LEDs ♦ news digest
Further details of this work have been published in the paper, “ Low activation energy for the removal of excess nitrogen in indium rich indium nitride”, by Butcher et al, Applied Physics Letters, 100,011913 (2012).DOI: 10.1063/1.3673839
“Our collaborative design and manufacturing approach has a proven record of delivering the kind of low-risk, low-cost, and rapid time-to-market solutions our customers have come to rely on. Automating film frame handling with a customised solution helps our customers leverage existing tool sets and enter new markets, while also enabling their customers to reduce manufacturing costs and increase volume production.”
Customised handlers for semiconductor and LED customers
Owens Design says its customised automated solutions enable low risk and lost cost entry into new market applications
The firm says it has delivered multiple customised film frame automated handling solutions to customers in the semiconductor and LED industries.
The large variety of film frames and film frame cassettes has created a need for customisable solutions for a variety of process tool applications. By working with its customers in a collaborative design and build approach, Owens Design has developed an automated film frame handling solution that can easily be customised to address a variety of non-standard form factors.
Until recently, the loading and unloading of film frames into a process tool has been mostly a manual operation. Today’s semiconductor manufacturers, however, need to automate the process to address the timing needs of back end of line (BEOL) inspection and test applications. At the same time, LED manufacturers need an automated solution to enable greater volume production to support the increasing demand for LEDs in a variety of markets.
“LED usage is becoming widespread in an ever-growing number of applications, including aviation and automotive lighting, household appliances, remote controls for electronic systems and traffic signals,” says John Apgar, president of Owens Design. “The LED market, however, is extremely price-sensitive, so LED manufacturers are looking for ways to increase productivity, while lowering manufacturing costs. Our customisable automated film frame handler solution provides a low-risk approach to meeting both these needs.”
Owens Design offers semiconductor, solar and LED capital equipment manufacturers a proven methodology to reduce tool development costs, minimise technical risk, and speed their time to market. By working closely with an established design and manufacturing company such as Owens Design, a capital equipment company can focus its internal efforts on its core technology. In turn, the design and manufacturing services company can focus on integrating this new core technology into a system level platform that has been optimised to meet the equipment manufacturer’s performance specifications.
“Developing an easily customisable handling solution for our customers required expertise in film frame extraction, alignment and transport, expertise that Owens Design has developed over many years of successfully delivering a wide range of automation solutions to our customers,” said Jack Yao, Director of Business Development for Owens Design.
HB-LED market still going strong
According to a new European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) report, the HB-LED market made a 7% increase on a year-to-year basis in 2011
The report, which is distributed exclusively to EPIC members, tracks the response of the lighting and display industries in one of the most difficult economic crises in recent years.
The new report “LEDs: The 2011 Market Review,” says the market volume for high brightness LEDs (HB-LEDs) reached $12 billion in 2011, a 4.3% growth over 2010. While the demand for LED BLU (back light unit) systems is still growing, the demand for LED chips is falling.
Fewer LEDs are needed to realise a BLU and with the cost per LED also dropping, revenues attributed to LEDs for each display screen are dropping rapidly. The production of BLU based on LEDs should continue to rise through 2014. The demand for LEDs to produce edge-lit BLU has peaked and will settle at about 70% of its maximum value in 2010-2011.
The EPIC Bellwether Index of key companies is an important indicator of the commercial development of solid-state lighting in general. In 2011 the Bellwether companies showed rather different levels of performance.
Revenue performance for the EPIC Bellwether Index companies
Aixtron was challenged by scale-back of MOCVD purchases due to slowing demand in the back lighting market, and the end of purchase subsidies by the Chinese government. Chip manufacturers like Epistar and Cree showed mixed results, while lighting systems companies like Philips and Zumtobel fared very well.
April/May 2012
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