The dark tide surging LED six giants become increasingly fierce


For industries that have grown so rapidly in the past few years, the new ranks of newcomers who want to squeeze into high-brightness light-emitting diode (HB-LED) manufacturers seem to have proven to be quite difficult.

Still ahead of the top six leading chip makers, followed by Epistar, OsramOS, Cree, Philips Lumileds and ToyodaGosei.

And apart from some divestiture and mergers and acquisitions, this has always been the case. However, many companies in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China have emerged to challenge this situation. The reason is that the HB-LED industry is very attractive.

As a key component in the manufacture of LED chips, Aixtron, a leading MOCVD supplier, may be aware of this trend earlier than others. The German company in the investor conference call of the middle of last year, executive president Paul Hyland said that some traditional silicon industry companies expressed interest in investing in LED production equipment, and LCD manufacturers hope to further move to the industrial chain. Downstream expansion.

The two world-leading TV and computer monitor LCD panel makers, including Taiwan's twin tower giants ChiMei and AUO, are hoping to enter the LED industry. This is an open secret. Walsin Lihwa is Taiwan's third-largest LCD company, and recently its HannStarDisplay has purchased MOCVD equipment for production. Hyland's alleged silicon semiconductor company is widely believed to be Taiwan's foundry TSMC.

In addition to the above three companies, there are LED industry giants Samsung, Panasonic and Toshiba, and CenturyEpitech, which has purchased four Aixtron epitaxial devices. Suddenly you will find a list of leading LED manufacturers. Not the same as before.

Has the industrial structure changed?

Although all of these companies want to hold their cards tight, there is one thing that everyone knows: if they are willing, any one of them can change the face of the LED industry through acquisitions in the stock market.

However, this kind of thing has not happened yet. On the contrary, it seems that they each want to produce LED chips themselves. BobSteele, an analyst with StrategyUnlimited, who has been focusing on the LED industry for many years, estimates that CMO has been researching LEDs for at least two years. There are rumors that flat panel display experts have started selling low-end chips in China.

Chi Mei's rival AUO is just beginning to buy growth equipment, at least for a few years behind, but it also has the desire to vertically integrate from the extension stage. Various situations have shown that TSMC will do the same, and it is not surprising that it has resources. Steele recently commented on TSMC's investment in MOCVD equipment: compared to the resources needed to build a silicon foundry or flat panel foundry, it's just a glimpse.

Steele told the author that if you look at the current situation in Taiwan, where there is already such a strong LED supply capacity, you will wonder why they have to invest in building their own internal supply.

This strategy looks even more strange when you consider that AUO and Chi Mei do not produce their own cold cathode fluorescent lamps for LCD screen backlights. Perhaps the two companies expect a profitable commercial LED chip by-product line.

Steele added that once capacity is increased, it is natural to put LED chips on the commercial market; but considering the existing capacity in the market, especially for Taiwan, we really need other businesses. Chip supplier?

For flat panel display manufacturers, controlling the supply of LED chips is clearly an important strategic decision. But for large wafer foundries like TSMC, the above assumptions are difficult to establish. What kind of grand plan does the power plant have?

AsifAnwar, director of GaAs business at StrategyAnalytics, is closely monitoring the development of the LED industry for a long time. He commented that when you start to discuss companies like TSMC and compare them to Taiwan's largest LED manufacturer, Jingyuan Optoelectronics, the former is an absolute giant. Therefore, if they put the plan into action, it will change the overall industrial structure.

Anwar believes that no matter which market TSMC wants to enter, it must have a huge demand for LEDs, and LEDs must have specific wavelengths and luminescence characteristics. He believes that the market will eventually be ordinary lighting. In future indoor lighting, 3-4 separate chips need to be packaged into a separate solid-state lighting bulb. Anwar said that TSMC hopes to build a DRAM-like product empire. Although the current development is rapid, the LED industry has not yet developed to the size of silicon.


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