industry LEDs
successful at selling higher volumes to certain customers, they will expect a dual source through risk management.”
To accommodate those wishes, the management at Plessey have started discussions with Asian lighting companies.
The company has wasted little time in using the technology it acquired to make LED products. In autumn 2012, it provided potential customers with ‘demonstrators’, which are LEDs that indicate the latest progress in device performance, and it provided quotes, some for sales to 2015. And early this year it is releasing 0.4 mm by 0. 4 mm and 1 mm by 1 mm LEDs.
Thanks to the low cost associated with the GaN-on-silicon platform, one would expect that LED prices can be competitive, while still generating a healthy bottom line for the company.
As Plessey’s sales rise, it’s possible that other GaN-on-silicon LED manufacturers will also grow their revenues. This means that there could then come a time when claims of patent infringement are rife, as companies try to gain the upper hand over their rivals.
“In the LED market, acquisitions are made to capture IP: It’s quite a weapon,” argues Dennington. “But we are confident that we have got a very powerful IP.” The company is currently filing patents. However, these do not detail some of the black-art related to epitaxy, which Dennington and his colleagues believe will remain a secret even if rivals get their hands on Plessey’s LEDs and probe them with various techniques.
The company’s vision for its future goes beyond being a tremendously successful GaN LED manufacturer, and includes a move into the production of smart lamps. “We could expand the fab here,” enthuses Dennington. “ We have a space at the back of this building to build another factory. It could be wafer manufacturing, or it could be a lighting company.”
The latter move could be a smart one, because it could ensure success after LED light bulb sales have plateaued and homes are full of affordable, long-lasting bulbs drawing just a handful of watts, but putting out the equivalent of a 60 W incandescent.
© 2013 Angel Business Communications. Permission required.
The evolution of Plessey Semiconductors
UK-based international electronics, defence and telecommunications company Plessey formed in 1917, and forty years later it created a division known as Plessey Semiconductors. This off-shoot initially produced devices from fabs based around Swindon, but in 1987 it boosted capacity with a site in Plymouth that was opened by Prince Charles. The Plymouth fab featured a 6-inch silicon line that was built to fulfil a large demand for telecom products, which were sold to Plessey Telecommunications and other telecoms companies. However, in addition to these products, which were deployed in an emerging digital telephone infrastructure, the company made components for the military, the automotive industry, and for TVs and set-top boxes. In addition, Plessey Semiconductors manufactured products for GSM basestations, winning contracts with Ericsson mobile.
In the late 1980s, Plessey acquired Ferranti Semiconductors, a move that provided the firm with additional manufacturing facilities in Oldham, Manchester. And in 1995 Plessey was involved in another acquisition, with GEC taking over the Plymouth site that was subsequently known as GEC Plessey Semiconductors. This takeover brought further investment, with the installation of an 8-inch line. However, at that point GEC owned Marconi Microelectronic Devices, and it had more manufacturing sites around the UK than it needed.
Plessey Semiconductors was put up for sale and bought by the Canadian telecoms giant Mitel. The firm split in two, retaining its name for its telecoms business, and launching Zarlink to represent its semiconductor efforts. Ownership of the site by Zarlink didn’t last long, and in 2002 X-fab took it over,
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www.compoundsemiconductor.net January / February 2013
Processes developed at the Plessey Semiconductors site at Cheney Manor,Swindon (pictured here in the late 1950s,when it was jointly owned by Philco) have been transferred to the Plymouth site
running the plant as a foundry. By 2009 this facility did not fit with the needs of that company, and in 2009 Michael LeGoff, Plessey Semiconductor’s current CEO, acquired it, plus the Swindon fab that was owned by Zarlink.
To carry out these acquisitions, LeGoff briefly formed a company called Plus Semi, before gaining permission to regain the name Plessey Semiconductors. He has been careful to retain key staff from the Swindon facility, and has transferred many of the processes from this fab to the one at Plymouth, which is now used for all of Plessey Semiconductors’ manufacturing. Today, in addition to the GaN manufacturing line, the site runs many other processes, including a CMOS process, a SiGe process, a BiCMOS process and a silicon-on-insulator process.
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