LED Fever

ASMPT latest Opto wire bonder Neon is market leader in speed, stability and P/P

2024-07-03T15:48:00.000+08:00

"Neon" is 2024 latest introduction of Opto Wire bonder from ASMPT Singapore.

Its speed is about 16K average for devices which is faster than competitor Kulic & Sofa Ultra Lux

as shown here.

device 1212 , UPH 16.5K

device 1515 UPH 16.5K

device 2020 15K

device 1921 UPH 15K

Which are proven in field 40% faster then USA K & S Ultra Lux running on the same device

Price is also very competitor

LED Fever

2021-09-29T16:28:00.003+08:00

It has been changing a lot for LED nature and application since the time I focus on this blog.

Nowadays mots of the illumination are in LED format, TV Black light are mostly LED.

LED nature has been diminishing in physical size, LED assembly equipment are getting much higher UPH (unit per hour) as comparing with ten years ago. Many LEDs are being product in the Monster of manufacturing country China. Many of the latest development will be moving to Mini or Micro LED application for finer, denser, brighter and using much more cost down process.

We would like to see more newer technology on LED panel, or LED display product being rolled out in the Monster Factories of China.

I am back to LED Fever... See you more on this

HK Snob

LED Fever

5 LED Lighting Market Trends You Should Pay Attention to in 2017

2017-05-25T07:14:00.003+08:00

5 LED Lighting Market Trends You Should Pay Attention to in 2017

By: Michael Munoz - DUMALUX LED Lighting

A decade ago, the work of most LED lighting companies was centered on educating the public about the benefits of LEDs and how they surpassed other lighting options when compared.

The years have since rolled by and major in-roads or milestones have been made and celebrated by the LED industry and today, its importance has been recognized, as the approximately 30 billion dollars global market built around LED shows.

In this decade, the challenges to be faced are quite different and in this article, the 5 most important challenges and the LED lighting market trends they have created will be covered in the succeeding paragraphs:

1. The Rise of Bespoke Products will Yield more Profits

The market for generic LED fixtures and lights like bulbs, panels and tubes has definitely become oversaturated as more manufacturers join the “LED revolution” and price wars take place.

Therefore for manufacturers to stand-out in the LED community, a shift in design perspective is been considered by most manufacturers.

2017, is expected to see LED manufacturers provide customized products for niche industries—interior décor, hotels, bars, outdoors etc.—in order to bring in more profits.

A customization option that we believe will feature prominently in 2017 is the use of innovative designs, which allows manufacturers in the LED lighting industry to differentiate themselves from each other.

These customizable LED fixtures will provide manufacturers with enough flexibility when setting prices for their LED lights.

2. The Smart Lighting Sector will Spearhead Innovation in the LED Industry

The euphoria that greeted the introduction of Smart LED fixtures to consumers is slowly waning due to a lack of innovation in the sector.

But there are still great strides to be made and successful innovations in this sector could be the difference between achieving profitability or going bust for LED manufacturers and vendors.

It is also important to note that the ability to dim lights and tune lighting colours are played out which means fresh innovation is needed to breathe light into the smart LED lighting sectors.

Recognizing these challenges, a couple of LED manufacturers have taken the bull by the horns. And the example of TVilight, a smart lighting startup that produces LED systems is a testament to this.

In the Dutch city of Eindhoven, this startup installed smart LED systems with the ability to determine how busy a street is in order to produce adequate lighting for commuters.

This system illuminated busy pathways and switched off when these pathways were empty. TVilight’s successes have led to the further integration of its smart LED systems in countries across Europe.

TVilight’s successes are just a sneak peek into what smart LED systems can do—in terms of saving energy, beautifying cities etc.—for today’s society. 2017 will see more start-ups commercializing smart LED systems for both domestic and commercial consumption.

3. LED to Make In-roads in the IoT Community

The Internet of Things (IoT) concept which is based on seamless interconnectivity across all facets of human life has a new target… And this target is the LED lighting community.

The global pursuit of interconnected smart devices and systems has created an enabling environment that LED manufacturers—interested in developing smart systems—can ‘leverage’ on.

Here, the term ‘leverage’ means manufacturers can develop IoT-enabled LED systems as a means to achieving profitability.

