NICHIA INCREASES LED POWER BY 10X Larger Chip Area - Surface Mount Packaging for Standard Automated Assembly
TOKYO, JAPAN - March 4, 2002 - Nichia Corporation announced today the development of high power indium gallium nitride (InGaN) LEDs achieving ten times the electrical power of current parts. The high power LEDs are housed in heat and UV resistant surface mount packages that can be installed using standard automated assembly methods (including solder reflow). "Assembly manufacturers need components that are easy to install," said Noboru Tazaki, Managing Director and General Manager of Nichia's Optoelectronics Products Division. "Nichia's high power LEDs represent advanced technology, but more importantly the parts can be mounted with automated assembly equipment."
The new Nichia LEDs overcome low power limitations of current parts by increasing the area of the InGaN chip to 1 mm2 and powering the chip with up to two watts of electrical power. At a 350 mA current, photometric luminous flux for the packaged LEDs is 23 lm for white, 7 lm for blue, 28 lm for blue-green, and 20 lm for green.
Nichia developed two new packages to house the larger area InGaN chip. The NCCU001 is an entirely inorganic package; no organic plastics or organic resins are used. As a result, the package is resistant to the increased heat generated by larger area chips and is ideal for housing UV-emission InGaN LED chips. Lifetime is estimated at 100,000 hours.
The second new Nichia package, the NCCx002, dissipates heat using an integrated copper heat sink. The result is an LED package with an 8° C / W thermal resistance, approximately twenty times lower than conventional LED packages. The package has a resin optic lens, making the part well suited for channel letter displays, traffic signals, and other specialty lighting applications.
Engineering samples of the parts will be available in Q2 of calendar 2002. Samples of the NCCU001 include InGaN chips emitting nearly 100 mW of 380 nm UV light at 500 mA, a world first. The thermal resistance of the NCCU001 is 15° C / W; the part is one centimeter square with a 2.3 mm height. The NCCx002 has an 11.2 mm width, 7.2 mm length, and 6 mm height; its estimated lifetime is 50,000 hours.
About Nichia Nichia is recognized as the world leader in indium gallium nitride (InGaN) LED and laser diode technology. In 1993 and 1994, Nichia developed the world's first high brightness InGaN blue and green LEDs. In 1995, Nichia demonstrated the world's first InGaN violet laser diode operating in pulsed operation at room-temperature. In 1996, Nichia developed a white LED by covering an InGaN blue LED with phosphor (thereby mixing blue light and down-converted yellow light to create white light). And in 1999, Nichia began commercial sales of InGaN violet laser diodes; a sampling program of 440 nm InGaN blue laser diodes followed in 2001.
Nichia was established in Japan in 1956 to manufacture calcium phosphate used in the production of fluorescent lamp phosphors. Since that time, Nichia has grown in the field of manufacturing and sales of fine chemicals, particularly inorganic luminescent materials (phosphors), high brightness LEDs, and, recently, laser diodes. Nichia was formerly known as Nichia Chemical Industry Company, Limited. Nichia has operations throughout the world, including Nichia America Corporation, a U.S. subsidiary based in Mountville, Pennsylvania. Please visit www.nichia.co.jp for more information.