LED quality market high-power chip counterattack difficult

Just as people in China are frenzied about domestic aircraft carriers, the realization of localization of high-power chips has always been a hope for the LED industry. Starting from 2006, many LED companies have already targeted the broad market of domestic high-power chips and began to move toward the field of high-power chips. The state's policy support for high-power chips is also increasing year by year.

According to industry sources, the upstream epitaxial chip field is the most powerful part of the entire LED industry chain. If the mainland market has always lacked high-end high-power LED chips, even if the government invests ten times more money and energy in demonstration projects, China's LED industry is also difficult to enter the international frontline camp, but will help foreign giants to obtain more excess profits in China.

"The development and expansion of the upstream high-power companies can make the LED industry 'live and live', or even fundamentally change the pattern of China's LED industry." This is a veteran of a chip company boss in Wuhan six years ago. In the past six years, there have been a lot of strong LED companies that are bragging about the spirit of preparing for the entire military. They claim to enter the field of high-power chips. However, nowadays, the road to LED high-power chips seems to go quite awkward.

  Crazy input is cold eyes

In October 2006, the national "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" 863 project "Semiconductor Lighting Project" was officially launched. Driven by this policy, several LED companies, including Wuhan Diyuan Optoelectronics, Shandong Inspur Huaguang, Xiamen Sanan Optoelectronics, Tongfang, Jiangxi Jingneng Optoelectronics, and Guangzhou Jinke Electronics, etc., have begun to launch large-power chips. Offensive.

Taking Wuhan Diyuan Optoelectronics as an example, since its first high-power chip production line was put into production in 2007, four rounds of financing have been completed and the total financing is close to 400 million yuan. According to Dong Zhijiang, chairman of Diyuan Optoelectronics, the current annual production capacity of the company has reached 10,000 KK, while the second-phase project financing plan is 4 to 500 million yuan, and the total investment of the project will reach 800 million yuan.

Inspur Huaguang, Tongfang shares and Jingneng Optoelectronics chip companies are also not hesitating to spend heavily to expand their high-power chip business. With the lighting of the National “Ten Thousand Towns” project in 2009, more LED companies saw the vast blue ocean in the LED high-power street lamp market. This led to the emergence of emerging LED companies such as BDO Runda and National Star Semiconductor. Gengge Yuema, advancing into the field of high-power chips.

Although the above chip companies have developed and can produce high-power LED chips in batches, the reporters surveyed a number of packaging manufacturers and street lamp companies and found that high-power chips in Europe, America, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan still dominate the domestic market. Producing high-power chips is not favored.

“We have won the bid for the street lamp project generally use Cree and Epistar's chips, basically will not use the mainland's high-power chips.” Du Jifang, general manager of Zhongshan Hongbao Electric Co., Ltd. frankly admitted to reporters, the main reason is still Its stability is not good enough, LED street lamps have very high requirements for the environment.

"Europe and the United States and other overseas regions pay more attention to patents, and our LED street light projects are mainly in overseas markets, and generally use Epistar's chips. However, the mainland's high-power chips are still very weak in this regard and are generally not considered." Zhang Fuhai, general manager of Crown Optoelectronics Asia Pacific, told reporters that the domestic high-power chips have not yet established a foothold in the domestic market and it is difficult to enter overseas markets such as Europe and the United States.

As a matter of fact, it is difficult for the mainland-made high-power chips to enter the eyes of the domestic market. In an earlier interview with a reporter, Ding Runda, director of the Board of Directors, said that when some local governments bid for street lighting projects, they must use imported high-power chips such as Cree, Philips, and Puri.

However, Du Jifang bluntly said: "If there is a municipal project bidding requirements for street lighting products using an imported chip, then the tender project must be tricky, we will not participate in this bidding."

The reporter called the Dongguan, Zhuhai and Foshan local electromechanical equipment tender center, the relevant person in charge said that generally there is no mandatory requirement for chip manufacturers to bid for LED street lighting products, but only for the light efficiency, light decay and related technologies of bid unit LED street light products. The parameters have a certain standard.

“Generally, local LED street light energy-saving renovation projects mostly use EMC or EMC+BT modes, and the environment of LED street lights is complex. Once there are quality problems, LED companies need to assume considerable responsibilities and risks.” said Zhang Jinsheng, executive vice president of Eastern Europe. Out of the hidden situation, the use of imported high-power chips is a sound approach taken by LED companies to reduce risk and stabilize quality.

The ability to sell "trace"

Since most packaging companies and LED street lamps companies in mainland China rumors “refusal” to produce high-power products on the mainland, high-power products such as Sanan Optoelectronics, BDO Runda, Inspur Huaguang, and Diyuan Optoelectronics have also sold their products. ?