Through to form, the LED community has accepted this challenge and manufacturers are beginning to integrate LED systems into IoT in unique ways.

A great example is the case of Tridonic’s—a supplier of lighting solutions—collaboration with EON Reality Inc.—an augmented reality firm—to create LED lights controlled and supported by augmented reality applications.

Its aim is to create lighting systems that can be controlled and maintained with AR applications. Such systems can then be deployed in greenhouses, airports or other places where the need to maintain adequate lighting to increase productivity or growth is important.

Lastly, the ability to integrate these applications into home automation systems will create an avenue for IoT-powered LED lights to break into the domestic consumer space.

Getting this right will definitely increase the market share of LED manufacturers in the domestic or homeowners’ market.

4. Non-visible LED Lights Will Receive Mainstream Acceptance

The fierce competition among manufacturers in the LED community has created an environment where each vendor introduces new concepts to out-do the competition.

This competitiveness has led manufacturers to focus on LED applications in the non-visible light spectrum such as the use of UVs or IR LEDs.

In 2016, non-visible LEDs were predominantly used in the security and remote control design industries but 2017 is set to see it penetrate other industries such as; the biometrics, biomedical and agricultural industries.

Although access to the technological components that support non-visible LED lights is still not readily available to most manufacturers, 2017 may signal a changing landscape in the production of non-visible LED.

5. China’s Dominance is a LED Lighting Market Trend that is set to Continue

It is no longer news that Chinese LED lighting manufacturers backed by government financial aid, have carved out a huge chunk of the global LED market for itself and 2017 is expected to witness a continuation of this trend.

In the 4^th quarter of 2016, a Chinese consortium led by MLS attempted to purchase the German lighting giants, Osram’s LEDADVANCE, in a megadeal which was stopped by the German government.

Although the German economic ministry refused to comment on the reason why it interfered, experts interpreted its interference as the countries way of halting China’s big push into the LED lighting market.

A larger offer in 2017, pushed the scale in China’s favour and Osram’s LEDAVANCE was finally purchased by the Chinese. This trend is set to continue as government-backed Chinese firms look to control the global LED market in order to push prices in its favour.

Final Thoughts

Now you have our predictions for 2017 and the question it raises to manufacturers, vendors and third-party distributors is simple:

How will your organization tackle these changes? We are interested in hearing about your strategies and ideas to beat the odds in 2017 which means that the comment box below is open to your contributions.

Do you want to hear more? Please do not forget to visit our blog.

Special LED journalist Michael Munoz.

LED Fever.

World Brightest LED Torch Navy Seal Grade Tactical flashlight G700

2016-02-22T14:12:00.001+08:00

That's what you get with the G700- a new Navy Seal Grade tactical flashlight.

The truth is, most people underestimate the importance of owning a great flashlight. And these days, in a world where terrorism, and natural disasters are becoming the norm, it's more important than ever to have the right tactical gear.

This light's incredible LED technology is used by the U.S. Navy Seals, the Coast Guard, Firemen, Policemen, U.S. Search and Rescue and now it's been placed inside of an amazing Flashlight called the G700...700 Lumen.

Sold very fast at USD$200.

I am looking for more specification and who is the one to make the Chip.

HK Snob
LED Fever

LED light Bulb sold in Kilogram for just 10 Yuan!

2014-12-22T23:23:00.001+08:00

Real LED Maket that sell by Weight!

A Zhong Shan (China) LED manufacturer in Zhongshan, who sell all their products in the inventory cheaply as a last resort to payback suppliers towards the end of the year, suppliers are urging manufacturers to pay up, while employees are waiting for their salaries.

“They sell LED bulb for 10 RMB Yuan for 1 Kilo!”

Some manufacturers have declared bankruptcy as they find it increasingly difficult to survive with their low product sales, and easing market demands. However, this is the first company to sell products in this cheapo way.

As in general products costs will be further lowered, have higher luminaries efficiency and are easier to assemble, more players are dumping into this LED industry in China.

“This is darkness before sunrise,” said Zhengzhe Wu, former General Manager of Everlight. China Manufacturers that survive are still those that rely on lean manufacturer, simpler process and higher LED output per dollar and nothing less, good quality that makes a good brand name.

