Lasers and LEDs are in competition to illuminate the next generation of displays. While lasers have certain technical advantages over LEDs, especially in projection displays but also in LCD BLUs, LEDs have gotten the jump on lasers. RPTV systems with LED illumination are available from Samsung and others, pocket projectors with LEDs are available from several companies, virtually all cell phones use LEDs in their BLUs, notebook computers with LEDs are appearing in sizes up to 15" and high-end, large screen LCD displays have been demonstrated and some have even been marketed. On the other hand, Laser RPTV or pico-projectors will probably not appear in volume until 2008 and laser BLUs for LCD systems are still a gleam in Novalux’s eye.

Matt Brennesholtz
Insight Media Analyst

Several recent news tidbits indicate that this trend toward LEDs may not be over. Insight Media has always said that LEDs for displays have a strong synergy with LEDs for other applications, such as area illumination. Any development in the high-brightness LED business benefits LEDs for displays, even if the development is not specifically targeting displays. Lasers with the power output and wavelengths needed for display applications, on the other hand, have relatively few other applications. The money people seem to agree with Insight Media and are pouring money into advanced LED developments. Money is coming from VCs, government grants and investments from existing companies.

Item: On October 1st, 2007 LedEngin, Inc. secured $11 Million in Series C Funding. According to the press release, LedEngin will use the funding to expand sales channels and manufacturing capacity, and develop additional solid state lighting solutions for ultra bright lighting applications traditionally served by halogen and incandescent bulbs. "The Solid State Lighting (SSL) Industry is just beginning to take off," said Tim Wilson, a partner in Partech International, a VC company that supplied some of the financing. "LED die manufacturers are under tremendous pressure to improve efficiency and lower cost. LedEngin has invented complementary packaging technologies that allow the LED component to be smaller, more efficient, much brighter and more reliable."

Item: NIST funds LED projects under the Advanced Technology Program. Several of the 56 companies receiving recent ATP grants from the National Institute for Standards and Technology, received specific grants for LED development. These include Crystal IS, Inc. ($2.0M), HexaTech, Inc. ($2.0M), QD Vision, Inc. ($2.0M) and Sarnoff Corporation ($1.6M). Typically, with an ATP grant the company must invest about the same mount of its own money into the development project. All of these grants were for either UV/purple LEDs or phosphors for white LEDs.

Item: New factory to expand the capacity of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. On July 17th, Osram broke ground for construction of an LED chip factory in Penang, Malaysia. According to Osram, this will be the world’s most advanced chip factory, with a floor area of more than 30,000 square meters. It will add 800 employees to the existing Osram presence, bringing it to a total of 3000. In addition, the capacity of the existing LED assembly line in Penang, which started operation back in 1972, will be increased by more than 50 percent.

Item: A different Matthew once said, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." -MB

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