If you ask what is the most prosperous industry in China, the LED series industry will do nothing. The opening ceremony of the Shanghai World Expo will illuminate the Huangpu River Bank. The 2010 Beijing International LED Exhibition will showcase dazzling lamps. The LED tunnel lights will shine in Chengdu Metro, O!Cap will emit scented lanterns, and LEDs will create a bicycle smile. On the streets of Wuhan, there are talking traffic lights. The Los Angeles designer Crimson Collective brings us the world's largest LED luminous paper cranes, etc., and all kinds of eye-catching light and colorful, let us open our eyes. So, what makes LED products so colorful? How to apply these LED lights to analyze the advantages and disadvantages, so that these LED optoelectronic products can better benefit human beings, which is also the concern of many people concerned about the development of industrial clusters. problem. First, let's focus on the wide range of blue LEDs.
1. What is a blue LED?
LED: Light Emitting Diode, a kind of semiconductor solid-state light-emitting device, which uses a solid semiconductor chip as a light-emitting material. When a forward voltage is applied to both ends, carriers in the semiconductor recombine to cause photon emission. Light. The LED can directly emit red, yellow, blue, green, cyan, orange, purple, and white light. So blue LEDs, that is, light-emitting diodes that emit blue light.
2. History and current status of blue LED
The birth of blue LED
As early as 1907, it was discovered that some diodes made of semiconductor materials had a physical phenomenon of illuminating when they were conducting, but it was 1969 to produce a red LED with a certain luminescence. Blu-ray LEDs were successfully developed in 1994-1995 and were truly commercialized in 1998. From 2000 to 2002, R&D personnel continued to pursue cost-effectiveness, enabling LEDs to successfully enter the mobile phone backlight market. Today, LED has been produced for more than 30 years. Various types of LEDs and LEDs can be cut at random for use. The commonly used size is about 0.3-1.0mm. Compared with traditional bulbs or fluorescent lamps, the volume is relatively large. Much smaller. For ease of use, LEDs are usually packaged in resin and are made into various shapes of about 5 mm, which is very strong and shock-resistant.
The products developed and the products supporting LEDs (such as white LED driver) are developing rapidly, and new products are continuously listed, and have developed into a new type of industry.
The most intriguing story of LED technology research and development is the battle between silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) when developing blue LEDs. This is also a very different path that many R&D teams must painstakingly choose when they are working hard to develop blue LED components.
In the past, many large companies around the world invested in SiC research and development. As a result, the research and development staff of Nichia Chemical Industries Ltd., a Japanese company specializing in phosphor business, was founded in 1994 and 1995 by Shuj Nakamura. In the year, it made a major breakthrough in the research of gallium nitride (GaN) and obtained patents that shocked the world. The major breakthrough of the R&D staff led to an apology that the top executives, including Sony and Toshiba, had come forward to make their own mistakes and lead to backward technology. The Nakamura's technological breakthrough allowed the gallium nitride (GaN) camp to officially surpass SiC.
Nichia, which used to do the phosphor business, has grown rapidly from about $100 million to $900 million in 2003 due to its success in blue LED technology. The original patent grant that the company was preparing to issue to Nakamura was $2 million. After a lawsuit, Nichia was judged to give the researcher $200 million.
Osram's LED closure trend
Following the breakthrough of blue LED technology, white LED has officially launched a wide range of LED application trends. From display, indication and mobile phone light source to LCD-TV backlights that are brewing, the doors of various new opportunities are constantly being knocked out by creativity.
Rapid development of blue LED
After the LED market was sung in May, various spot dealers hoped that LED revenues in the second quarter would climb to new heights. Shenzhen spot market shows that blue LEDs are frequently appearing along with terminal demand, and orders have recently increased in different degrees. As the potential growth of blue LEDs is very gratifying, the industry said that this product is likely to become a bright spot for the growth of the LED industry in the future. It is understood that the recent application requirements of mobile phone applications, automotive lighting, displays, camera flashes, panel backlights and indoor lighting have led to a gradual improvement in the profitability of the LED industry. Among them, after the high-brightness blue LED market demand experienced the warm-up period of the previous two months, the current orders have gradually increased.
