LED emerging applications are shining brightly. Can domestic MOCVD protect them?

Affected by the excessive subsidy policies of some local governments, many LED manufacturers have purchased large quantities of imported MOCVD equipment in the past few years. This, coupled with the sharp fluctuations in the LED industry itself, has caused the industry to fall into the dilemma of oversupply of LED production capacity and oversupply of MOCVD equipment.

At the end of 2014, it was rumored that the central government would require it to stop providing equipment subsidies or tax incentives to LED epitaxy and chip manufacturers. If it comes true, the LED industry is expected to return to rationality and develop healthily.

While celebrating, some people also doubt whether the rational LED industry demand, without the push of government subsidies, or the addition of emerging applications, is enough to support a prosperous MOCVD market, and how the development of domestic MOCVD will be affected.

In fact, such worries and questions are unnecessary, because this industry has its own increasing application directions, its own ever-expanding market demand, and its own brighter and brighter prospects.

LED emerging applications shine

LED lighting technology, as the inevitable direction of future lighting development, is an indisputable fact. China is the most dazzling region in the world's LED component industry. In recent years, medium-power LEDs for lighting have developed rapidly. Especially for companies with independent supply chains of LED components, their output values ​​and benefits have increased significantly. Companies such as Sanan Optoelectronics, Mulinsen, Nationstar, etc. all have rapid growth of 40% at every turn. my country's LED component industry is expected to grow by 43% in 2014 and will continue to grow by 25% in 2015.

Smart lighting, which has only emerged in the past year or two, will further connect LED lighting technology to the Internet. International lighting giants such as Philips and GE have launched new bulbs one after another in an attempt to create concepts before the market is fully opened, and they are active in major exhibitions. For example, at the 2015 CES that just took place in Las Vegas, power supply factories, lighting factories, and even packaging factories all used their latest smart lighting solutions as exhibition signs. Even companies like JD.com and Xiaomi have begun to cross-border.

Although smart lighting is still in the initial stage of "big thunder, small rain", more and more manufacturers are pouring in, and its popularity will only increase in the future. Entering 2015, there will definitely be a "storm" in this emerging field.

The popularity of plant factories has heated up the application of LEDs in the agricultural field. Overseas lighting manufacturers such as GE, Siemens, and Philips are investing heavily in plant lighting. Taiwan's Everlight Lighting has also been involved for a long time. Mainland packaging factory Hongli Optoelectronics has also been committed to developing related products. Even the major domestic epitaxial chip giants have not given up on the layout of plant lighting.

According to a global industry survey, the global output value of LED plant growth lights has begun to show rapid growth since 2013. It is expected to exceed US$35 million in 2014 and is expected to reach US$300 million in 2017. The technical difficulty of LED plant lighting is not high. After solving the problem of comprehensive talents and further large-scale promotion, the slightly higher investment threshold in the early stage will be significantly reduced, and its market will be very broad by then.

UV LED applications are also booming. As long-wavelength ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UV LEDs) are commercially used in the curing and drying market, shorter-wavelength UV LEDs are also beginning to enter fields such as water sanitation facilities and wireless mobile phone disinfection.

According to industry media statistics, the output value of UV LED in 2014 was US$122 million, accounting for 15% of the overall UV market.

Yole Développement has predicted that the UV LED market will grow rapidly to nearly US$270 million in the next four years.

LED lighting will also make revolutionary changes in the communications industry. Visible light communications (Li-Fi) provide an economical solution when there is a lack of sufficient RF bandwidth to support the growing demand for data transmission, known as the "spectrum crunch."

In October 2014, pureVLC, with Haas as chief scientist, sold its first Li-Fi device to an American medical and health supplier for £5,000. This marks the industrialization of Li-Fi and a big step towards a world where people can access the Internet with light.

Power devices may be an application that cannot be ignored. This year's Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Hiroshi Amano, emphasized its importance:

"The application of nitride semiconductors is not just for LEDs. I am particularly concerned about power devices. LEDs have contributed to energy saving, and power devices will also greatly promote energy saving, such as power transistors. Although Si has achieved a power conversion efficiency of up to 95%, there is still a 5% loss.

Gallium nitride can theoretically reduce this loss to less than 1/6, and is expected to have an energy-saving effect exceeding that of LED. We are also developing ultra-low power consumption power devices. In terms of power devices, starting from now is the critical moment. ”

Due to the global economic downturn and the price decline of silicon carbide is not as large as expected, the demand market for silicon carbide power devices has not experienced strong growth in recent years. On the contrary, the industry’s confidence in gallium nitride technology has begun to grow, as shown by more semiconductor suppliers Announced a gallium nitride development plan. For example, Transphorm has become the first company.

According to a 2013 market research report by IMS Research, gallium nitride power devices are dominant in applications below 600V or 3KW. potential, and may replace MOSFET or IGBT in these applications, including micro-inverters, servers, motor drives, and UPS. IMS Research predicts that the demand for GaN power devices will exceed US$1 billion in 2022.

The applications of these LED lighting technologies do not include automotive lighting, mobile phone flashlights, and other R&D products that have not yet entered the hot rankings. The market is clearly here, and the next question is whether domestic MOCVD can participate in the feast and get a deserved piece of the cake.

Domestic MOCVD breaks the monopoly and provides strong support for LED applications

MOCVD is a key equipment for manufacturing nitride semiconductor materials in the epitaxial process, whether it is manufacturing light-emitting diodes used as light sources or field-effect transistors used as power devices. Today, China has long been a major producer of nitride semiconductor end-use products, but the entire domestic MOCVD market is still disproportionately monopolized by two major MOCVD manufacturers in the United States and Germany.

Domestic MOCVD equipment has broken the monopoly in the LED market. This was unimaginable four or five years ago, because at that time, although there were more than 20 domestic units entering the MOCVD industry, they were basically just starting out and in the early trial production stage. Since the domestic semiconductor equipment industry already has a considerable foundation, the development of MOCVD equipment among semiconductor equipment manufacturers is generally progressing relatively smoothly.

In the past two years, the first batch of domestic MOCVD with independent intellectual property rights has entered LED manufacturers for verification. As of today, domestic MOCVD equipment has passed strict verification and has been officially put into large-scale mass production of LED production lines. This milestone progress represents the entry of domestic MOCVD equipment into a new stage of direct competition with similar international equipment in the market.

It should be emphasized that breaking the complete monopoly of imported MOCVD in the domestic market and realizing the localization of MOCVD is a requirement that the central government has put forward five years ago. It has undoubted importance and urgency.

In general, China's MOCVD equipment manufacturers have sufficient capabilities to supply internationally advanced MOCVD equipment in batches and stably. This is a basic estimate of China's MOCVD equipment industry and the basis for MOCVD localization.

We firmly believe that with the collaboration and joint efforts of MOCVD equipment manufacturers and application manufacturers, and under the guidance of relevant government policies, domestic MOCVD will definitely occupy a considerable share of the domestic market in the near future. We are full of confidence in the future of the nitride semiconductor industry and domestic MOCVD equipment.