Japan is the world's largest producer of LED industry, accounting for about 50% of the market share, and its trend is almost a pointer for the LED industry. China's Taiwan LED industry's revenue accounts for 17% of global revenue, second only to Japan, ahead of South Korea, Europe and the United States. Taiwan is a global consumer electronics production base and the world's largest LED downstream packaging and midstream chip production site. China's Taiwan region and the mainland mainly focus on the development of packaging and assembly, the output ranks first in the world, and the output value ranks second in the world.

The LED industry is fast becoming one of the hottest industries. Ten years later is the world of LED. In 2009, China's LED industry sales value reached 60 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 30%, making China one of the fastest growing regions of the global LED industry. China's LED market is currently in the process of a major leap from tens of billions to hundreds of billions.

LED industry cakes quickly grow bigger

As a semiconductor light-emitting device that can convert electrical energy into light energy, LED (Light Emitting Diode) consumes only 1/10 of the energy of an incandescent lamp, 1/3 of an energy-saving fluorescent lamp, and has a lifetime of 100 times that of an incandescent lamp. Compared with traditional light sources, LEDs do not use elements such as mercury and lead that are easily contaminated, and can also be recycled. It is a green light source.

Under the idea of ​​creating a low-carbon economy that is energy-saving and environmentally friendly, the cake of China's LED industry is rapidly growing.

According to relevant agencies, in 2010, the output value of China's LED lighting industry will exceed 150 billion yuan, double the number in 2008. It is expected that in 2015, LED's market share in China's lighting market will reach 20%, driving the industry to reach 500 billion yuan, and China will enter the top three in the global LED lighting market.

In October 2009, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology and other six ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Semiconductor Lighting Energy-Saving Industry Development Opinion" proposed a clear goal: by 2015, the semiconductor lighting energy-saving industry output value annual growth rate of about 30%; functional lighting reached About 20%; the company's independent innovation capability has been significantly enhanced, and 3-5 upstream chip-scale production enterprises; industrial concentration has increased significantly. There are about 10 leading enterprises with independent brands and large market influence; achieving annual energy saving of 40 billion kWh, equivalent to 40 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

The middle and upper reaches are the weakness of China's LED industry

At present, the global LED industry pattern centering on Asia, North America and Europe is preliminarily formed. The technology competition pattern of Japan Nichia, Toyota Synthetic, American Cree, Lumileds and European Osram is the core of the technology. US and Japanese companies have monopoly advantages in epitaxial wafers, chip technology and equipment, and European companies have outstanding advantages in applied technology.

From 1999 to 2009, among the 3,312 LED-related patents applied for in the United States, Japan ranked first, accounting for 50%, the United States second, accounting for 30%, and Taiwan, China, the third, with 11%.

The LED industry chain mainly consists of four parts: LED epitaxial wafer growth, chip manufacturing, device packaging and product application, in addition to related supporting industries.

In the LED industry chain, LED epitaxial wafers and chips account for about 70% of the industry's profits, LED packaging accounts for about 10-20%, and LED applications account for about 10-20%. Correspondingly, the entry barrier of the LED industry chain from upstream to downstream is gradually reduced.

The substrate material used to manufacture the LED chips is usually high quality sapphire or silicon carbide, GaAs (gallium arsenide), which is a seed crystal for epitaxial growth of various composite semiconductors. Currently, the growth of AlInGaP on GaAs substrates is a relatively mature technology, and it is expected that GaAs substrates will remain a reliable choice for substrate materials in the future. The sapphire substrate, due to its good performance on large-sized substrates, will gradually occupy a larger proportion as manufacturers continue to strive to develop into large-size substrate processes.

Epitaxial wafer growth is a key technology for LED manufacturing, and is currently commonly implemented by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). At present, the main manufacturers of MOCVD in the world are AIXTRON of Germany and VEECO of the United States. The former accounts for 60%-70% of the international market share, while the latter accounts for 30%-40%. The equipment produced by Japan NipponSanso is basically limited to domestic sales in Japan. .

After the epitaxial growth is completed, the mid-stream chip design and processing manufacturer designs the device structure and process according to the LED performance requirements. Through epitaxial wafer diffusion and metal plating, photolithography and heat treatment are performed to form a metal electrode; then the substrate is polished and polished, and then cut. For small LED chips.

The chip package will paste and solder the lead frame, and after testing and sealing, it will be packaged into various products. White LED chips also require phosphorus to be injected into the sealant to produce white light. In principle, the smaller the chip, the higher the technical difficulty of the package.

After packaging, the products are tested, sorted, and assembled into a sub-system for use in lighting equipment. Lighting equipment (such as signal lights, screens, commercial or residential lighting equipment) in addition to LED chips, but also other optical components, LED drive circuits. The products are sold by dealers, designed by lighting design engineers and architects, and finally provided to end users.

The LED industry has formed a complete industrial chain in the world. There are many companies in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, mainly in the fields of substrate, epitaxy, chip and packaging. There are fewer companies with the strength to engage in the entire business of the LED industry chain, mainly leading companies in the United States, Japan and South Korea.

In the domestic LED industry chain, the development of epitaxial wafers and chip links in the middle and upper reaches is a relatively lagging weakness.

LED epitaxial wafers and chips have high technical requirements, and there is still a certain gap between the two in China and the international advanced level. At present, the production of extension chips and chips at home and abroad is limited. There are only about 10 companies engaged in the production of LED epitaxial wafers, and there are not many manufacturers of LED chips. Domestic LED epitaxial materials and chips are mainly in the middle and low range. More than 80% of power LED chips and devices are imported, and the output of epitaxial wafers can only meet 20% of the demand of packaging enterprises.

There are more than 3,000 LED enterprises in China, 70% of which are concentrated in the downstream industry. The LED packaging products have reached the world's first, and the technical level and product quality are uneven. The main reason for the shrinking of the upstream and downstream of China's LED industry is that the mainstream technology of LED is mostly controlled by developed countries. The domestic lack of independent intellectual property rights and core technologies, the patent risks faced by enterprise development are increasing, and production equipment is backward. And the industrialization of scientific research results is not smooth.

Three major bottlenecks in the development of the LED industry

Zong Peimin, chairman of Zhejiang Huarui Investment Management Co., Ltd., which has invested in several LED companies, believes that there are still several obstacles to overcome in China's LED industry:

First of all, we must improve the luminous efficiency of LEDs. LED lamps want to truly enter the general consumer family, need to increase the luminous efficiency of warm white color LED to 100lm / W (lumen / watt), the cost of lighting can be reduced by 25%, the cost of electricity will be more cost than traditional bulbs Advantage.

Second, we must solve the heat dissipation problem. High-power LEDs have high requirements on heat dissipation technology. When the ambient temperature reaches a certain height, the LED will quickly produce light decay, resulting in a decrease in LED lifetime. Only by solving the heat dissipation problem of high-power LEDs can the application of high-power LEDs be widely promoted.

In addition, to reduce the price of LEDs. Price is a key factor that directly affects the popularity of LED lighting. Although the total cost of LED lamps (including acquisition cost + energy cost + maintenance cost + waste disposal cost) is lower than that of incandescent lamps and fluorescent lamps, consumers still choose the cost of acquisition. Standards are not too concerned about high quality or versatile features.