Key aspects of LED lighting "antidote"

The LED lighting industry is currently facing a serious crisis of overcapacity, homogeneous competition, and a vicious cycle of low-price competition. The LED industry chain is in urgent need of development. Therefore, developing new, fashionable, and high-quality LED lighting fixtures will be a major research topic in the future, with high added value and output value, and it should be taken seriously from now on.

The development of LED industry can be divided into two stages

The luminous efficiency of products in the first stage of LED development was low, while the efficiency of products in the second stage continued to improve.

In 1962, Holonyak, who worked at General Electric Company in the United States, invented the gallium arsenide phosphide light-emitting diode and predicted: "The lamp of the future can be a piece of alloy the size of a pencil head, which is practical, not easy to break, and will never burn out. The conversion efficiency is at least 10 times greater than that of today's common light bulbs." In 1968, Monsanto Company launched commercial LED products. Over the past 30 years, the luminous efficiency of LEDs has increased 10 times every 10 years. By the end of the last century, it had increased 1,000 times. Haitz et al. proposed "another semiconductor revolution" in October 1999, which opened the prelude to the semiconductor lighting revolution.

Holonyak published an article titled "Are Light Emitting Diodes the Final Form of Light?" in the Journal of the American Physical Society in 2000, and concluded that "In principle, light emitting diodes are the final form of light, and in practice, they are the final form of light. It is extremely important to understand that they will develop until all powers and colors are realized." So far, high-brightness LEDs of various colors have been produced, and the luminous efficiency of white power LEDs has increased 10 times by 2010.

The development of the LED industry can be divided into two stages. The first stage was from 1968 to 1999, which was the growth stage of the LED industry. The product characteristics were relatively low luminous efficiency and were mainly used in signals and displays. The second stage was from 2000 to 2020, which was the stage of improvement and development of the LED industry. The product efficiency continued to improve, from 15lm/W equivalent to incandescent lamps to 258lm/W, exceeding all existing electric light sources. Its application range expanded to the lighting field until it became the protagonist in this field. Due to the guidance of technological development and the gradual expansion of the market scale, the total scale of the LED industry has increased tenfold or even a hundredfold.

Adjustment to the semiconductor lighting industry chain

Under the new circumstances, the LED industry chain must be adjusted to the semiconductor lighting industry chain.

In the first stage of LED industry development, the industrial chain structure was relatively simple, which is what we usually call the upstream, midstream and downstream industries of LED.

The upstream LED industry chain mainly refers to LED material epitaxy and chip manufacturing. We usually call these companies chip factories; the midstream LED industry chain refers to the LED device packaging industry, and the companies are called packaging factories; the downstream LED industry chain refers to the industry of LED display or signal application products, mainly LED display screens, LED signal lights, LED car lights, LCD backlight sources, etc.

In the second stage of LED industry development, LED luminous efficiency continues to increase significantly. In addition to further development in the original signal and display fields, the application is gradually expanded to the lighting field. By 2012, the efficiency of LED devices reached 130lm/W, which can not only replace incandescent lamps and halogen tungsten lamps, but also replace fluorescent lamps (including compact fluorescent lamps). The scale of the industry has grown significantly, especially the lighting application market has started. A typical example is that Japan sold 20 million LED bulbs in 2010 and 35 million in 2011. The European spotlight and PAR lamp market started, the North American downlight and bulb lamp started, and the Chinese LED street lamp started. People call 2010 the first year of LED lighting. LED lighting applications will develop rapidly. Under the new situation, the LED industry chain must be adjusted to the semiconductor lighting industry chain.

The characteristics of the semiconductor lighting industry chain mainly include three aspects: first, LED lighting applications are the main application areas; second, in addition to the manufacture of LED light sources and LED lamps, the use of modern new technologies to develop lighting services and system solutions has become the largest industry in the industry chain; third, as the scale of the industry expands, this requires the development of a production equipment and testing instrument manufacturing industry of a corresponding scale.

The structure of the semiconductor lighting industry chain has developed into an inverted triangle. From the data comparing the global semiconductor lighting industry chain in 2010 and 2020, we can see the following five development trends: First, in 2010, the entire industry chain was a diamond with a large middle and small ends, which was extremely abnormal. A healthy industrial structure should be like the inverted triangle in 2020, with large exports of an industry; second, the total output value of the entire industry chain in 2020 will increase 53 times compared with 2010, and the growth rate is very fast; third, the largest increase is in intelligent control LED lighting projects, which is more than 700 times; fourth, the second largest increase is lighting fixtures, which has increased 30 times in 10 years, and the third is LED packaging, which has increased 25 times in 10 years; fifth, from the output value in 2020, the output value of lighting fixture systems is almost 4 times that of LED packaging devices.

