Lumileds Launches "Luxeon Flash" for Cellphone Camera Market

August 23, 2004...Lumileds Lighting of San Jose, California USA has let the world know just how bright their new Luxeon Flash LEDs are, and that they're already being integrated into a number of new cellphone camera models. In yet another cleverly written company news release that weaves a tantalizing application story around a new product line, in only the manner Lumileds appears able to be doing. What we see is that what Lumileds' Luxeons bring to the cellphone camera market are solid state lighting solutions that are high brightness LED able to produce flash illumination up to 12 times brighter than existing devices, allowing consumers to take high-quality cell phone pictures in low-light environments at distances of 1 to 2 meters. Picture takers simply could do that before now.

A New Look at Nichia
August 23, 2004...Nichia Corporation, a company that has been in existence since the mid 1900s, has made its mark on our compound semi world as a pioneering leader in developing and commercializing exceptionally high quality, high brightness blue spectrum LEDs. Nichia has recently revamped its corporate website making it easier now for all the world to better understand this remarkable company. Most noticeable is that Nichia continues to promote their company with the admirable slogan: Ever Researching for a Brighter World. Amplified, they state: Nichia brings together the brilliance of a full spectrum of talented individuals in a ceaseless effort to build a brighter world. Something we also found interesting was that Nichia's compound semi lines include InP materials.

IQE Sees Pickup from Increased Industry Reliance on Outsourcing

August 19, 2004...Judging by IQE and Bookham, the going must still be tough in the UK for compound semi companies. IQE has been a mainstay industry foundry and wafer supplier for years, traditionally working on not only mainstream compounds, but also taking the lead in developing epitaxial wafer growth techniques for competitive technologies such as SiGe. IQE was also one of the first to become involved in GaN on Si. We haven't heard much from IQE since May when Godfrey Ainsworth, Chairman of IQE, commenting publicly on the occasion of the company's annual meeting, noting that "2003 continued to be a difficult trading year for the group, reflecting the weakness in the technology sector as a whole. We began to see a recovery in the wireless and mobile phone sector towards the end of the year but there was little evidence of new investment in telecommunications infrastructure which was traditionally a key area for IQE's optoelectronic products." Full text can be viewed via the company news release on IQE's website.

IQE became the first compound semi company to offer both MBE and MOCVD foundry services when the Cardiff, Wales operation merged with their Bethlehem, Pennsylvania operation in the USA (ref: Company Overview), has always been headed by Dr. Drew Nelson, a well-regarded specialist in the compounds who has always been a key insider in the industry. Drew and his senior management have long been major catalysts of the compounds. IQE recently reported its half year results for 2004, in which they reported that "sales in dollar terms increased slightly to $14.582m compared with the previous half year (H2/2003: $14.404m), the first revenue increase for three years, although year on year sales fell by 9.4% (H1/2003: $16.086m) principally due to strong average selling price declines. However, due to adverse exchange rate movements, first half sales in sterling fell 7.7% at ￡8.028m (H2/2003: ￡8.697m) and were down 20.1% compared with H1/2003 (H1/2003: ￡10.056m)." Especially noteworthy was that IQE's Wafer Technology subsidiary was profitable in three of last four months and that the company is on course to reaching breakeven by the end of the year.

According to Drew, who continues to serve as IQE's President and CEO, “Sales revenue in dollar terms increased for the first time in three years as wafer volumes continued to increase and price declines began to stabilise. However, sterling revenues continued to decline due to adverse exchange rate movements between sterling and the dollar. Despite this revenue reduction, our cost cutting initiatives and increased operational efficiencies led to lower losses and reduced cash outflows." In addition, the IQE Group made a number of positive achievements with the qualification of new products during the first half, noting that, although the timing of these successes has yet to have a positive impact on the sales revenues, the company "continues to make progress on significant contract outsource opportunities."

What's Happening in Taiwan?
August 23, 2004...Everybody in and around the Solid State Lighting (SSL) industry always wants to know, "What's happening in Taiwan?" ... especially those who live and work elsewhere. Whether they travel back and forth to and from that tiny island, which is obviously heavily loaded now with MOCVD platforms, or whether they always view Taiwan's progress from afar, what's happening there is usually the leading edge thought-stream of where the advanced LED epiwafer and device community is headed in general. According to Cree's President and CEO, Chuck Swoboda, who presented the keynote address to an unprecedented gathering of blue spectrum LED developers and manufacturers at Blue 2004 in June in Taiwan, the blue spectrum side of the business is quickly headed toward consolidation.

Chuck's company, Cree Inc., headquartered in the USA in Durham, North Carolina, is one of what the industry itself has come to regard as "The Big 5" original blue spectrum LED developers. The other four being: Nichia (Japan-based), Lumileds Lighting (USA-based), Osram Opto (German-based), and Toyoda Gosei (Japan-based). Note that none of those are headquartered in Taiwan... but that doesn't mean they aren't doing an increasing amount of business in Taiwan, as well as in mainland China and Korea. Nor does it mean that there aren't companies challenging the long-standing status of The Big 5.

From the view here at LIGHTimes, fortified by a constant flow of both direct and indirect information in and out of Taiwan, we believe Chuck hit the nail on the head in his talk at Blue 2004. Consolidation is already underway, especially within the ranks of the blue spectrum players. But is that the whole story? Not by a longshot!

Several key trends that have been observed by various expert industry trackers include: Taiwan's definite move up the value chain in terms of quality (and therefore, brightness); licensing agreements by The Big 5 starting to kick in ; and that the anticipated "overcapacity issue" which has often been predicted to kick in around Q-3 of 2004 appears to indeed be happening ... right on schedule.
LIGHTimes "SecondPage" subscribers can access the full article assessing "What's Happening in Taiwan" in the enhanced version of the news. Subscribers: check your email for access instructions.

Densen Cao
CAO Group, Inc.
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