LED Fever
HK Snob

Cree LED Bulb

2014-11-04T00:06:00.001+08:00

Cree introduces the New Cree^® LED Bulb, delivering superior light performance while looking just like an incandescent light bulb at an even more affordable price.

Featuring a new innovative design, the New Cree LED Bulb provides the same cost savings and 25,000-hour lifetime that made the original Cree LED Bulb America’s best-selling LED bulb.

Available as 40- and 60-watt replacements, the New Cree LED Bulb is available at The Home Depot^® for as low as US $7.97. This is a 20% price mark down compared to previous bulb products, said Cree.

HKWF

LED Fever

LED Market for 2015, a summary from a Report to tell, it is still on Positive side for Growth in 2015

2014-10-19T17:09:00.003+08:00

+ Growing demand + disciplined capacity expansion = tight supply in 2015

Looking ahead into 2015, our global High Brightness LED supply/demand model suggests tight supply could continue, driven by rising demand and disciplined capacity expansion. We forecast HB LED area demand ('area' refers to the total chip space used to generate light) will grow 19% YoY, capacity will expand 16%, and the global LED supply sufficiency ratio will narrow further from 4% in 2014E to 2% in 2015E. We therefore remain positive on the global LED sector.

+ General lighting demand will remain the key growth driver in 2015E

General lighting demand grew strongly in 2014, driven by falling LED light bulb prices and more promotion from global LED vendors. Recovering economies in developed markets such as Western Europe and the US also contributed to rising demand.

On an annual shipment basis, we see scope for LED-based lighting products to reach 10-12% growth in 2014E (versus 4-5% in 2013), higher than our previous estimate of 7-8%. We expect the penetration rate to further increase in 2015 and general lighting demand to grow 38% YoY in 2015. I personal Doubt the figure has been exaggerated or not, I am it is about 25-30% at most.

+ Chipmakers are prudent in expansion, while packagers are more +aggressive

We estimate LED chip area supply will increase 16% YoY in 2015, mainly driven by Chinese chipmakers. However, Chinese chipmakers have just started to order equipment in H214 and we do not expect additional capacity to be ready until H215—hence, capacity could be even tighter in H115. Even with a ramp-up in capacity, we still expect tight supply in H215. On the other hand, as packaging companies are more aggressively expanding capacity, there could be higher pricing pressure for packagers in 2015E.

+ We remain positive on the global LED space

The aggregate PE and P/BV of our Buy-rated stocks recently fell sharply below their trading range (Figures 2-3)—this share price correction could provide an attractive buying opportunity for long-term investors as we expect fundamentals to further improve in 2015. We think the key risks to our views are: 1) excess capacity driven by more overly-aggressive expansion; and 2) weaker-than-expected general lighting demand due to a slow global economic recovery.

LED Fever

Congratulations to Shuji Nakamura to be awarded with Nobel price on LED

2014-10-08T23:46:00.000+08:00

As I had mentioned 4 years ago that Nakamura San would be likely earning the Nobel price because of his
technical achievement on Blue LED and LED invention.

I read about news Today that finally, he got it!

Congratulations!

HK Snob

Uniqol New Shop at Ocean Centre Uses all LED for Illumination

2014-07-16T16:55:00.001+08:00

All Package is of K2 format.

HK Snob

LED applictaion on some of the Expensive Wine!

2014-05-18T16:47:00.003+08:00

What a great idea to use LED on some of the expensive wine, this is Don Perignon 2003.

It could be submerged into the Ice bucket for more than 1 hour with the LED's ON!

An awesome idea that stands out at night when someone's birthday, Well, Bottoms Up!
HK Snob

Causeway Bay Time Square World's Largest LED display for Candy Crush at 2014 new year Count down!

2014-01-01T11:49:00.001+08:00

The LED display wall was made with 12,000 LEDs

HK Snob

LED Street Lighting for Christmas at Tsuen Wan MTR station , HK

2013-12-09T08:16:00.002+08:00

Every year this time, I used to picture these awesome LED chains diaplay at the MTR Terminal Tsuen Wan.
Nowadays, the major growth on LED is street lamp, and we believe that only 5% of the world Street light is made of LED, and the room to grow is tremendous!