Spot dealers said that Blu-ray LED demand is popular, mainly because OEMs of portable electronic products such as mobile phones, PDAs and notebook computers require display devices to have lower power consumption, smaller package size, higher brightness and more vivid Product characteristics.
Driven by market demand, LED suppliers are also actively improving their device brightness, package size and voltage specifications. In terms of product trends in the spot market, dealers point out that smaller, thinner packages and higher brightness products are now more popular.
In the blue LED market, following the growth of Blu-ray GaN LED production by more than three times in 2004, the rapid rise of the market has become an indispensable element in mobile phones and backlit LCD screens. Industry insiders expect that the high-specification blue LEDs concentrated on mobile phone panel applications will still enable the LED market to have a good growth opportunity in 2010.
In 2010, the LED market continued the trend of continuous growth in the market last year, but the difference is that the demand for mobile phone applications that led to LED growth has slowed down, and replaced by new applications caused by high-brightness and ultra-high-brightness LEDs and blue LEDs. . It is expected that in order to cater to the changes in new demand, upstream suppliers will actively turn to ultra-high brightness, and the development and production of blue LED will drive the growth of these products. These two markets will gradually mature in the next year or two.
The status of blue LED
Recently, the market has been rushing to buy back gas. In the recent market competition, the price of blue LED has fallen, and the dealers whose gross profit level has been affected have regarded the white LED market as the only way out. Due to the great development potential of white LEDs, various distributors in the spot market are now eyeing the white LED market.
Since the largest application market for Blu-ray LEDs is the mobile phone market, the sales performance of Blu-ray LEDs in the fourth quarter is still slow due to the lack of good market performance in this year's mobile phone market. The market buying momentum is back in the recent market competition. The price has slipped. According to dealers, before the end of the third quarter of 2004, most of the upstream LED factory's ultra-bright blue LED production capacity increased by at least 30%-50% compared with the same period of 2003. Due to the impact of this environment, industry insiders said that the blue LED market will It may face some oversupply price cuts around the end of this year. The Blu-ray LED market has become a killing battlefield for various manufacturers due to the increase in suppliers. Although the orders in the fourth quarter are better than the third quarter, but because the outlook for the future blue LED market is not clear, and the recent demand has not been further expanded, the impact of the mobile phone market adjustment inventory is particularly strong, therefore, dealers said, Recently, the price of blue LEDs has fallen by 25% to 30%, and the profitability of dealers has also been significantly affected.
With the expansion of the production capacity of various manufacturers in the Blu-ray LED market, today's market is no longer just one or two markets. The competition is fierce and the market share is shrinking. Dealers said that it is difficult for merchants to maintain such a long-term market in the supply market. In order to gain greater market share, more and more suppliers are considering to attract customers through low prices. This way of relying on price cuts to attract customers has in some ways aggravated the decline in the price of blue LEDs.
3. Countermeasures
The price reduction of blue LED is still an important issue this year. Compared with white LED, there is still a high price of NT$10. The average price of blue LED used in mobile phones last year is still NT$3 to 3.5, but it has fallen. Breaking 3 yuan, as the backlight of Blu-ray LEDs used in mobile phones will increase from 20% to 80% last year, the demand for blue LEDs will continue to grow.
However, due to the sluggish demand for mobile phone applications that support the rapid growth of the blue LED market, the LED market has lost its focus. For this reason, all dealers are actively exploring ways to find the next wave of new application growth sources in the LED market. Recently, many LED factories have successively released plans for next year's product line. The application field based on white LED is likely to be the most potential investment market for LED companies in the future.
In summary, the price advantage of blue LEDs will make the demand for blue LEDs continue to grow. The use of blue LEDs in energy saving and low carbon is an inevitable trend for sustainable development in the future. As a developer and manufacturer of blue LED core technology, in addition to further price cuts, it is necessary to actively shift to ultra-high brightness, blue LED development and production for upstream suppliers to drive the growth of these products.
(Edited from: Gaogong LED Editor Wan Xiaomei)
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