Tokyo-based semiconductor manufacturer Toshiba Corp announced the planned mass production of white LEDs in October in the 200mm wafer fabrication plant at Kaga Toshiba Electronics Co Ltd, a production base for discrete products in northern Japan.

The firm notes that, due to their energy efficiency and long life-span, white LED are gaining wide-scale adoption in general purpose lighting, TV backlighting etc, and the market is expected to grow from 700bn yen ($8.75bn) to 1 trillion yen in fiscal 2013.

Toshiba is applying gallium nitride-on-silicon (GaN-on-Si) technology to the development of white LEDs. Since January it has collaborated on white LED chip development with Bridgelux Inc of Livermore, CA, USA (which makes LED solid-state light sources specifically for the lighting industry). In May, Toshiba said that, through combining its 200mm silicon wafer processing and manufacturing technology with Bridgelux’s crystal growth and LED chip structure, a prototype chip had been developed with a maximum optical output of 614mW from a 1.1mm-square chip (with an operating voltage of 3.1V and a drive current of 350mA). Toshiba aims to build on this achievement to start mass production of white LEDs.

Toshiba says it is positioning white LEDs to be the next-generation growth area in its discretes business, which it aims to boost through establishing white LED production in addition to power devices (its current strategic product focus).