HK Snob

LED street Lighting in Manila, an Indication of the Adoption Rate of Street Lighting

2013-10-31T20:22:00.001+08:00

This is a LED street lamp in Alabang, MoLito area, the whole area has been installed this LED street lamp.
It consists of K2 device on top as for main illumination, the four light post is designed as decoration light as it light up with running downward look light rain drops at night, It would be an Excellent Christmas light.

As what the LED people says, the penetration of Street lamp is 3%. Most of the installation is in advance country like Japan, Germany, Certain City of US, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, France and China's LED City like Wei Feng in Shan Dong.

However in city of Philippines, we can see a lot of LED lighting too, so the Government incentive may play a key role to push for more adoption of LED as City' s Lighting., and I am sure they will enjoy the cost effectiveness using LED over the years.

HK Snob
Watch Fever
LED Fever

LED Logo at HKIA Rolex AD

2013-10-15T18:44:00.001+08:00

LED on Advertisement

This is no ordinary LED Display, not that the LED is not stuck on the glasses, they were embedded into the glass with almost transparent connecting wires.

There are roughly three hundred White mid power LEDs with approximately 0.3W each. That is a 90W powder rating and if that is driven by a 5V supply, the current is 18A.

How could a hidden conductor inside a glass to do that? Well, I will take a close look into it...

What I am trying to say that there is a lot of applications for LED on Advertisement. And there will be thousand ways to display the techniology in front of you!

That is the HKIA Rolex AD boutique, the Asian largest with 500 Sq metres shop at the main departure concourse in HK International Airport.

LED Fever
HK Snob
Watch Fever

2012 World largest LED Companies

2013-09-22T08:17:00.002+08:00

2012 World largest LED companies, Japan's Nichia, followed by Korean Samsung, German Osram, Korean LG and Seoul Semi...

Dominant by Korea, Japan and US are the world famous company for LED, mosty they have their own wafer fab, downstream assembly. One common sucessful factor for their success are 80% of them are using most efficient and reliable assembly equipment supplied by ASM Pacific Technology Singapore.

They have their unique technology, patents and commercial trade secret to be successful LED giants.

LED Fever

Q4 13 would be having higher demand on Lighting LED as comparing with Q3 13

2013-09-22T08:10:00.002+08:00

Q4 13 would be having higher demand on Lighting LED as comparing with Q3 13

After off-season of June and July, LED lighting will not usher in the season until August and September to the end of this year, and the base of last year is poor, from the third quarter, the year on year growth of LED enterprises is expected to improve quarter by quarter, which is conducive to enhancing the market's confidence for LED section.

In view of the life cycle of consumer electronics, new product penetration will grow at the fastest speed from 10% to 55%, the current LED lighting penetration rate is about 8%, and it is about to enter the stage of rapid growth.

LED section has fluctuated greatly, this sharp rebound of LED plate from the bottom is mainly because the LED lighting penetration enters the fast growth phase, while the LED backlight market penetration is close to 80%, LED lighting has officially replace the LED backlight to become the main driving force of LED industry to grow, and which has been verified with the short-term operations in June and July of the domestic LED enterprises.

Compared with LED backlight market at the value of one hundred billion, LED lighting market will reach one trillion, it is believed that domestic high-quality companies have more growth opportunities in the era of LED lighting. In addition, the best stock in U.S. market RVLT belongs to LED stock, this stock rose 515 percent this year, reflecting that the U.S. market is optimistic about LED lighting industry, which will further firm market's confidence.

In future, the performance of mainland China LED companies and American enterprises is more representative of global LED industry trends. In details, San An photoelectric is rapidly stepping towards the NO.1 in the world in LED chip field, and the subsequent further layout in downstream applications also is the trend, in the LED lighting market at the value of one trillion, there still is huge room for San An photoelectric to grow, and it is just a step away from the new record high.

LED Fever

Who is the beneficiary? Taiwan or China LED from the recent China Recent Credit Crunch on LED industry?

2013-09-22T08:05:00.002+08:00

Who is the beneficiary? Taiwan or China LED from the recent China Recent Credit Crunch on LED industry?

