High cost stands obstacle to substantial reduction of LED market price and universal use of LED lighting in common household. This is the biggest bottleneck LED industry has even faced, which has caused ongoing discussion about how to improve LED cost.

Recently there have been propositions of new thinking about improvement of LED cost and process. Hereinto, the new technological direction of an overall conversion to non-sapphire substrate solution has shocked the LED market.

In light of cost and electricity property, many leading enterprises, including TSMC SSL and the combination of the US Bridgelux and Japanese Toshiba, have started to try non-sapphire substrate technology in LED fabrication. In addition, the US equipment giant Veeco holds a pretty optimistic view about the advancement of GaN-on-Si and expects 8-inch equipment to become a new focus of the future market. Germany-based premier equipment maker Aixtron also favors GaN-on-Si and has rolled out MOCVD reactors. Japanese Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation has introduced MOCVD equipment for Gan-on-Si production as well and emphasizes niche market.

In light of cost and electricity property, many leading enterprises, including TSMC SSL and the combination of the US Bridgelux and Japanese Toshiba, have started to try non-sapphire substrate technology in LED fabrication. In addition, the US equipment giant Veeco holds a pretty optimistic view about the advancement of GaN-on-Si and expects 8-inch equipment to become a new focus of the future market. Germany-based premier equipment maker Aixtron also favors GaN-on-Si and has rolled out MOCVD reactors. Japanese Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation has introduced MOCVD equipment for Gan-on-Si production as well and emphasizes niche market.

Actually, this brand new technology using non-sapphire substrate to produce LED is not expected to achieve dramatic reduction in initial cost. However, the development direction is basically correct. Non-sapphire substrate scheme is projected to become a new and feasible path that LED industry can follow.