Lumileds and Nichia sign cross-licensing agreement
The companies say that the new relationship will avert patent disputes and associated supply issues. It is also expected to accelerate the design of brighter LEDs by enabling each company to incorporate the R&D efforts of the other in new product development. This should hopefully pave the way for more rapid adoption of such devices for general lighting.
"Lumileds and Nichia have complementary technologies, so it makes sense to cooperate in the interest of advancing LEDs as a lighting solution for the 21st century," said Noboru Tazaki, senior managing director and general manager of Nichia s Optoelectronics Products Division. "Cross-licensing will help accomplish that goal and expedite the development of brighter and more cost-efficient LED-based lighting."
Nichia pioneered the development of blue and white InGaN LEDs, the latter consisting of a blue InGaN LED die with a thin coat of YAG yellow phosphor. More recently, Lumileds has developed white LED packages that can deliver 120 lumens from a single emitter - equivalent to a 10 W incandescent bulb.
The cooperation between Nichia and Lumileds should also afford the opportunity to open a dialogue on the establishment of industry standards that will help to promote the adoption of high power LEDs for general illumination. For such applications, white LEDs show great potential because of their compact, robust design, longevity and low power consumption.
"Legal battles over patents can have a chilling effect on market adoption of LED technology," said Mike Holt, CEO of Lumileds. "This agreement will help customers by eliminating any doubts about intellectual property conflict between two of the industry’s technology leaders. This, in turn, will help LEDs to more rapidly fulfill their potential of replacing conventional light sources in everyday lighting applications."
During the course of 2002, Nichia has signed agreements to end its patent disputes with rivals Osram Opto Semiconductors and Toyoda Gosei, as well as licensing its white LED manufacturing technology to Citizen Electronics.