The Chinese government subsidized purchase of MOCVDs from 2008-2013, but with subsidies ending this year, and with small companies unable to acquire subsidies, it has caused the issue of idle equipment. Although China added 300 MOCVDs this year, less than one third has actual output. Some equipment manufacturers even face accounts receivable risks. There is doubt about the industry’s unbalanced supply and demand.

Chinese banks’ recent credit crunch has impacted the LED industry. More than 100 LED manufacturers have defaulted as a result in Eastern and Southern China this year. Taiwanese LED manufacturers have emerged as the beneficiaries of the industry restructuring, as foreign investors purchase stock from industry leaders Epistar and Everlight.

In July, several LED manufacturers in southern China announced insolvency due to the Chinese government’s monetary policies to curb shadow banking, which restricts lending to “six industries with high levels of idle capacity” that includes LED and solar energy, according to a recent Xinhua News Agency report.

Chinese LED manufacturers suffered from short-term turnover issues as a result, which led to the recent wave of closures in Foshan and Guangzhou area. At least more than 100 Chinese small-mid size LED companies have shut down this year, as a conservative estimations.

The above trends are happening not only in China, also Taiwan. Over the last two years, banks have been increasingly conservative in their lending to the LED industry, according to a financial director of a major Taiwanese LED brand. However as a comparison, Taiwan LED manufacturer’s finance structure and cash flows are much better than their Chinese counterparts’.

China’s subsidy policy is the root cause behind the unbalance of supply and demand in the LED industry, said those in the industry. Currently, there is a continual rise in LED lighting demands, and the bar remains high for entry in the mid and high powered LED applications. Taiwan’s LED manufacturers have technology as backup, and will be the biggest beneficiaries in this bankruptcy wave in China, especially companies that are focused on LED lighting.

As an Analysts estimation that Epistar and Everlight will emerge as the biggest beneficiaries from this default wave in China. Currently, China’s downstream manufacturers are experiencing financial difficulties, while upstream epitaxy manufacturers will face the issue of staff returning to Taiwan.

Foreign investors purchased Epistar and Everlight stocks because both companies have healthy financial structure and advanced technology.

LED Fever

success of samsung ..comment

2013-09-05T10:17:00.003+08:00

Sorry to inform one fan that made a comment on the post success of Samsung.
My led blog have some Google bugs I think
..I can not send comments on that.
Ifu see this. Please post comment again..

LED FEVER

Success of Samsung

2013-06-20T16:01:00.004+08:00

Success of Samsung

I lose money because I once won some money...through gambling the winner and the loser...

This is a typical ancient Chinese idioms to tell people not to gamble, and what Chinese says, the reason of losing money because once they Have won some money.

Greed is interpreted as excessive desire to acquire or possess more than one need or deserves, buying mark six or gambling in Lisboa Hotel would likely clean off your saving only. Worst case is someone uses it's company asset to put it on the desk for a big risk challenge to try his luck.

The first time I bought Mark six was a surprise, I won one hundred dollars, over the next two years, I believed I had spent more than two thousand dollars in buying but the luck never came to me again.

So I decided not to buy again as I think the mark six is uncontrollable whereas my saving up the money is controllable.

Winner goes to those who can play safe and play smart...

September 15 2008 had a worldwide economy melt down triggered by the US house hold loan deficit by over borrowing and the sudden bankruptcy of Leman Brothers.

A lot of people might think that it would took three to five years to recover. However unexpectedly it took less than 10 months to fully recovered, Samsung grabbed the good timing to launch the LED TV as a gimmick to stimulate the consumer markets. Samsung earned a lot of market share, replaced Japan to become world number One in Hi End TV maker and as well a new worldwide recognition in Samsung’s branding.

One of the reason was good packaged product using LED as a means to have green energy for new young buyers, new technology to product thinner slimmer TV for Asian where space is a concern, time to replace TV staying home for less spending with a technology vision and clears steering direction from the CEO. Samsung had laid a rail for his hand phone locomotive to move forward even in a faster speed...

A strategy of good product marketing campaign one followed the other to capture world smart Phone. Samsung spends multi million dollars everyone just to promote his LED TV in Hong Kong one month.

Now they still capture the market of moribund Nokia, Apple and Sony to be the number one in worldwide smart phone market.

Successful factors of Samsung is: Good product, right timing, good promotion campaign and Good gimmick.

