Plessey today announced that samples of its Gallium Nitride (GaN) on silicon LED products are today available. These entry level products are the first LEDs manufactured on 6-inch GaN on silicon substrates to be commercially available anywhere in the world. Plessey is using its proprietary large diameter GaN on silicon process technology to manufacture the LEDs onits 6-inch MAGIC (Manufactured on GaN I/C) line at its Plymouth, England facility. 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 sapphire and silicon carbide based solutions for LEDs of similar quality.
The release of the availability of Plessey's GaN on silicon LEDs was coincident with a visit to the Plessey Plymouth facility by the Rt. Hon. Dr. Vince Cable, MP, Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade. Business Secretary Vince Cable commented, "The government is supporting innovative companies like Plessey who are growing, creating jobs and exporting their products all over the world. That's why we selected Plessey's 3.25 million Regional Growth Fund bid for Government support, which will create 100 new, high tech and highly skilled jobs in the region."
Michael LeGoff, CEO Plessey said, "We are very pleased to welcome Secretary of State Vince Cable today. The department of Business Innovation and Skills has been very supportive of our efforts to date and with the launch of our first range of LEDs today we are now looking towards aggressive growth in the solid state lighting markets."
"Today is a significant step for us," said Barry Dennington, Plessey's COO. "From acquiring our first MOCVD reactor in August 2012 to having our first product in April 2013 is excellent progress. These entry level products will be used in indicating and accent lighting applications. We will continue to make progress in output efficiency and are on plan to release further improvements in light output throughout this year and into next. The operating and unit costs are on plan and we are seeing a number of routes to enhance our cost advantage over competing technologies."
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.
