EMKR / GE Lighting project
I hadn't seen this when you mentioned EMKR before. Even if they limit it to specialty lighting applications, the potential market is huge. It's worth investigating for that reason alone. The white light LEDs will work "by converting Gallium Nitride-based blue semiconductor devices to white light through the combination of phosphors and plastics." I have no idea if they can do it at a competitive cost.
From the Jan 21 announcement about GELcore LLC, the new joint company:
EMCORE Corporation, based in Somerset, New Jersey, is a leading provider of integrated compound semiconductor solutions and among the world's largest suppliers of compound semiconductor epitaxy wafers. The company will produce LEDs at a facility in Tampa, Florida.
emcore.com - GELcore story is under "News & Events"
EMCORE operates five divisions:
- R & D
- TurboDisc MOCVD systems <--- competes with AIXTRON
- Epitaxial Wafer Foundry <--- LED wafers
- Device Division
- VCSEL Components
VCSEL = Vertical Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser
Many people believe VCSEL will be a very important technology for optical data networks. That could generate some excitement for EMKR in the future.
You can see that EMCORE is more vertically integrated than Kopin: they can produce equipment, wafers, and devices in-house. To answer your question, since EMCORE's Device Division is already producing high brightness LEDs, they can handle everything through production of the GaN blue LEDs. I would guess that GE will be responsible for the phosphor and plastics technology they will use to generate the white light output, as well as marketing, distribution, etc.
WT
|
