With LED prices continuing to drop and supply chains actively lowering costs, Taiwanese LED epitaxial wafer and chip manufacturer Formosa Epitaxy (Forepi) chairman Frank Chien points out that changes in product design and manufacturing process in areas such as package free chips, HV LED chips, and types of filament (tungsten) designs, will lower costs further. Through these lowered production costs, the company will retain market competitiveness.
Package free chip technology refers to after packaging is places on epitaxy, PCB is able to be directly placed onto products produced by chip manufacturers, says Chien. Overall cost can be lowered by reducing the manufacturing process for packaging. Forepi can use package free chip technology as a base for filament (tungsten) design to reach 200lm/w and up efficiency performance, and can use a smaller light fixture to reach high luminosity levels such as candles in chandeliers which are suitable for use of filament.
HV LED is also part of the overall trend in lowered cost. Electric drivers make up about 30 percent of the entire cost for light fixtures, says Chien. Through HV LED products, electric drivers can be simplified down to just 1 driver IC, dropping the overall cost to around 20 percent.
