Plessey releases 350mW GaN on silicon LEDs

These entry level lighting products are manufactured on Plessey's 6-inch MAGICTM (Manufactured on GaN I/C) line at its Plymouth, England facility. These new LED products are aimed at a variety of solid state lighting and entertainment-type lighting products including accent lighting, wall washing, wall grazing, strip-lighting and a variety of pulse lighting applications. Barry Dennington, Plessey's COO, said, "The MAGIC LED product range is expanding in both light output and efficacy. The PLB010350 is our first, high current device operating at anywhere from 350mA through to 2A in pulse applications. We have also been able to demonstrate the versatility and the potential of the Plessey GaN on Si technology by constructing an LED with a relatively large die area. This new 350mW product demonstrates the inherent flexibility we have for the manufacture of LEDs with a 6-inch GaN on silicon substrate in an integrated circuit manufacturing line. We are seeing continual improvements in output efficiencies in the lab which means we will continue to launch new products in line with our product release plan." It is forecasted that LEDs and the associated solid state lighting solutions are due to become the dominant form of lighting in all forms in within the next five years. Solid state lighting is an energy efficient eco-friendly technology that will save billions of tons of carbon emissions when fully implemented. There are also no recycling issues that fluorescent lighting poses with mercury content. The use of Plessey's MAGIC GaN line using standard semiconductor manufacturing processing provides yield entitlements of greater than 95% and fast processing times providing a significant cost advantage over standard LEDs of similar quality. Plessey announced the first commercially available GaN on large diameter silicon LEDs in April 2013.