There are several views on the development of semiconductor lighting industry chain:

First, we will continue to develop materials and device production on the basis of initially establishing a complete industrial chain. This is the foundation of the industrial chain, and its leading growth will promote the sustainable development of downstream industries. With the prospect of expanding output value by more than 50 times, we will strive to develop manufacturing and testing equipment, especially MOCVD equipment, and strongly support the priority use and promotion of qualified products, so as to use our own equipment in the next wave of development.

Second, after initially solving the quality, lifespan and market problems of LED light sources, we should increase the research and development of lighting fixtures. Combining energy-saving light sources, high-quality lighting and culture and art will be an eternal theme. Just like fabrics and fashion, fabrics will be eliminated and developed, while fashion will keep pace with the times and flourish forever, even every 30 years. Providing high-quality LED lighting fixtures is something we can start doing now. The many advantages of LED provide greater innovation space for lighting fixture design.

Third, the biggest development should be lighting services and system solutions, or intelligent lighting system control engineering. Modern technology provides us with sensors, network technology, wireless communications, and other hardware and software conditions, and we can build this platform. LED can dim and adjust colors, and is compatible with integrated circuits in a system. The development of LED display technology and landscape lighting technology has provided us with a direction and can also generate secondary energy-saving benefits. A few years ago, we envisioned using mobile phones or computers to switch on and off or adjust home lighting outdoors. This year, we have seen experimental prototypes at the exhibition, and it is said that products will be available for sale soon. The energy saving, environmental protection and beautification of life of LED lighting will be carried out in a wider range and on a larger scale.

The content of the industrial chain needs to be developed urgently

Manufacturing and testing equipment, LED lighting fixtures and intelligent control LED lighting system engineering are three aspects of the industrial chain that need to be developed urgently.

In terms of manufacturing and testing equipment, the first is MOCVD equipment. At present, there are 17 enterprises in the country engaged in this research and development work, and some units have achieved preliminary epitaxy results. There are two large enterprises in the world, and their direction is large-scale and efficient. The second is substrate manufacturing equipment. Sapphire crystal growth equipment and silicon carbide crystal growth equipment have made great progress, and GaN crystal growth equipment needs to be strengthened. The third is chip manufacturing equipment. Such as photolithography machine, laser scribing machine, ion beam coating machine, ion etching machine, chip automatic detection machine, etc. The fourth is device packaging automation equipment. Fully automatic crystal bonding machine, full-automatic wire bonding machine, automatic glue dispensing machine, automatic taping machine, etc. The fifth is LED light source and lamp automation manufacturing equipment. Such as automatic placement machine, reflow soldering machine, light source or lamp automation production line. The sixth is testing equipment. Chip automatic tester, light fluorescence spectrum tester, carrier concentration tester, carrier concentration longitudinal distribution tester, thickness gauge, LED device light, color, and electricity comprehensive tester, LED accelerated aging and life tester, etc.

In terms of LED lighting fixtures, the current LED lighting fixtures are mainly imitated according to the concept of replacing traditional lighting fixtures, such as LED spotlights, LED PAR lamps, LED downlights, LED bulbs, LED tube lamps, LED ceiling lamps, LED street lamps, and LED tunnel lamps. There are not many LED-featured lamps, such as flat panel lamps. In addition, using the above light sources or lamps for redesign, developing new, fashionable, high-lighting quality LED lighting fixtures will be a new topic in the next century. Considering the high added value and high output value, it should be taken seriously from now on.

In the field of intelligent control LED lighting system engineering, in the past, both traditional lighting and LED lighting only counted the output value of lighting fixtures, and lighting engineering was usually classified as construction engineering. If intelligent control is introduced, not only many modern new technologies are used, but also the lighting quality is improved and the second energy saving effect is achieved, so the semiconductor lighting industry chain should include this part. In fact, landscape lighting has already developed and grown into an emerging industry in this way. Whether it is design, construction, or bidding, we are all based on the overall landscape lighting engineering.

Lighting control has a history of more than 20 years, from switches to dimming, from single lamps to intelligent systems, but most of them are used for traditional lamps. LED lighting is most in need of and most suitable for intelligent control, and the intelligent control of LED lighting systems has just begun.

Semiconductor lighting intelligent control technology is a combination of sensor technology, control technology, communication technology and computer network technology. It will inevitably develop towards digitalization, intelligence and networking to provide energy-saving, convenient, comfortable and healthy lighting systems.

Semiconductor lighting intelligent control refers to the use of human-machine interface, signal network control, power supply network control, and LED lamp control to achieve intelligent lighting environment. Its development trend is the Internetization of top-level control, automation of power supply control, interactive energy-saving control, and automation of fault feedback.

Now some companies have built a number of semiconductor lighting intelligent control system projects, but from the perspective of the industry, it is still in its infancy. With the support of modern science and technology and the promotion of innovative research and development, it will surely develop into the largest and most brilliant link in the semiconductor lighting industry chain.