. The characteristics of LED upstream equipment required is expensive, long delivery time. For example, the extension of the required MOCVD, production equipment is generally around $2 million, delivery time is generally 6-8 months. The above mentioned above is 90% upstream equipment imports, the main parts which is imported. Therefore, the proportion of imports of raw materials and equipment LED industry, from upstream to downstream from high to low trend.

Currently in these two areas, the localization process is also very unsatisfactory, especially weak key equipment. Upstream materials, substrate materials and epitaxial materials are relatively backward, in recent years has made great progress, but the research and development, investment and other aspects of the problem has not been fundamentally improved.

At the same time, the research and application of large scale system integration technology is progressing smoothly. Application of product types and scale in the forefront of the world, has become the world's LED full-color display, solar LED, landscape lighting and other products of the largest production and export country. Tianjin FAW Xiali and Changzhou Xingyu has developed a kind of LED automotive headlamp light, July 2008 Hisense's first 42 inch ultra-thin LED backlight LCD TV market, currently has sales of nearly million units, accounted for 40% of world output indicates that Chinese consumer electronics began large-scale use of LED technology.

In general, the current LED chip production in the field of China's basic competitive pattern is a small number of manufacturers, the existing technology vendors focus on the development and production of high brightness chip, the degree of competition is relatively low.

From the present stage, the main problems in the extension and the chip industrialization are as follows: first, the core technology of innovation and independent intellectual property rights is less, it is difficult to compete with foreign counterparts. Second, high performance LED chip and power LED chip, the current domestic rarely, still need a large number of imports, which seriously restricts the development of the entire LED industry. Third, the domestic extension, many research results of the chip, such as the extension of new technology, the new structure of the chip, the new technology is difficult to promote the application in the enterprise, which may be a system problem. Fourth, the domestic epitaxial, chip enterprise scale of industrialization is small, lack of R & D strength, production is low, product cost is high, lack of competitiveness.

High end applications can force LED chip revitalization?

Beijing Olympic Games is not only the national sports athletes and sports arena, or LED show their style and charm of the stage. LED in the opening ceremony, the Olympic venues, landscape lighting, indoor and outdoor full-color display and other aspects of the outstanding performance, with stunning visual feast for the audience, so that people have a more intuitive and profound and new experience and knowledge of LED, the application and promotion of LED will further accelerate. Experts predict that in 2010 Shanghai World Expo will become another milestone in LED applications, when China's LED industry will usher in a new peak.

But behind the dazzling and brilliant LED games in Beijing, there is a lack of core technology in the upstream of LED in China, hidden industry worries. It is understood that the Olympic Games in the use of LED devices and lamps are mainly packaged and produced by Chinese enterprises, but the value chain of the highest power chip is basically imported from abroad. The Beijing Olympic Games to enhance the LED application level, but also reflects our LED products with low grade based, lack of core technologies with independent intellectual property rights, high performance LED and power LED products have to be imported.

Our LED epitaxial chip production although in recent years a great development and progress, but overall still stays in the middle and low level, also cannot be widely applied to the high quality of the display, and the middle and large size LCD backlight and other high-end applications, high-grade epitaxial chip used by LED application products in China of high efficiency and high reliability. Almost all rely on imports, high efficiency power type chip at present there is no domestic manufacturers to provide.

Chinese optical photonics Optoelectronics Industry Association branch secretary Peng Wanhua said: at present, the main problems in the industrialization of the epitaxial, chip: first, innovative and core technologies with independent intellectual property rights are difficult with foreign competitors