With a piece of material to get 1 million 500 thousand dollars, he brought 10 times the brightness of the lighting!

There is light in the night, and we are happy for 24 hours. However, Chen Chen felt that there was not enough light. "It needs to be brighter." At the end of 2014, he and Professor Han Zhong, the director of the Department of Electronic Department of Yale University, founded Saphlux to study a new generation of semi polar gallium nitride luminescent materials for solid-state display and lighting. Saphlux founder: Chen Chen (right) and Professor Han Zhong. The last generation of luminescent materials has gone through more than 20 years, and it is almost everywhere in the lives of everyone, either in the LED lamp or on the display screen. But the bottleneck is becoming more obvious: the luminance of the monolithic LED chip has reached the limit. To this end, scientists in various countries have invested in the research of a new generation of optical materials. Among them, the semi - polar gallium nitride luminescent material has become a new favorite in the laboratory. "Its single chip luminance can theoretically reach 10 times that of the past." But how to realize the mass production has become a difficult problem. Chen Chen led the team, using sapphire substrate, to develop large and semi - polar materials in June this year, and technically solved the problem of mass production. As soon as it was launched, 3 of the top 5 LED producers in the world were used. In addition to high power lighting, the materials can also be used in 3D projection, VR, medical and other fields. It sounds like a wonderful thing, but Chen Chen's entrepreneurial process is full of drama... The lecture at Yale Han Zhong was arranged in the last one. As an expert in gallium nitride materials, the content of the lecture is naturally inseparable from the value and commercialization of gallium nitride materials. At the end of the lecture, he looked down at the stage. Not surprisingly, the expression or confusion on each face, or not, is unpleasant. The research on the new generation of optical materials is a difficult problem in the Electronics Department of Yale University, and even the whole world, and he is facing a group of business school children. "Do you have anything to ask?" After the lecture, he kept the routine question. There was no sound under the table. At this time, Chen Chen suddenly stood up, broke the quiet of the meeting, "I want to understand the technical barriers to this material." He was the only person to ask the question on the day, and the professor answered cheerfully. This scene took place in a lecture at Yale University, Connecticut, in 2014. Not long ago, in August, Chen Chen came to Yale University to study MBA. Although he was a student in business school, he was no stranger to technology: Tsinghua University, 24 years old, has graduated from Ph. D., developed onyx360, and won many awards in the industry... At that time, Chen Chen did not know much about the solid-state lighting display industry, not to mention the frontier research of gallium nitride materials. After the lecture, he found Han Zhong again. "He's a Virgo, I'm Capricorn, from the constellations to analyze our temper." Chen Chen joked. In this way, two people with a difference of 20 years of age formed a commercialized exploration of a semi polar gallium nitride material. Since then, Chen Chen has a deep understanding of the whole industry. In 90s, since Nakamura Shuji developed the blue light LED, the first generation of semiconductor luminescent materials as the core of solid-state display and lighting has gone through more than 20 years. To the present, its brightness has reached its limit. "To improve the brightness, only increase the number of LED chips." In the high-power lighting and new display (3D projection, VR, etc.), the first generation of material has been unable to meet the needs of people. Semi polar gallium nitride (gallium nitride) materials have been given high expectations and become a hot spot in optical research materials. "Its single chip luminance can theoretically reach 10 times as much as it used to be." But the production of the material has been in the laboratory, and Professor Han Zhong has accumulated 6 years of research experience in this field. "Even its inventor, Nobel prize winner Nakamura Shuji, can't solve the problem of mass production." In November, two people set up a company Saphlux. "Don't think too much. Try to do it first." After a month's investment of $1 million 500 thousand, the school had a winter vacation. Chen Chen was not idle and returned to seek financing. "We don't vote for semiconductors, new materials." It was often too late for Chen Chen to eat the door. In two weeks, he returned to Beijing, Shanghai and many other cities, a total of 25 investors, and finally won several investment institutions, including the genuine fund. However, for the first time, Chen Chen was stuck with Li Jianwei, the partner of the real fund. The two people were talking less than an hour, and Li Jianwei yawned Chen Chen away. "Think it's yellow, and BP doesn't do it well." After returning, Chen Chen immediately adjusted the BP according to the investor's feedback. "We don't know what investors are concerned about, but we can only find out a little bit. I and I later became good friends, and later he told me that nobody would vote according to our original BP. " Last February, the angel wheel invested 1 million 500 thousand dollars in the account, from the real fund, LIAN investment and Yale VC investment. Then, Chen Chen began to buy a horse. "Over the past 10 years, the efficiency of LED related products has been increased