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Technology Stocks : Wolf speed
WOLF 20.36+2.2%Jan 16 3:59 PM EST
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To: JH who wrote (6574)1/3/2003 1:11:21 PM
From: slacker711  Read Replies (2) of 10714
 
Sapphire substrate LEDs are every bit as good as SiC substrate LEDs, and there is no compelling reason why buyer will not switch to competing products if the requirements of price, availability, and reliability is met.

I can think of two advantages that SiC LED's have over comparable Sapphire based products.....they are cheaper and they are more resistant to ESD.

Also, Cree seems to have grabbed the brightness lead from Nichia. Considering the huge lead that Nichia initially had this could have something to do with difficulties working with the sapphire substrates. The fact that Nakamura left Nichia might also have contributed to their slowdown in brightness improvements.

One characteristic or SiC substrate LEDs which is not well publicized is that they require a higher forward voltage than sapphire equivalents. For low voltage applications, sapphire has the edge.

Interesting....never read that before. This would certainly be an advantage in applications like cell-phones.

A quick glance at the Toyoda Gosei and Cree websites shows a Cree MegaBright LED with a 3.7V forward voltage and a Toyoda Gosei LED at 3.4V.

cree.com
toyoda-gosei.co.jp

Considering the relative success that Cree has had thus far in the cell-phone industry (especially outside of Japan), I'm not sure how much this difference in forward voltage is affecting sales.

Slacker
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