Showa Denko to Expand GaN LED Chip to 200M Units per Month

Showa Denko announced on Wednesday the firm expands its output capacity for gallium nitride (GaN) based blue LED chips to 200 million units per month by June 2008 from current 60 million units per month. The firm had announced the previous expansion plan in February 2007 from 30 million units a month to 100 million units a month. However, the firm has received further orders for GaN-based blue LED chips than originally expected.To meet the strong demand, Showa Denko decided to advance the expansion plan. The output capacity will be expanded to 100 million units per month toward the end of 2007 and to 200 million units per month toward June 2008 with additional investment at 5 billion yen.The firm developed its original productive method “Hybrid PPD process” for blue LED chips, which is a new process combining the conventional metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process and the plasma assisted physical deposition (PPD) process. Hybrid PPD process allows blue LED chip production with 4-inch epitaxial wafers, while 2-inch wafers are generally used.Showa Denko has adopted its productive equipment at Chiba plant in Ichihara City of Chiba Prefecture, Japan to 4-inch epitaxial wafers from previous 2-inch wafers. The firm has almost completed the equipment conversion and starts the output capacity expansion totally with 4-inch wafer adopted facilities.