HK Snob

LED Light may cause Human Eyes Damages

2013-05-23T21:27:00.001+08:00

Citi Bank Building in Mong Kok

Research has claimed that the ecofriendly LED lights may cause permanent damage to your eyes. The study found that exposure to LED lights can cause irreparable harm to the retina of the human eye.

According to Think-Spain.com, once the retina cells are destroyed by prolonged and continuous exposure to LED rays, they cannot be replaced and will not regrow.

Researchers said this is caused by the high levels of radiation in the 'blue band' , and is likely to become a global epidemic in the medium term given that computer, mobiles and TV screens, and even traffic and street lights, have been gradually replaced with LED. Experts are calling for the lights to have built-in filters to cut out the blue glare.

At very high light emission intensities, blue light (short-wavelength 400-500 nm) can photo-chemically destroy the photo-pigments (and some other molecules) which then act as free radicals and cause irreversible, oxidative damage to retinal cells (up to blindness).

We should treat this a social hygienic Warning, don't look at the LED light directly, do not stare at a LED light directly especial the Blue.

We should ban the Light pollution especially in area like Mongkok and Yau Ma Tei, which they keep LED light on even at night.

The advantage of using LED is partly due to the power harvest, and if we keep turning on LED 24 hours even there are no people are, that could be a way of offend the original purpose of LED.

On the other hand, LED should be categorized into part of the CE mark or National Safety for health and hygienic to have control on the emission intensity. At least some kind of warning has to be show on the Display of the Handset.

Moreover, when we use our smart phone at night, try to adjust the intensity to a comfortable intensity.

When we do hiking, don’t point the Super Bright LED head lamp at someone eyes.

HK Snob

LED Cathedral

2012-11-22T19:56:00.001+08:00

Ghent Light Festival held in Belgium, displayed for four days (from January 26 to January 29, 2012), as a cathedral and made from no less than 55.000 LED lights. According to the official website of the festival, “Belfortstraat (Belfort Street) was the domain of the Luminarie Cagna. A giant colonnade made of wood and hundreds LEDs, with arches that remind one of Romanesque and Renaissance architecture. This immense work of art with 55,000 LED lights consumes only 20Kwatt / h of electricity.
HK Snob

Typical 3 W LED bulb Construction

2012-09-16T12:23:00.001+08:00

LED 3 Watts Light bulb

This is a typical more les standard LED light bulb configuration from YuanShuai ShenZhen,

6 pieces 7025 LEDs mounted on an Aluminum substrate screwed onto the aluminum heat sink for hest dissipation, a simple Switching board that converted 220V AC into 3.75 V DV to drive the 7 LEDs.

A Light reflector screw in on to the heat sink,

This is pretty standard set-up for making the LED, and we know that we can actually buy the parts to make our own assembly.

How is the price, well you may not believe it, we bought it in a Recent Shenzhen LED Show with just RMB3.00. that is about HKD$3.6 or USD$0.5!!

I am sure this is juts a promotional price for this Chinese LED supplier. But that is the trend of the LED ASL going down to USD$5 for a 3W LED light blub.

That is the price for norm for a good reliable material, and reliable driving circuitry for a 3W LED package.

HK Snob

OutLook For China LED market 2012-2014

2012-09-06T23:17:00.003+08:00

Outlook for LED market and LED manufacturing

China MOCVD Market slow down

The China MOCVD tool market grew rapidly and reached a peak in 2011, MOCVD installation ranked as first in the world with a half of the total quantity shipped in the world.

Oversupply is one of major reason of slow down on the MOCVD, utilization rate as low as 20% were happened especially on some “new comers”. In 2012, China's new MOCVD installation is expected to be about 40% of 2011 level. MOCVD market is expected to be at a low level till 2014.

China LED Fab,

China LED industry experienced a rapid increase in 4 years and — had a total of about 80 LED epitaxial and chip fabs at the end of 2011. However price Erosion is the major bad news in maintaining the business. Starting in 2012, the number of China fabs could decline due to either loss or unable to provide deliverables to the private or state investors. Estimated 40% of China LED fabs will suspend operations or be acquired by 2015. Only companies has strong technology foothold, large scale productivity and patented technology will remain unaffected.

