Signs of the Times - April 2012 - (Page 34)

LED UPDATE By Dr. M. Nisa Khan As president of LED Lighting Technologies, Dr. Nisa Khan educates the lighting industry and consumers about LED lighting. She has a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics, and master’s and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering. Email her at nisa.khan@iem-asset.com LED Industry Acknowledges Manufacturing Challenges LED lighting must compete in cost and quality against present lighting systems. How does a costs – by reduce company manufacturing increasing volume, right? One common argument says a large and growing market provides relief for high operating cost – if factories can adequately produce desirable products. Unfortunately, significant complexities exist in LED-chip manufacturing, and this hinders assembly-line reproducibility (See ST, June 2011, page 38), especially when the finished lamp is for general-lighting applications where stringent color, lightlevel and distribution-parameter range requirements apply. LED manufacturing bottlenecks – and inconsistent light characteristics – limit general-use expansion, even though LEDs are more efficient than other lamp types that offer more consistent light parameters meant for broader applications. Thus, the theorem of increasing production numbers to compensate for costs, without understanding and resolving the accompanying issues, will only widen LED manufacturers’ sorting bins and, in turn, add to their overall costs. The LED industry’s manufacturing challenge was apparent at this year’s Strategies in Light (SIL) conference, held February 7-9 in Santa Clara, CA. Over five years, the event has expanded from 1,200 to more than 5,000 attendees. It’s the most notable, annual, LED, worldwide lighting conference. Because of LED lamps’ unique current and potential advantages, forecasters say the industry growth will exceed the overall growth of the lighting industry. They see, of course, that 22% of the global population (2.6 billion people) lives without artificial lighting. Another 14% endure unreliable access to electricity. LED lamps, linked to efficient energy sources that operate inde- pendent of expensive electrical-grid systems, are the quickest and most practical way of providing light to such populations. For example, India’s government has teamed with private organizations to provide off-grid, LED-based lighting to more than 400 million people who currently live without adequate nighttime light. Other governments with highcount indigent populations may not be so magnanimous. Initial first costs The argument of long-term savings from LED energy efficiency weakens when initial first costs (IFC) for the lamps are much higher (and energy efficiency not yet much better) than those of comparable fluorescent lighting products. Expectedly, LED lighting must compete in cost and quality against existing lighting systems. The IFC is a direct result of manufacturing complexities, which, to be smoothed, must first be identified and then assessed via a process that examines semiconductor material growth, processing, fabrication, testing and packaging methods and, in turn, applies innovative engineering to improve the present processes. The industry recently identified five areas where IFC and manufacturing cost savings should occur: • Automated manufacturing • Standards implementation • Chip-inventory production and management • Compound-semiconductor technology advancements • Large-scale manufacturing process control Each category is complex and unique compared to those in silicon-integrated circuit (Si-IC) manufacturing. LEDs’ uniqueness stems from a major differentiating characteristic – light – which, to accomplish matching with high automation and fast execution times, entails complex engineering designs, simulations, supply-chain manufacturing procedures and final evaluation processes. Characteristically, the finished products display a large variation range for their light and optoelectronic characteristics, and this leads to binning problems and other costs. Manufacturing automation In semiconductor fabrication facilities, Si-IC manufacturing utilizes an astounding level of automation, starting from material formation (wafer growth) to final, packaged modules. This reliable, end-to-end automation has led to such inexpensive, but sophisticated, electronic devices as smartphones and tablet computers. Despite many predictions and wishes, similar forecasts haven’t come true for the compoundsemiconductor industry or the compound-semiconductor optoelectronics industry. Can LED manufacturers borrow automation processes from Si-IC semiconductor manufacturing? Not yet. And, not entirely. Clearly, LED manufacturers must incorporate more automation and batch processing in testing and the various production stages that characterize important optoelectronic and light parameters. Cost-effective testing and characterizations would entail non-destructive methods, e.g., a system that doesn’t sacrifice wafers and devices when extracting lampproperty results. Such automation would require investment capital for new testing equipment and methods, and packaging schemes. Standards implementation Implementing standards at every 34 SIGNS OF THE TIMES / APRIL 2012 / www.signweb.com http://www.signweb.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signs of the Times - April 2012

Signs of the Times - April 2012
Contents
ST Update
Technology Update
Vinyl Apps
Strictly Electric
LED Update
Technology Review
Software Update
Sign Museum News
New Products
Times Square Update
That Sign is Fine (Art?)
Victory at Yorktown
Temporary, with Permanent Appeal
The Value of Signs
Anatomy of an M&A Failure
Industry News
Advertising Index
Editorially Speaking

Signs of the Times - April 2012