News Article
Plessey releases first 6 inch GaN on silicon LEDs
The firm's gallium nitride on silicon LEDS were presented to the Rt. Hon. Vince Cable, MP on his visit to the firm's Plymouth plant
Plessey has announced that samples of its GaN on silicon LED products are now available.
The company says these entry level products are the first LEDs manufactured on 6-inch GaN on silicon substrates to be commercially available anywhere in the world.
Plessey Semiconductors’ new GaN on silicon LED product
Plessey is using its proprietary large diameter GaN on silicon process technology to manufacture the LEDs on its 6-inch MAGIC (Manufactured on GaN I/C) line at its Plymouth, England facility.
The use of Plessey’s MAGIC GaN line using standard semiconductor manufacturing processing provides yield entitlements of greater than 95 percent and fast processing times providing a significant cost advantage over sapphire and SiC based solutions for LEDs of similar quality.
The release of the availability of Plessey’s GaN on silicon LEDs was coincident with a visit to the Plessey Plymouth facility by the Rt. Hon. Vince Cable, MP, Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade.
Business Secretary Vince Cable comments, “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.”
Michael LeGoff, Plessey Semiconductors CEO on the left and Vince Cable, MP on the right
Michael LeGoff, CEO Plessey says, “We are very pleased to welcome Secretary of State Vince Cable today. The department of Business Innovation and Skills has been very supportive of our efforts to date and with the launch of our first range of LEDs today we are now looking towards aggressive growth in the solid state lighting markets.”
“Today is a significant step for us” adds 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,” continues Dennington.
The MAGIC LED technology was transferred from Cambridge University with the help of Dandan Zhu from the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride, Simon Westwater and Antoine Pujol from Plessey Semiconductors.
At Cambridge, the LEDs are grown on a 6 x 2" Thomas Swan (now Aixtron) reactor, whereas at Plessey, they are grown on an Aixtron CRIUS II-XL 7 x 6" platform.
LEDs and the associated solid state lighting solutions are due to become the dominant form of lighting in all forms in within the next five years. Solid state lighting is an energy efficient eco-friendly technology that will save billions of tons of carbon emissions when fully implemented. There are also no recycling issues that fluorescent lighting poses with mercury content.
Engineering samples are available from the Plessey website, www.plesseysemi.com.
The company says these entry level products are the first LEDs manufactured on 6-inch GaN on silicon substrates to be commercially available anywhere in the world.
Plessey Semiconductors’ new GaN on silicon LED product
Plessey is using its proprietary large diameter GaN on silicon process technology to manufacture the LEDs on its 6-inch MAGIC (Manufactured on GaN I/C) line at its Plymouth, England facility.
The use of Plessey’s MAGIC GaN line using standard semiconductor manufacturing processing provides yield entitlements of greater than 95 percent and fast processing times providing a significant cost advantage over sapphire and SiC based solutions for LEDs of similar quality.
The release of the availability of Plessey’s GaN on silicon LEDs was coincident with a visit to the Plessey Plymouth facility by the Rt. Hon. Vince Cable, MP, Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade.
Business Secretary Vince Cable comments, “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.”
Michael LeGoff, Plessey Semiconductors CEO on the left and Vince Cable, MP on the right
Michael LeGoff, CEO Plessey says, “We are very pleased to welcome Secretary of State Vince Cable today. The department of Business Innovation and Skills has been very supportive of our efforts to date and with the launch of our first range of LEDs today we are now looking towards aggressive growth in the solid state lighting markets.”
“Today is a significant step for us” adds 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,” continues Dennington.
The MAGIC LED technology was transferred from Cambridge University with the help of Dandan Zhu from the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride, Simon Westwater and Antoine Pujol from Plessey Semiconductors.
At Cambridge, the LEDs are grown on a 6 x 2" Thomas Swan (now Aixtron) reactor, whereas at Plessey, they are grown on an Aixtron CRIUS II-XL 7 x 6" platform.
LEDs and the associated solid state lighting solutions are due to become the dominant form of lighting in all forms in within the next five years. Solid state lighting is an energy efficient eco-friendly technology that will save billions of tons of carbon emissions when fully implemented. There are also no recycling issues that fluorescent lighting poses with mercury content.
Engineering samples are available from the Plessey website, www.plesseysemi.com.
