May 31 2008
Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) has started commercial shipment of aluminum-gallium-indium-phosphide (AlGaInP) ultrabright red LED chips with luminous efficiency of 80 lumen per watt. The luminous efficiency of the new product represents a 40% improvement over SDK’s existing grade and the highest level on the world market as of today to the best of our knowledge.
Lamps using SDK’s AlGaInP ultrabright LED chips.
The new product features high efficiency of bringing out light as a result of improved shape and arrangement of electrodes as well as improved chip surface treatment. Thus, it becomes possible to reduce the number of LED lamps while maintaining the same level of brightness, contributing to energy conservation.
AlGaInP ultrabright LED chips are now used mainly in outdoor displays. However, new applications are being developed, including automotive parts (rear lights, interior lighting) and LCD backlighting for flat-panel TVs. To meet growing demand, SDK will further improve the brightness of AlGaInP ultrabright LED chips and provide them in diverse colors, such as red, orange, yellow, and yellowish green, and in a wide variety of sizes as required by respective customers.
Under the ongoing Passion Project, SDK is expanding its ultrabright LED operation—consisting of AlGaInP LED chips and indium-gallium-nitride (InGaN) blue/green LED chips—as a “new growth-driver” business by preferentially allocating managerial resources to these areas.