I have talked to some of the key players in China and their lines they bought in 2010 is still running with 30-40% capacity, which is still under my earlier estimation of 50-60% for September 2012. This is a bad sign that LED is not growing fast as we expected in 2011.

Reasons are:

Price Erosion
Technology improvement with higher efficacy of LED, less LED is required for same light intensity before.
End application design improvement including light guide effiency thus reducing the number of LEDs
LED assembly is continuing fine tuning the manufacturing process and manufacturing equipment UPH maximizing.
Low cost low end assembly equipment is dumping into the China market
Domino effect of end users are feeling nervous of using LED quality LED made by low end Assembly equipment due to poor reliability.
Boosting too much on the LED Life time, but due to poor driver circuit design and poor wire bonding process or the fall out Chip in use, the LED dies much earlier than it was Claimed to be.

Nowadays, everyone knows the LED assembly process, and there are so many Fabs making LED, the only way to earn money is having higher powerful LED assembly technology and good supply of high power chips

Or LED will be like the case for TV… Panasonic, Sharp does not want to make TV anymore as they lose market to Korean and Chinese Makers…Sharp is going to selling their LCD panel factory to Foxconn.

Fro, what I see and guess LED will not be blooming until there are either, or and…

New international LED makers to have a commercial standard for LED luminaries mounting, shape, reliability and life time guarantee
New Driver for a national standard for LED quality.
UN or DOE approval LED category on Chip efficacy, assembly, luminaries, or finished LED products be rated with Energy Star.
Hi End Equipment Suppliers makes super-in-line assembly for Display, VLED and K2 types LED as Total solution provider. Thus to ensure good quality LED is made under automated process control.

End

ASM Pacific Technology delivers 100x300mm leadframe packaging set up

2012-08-07T22:03:00.001+08:00

ASM Pacific Technology delivers 100 x 300mm eadframe packaging set up
July 26, 2012 -- Semiconductor packaging and assembly equipment supplier ASM Pacific
Technology Limited noted in its H1 2012 results a record level of orders for leadframes in Q2. It also delivered what it calls the largest leadframe packaging set up to date.
â€oe Overall, the market demand continues to be driven by portable electronic products such as smart phones and tablet computers,â€• said Lee Wai Kwong, CEO, ASM.
Leadframes benefited from improved market demand, lower raw material prices, and operational improvements, ASM reported. The company also moved its leadframe packaging users to floating prices.
ASM delivered a leadframe packaging set up -- equipment and leadframes -- for 100 x 300mm leadframes to a packaging customer in Q2. This is currently the widest leadframe on the market and therefore cost-efficient, ASM said. The equipment had to overcome specific production and packaging challenges with this leadframe matrix size.
Also read: Contemporary semiconductor packaging experts open up on cost, covering Leroy A. Christie, ASM Pacific, presenting on large leadframe matrices at SEMICON West.
ASM Pacific Technology Limited provides semiconductor assembly and packaging equipment, as well as SMT equipment. Learn more at www.asmpacific.com.
Visit the Advanced Packaging Channel of Solid State Technology, and sign up for our Advanced Packaging News e-newsletter!
To access this Article, go to:http://www.electroiq.com/content/eiq-2/en/articles/ap/2012/07/asm-pacific-technology-delivers-
100-x-300mm-leadframe-packaging-set-up.html
ASM Pacific Technology delivers 100 x 300mm leadframe packaging set up - Print thi... Page 1 of 1http://www.electroiq.com/articles/ap/2012/07/asm-pacific-technology-delivers-100-x-3... 28/7/2012
HK Snob

Epoxy Bond Line thickness control

2012-08-05T02:23:00.000+08:00

Epoxy is widely been used as a material to hold the die securely onto the substrate, lead frame which act as means to dissipate the heat energy generate by the chip operations. After Die attach, we need to cure the epoxy under certain temperature and time.

There is a need to control the bond line as there is significant performance contributed by the BLT (Bond Line Thickness)

Die attach media

Epoxy, Silver epoxy, non-conductive adhesive, soft solder, DAF (die attach film),

CTE

Different material has different rate of expansion on different temperature.