“Basically, LED lighting companies in the mainland will not use high-power chips from the mainland, but there are still a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises using our high-power chip products.” Inspur Huaguang Chairman Zheng Tiemin accepts “High” "Working LED" reporter said in an interview, such as Weifang Ming Rui Optoelectronics, Jinan Samsung lighting and other companies have begun to use the mainland production of high-power chips, from the use of the point of view, the effect is still good.

“Actually, the quality of high-power chips produced in the mainland has already been comparable to the mid-end products of imported high-power chips. At present, the light efficiency of mass-produced high-power products can reach 130lm/W, and the product yield can be controlled at about 97%. Zheng Tiemin is still optimistic about the production of high-power chips on the mainland.

However, Zheng Tiemin’s tone seems helpless. “Compared to the same period of last year, there was no significant increase in sales of high-power chips this year, and this situation may continue for some time. The current popularity is indoor lighting, and medium- and low-power chips are relatively popular. ”

For Sanan Optoelectronics, how to digest its huge chip production capacity has always been speculative. "The mainland's high-power chips may not be so unsatisfactory. Zhongzhou Optoelectronics, Xinda Optoelectronics, Yimei Core and Jingtai Optoelectronics all use our high-power chips." General Manager of Sanan Optoelectronics (SH.600703) Assistant Guan Jeff was more cautious when interviewed by reporters.

In this regard, Huang Rong, head of Xiamen Xinda Optoelectronics International Trade Department, did not deny: “Xiamen Cinda has high-power chips using Sanan Optoelectronics.” In the near future, it was once questioned by the media and Sanan Optoelectronics "" Tiandian Photoelectric, its 2 billion yuan LED packaging project settled in Anxi, Fujian, or Sanan photoelectric part of the high-power chip production capacity to find a sea.

In addition, an industry source said that the acquisition of the United States lumens, mergers and acquisitions in Taiwan and other major actions, it seems that Sanan photoelectric is trying to open up the overseas chip market. U.S. Lumens and Taiwan Sakamoto have great technical advantages in the research and development of high-power chips and have a number of patents. Sanan Optoelectronics is expected to find overseas sales for high-power chips.

An LED business executive, who asked not to be named, told reporters that many SMEs focused on the export of LED street lamps set their target markets in Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and Africa. A large number of high-power LED street lamps from the mainland were exported to those regions. .

“The mainland LED street light engineering projects need government resources, while the European and American markets also pay attention to patents, so these overseas low-end markets have naturally become the key regions for high-power chip production capacity in the mainland.”

Alternative products are looming as the market space is getting smaller. “In addition to LED street lights, lighting products such as mining and mining lamps, landscape lighting, LED downlights and spotlights will all use high-power chips. The performance requirements for light efficiency and heat dissipation in these areas are not so high. Some high-power chips produced by the mainland can rely on this to digest, "said Zhang Hongbiao, director of the LED Industry Research Institute of Gaogong.

However, Zhang Hongbiao frankly stated that from this year, benefiting from the rapid rise of the LED indoor lighting market, small and medium-sized power chips will be the mainstream of the market in the future, and the market space for high-power chips will become narrower. “The international giants, such as Cray and Philips, who have been using high-power chips in both domestic and overseas LED street lamps, have now begun to increase their efforts to expand the small and medium power chip business.”

“The LED lights in the mainland did not bloom all over the place. It was only tried in some urban highways and municipal engineering projects. The recognition of LED lights was gradual, and most second- and third-tier cities and provincial capitals are not set. Determined to replace all LED street lights.” Xu Min, Deputy General Manager of Shanxi Guangyu Lighting, said that since the first half of this year, the new LED street light renovation project is not much.

Xu Min's remarks may hint at the fact that the growth of the LED street lamp market in the mainland is in a bottleneck period, and high-power chips are affected by this, and the market growth space is also subject to greater restrictions. In addition, in recent years, with the improvement of chip light efficiency and the gradual maturity of COB integrated packaging technology, many LED companies have begun to attempt to use COB integrated light sources and medium power devices instead of high-power devices to produce LED street lamps.

"Currently, it is feasible to use COB integrated light sources instead of high-power LED street lamps. Although mid-power chips have obvious advantages in terms of heat dissipation, they are still in the stage of demonstration, because they have high requirements for light efficiency and so on. Conclusion." Zheng Tiemin told reporters that at present, the actual production capacity of Inspur Huaguang's high-power chips is not fixed, and there are orders to do so. While the mainland's high-power chip market is basically saturated, there is no plan for financing expansion in the short term.

Overall, LED high-power chips have entered the track, but they still have a long way to go to break through the blockade of foreign companies and regain the right to speak in the mainland market.