by 10 times, and the price has been reduced by 10 times. But in the last two or three years, growth has stagnated, and even the industry's giant companies have been hard to break. This is a good opportunity to dig into industry experts. " He looked at the R & D director of a South Korean leading LED company, a scientist who was a teacher of Nakamura Shuji. "You have to be careful, the life here is much worse, and you may often have to work overtime." On Friday, Chen Chen called the scientist and talked about the work of the future. "You don't have to mention it to me. It's Korea time on Saturday, but I'll have a day's meeting. So I can get used to the intensity of the work. " Two days later, Chen Chen received an email: I have resigned from a Korean company, and now I can follow you. "I was moved at that time. As an industry person, he took the courage to start a business with me." Team photo staff are in place, and the equipment rented by Yale University is also soon done. "Although we are developing new materials, we can use existing equipment and capacity in both production and cooperation." "According to my earliest plan with Professor Han, I think this thing is 500 thousand dollars and it will take 3 months to do it." But after real research and development, Chen Chen found that the process was far from going so well. Product R & D in the June, the team invested in new materials research and development, the goal is very clear: to solve the large size and semi - polar material production problems. "For many years in this field, some scientists can prove the feasibility of small size materials, but it is very difficult to make a large size product." In this respect, Professor Han Zhong has 6 years of experience accumulated, he tried to change the way of production of materials. Previously, this material needs to be achieved by inclined cutting of gallium nitride on sapphire, but the cost of each piece is $2000, not commercially available. At the beginning of this year, after several experiments, the large size and semi polar materials were directly grown on the sapphire substrate by some special treatment, and the direction and shape of the crystal growth could be controlled. "This process is a bit like stir fry, by adding different ingredients and finally merging into a new dish." In March, Chen Chen planned to launch the material. However, on the eve of the line, the product test was a problem: the material was defective, which directly led to a significant decline in performance. "There is a kind of thin layer of hair, which is so thin that all the research institutions in the industry can't solve it. Well, we have once eliminated this defect in our previous experiments. " But in the next few months, no matter what kind of attempt, the defect has always existed. The atmosphere of the team was temporarily depressed, "I feel a bit exhausted." "What do you do?" Are we going to go in the other direction? " "Let's try it at the end of the weekend." On the occasion of the recovery of the mountains, the team turned up and the team developed the defective materials again. "After comparing the two tests, we finally found the reason." It turned out that Yale's equipment was not only used by the Saphlux team. After one team finished the experiment, the residual elements in the equipment unintentionally eliminated the material defects. "It was true at that time, and when you worked hard to get out of the way, God would open another window for you." Chen Chen's joy is overspoken. In May, a defective semi polar gallium nitride material was launched. "The original semi - polar material can only be 1 centimeters X0.5 cm size, we do 2 inch, 4 inch, 6 inch size. The new generation of materials came at last. " During the development of lighting and display, Saphlux has reached strategic cooperation with one of the largest LED companies in the United States, which provides optimization guidance for its material applications. "This allows us to save the test link of the product, and take more than a few detours." In June, the results of Saphlux's research were exploded online, and 3 of the top five LED companies in the world began to use their products. In addition, vendors from Apple's MacLED display, mainland China and some of Taiwan's Chinese manufacturers also have a list. There have been many discussions on the application of semi polar gallium nitride materials. "Outdoor lighting, medical equipment lighting, industrial UV disinfection, can use this material." Its prospects in the field of display are more extensive. "It can achieve holographic projection, smart phones, watches can get rid of the LED display, with laser projection and white background can be put in like a movie." And this material can greatly save energy. "We've got an account, and if 50% of the country's LED lights use this material, it will probably be able to turn off 30 medium sized thermal power plants." At present, the single chip material produced by Saphlux is sold for $560, and the customer's order is mainly used for product development. "Our production line is the same as the last generation of materials, and the cost is basically on a horizontal line." Recently, Chen Chen rented a new office at Yale and bought a new set of equipment. "These equipment can reach 40~50 new materials per day to meet the customers' needs." According to Chen Chen, the product will be produced by the end of next year, and the annual flow of water will reach 50 million US dollars. "Our technology is 2~3 years ahead of the world. In the future, we will develop a new generation of materials and new products. We hope that our new materials will bring about industrial change quickly."