UK-based Plessey Semiconductors Ltd has been shortlisted for its new MAGIC (MAnufactured on GaN ICs) High Brightness LED (HBLED) products in the Elektra Awards 2012 Solid-State Lighting Application Category. The winners will be announced on 12 December 2012 at the European Electronics Industry Awards ceremony in London.

Barry Dennington, Plessey's COO, said, "We believe that MAGIC technology will enable us to drive the adoption of low power LED lighting forwards at a much greater pace as it enables HBLEDs to be manufactured in high volume using industry standard, silicon foundries at a much lower cost than current LED technologies based on sapphire or silicon carbide."

Plessey’s MAGIC HB-LED products will be made in a high volume, semiconductor production facility on standard silicon substrates, rather than on sapphire or silicon carbide. The firm’s technology uses gallium nitride (GaN) on 6-inch silicon substrates, which will be manufactured at its Plymouth facility. It uses a much thinner GaN layer at only 2.5µm compared to 6 to 8µm in other GaN on Si technologies. This means less deposition time, so that the firm can do multiple production cycles in 24 hours to achieve higher throughputs and lower costs.  

For its next generation of products, Plessey intends to integrate its MAGIC HBLED products with its EPIC sensor technology to provide smart lighting solutions.

The firm has also been shortlisted in the Electronics Product Category of the British Engineering Excellence Awards 2012, for its MAGIC High Brightness LED (HB-LED) products. The winners will be announced on Thursday 25 October 2012.