Plymouth, England--Semiconductor manufacturing company Plessey announced that samples of its gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon (Si) LED products (p/n PLW111010) are now available. These entry level products are the first LEDs manufactured on 6-inch GaN on silicon (GaN-on-Si) substrates to be commercially available anywhere in the world. Plessey is using its proprietary large diameter GaN-on-Si process technology to manufacture the LEDs on its 6-inch MAGIC (Manufactured on GaN I/C) line at its Plymouth, England facility. Plessey says its MAGIC GaN line using standard semiconductor manufacturing processing provides yields of greater than 95% and fast processing times, providing a significant cost advantage over sapphire and silicon-carbide based solutions for LEDs of similar quality.
Vince Cable, MP, Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade said, "The government is supporting innovative companies like Plessey who are growing, creating jobs and exporting their products all over the world. That's why we selected Plessey’s £3.25 million Regional Growth Fund bid for Government support, which will create 100 new, high tech and highly skilled jobs in the region."
"Today is a significant step for us," said Barry Dennington, Plessey's COO. "From acquiring our first MOCVD reactor in August 2012 to having our first product in April 2013 is excellent progress. These entry level products will be used in indicating and accent lighting applications. We will continue to make progress in output efficiency and are on plan to release further improvements in light output throughout this year and into next. The operating and unit costs are on plan and we are seeing a number of routes to enhance our cost advantage over competing technologies."
SOURCE: Plessey Semiconductors; http://www.plesseysemiconductors.com/documents/PR-8thApril2013.pdf
Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.