Copper has a much faster expansion than silicon. And matching of the die and substrate is necessary but not possible to be perfect unless same material is being used. As LED is afraid of heat, 5 degrees lower the LED junction teamperature will able to prolong 5,000 hours of the LED life time, hence Semileds has made copper layer on bottom of the high power LEDs at wafer fab. Stage which can be used on copper substrates for perfect conduction of heat.

Whereas for IC DA process consideration, an optimum of the die material and substrate by means of different type of DA media and the thickness of it is needed.

Effect of the Bond line thickness

Too thick the epoxy will reduce the effect heat conduction from the chip to the substrate. Too thin of the epoxy layer will reduce the cushion effect, in other words, the die and substrates will expand in different rate that the epoxy layer could not absorb the deformation or warp page. Or, under high temperate there is a high chance for the chip to be fully detached and or partly detached from the substrates, thus create hot spots thus the heat dissipation rate is reduced, the operation temperature of the chip will increase and hence shorten life of the chip or even cause premature failure.

Optimum thickness of epoxy is needed for optimizing the bond strength, heat dissipation and to ensure long life time of the package.

More powerful chip is made than before, an integrated circuit of 1mmx1mm contained 1,000 transistors in the 70s' same size of chip nowadays contain 5 millions. However the design of the package material has not much different, nor improvement at all.

Automotive requirement

Automotive are the toughest test site for an integrated circuit. The temperature of Sahara is 80 degree C in day and -20 at night, the car and their IC package will experience thousand s of temperature cycles every year The requirement for a bond line control as one of the key requirement. Twenty years ago the bond line for general purpose IC package of small power is considered loose. Partly because the available die attach machine was not able to provide such kind of accuracy. Recently, tendency of controlling the BLT is tighter and tighter from CpK 1.33 then 1,67 and even 2.0.

Now there is almost a standard demand for a tight control on the epoxy thickness. Typically SOIC, PBGA or TSSOP, the equipment qualification list has a BLT control of min. 0.4 mil and not more than 0.8 mil with capability index of 2.0 or more. A standard deviation of more than 6 micron will fail to meet this requirement.

Epoxy

Epoxy has an imminent effect on the stability of the BLT, as if Epoxy is expired, not properly thawed, or very short pot life, that will contribution to inconsistency of epoxy dispensed, which in turn will after the volume of the epoxy. Machine wise, a highly consistent epoxy dispensing amount with continuous compensation over the hours is needed.

Some epoxy is very viscous and the die can be used up after the die is left on the epoxy, on the other hand for low viscosity epoxy, it is hard to make a very high BLT as it tends to smear after die is placed on the substrate

Geometry of the Epoxy dispensing nozzle

The factors affecting the performance of a dispensing needle has been investigated. It is found that the geometry of the needle (especially the length) has substantial impact on the characteristic of needles performance. In general, longer needles have a better capability to resist the dripping effect when handling a less viscous epoxy (say 3,500cps). However, a longer needle needs higher driving-pressure in order to dispense the same amount of epoxy when compared to a short needle. Besides, a short needle usually can give a faster response when compared to a long needle. From the past analysis, it seems that the tailing effect is not related to the length of the needle, but actually it is related to the wetting-surface-area on the needle and contact angle of epoxy.

Challenge on Material Variation

Current die bonder does not able to tell the variation of substrates thickness and die thickness; to achieve the BLT of CpK 2.0 is more or less like we throw a dart on the red target with folded eyes.

Challenge on Set-up

The Pick level, ejector level, bond level has interactive effect on the BLT, die tilting and placement (Die Rotation), hence it is a sweating job to achieve certain BLT process window, plus measurement o the bonded units for confirmation, it is really tedious to pass any production requirement on BLT at CpK 2.0

What can we do?

To ensure the high repeatability of machine in maintaining high capability index on epoxy... there is a need to have some means to detect the substrate thickness and at same time die thickness.

Methodology

In order to have good control over the BLT, the substrates thickness and die thickness has to be known in advance before the attach.

Bond head accuracy

Linear Z travel is needed, soft landing bond Z is an added advantage.

However the bonding Z motion should be precise at micron level, or least there is a high repeatability z motion.

UPH concern

Likely the machine UPH should have been affected in performing the accurate BLT.

All new Die attach equipment should have this precise Control on BLT.

HK Snob